Pat was sharing a story he read in a local area paper this morning... as he was sharing it I said..."I know this person. She came by at the county fair last year while I was working in the Minnesota Citizens Concerned for LIFE booth, and shared her story with me." The article he read seems to have vanished into thin air, but I remember it well - I was so touched by it! Last night reading in the National Catholic Register about an abortion survivor and how she is attempting to make a difference for all those damaged by this horror! So many reminders of LIFE and how we must cherish and fight for it with all that we have to give! How can the meaning of LIFE be thought so little of that babies are murdered by the millions in our country and all over the world? The number for the US is 55 million lives that have been extinguished, and LIGHTS that were not allowed to shine hence it is true that we are a world more and more dark and filled with death. This survivor shares that the death of a LIFE from abortion affects so many more than just the mother and her child killed - "The truth is that it affects men; it affects all of us. If affects grandparents, siblings, our families and, ultimately, our entire nation." Melissa Ohden a 31 week gestation saline abortion survivor! She has found 100 or so other survivors mostly of those late term abortions! They struggle with forgiveness and anger when the people that were to protect and love them tried to kill them! Melissa in joining the Catholic Church after seeing how we do not waver for the LIFE issues! After having a miscarriage herself - she found solid help through some things that she had been given by Catholic friends..."As I was driving back from somewhere and in the middle of losing my child...I said to the Lord - You are going to have to go bigger...So I went home and started cleaning a drawer, when I found two miraculous medals and the Diary of St Faustina - just things that people had given me over the years. At a time when I am experiencing suffering on a whole new level by losing my child , I discover those Miraculous Medals. That was a real gift to me that led me to make the decision to enter The Church."
Sweet Simon with his parents on his First Communion day on Sunday - armed with the Banquet of LIFE - Jesus' Body and Blood- Simon will have so much to help him through all the ups and downs of LIFE. When we faced the cancer/healing/seminary journey with John that continues to this day - we have our 6 month check up once again in June... we had so much to hold onto and to gain strength and healing from through our amazing Church! I had many self-help books and this and that offered to us, but we just wanted to do it through our faith/prayer army and The Church! I know just what Melissa is saying here... She needed more at this point of crisis in her life and she found it in The Church! There is so much there! There are the army of angels and Saints to help us on our way and to intercede for us! Some asked us why we used a relic of Blessed John Paul II and Venerable Solanus Casey when we prayed over John for healing - Why not just go to Jesus yourself? Both of these saints are have healed in their lifetimes and now at the feet of Jesus why not ask them to intercede for us from heaven? I myself don't have that gift or faith necessary to heal, do you? How powerful also to be able to go to Lourdes twice in the course of John's first year and to have John bath in the healing waters/miraculous spring of Lourdes! To see all the sick - so hopeful and filled with HOPE and FAITH there ... and there are many healings that have happened in Lourdes - I just bought a book entitled - The Wonders of Lourdes - 150 stories of the power of prayer to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Our Lady's Apparitions by Magnificat... I am sure that you will hearing me share long and loud about this book as I start to read it! Lourdes is all part of John's healing - we have so many amazing pieces to the whole picture of miraculous healing that we gained through our Church and the half-hearted prayer that John said asking for Faith! WE have all been changed by this journey and none more than John Patrick Augustine Verly! We marvel at it all!
Another miraculous apparition of Our Lady in Mexico - Our Lady of Guadalupe! Her black ribbon around her waist means that she is pregnant with Christ - hence she is the patronness of the America's and there to intercede for us in LIFE issues! Our Lady of Guadalupe hear us in our plea to end the taking of innocent LIFE/LIGHT that can change the world and bring it from death into life - darkness into LIGHT!
Jesus, with your glorious Queen of Heaven and Earth at your side... we beseech you to use us to share the Truth of LIFE, LOVE and LIGHT with all those we meet - most especially with those in our domestic Church/family! May the Truth spread far and wide that LIFE is to be cherished from conception to natural death! We ask that you protect the little one that Ruth is carrying. May they both come through this safely. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Halleluia
Bless-bless, Barb
"God is not the God of disorder but of peace." I Cor 14:33
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