The Unborn Need Our Prayers!!

"...we will stand up every time that human life is threatened. When the sacredness of life before birth is attacked, we will stand up and proclaim that no one ever has the authority to destroy unborn life. When a child is described as a burden or is looked upon only as a means to satisfy an emotional need, we will stand up and insist that every child is a unique and unrepeatable gift of God, with the right to a loving and united family..."~ Pope John Paul II, Homily at the Holy Mass at the Capital Mall, October 7, 1979 ~

 

Prayer For Life:

Heavenly Father, in Your love for us, protect us against the wickedness of the devil, those helpless little ones to whom You have given the gift of life. Touch with pity the hearts of those women pregnant in our world today who are not thinking of motherhood. Help them to see that the child they carry is made in Your image--- as well as theirs--- made for eternal life. Dispel their fear and selfishness and give them true womanly hearts to love their babies and give them birth and all the needed care that a mother can give. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Your Son, Our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen

 

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE PRAY FOR THE UNBORN

Christians Must Be Pro-Life

If I randomly murdered a man on the street I would rightly be considered a murderer and be imprisoned. I do not have the right to kill that man. What right does a woman have to kill her baby? A woman's, like a man's, rights stop with her life. As a feminist I find the pro-choice movement so hypocritical. In China and India, the majority of aborted children are women. The pro-choice feminist movement supports the killing of women. Interesting.

But what if the child is not "normal?" During WWII, the Nazis in Germany tried to create the perfect race, and to this day there are scientists in South Korea that are trying to create the perfect beings through cloning. Now I hope that you believe as I do that that is wrong. So, why are we doing the same thing with the unborn? When a woman is pregnant with a child with down's syndrome we council her to abort it. When a woman is pregnant with a baby who is physically or mentally challenged we want her to kill her child because of course that child could never be a part of our "perfect" society. I heard this awesome speech from this twelve year old girl, in which she mentioned the fact that we have handicapped parking and the Special Olympics and we talk about how inspiring these people are to us, but when a woman has conceived one of these same people we want her to abort it. Notice the hypocrisy.

Women do have choices. They have the choice to not have sex, or to protect themselves, and even if they are raped there should be support groups out there to prevent them from killing a person. We must of course love these women, and we will be showing them our love when we support them in keeping their babies.

My pastor said that women traditionally killed themselves in horrible ways to abort their children and that legalized abortion is better. But when we legalize something this means that we support it. Suicide is one of the leading causes of teen death in this country, and we would certainly never support that. We would want to help them not kill themselves. Just because people do something it does not mean that action is right. This is what Jesus teaches us. As a church we must stand up for what is right even if others around us don't. We must be a group of loving people who give women another option. The pro-choice movement says that women have a choice but they really don't. They are often pressured into abortion and are often not even really given another option. When a woman is in this state of mind, she can't think clearly. Churches are to prevent bad things from happening in the world. Of course, we must support orphans and mothers, and this is exactly what I desire most. Churches must be support groups for prostitutes and addicts and sucidal people and murderers and women considering an abortion. The majority of women who have an abortion regret it. The emotional and physical pains that these women feel are hardly ever mentioned, but they are real. Some women, after having an abortion, can't have children ever again.

After all, when does a person really start becoming a person? Right now, pro-choice men and women say: at birth. But there are partial birth abortions done every day and six month old fetuses could live outside of the womb. Pre-mature babies are born everyday. Is a person someone who walks and talks? So are the mentally and physically handicapped not people? Are elderly with Alzheimer's disease not people? When is a person a person then?

"From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother's womb. I will ever praise you" (Psalm 71:6 NIV).

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Psalm 139: 13-16).

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:5).

Life starts at conception. Period.

Genesis 23-25

I find Isaac's story so interesting. Firstly, Abraham trusts God in everything, and must choose a woman for his son who is from his own family. He cannot choose a Canaanite. Secondly, once Rebekah is chosen to be Isaac's wife, she is the last person who knows that she is to be his wife. It was very customary for marriages to be arranged in secret without the knowledge of the man and woman in question. Though Isaac probably knew what Abraham's servant was off to do, Rebekah did not know that she was to be his wife until after everyone else in her family knew.

(Tomorrow's reading is Genesis 26-28)

Genesis 16-18

It is very easy to read the Old Testament, and the New Testament for that matter, and forget to put the characters in their respective historical periods. I can't help but think about the role of women in Abraham's time. I was saddened to read that when Sarah found out that she could not bear her husband a child, she allowed Abraham to take her maidservant, Hagar, as his wife. Sarah knew that in her society she was not a fit wife because she could not have children, let alone a son, and so because she was probably afraid that her husband would leave her, she allowed Abraham to sleep with another woman of a lower social status.

After Hagar became pregnant, she became proud and started to mistreat Sarah whom she was under. Sarah, of course, felt angry because Hagar had forgotten her role in the household and threw Hagar out of Abraham's household.

There is more, though. God in his compassion saw what befell Hagar, and made a promise to her and her offspring, Ishmael. God promised Ishmael that his descendants would be a great people. These people are, of course, the Muslims. I am convinced that God called forth the first leader of Islam. He heard Hagar's cry for mercy and showered his love on her and her offspring. Although we never hear anything about Ishmael ever again for the rest of Biblical history, let's remember that our Muslim brothers and sisters worship the same God.

(Tomorrow's reading is Genesis 19-22)

Genesis 13-15

Today's reading can be summed up in a few passages:

"All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted" (Genesis 13:15-17).

"Look up at the heavens and count the stars---if indeed you can count them...So shall your offspring be" (Genesis 15:5).

Overpopulation should not be a problem then. God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth and the stars in the sky. Let's rejoice at his wonderful descendants!!

(Tomorrow's reading is Genesis 16-18)

Genesis 10-12

In today's reading we read about the building of the Tower of Babel. From this account, we learn something very essential about our faith. Trust in God in all things, lest we think we can do everything ourselves and lose His favor. Here is God's response to the building of the Tower:

"The Lord said, 'If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they will do will be impossible for them' " (Genesis 11:6).

God did not want the ancient people to become proud and forget their God, and He knew that the success of building the Tower would convince these ancient people that anything was possible without the help of God. God is testing us. We must praise God in good times and in bad. Will we be ready to rely on Him when we attempt something, whether mundane or extraordinary?

There is a greater story though that has just begun: the story of Abram. Abram was old and yet he trusted God enough to leave his homeland for a place foreign to him: Haran. Abram and his family became Bedouins in a world so unsafe and harsh. From Haran, Abram and Sarai moved to Egypt when the famine at Haran was unbearable. There, Abram did not present himself in a righteous way before Pharoah. Abram allowed Pharaoh to marry Sarai. His explanation: Abram was afraid that Pharaoh would get so jealous of the former that he would kill Abram to take Sarai. Abram was certainly not blameless, but somehow this man was chosen to become the father of the great nation: Israel.

(Tomorrow's reading is Genesis 13-15)

Genesis 7-9

The Creation stories are one of my favorite stories in all of the Bible. The flood in today's reading represents the destruction and sadness in our lives. Of course, the dove can represent the Holy Spirit who helps us find the bit of green (hope) in our despair. There is always hope no matter how dire the situation that we are in. The first time that the dove was sent out, he did not come back with anything, but Noah was persistent. After all, he needed to find dry land; he believed that the flood waters would recede. We will ask God for something, and He may not give us always what we desire the first time we ask Him. We must be persistent and believe that there is "dry land" in all of our problems. Noah had a lot of trust in God and that is why God made a covenant with him, the first covenant made in the Bible. Let's continue to be persistent. Noah needed to find dry land. In the same way, God knows that our most important needs need to be met.

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened" (Luke 11:19).

(Tomorrow's reading is Genesis 10-12)

God is our Keystone

I was just reminded of a wonderful book that I read a few years ago called The Ramsey Scallop . The author is Frances Temple. In the book, Thomas and Elenor are sent on a pilgrimage, the Ramsey Scallop, as atonement for the sins of a community in the Middle Ages. While on their difficult and perilous pilgrimage, they meet a friar who is watching over the building of a cathedral. He points out to the teens that the keystone keeps the cathedral together. The keystone is at the top of a cathedral dome and if removed, the whole church falls apart. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God. God is our keystone. Without Him the whole world crumbles. Let's remember Him as we go through our day-to-day routines.

Gensis 4-6

Often, I have found myself wondering why God rejected Cain's offering while accepting Abel's. But, recently, I have realized that like anyone, and more so, God has the right to be selective. Revenge is such a great evil. And at the root of revenge is jealousy. From the beginning of time, this truth has manifested itself. Lucifer was jealous of Jesus, and his jealousy lead to revenge which lead to Lucifer's fall into Hell where he is now known as Satan. Satan continues to take revenge through mankind. God chooses Abel's offering and though this choice is not easily understandable, Cain does not have the right to murder his brother. Here is an interesting comparison that I found in the passage for today:

"If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times" (Genesis 4:24).

"Then Peter came and said to him, "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times" (Matthew 18:21-22 NRSV)

In our reading today, Cain's descendants are cursed 10x as much as Cain was for his sin. I can't help, though, but look into the future when Jesus tells Peter to forgive a person who has done him wrong 10x more.

The story is not over, though. In fact, it has only started. Adam and Eve have another child: Seth. Seth replaces Cain. Cain=destruction. Seth=hope. Seth's descendant is Noah, the one who brings in a new era, a new beginning. Lamech suffered terribly for his father's sins, but through Seth's descendant Noah, Lamech exclaims that "[Noah] will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed" (Genesis 5:29). Noah will save mankind from destruction. Sound familiar? Of course. Noah is the first of the many characters in the Bible that save people from doom. The greatest savior of them all being Jesus Christ.

(Tomorrow's reading is Genesis 7-9)

Genesis 1-3

It is amazing how rereading a story in the Bible can reveal hidden truths. These two Creation stories are truly rich with symbolism amongst other things. Here is an interesting verse:

"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden" (Genesis 3:8). God was walking in the garden. Interesting. Sounds like Jesus to me.

The Creation story makes me think about the cost of knowledge in a world that is constantly seeking to know more and more about the world. We could argue that when Adam and Eve were truly happy, they were ignorant. Ignorance is bliss. But is it? In a sense, this is what the serpent asks the first humans. After all, it is because of knowledge that Adam and Eve fall. Knowledge can be good and evil. When do we stop searching and rest content with the amount of information we already have about the world? The knowledge of cures for diseases is wonderful, but what about cures that involve stem cell research: embryo stem cell research? How about decoding the DNA so that we know the lifespan of a person as soon as they are born? What if I know that the child that I have conceived has Huntington's Disease because of the state-of-the-art testing available for pregnant women? Do I abort the child? But if I kill my child I will break God's commands. It is only with God that we can discern what is right and wrong. With the help of the Spirit we know when we have gone too far.

After all, the serpent is Satan, and God makes a promise to Satan and the woman---a promise that was conceived in the womb of Mary of Nazareth 2,000 years ago:

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel" (Genesis 3:15).

Satan's offspring is sin and death. The woman's offspring is of course Jesus: eternal life.

(Tomorrow's reading is Genesis 4-6)