I've got work to do

I've got work to do on myself. I need to make sure that the Pro-Life movement doesn't get a black eye because of me. I need to make sure that no one thinks of me when they think of Catholics as not the "Good Guys". Sometimes we think that we are on the right side so everything we do is okay, but really being on the right side means we have to be even better. We have to convince everyone else that we aren't doing this to spoil their fun or to punish anyone for sinning. We have to recognize and admit our own sinfulness and our own past mistakes. We need to correct those in the Prolife movement who are elitist, racist, judgemental, uncharitable, or just plain mean. Above all we have to do all we do with love, true love where we wish all others to be with us in heaven. We have to be strong and we have to live our faith in our everyday lives. I have a lot to do and I will start with prayer.

January is Right to Life Month

I was so disappointed to hear someone today say that Right to Life wants to hurt women and take away their rights. I guess conversely then the other side would be helping women? How can they help women by refusing to give them information and denying that women might regret the abortions they had? Do they think it is more helpful to a woman to lead her to believe that her only option is to kill her baby? Would it be more helpful to a woman to give her the help she needs to bring her baby to term and to change society so that she is congratulated for the self sacrifice of bringing an unwanted pregnancy to term and giving the child up if that is her wish? We should support these women financially. If we are going to have government supported healthcare, it should pay the birthing costs for all women. Conservatives, put your money where your mouth is. If you want a woman to not abort her child, help her do it. Liberals, help the poor and disadvantaged by giving them an equal chance at life. Stop the genocide in America. Just because the bodies don't line the streets doesn't mean we aren't preferencially killing minority infants in the womb.

Crisis Pregnancy Clinics

Today I got an email from a group that I often get emails from to sign petitions to save wolves in Yellowstone or some other enviromental call to action. Today I got an email from them to sign a petition to limit funding for Crisis Pregnancy Clinics. Their claim was that these clinics were fooling women into coming in when they really wanted an abortion. So What! Too Bad! If a woman really wanted an abortion she could leave and got to the nearest abortion mill and get one, no one is holding her captive. All they want to do is make sure that she knows the alternatives and allow her to make a truely informed decision. How will letting a woman know the stage of developement of her child limit her ability to procure an abortion? If she still wants an abortion after she has all the facts she can still leave the Crisis Pregnancy Clinic and get an abortion. After a woman has an abortion, all the information in the world will not bring back her child. Imagine if you were a woman with an unwanted pregnancy and you thought you couldn't afford the healthcare costs to bring the child to term and then either keep it or give it up for adoption? Imagine if you stepped into an abortion clinic, would they tell you your options? Or would they take your money, tell you, you were doing the right thing and murder your child? Imagine then if you stepped into a Crisis Pregnancy Clinic. There they would help you to know your options and to help you get the assistance you needed to keep your child. Even then it is still the woman's decision what to do. Which place would you like to go to? Where would you like your daughter to go to?

I really wonder about enviromentalists who push the abortion cause. Do they hate people that much? Do they so want to save the enviroment that they want to destroy humanity. Or do they think that the people who find themselves in an unwanted pregnancy aren't good enough to reproduce? Liberal elitism at it's worst.

Freedom of Choice Act or FOCA

An absolute misnomer. Freedom of choice only if you are pregnant and want an abortion is what they mean. If you are a healthworker or pharmacist you loose your freedom to choose, if you are a woman and want to choose a OB/GYN who supports life you loose your freedom to choose. If you are a man you have no say at all. Parents loose the right to oversee their children's lives. If the law is passed many people will loose the ability choose a hospital or clinic near their homes that is low cost. If the new administration wants to control health care costs, forcing Catholic Hospitals and Clinics to close is not the way to do it. It will collapse our health care system. I really hope that Mr Obama isn't that stupid. It would set up a show down with the Catholic Church and all Catholics, it would be a direct attach on our religous freedom. It would mean that the America I grew up with would be gone.

More of Something Different

I tried to add this to my blog on Monday but some how it got lost

I am small and must remain so. Below all others and subject to all, I know nothing and am nothing and so I have all I need.

What do I ask of my King and my Master? I sincerly ask for the gift of pouring out my life for others. I wish to be a martyr for you. Everyday let me pour out my life for others. Any small good I do let the grace from that act be given to those who need it, to stop violence, to bring people back to the faith. Let me Fear Lord, put myself third, You first, then others, then myself. Please Dear Lord remove all selfishness from my bones and all pride. Especially Dear Lord heal me of my pride. I cannnot take pride in doing Your will. Left to myself I am self absorbed and cruel. Self-sacrifice is only possible for me as a gift from You. I would mess it up. Pour me out, use me up, there is so little to use. I know that You will fill me and Oh What Joy! To be filled with Your Holy Spirit! I gladly give myself away so that I have have You in return. You, in exchange for me, is such a lopsided gift. I run to my cross and carry it gladly. Hang me on it and pour out my life, drip by drop or all at once. I know I won't know if I can in a small way help to save anyone while on this earth. I trust in your promise that it will help.

Now for something totally different!

I'm adding to my blog things that I have written during prayer. These were written during a fourty day period from the Feast of the Assumption until the Michaelmas, this is a traditional time of lent (not the Lent before Easter) for Franciscans. Keep in mind while you are reading these that they are directed at myself, and what I need to do.

To give my will to the Father I have to be willing to hang on the cross. I have to be willing to endure ridicule and rejection and to do it for the love of those ridiculing and rejecting me. To be His instrument I have to like a reed in the wind, willing to bend to His will and even to break if he asks it. To turn my thoughts and my body over to Him, knowing that what ever happens is for the eternal good if not the temporal good. To be supple in His hand, I can't be afraid; He has done all this before. He did it and it lead to the resurrection, not just the cross.

There is a difference between being dragged to the cross and running to the cross. One is fear and pain and the other is longing and love. Oh Holy Spirit, help me to run towards my cross and embrace it lovingly and carry it joyfully. For in resisting my cross I make it heavier and more painful.

My cross is a gift from Jesus, my Love. It is my ticket to heaven. It is the yoke that binds us together. My Beloved gave it to me, it was chosen especially for me so that I might get to be with Him forever. It is my ring, the only one I need, and it binds me to Him. My cross is not like His. Mine is small and only carries the weight of my sins. His carried all our sins. He carried His alone and hung on it alone. I have His help in all I do.

I believe that social justice must come from a respect of life and that being Pro-Life must lead you to wanting to fight for social justice as well. If everyone has an equal right to life then their lives must be of equal value. If their lives are equal in value then they must have all other rights in common. Everyone has the same basic human right to live freely. Believing in God means however, that we also believe that God knows what's best for us. He made us, He loves us, whoelse would know what's best for us? So many people think they can do a better job, but are they really happy, or are they chasing happiness? Maybe I was just really bad at it but I don't think so. I believe that God knows best. So there are things that we ar free to do, like turn our backs on God, and everyone has that right, but we shouldn't. We also can't just follow the parts of Jesus's message that we like. We have to Love our enemies, even those who wish to do us harm. We can't deny our enemies humanity just because we don't like them.