tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86346467781403287422024-03-06T03:04:53.051+00:00St John's Pro LifeA group of ordinary people sharing our passionate love of human lifeAnneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.comBlogger106125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-60887792511729437052013-04-21T19:28:00.000+01:002013-04-21T19:28:21.901+01:00Some good old common sense about same-sex marriage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Sometimes a brave person says it like it is - no "sophisticated" arguments but just an appeal to common sense and, well, the way things are. Archbishop Cordileone, Archishop of San Francisco, has done just that about same-sex marriage and issued a few matter-of-fact words of encouragement to its opposers as well. <i>Taken from "The Catholic Illustrated" produced by the marvellous monks on Papa Stronsay - I hope they don't mind!</i></b><br />
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<i> </i>"Truth is clear. Wanting children to be connected to a mother and father discriminates against no one. Every child has a father and a mother, and either you support the only institution that connects a child with their father and mother or you don't. Adoption, by a mother and father, mirrors the natural union of a mother and father and provides a balanced, happy alternative for when a child may not be reared by their biological parents... If you use theology, you will play into their hands and they will say you use religion to control people. Marriage isn't primarily in theology; marriage is in nature. Theology builds on the natural institution, giving us a deeper mystical and supernatural sense of its meaning... Fighting for marriage is our way of loving God, and the struggle is the particular gift that God has given our generation. This is our particular trial, and by overcoming it we may achieve spiritual greatness. It will entail suffering if we are to oppose gay marriage, something which poses such destruction to the understanding of natural marriage, which is a child-oriented institution... Legislating for the right for people of the same sex to marry is like legalising male breastfeeding... All our detractors can do is call us names... Big deal if they shout at us or throw insults!" <i>(From "Catholic Herald")</i>Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-53087565698631759882013-04-10T16:01:00.000+01:002013-04-10T16:04:35.213+01:00Why I accept what the Church teaches about gay marriage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiSURMzV2-n0GsIODiFD0_SUEf2SlAnSDFbhi6eWC1VL36dUT2YIIvDgHT0Rb2Z8Prm-Pzlm-O4h0XwKGoaSPsH5X0gxraiMjKWo5kQW7gdPiluQSXiF9tfnn-1LpHmA_B8qfzuVzGEvg/s1600/index.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiSURMzV2-n0GsIODiFD0_SUEf2SlAnSDFbhi6eWC1VL36dUT2YIIvDgHT0Rb2Z8Prm-Pzlm-O4h0XwKGoaSPsH5X0gxraiMjKWo5kQW7gdPiluQSXiF9tfnn-1LpHmA_B8qfzuVzGEvg/s320/index.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>The article below is intended for a future edition of our parish magazine and was written in response to one expressing the view that gay marriage should be allowed. </i><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This
is very much a topic of the moment, although some say that there are many
injustices in the world to tackle such as poverty and violence and that we
should “live and let love”... I would argue that marriage is in fact a subject
that is so intrinsically bound up with our concept of who and what the human
being <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> that we cannot form a true
concept of human dignity without having a true understanding of human
sexuality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is from a true concept of
human dignity that all justice and peace issues draw their justification.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Of
course the human person is more than his or her sexuality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“There
is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and
female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”</i> as St Paul tells us in
Galatians 3:28.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However this essential
equality does not diminish the importance of masculinity and femininity, and
much of that importance lies precisely in their relationship with each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are made in the image of God, as Genesis
1:27 tells us, “male and female”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Blessed Pope John Paul II in his writings on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Theology of the Body</i> offers us a striking insight; the human
person’s creation as male and female<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>is
in itself of foundational importance in the way in which he images God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It is not right that the man should be
alone” (Gen 2:18); the human being made as a response to this is of the
opposite sex to Adam. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the union of
man and woman - expressed consummately via sexual intercourse - they become, in
John Paul II’s words, “an icon in some sense of the inner life of the Trinity”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a fruitful union, for just as the love
between Father and Son blossoms forth in the form of the Person of the Holy
Spirit, the love of man and woman can produce a child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwhxJcT-fRSWTY43lt6qGPlPESsz0kvGZboPUhFN-RFdsymadDFmPIvvgzQdm3TQdUftRQC-LOq4ynoXuAOw-82P_lRV8TQ7vu5kkcpIWHY7q9A2oykrEXsOfPuEQA4R6gv8UYNZFjQ4c/s1600/Christ_the_Bridegroom_and_the_Church__His_Bride.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwhxJcT-fRSWTY43lt6qGPlPESsz0kvGZboPUhFN-RFdsymadDFmPIvvgzQdm3TQdUftRQC-LOq4ynoXuAOw-82P_lRV8TQ7vu5kkcpIWHY7q9A2oykrEXsOfPuEQA4R6gv8UYNZFjQ4c/s200/Christ_the_Bridegroom_and_the_Church__His_Bride.jpg" width="198" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We
should never reduce human sex and procreation to the level of mere biology. “The
soul is the form of the body” (as Aristotle first put it), which means that every
aspect of the human person’s physical existence in some way expresses and
embodies his spiritual essence. Physical realities point to spiritual truths. That’s
why the Church has always been able to see marriage and the sexual
complementarity it involves as reflective of the relationship between Christ
and His Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This isn’t an idea that
originated with St Paul but from the Jewish tradition from which he came, as we
see from reading the Old Testament. Three millennia of rich theology have
emerged from reflection on the complementary union of the sexes; the time is
ripe for us to rediscover and re-explore that theology.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Of
course marriage is not the only relationship that can express something of the
love and fidelity that exists between the three Persons of the Trinity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Human beings do this in all our friendships
and our loves but marriage does so in a particular way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Love and commitment are wonderful things but
sex is not the appropriate way to express every form of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This
leads us on to a major reason why the Church teaches that marriage can only
exist between a man and a woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sexual
intercourse represents a total giving of oneself to another in such a way that
binds the two partners together in an exclusive covenant relationship,
mirroring the covenant between God and His people made in Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Advocates of gay marriage argue that this can
be the case between two men or two women as well - but in arguing thus, they
fly in the face of the Church’s constant teaching that you cannot separate the
unitive (loving) and procreative aspects of sex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you do, it is no longer an act involving
the totality of being of each of the partners; something (each partner’s
capacity to create life) is held back and sex is no longer expressive of what
it is meant to express.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This rules out
not only gay sex but also artificially contracepted or sterilised sex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The special type of spiritual fruitfulness
inherent in marriage is intrinsically bound up with its capacity for physical
fruitfulness (and this capacity is an attribute of maleness and femaleness,
even if a circumstance such as age or natural infertility thwarts it in
practice).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj367gcPa7RvAiIGroVEkBnkO-42dZVC8pRPPpY8IqjJfV8kI_vS87TuwQI2N_gjFirAuZ3C87Ugk80bqef5XMlwWVrAUmeGGpBZvfOTFpeINgzZExph1_BSdG5gVvztXNN_3gqSJabSr8/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj367gcPa7RvAiIGroVEkBnkO-42dZVC8pRPPpY8IqjJfV8kI_vS87TuwQI2N_gjFirAuZ3C87Ugk80bqef5XMlwWVrAUmeGGpBZvfOTFpeINgzZExph1_BSdG5gVvztXNN_3gqSJabSr8/s200/images.jpg" width="151" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Developments
in our scientific knowledge are in one sense irrelevant to the Church’s
theology of marriage, although they can of course be of great benefit when it
comes to pastoral care. We do not yet have a fully developed understanding of
the biological, psychological and social factors that may interact to form an
individual’s sexuality. We are all however aware that nature does not always
work as it is intended to; this is a result of the Fallen state of our world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Describing homosexual inclinations as “disordered”
does not mean that the Church is denigrating homosexuals as being somehow worse
than the rest of us, somehow “abnormal”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i> disordered in
various ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Catechism is clear about
the dignity that gay people share in common with everyone else. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The number of men and women who have
deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible... They must be accepted
with respect, compassion and sensitivity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Every unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These persons are called to fulfil God’s will
in their lives...”</i> (CCC 2358).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We
all have the same calling to sanctity and we all have the same chance to
achieve it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Christ we are indeed all
equal and, as St Peter exclaims, “God does not show favouritism” (Acts 10:34). There
can be no justification for making anyone feel like an unwelcome outsider in
our churches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time, true
love means willing the best for the other and that means speaking the truth to
our Christian brothers and sisters. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Some
may object, “All this is just the Church’s point of view and it is out of
touch.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly, on a purely
intellectual level there is always a counter-argument to be made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pope Francis on the other hand speaks a lot
about the “heart”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Pope as we know
is a Jesuit and in the Jesuit tradition, according to a recent article by
Alejandro Bermudez in the National Catholic Register, “the heart is the core of
the human person, the place of the soul, where the encounter between God and
man takes place”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is in this sacred
place, the place where we are most intimately ourselves and where we meet God
face to face, that we need to find our answers to the issue of gay
marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do we do this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How will God speak to us through the great
cloud of personal emotions and prejudices that we all have and the changeable winds
of currently prevailing social attitudes?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Like
many other debates, the issue of gay marriage draws attention to something on
which we all, as individual Catholics, need to sort out our position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What authority do we accord to the
Magisterium (the teaching function) of the Catholic Church?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it Christ’s voice to us or is it not?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What meaning do we take from the words of the
Catechism that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“It is this Magisterium’s
task to preserve God’s people from deviations and defections and to guarantee
them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, the pastoral duty of the Magisterium is
aimed at seeing to it that the People of God abides in the truth that
liberates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To fulfil this service,
Christ endowed the Church’s shepherds</i> [the successors of the apostles, that
is the Bishops <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">in union with</b> the
Pope] <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">with the charism of infallibility
in matters of faith and morals”</i> (CCC 890).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We
can nit-pick about the conditions for infallibility, or we can simply reflect
that the Church in the course of formulating her teachings has pondered for two
thousand years on the insights of greater minds than ours. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ultimate discernment about which of these
insights into the Revelation of Christ’s Gospel are true rests with that part
of the Church which bears Christ’s authority to formulate and defend His
truths. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not, in the final
analysis, a question of how many people in the pews of our parish or in the
wider Church agree with something. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Faith
and morals are not a matter of consensus.</span></div>
Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-29779277618191631132013-03-29T20:08:00.000+00:002013-03-29T20:10:40.307+00:00So when is a person a person?When a friend and I went up to take part in the 40 Days for Life prayer vigil recently we ended up having a very interesting conversation with a pro-choice advocate in which we had a short debate about when precisely life began. It's a question that divides many but, from what I have experienced, no two people who maintain that life begins at any moment other than conception can agree on when precisely it starts. Some say it's when all the organs develop, some when there is a heartbeat, some say it's during the third trimester, some when the baby is actually born. And the thing is their understanding, their opinion will change depending upon the circumstances. To the woman considering aborting a child at, say, 20 weeks its "just a clump of cells", to the woman excitedly announcing she's 5 months pregnant its time for congratulations as she's carrying a baby. And now, alas, there is <a href="http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/03/29/planned-parenthood-official-argues-in-favor-of-post-birth-abortion/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter">this from Planned Parenthood</a> in the US.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qEv1afKaLhA?rel=0" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
I think the bit that highlights the utter hypocrisy, utter lunacy of this organisation's endorsement of post-birth abortion is when Ms. Snow (Planned Parenthood's representative) is asked;<br />
<br />
Representative: "<i>Along the same lines you stated that a baby born on a table as a result of a botched abortion that that decision should be left to the doctor and the family? Is that what you're saying?</i>"<br />
<br />
Ms Snow: "<i>That decision should be between the patient and the health care provider.</i>"<br />
<br />
Representative: "<i>I think that at that point that the patient would be the child struggling on the table. Wouldn't you agree?</i>"<br />
<br />
Ms Snow: "<i>That's a very good question, I really don't know how to answer that. ...</i>"<br />
<br />
Her response sums up the whole debate on abortion; when is a life a life? When is it 'acceptable' to take a life? At what point is a baby a baby? Under these circumstances a child is not even a child when born alive; his or her heart is beating, he or she is breathing, he or she is probably crying but it's not a baby and it's 'acceptable' for that life to be ended if the woman, the doctor and the family say so.<br />
<br />
Life begins at the moment the egg is fertilised; that fertilised ovum will continue to divide and grow, it has human DNA and, all being well, it will continue to grow and thrive and be born. He or she is a person at the second they are born, he or she is a person five minutes before they were born, he or she is a person at every point in the pregnancy. All of us were created equal, all of us have equal dignity. One thing that really hits home writing this post today; Good Friday is that we are powerfully reminded that Christ came to restore this fundamental dignity as children of God. No one can strip us of that. It is never right to take a life.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-2664130475441226132013-03-24T20:46:00.000+00:002013-03-24T20:48:38.022+00:00Watch and pray...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
On Friday night a Vigil of Prayer before the Blessed Sacrament was held at our church (St John's RC in Horsham) for pro-life intentions and to mark the ending of the <i>40 Days for Life</i> prayer campaign. We began with the usual Friday night Stations of the Cross, using some Stations specifically written with pro-life causes in mind. This was followed by Mass and then silent prayer before the exposed Sacrament until midnight, when Fr Richard closed the evening most beautifully with solemn Benediction.<br />
<br />
It was a privilege to be able to spend this time quietly with Our Lord in the darkened church. In the background we could hear Friday night revelry going on (our church being in a town centre location) and for a while we were accompanied by a, thankfully muffled, electric guitar soundtrack but none of that could really impinge on the sacred time and place in which we were caught up. It was a time of<i> kairos</i>, a time when the eternal breaks through into the temporal... and a fitting preparation for the time of prayer before the reposed Blessed Sacrament that many of us will be spending on Holy Thursday night, as we stay with Jesus during His time of agony in the Garden.<br />
<br />
There weren't so awfully many of us (though a fair few - an enormous, enormous THANK YOU to you all for coming!) and we were only there for a little time... but I firmly believe that Our Lord deposits each of our prayer offerings, great or small, into the spiritual treasury of His Church, whence they can be drawn upon by others as blessings in their time of need or used to forge weapons for the spiritual battle in which humanity is caught up. We can't know on this side of the grave how many babies may be saved from abortion or post-abortive women healed of their grief and guilt through our prayers, but we can know that prayer is the absolutely vital foundation on which all our pro-life efforts must be based.<br />
<br />
A big thank you to Katherine for organising the evening, to Fr Richard and to all who supported us in any way, including the boy and his dad (I'm so sorry I don't know your names) who kindly came back into church at midnight so that the lad could assist at Benediction.<br />
<br />
Wishing all readers many blessings and graces during Holy Week.Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-49780660677340526452013-03-03T21:19:00.000+00:002013-03-03T21:19:12.182+00:00Praying with 40 Days for Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Today a friend and fellow pro-life group member and I travelled up to London to take part of the <a href="http://www.40daysforlife.com/london/">40 Days for Life</a> vigil outside of the <a href="http://www.bpas.org/bpaswoman">BPAS</a> centre in Bedford Square. For those of you who don't know or have never been 40 Days for Life is a peaceful campaign of prayer outside of abortion clinics and centres, like BPAS, that refer women for abortions which takes place in various locations across the country as well as all over the world. One thing that I have found is that people assume that this sort of pro-life outreach is very aggressive, lots of shouting and banner waving and generally trying to force their view upon others but this couldn't be further from the truth. The vigil is peaceful and prayerful, those volunteers who come along do so out of a love for those who are going through a crisis pregnancy as well as their unborn children (as well as those who have previously had abortions) and do not want to cause them any additional distress. What we have discovered as a group from talking to people who have had abortions is that they, more often not, felt as though they had <u>no</u> choice; their partner/boyfriend/husband was pressuring them to do it, their parents were ashamed and wanted them to abort, they were faced with difficulties at work which pushed them to do it. They had no one listen to what they wanted (sometimes they weren't even asked!) and even though they know that things like adoption exist, in that time of stress and panic they chose what felt as though it was the only way out, a decision they now regret. What the campaign aims to do is to show women that there are other options; if they don't <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn2W8EVkwkiw5_al2OddpO8lMZh8Swv9GMSreNVild5qhgVqkqxl2ybVGthHYEdsuQbSAX_xXMN9EIQbK_snWQI0tv2qh4zMtBOj9hgWm3K783iRAbVmUF312h3PLwOLwNIlBL0DrZ4VKa/s1600/I+Regret+My+Abortion+Sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn2W8EVkwkiw5_al2OddpO8lMZh8Swv9GMSreNVild5qhgVqkqxl2ybVGthHYEdsuQbSAX_xXMN9EIQbK_snWQI0tv2qh4zMtBOj9hgWm3K783iRAbVmUF312h3PLwOLwNIlBL0DrZ4VKa/s320/I+Regret+My+Abortion+Sign.jpg" width="297" /></a> want the baby they can choose adoption, if they feel that they can't financially support a child there are many, many ways to do this now, if they are facing abusive situations they can be helped to get out of them, if they are alone then there are lots of people who can help support them and if they have had an abortion in the past or have been affected by one they can be put in touch with a counsellor to help them to deal with this loss. The volunteers don't approach people as they enter but stand quietly over the road, praying the rosary and similar prayers. If someone comes up and speaks to us we do, of course, speak to them but we don't try to stop people entering the centres. We pray for them amongst ourselves. There are the odd hecklers (there were three when I was up there on Friday) but mostly people look but pass on by.<br />
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I feel I now have to blog about something that happened later on which is not part of the campaign but does worth mentioning. I apologise for my poor retelling of this but I hope you can see why I wanted to relate it. After our hour there my friend and I had lunch and after we'd warmed up we started back for the train station. To do so we walked past the vigil again and we saw that the local pro-choice group had set up their table behind them and one young woman had sellotaped a banner to the ground a short distance in front of them that read "<i>These people tell LIES about abortion.</i>" I slowed my pace and we both read it as we walked by and the woman herself then said that the pro-lifers spread lies about abortion. I told her I didn't agree, she said that was my opinion, I then pointed to her slogan said and that this was simply hers. To my shame I was going to carry on walking but my very courageous friend stopped and we had what then became a very interesting and worthwhile conversation. I owe my friend a great big thank you! What was so good about this conversation was that we each took the time (albeit briefly as we did, alas, have a train to catch) to listen to each other's point of views (one of the other pro-choice group came over to talk to us too) and discuss them. Had we had more time we could all have had a coffee together and had a very fascinating discussion I'm sure!! My friend spoke about her own abortion, the pro-choice lady had had one too, and she said how she deeply regretted it as she knew that that action had ended another life. The pro-choice lady (sorry, I don't want to use names or descriptions of people without permission) said she felt the pro-lifers were intimidating, we responded to that by saying we want to highlight there <i style="font-weight: bold;">are</i> other options; both my friend and other people we both know have, as I previously said, felt pushed into it, <i style="font-weight: bold;">no</i> other options were given in any of the stories we told her which she agreed was wrong. She also said she felt that, on both sides of the argument, it was male-dominated; men telling women to abort or not abort and she thought too that the pro-life movement was mainly men; we told our group is all women and we are not anti-woman in any way. My friend said she'd become involved in this <b>peaceful</b> movement due to her own abortion and I told her that I had because I did not believe that anyone, under any circumstances had the right to take the life of another which is why I would also never support euthanasia or the death penalty (if there were ever a push for it to be legalised once more). What we both found quite interesting is that she agreed with me totally in this view, we were coming from the same starting place <i>but</i> she didn't consider an unborn baby a baby. I wish we'd had longer to talk about this as we did start talking about when life begins and it really was good to discuss it. What we all agreed before my friend and I dashed off for the train was that the two sides should talk more as we'd all got something out of our brief and polite exchange.<br />
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After we left I did feel very bad that I would have just carried on walking and I have no excuse as to why. Perhaps I let my own fear or misguided bias of what the other side might have to say but what I discovered is that we actually do have a lot of common ground but differ on some very key and essential points (I didn't see the common ground side of it before) and we should really engage with each other more often. Even if ultimately we agree to disagree we can't expect to make a difference, to change minds and hearts without properly listening to one another, hearing what we each have to say and explaining our points of view. And how can we properly witness to the truth if we don't take up the opportunities to do so?! Thank you so much, again, to my fellow pro-life as she did a great thing today and I won't just walk on next time!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-82276754158090676802013-02-20T13:45:00.000+00:002013-02-20T17:01:44.090+00:00News from St John's Pro-Life Group<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As ever it's been quite a task to coordinate our diaries - mainly because most of the members of our Group are taken up with "pro-life in action", i.e. family life with all its often last-minute demands! Praise God for it. However on Monday of this week four of the Group - Katherine, Chris, Niki and Anneli - did manage to meet up for a somewhat overdue St John's Pro Life Group meeting in the church hall, with apologies from other members. Here follows a brief rundown of our plans and discussions.<br />
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<b>Same-sex "marriage"</b><br />
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For obvious reasons this has been high on our Group agenda lately. Before the Commons vote some members of the parish had attended a very informative meeting held at our church hall by SPUC with the aim of equipping priests and lay people to campaign effectively against the same-sex marriage bill (see previous post <a href="http://stjohnsprolife.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/same-sex-marriage-why-we-must-act.html" target="_blank">here</a>). It was a great day and we got loads of useful material. Just one quibble though: understandably the meetings (held by SPUC at various locations through the country) were arranged rather hastily, but communication from SPUC HQ was a tad random, with for example Stella getting a personal 'phone call in advance of the day and Katherine (our group Chair) only finding out via a<b> </b>last-minute letter meaning she didn't have time to make the necessary arrangements to attend. Hmm... The pro-same-sex marriage campaigners are very well-organised in their publicity and lobbying efforts. We need to be, too. But in any case, many many thanks to SPUC for an extremely helpful and heartening meeting. <br />
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Our discussions on Monday night ranged from the fact that, whilst carried and without as many abstentions as we might have hoped, the Bill was by no means a landslide victory with a significant vocal minority in the House ready to defend traditional marriage (we await the Lords debate with interest) to our MP's dismissive reply to a letter sent by Anneli and Edek on the topic recently (most of our points were simply ignored) and the widespread vitriol and vituperation exhibited by supporters of same-sex marriage to those opposing it. If it is not permissible (and it certainly isn't) to bully gay people, why is it acceptable to send death threats to those who advocate keeping the meaning of marriage as it is or to bully their children in the playground? Does freedom of conscience only apply to the "in crowd"?<br />
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But I rant, exactly the behaviour I'm complaining about! Pausing only to reflect, as we did on Monday, that the vehemence displayed by some supporters of same-sex marriage may be indicative of a superficial view of "individual rights" resulting from a lack of cognisance of the wider issues involved - and that doubtless some supporters of traditional marriage haven't been minding their manners either - we'll move on!<br />
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<b>40 Days for Life</b><br />
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Katherine and Chris supported this campaign last time round and plan to go up again on Sunday 3 March where we have booked a slot to pray quietly and peacefully in front of the BPAS centre. They will be joined by Anneli and any other St John's parishioners who would like to come. Meet us at the 9am Mass at St John's or at Horsham Station where we will be catching the 10.30am London train. If you aren't able to make it, please consider saying a daily <i>Memorare</i> for the Campaign during Lent:<br />
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<i>Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O virgin of virgins, my mother. To thee I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petition, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.</i><br />
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<b>Pro-Life Mass and All Night Vigil</b><br />
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Some of the most beautiful events held in our parish have been pro-life Masses followed by all night vigils before the Blessed Sacrament. With our parish priest's permission we are hoping it will be possible to celebrate another in March. We've done this now (two? three?) times<b> </b>with the inclusion of all the mysteries of the Rosary, said for pro-life intentions, during the night. The idea is that people sign up in advance for an hour's prayer slot, with two people at the minimum being required during each slot for the practical purposes of safety - but we've always managed at least that!<br />
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Sometimes it does seem that there's so little we can <i>do</i>. The prevailing ethics of modern society can feel like a huge black Goliath of a supertank growing ever bigger as it guns and speeds onwards, with pro-lifers a small, small band of Davids standing knock-kneed before it clutching our slings and stones. (Possibly I have been spending too much time watching my offspring play X Box games.) There's something bigger and more powerful than the Goliath supertank though and that's prayer. Every time we gather quietly to bring pro-life intentions before our Saviour, we raise up new strength and inspiration for ourselves and new power for the spiritual battle. That all sounds rather "violent" but in fact we are fighting for <i>hearts</i> - the heart of our society, the hearts of humankind, the beating hearts of the unborn, vulnerable and elderly.<br />
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<b>Other stuff</b><br />
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We aim to produce a pro-life newsletter approximately quarterly which is distributed to all parishioners at Mass and hopefully we will be able to release another one to coincide with the Vigil, trying to explain <i>why</i> we are opposing the same-sex marriage Bill and reporting on our trip to London. We also aim to have another post-Mass Cake Sale (big respect to our Cake Team of Amanda, Demelza and Chris who know how to hold a cake stall like no-one else does) - I suppose we'll have to wait until after Lent for that one though! After the Sale we will be making a donation to a local charity, as yet TBD. We passed a resolution some time back that we would aim to support a different local charity each year through fundraising; last year <i>Aila's Fund </i>was grateful to benefit.<br />
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We're happy to report that all is well with the Memorial to the Unborn Child in Hill's Farm Cemetery, so lovingly restored and planted by Stella and her daughter Bekah, and would like to thank the staff at the cemetery for the kindly eye they are keeping on it so that it remains safe and beautiful.<br />
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That just about concluded proceedings, though in a rare burst of efficiency we managed to put a date in the diary for our next meeting in April! A big vote of thanks to our amazing Chair, Katherine, who manages to keep the Group alive and active despite having a thousand other calls on her time. If anyone reading this would like to get involved, please do contact her via this blog.<br />
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<i>Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.</i></div>
Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-62884299613085629422013-02-11T21:08:00.000+00:002013-02-11T22:23:02.710+00:00Thank you, Papa B!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My reaction to the news today of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation was, I expect, fairly typical - shock and sadness. I love "Papa B" - as our Pope, but also for his particular qualities... his theological wisdom, the way he has re-established a place in the Church for centuries-old traditions such as the Extraordinary Form Mass so that they can take their place alongside and complementary to newer developments, his sincere engagement with modern secular culture, his love for souls and evangelical zeal... and, above all perhaps, his devotion to those two soulmates who can never survive when separated: Love and Truth.<br />
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I know the rest of St John's Pro-Life Group as well as countless others will join me in praying for a happy and blessed retirement for "Papa B" and in thanksgiving for the countless blessings he has brought to the Church. This is a pro-life blog and so I would especially like to thank Pope Benedict for his tireless defence of the sanctity of human life and his steadfast witness to the truth of human nature. Over the years he's written and said many things on the subject; in grateful commemoration of this aspect of his ministry, I quote here from his message for this year's World Day of Peace on 1 January (courtesy of the <a href="http://www.priestsforlife.org/articles/4443-blessed-are-the-peacemakers" target="_blank"><i>Priests for Life</i> website</a>).<br />
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<i><b>Peacemakers are those who love, defend and promote</b> <b>life in its fullness</b>
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<i>The path to the attainment of the common
good and to peace is above all that of respect for human life in all its
many aspects, beginning with its conception, through its development
and up to its natural end. True peacemakers, then, are those who love,
defend and promote human life in all its dimensions, personal,
communitarian and transcendent. Life in its fullness is the height of
peace. Anyone who loves peace cannot tolerate attacks and crimes against
life.
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<i>Those who insufficiently value human life and,
in consequence, support among other things the liberalization of
abortion, perhaps do not realize that in this way they are proposing the
pursuit of a false peace. The flight from responsibility, which
degrades human persons, and even more so the killing of a defenceless
and innocent being, will never be able to produce happiness or peace.
Indeed how could one claim to bring about peace, the integral
development of peoples or even the protection of the environment without
defending the life of those who are weakest, beginning with the unborn.
Every offence against life, especially at its beginning, inevitably
causes irreparable damage to development, peace and the environment.
Neither is it just to introduce surreptitiously into legislation false
rights or freedoms which, on the basis of a reductive and relativistic
view of human beings and the clever use of ambiguous expressions aimed
at promoting a supposed right to abortion and euthanasia, pose a threat
to the fundamental right to life.
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<i>There is also a need to acknowledge and
promote the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a
woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to
radically different types of union; such attempts actually harm and help
to destabilize marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its
indispensable role in society.
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<i>These principles are not truths of faith, nor
are they simply a corollary of the right to religious freedom. They are
inscribed in human nature itself, accessible to reason and thus common
to all humanity. The Church’s efforts to promote them are not therefore
confessional in character, but addressed to all people, whatever their
religious affiliation. Efforts of this kind are all the more necessary
the more these principles are denied or misunderstood, since this
constitutes an offence against the truth of the human person, with
serious harm to justice and peace.</i></div>
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Today is the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes. Let's ask her to pray for<i> </i>our Pope in his retirement, for the Barque of St Peter as it awaits the next Captain to steer it through often choppy waters and especially for the conclave who must elect that Captain. May God's Will be done!</div>
Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-17221630564496574082013-01-24T14:08:00.000+00:002013-01-24T14:08:53.776+00:00Novena for the protection of natural marriage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzxeYpj54gIJJ8BVpTUhaEoh5CS22KzmJI4T7gxjoFHQWpAMRBcWLXF3ecRn9KOUjb-B-Et9bvF3_rrSv1aHVFYuoNfLgHZVi8TT4Ye4Un-fQ6V5FascdgnpQ-wG71MUdLB4GBsrIMK7I/s1600/index.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzxeYpj54gIJJ8BVpTUhaEoh5CS22KzmJI4T7gxjoFHQWpAMRBcWLXF3ecRn9KOUjb-B-Et9bvF3_rrSv1aHVFYuoNfLgHZVi8TT4Ye4Un-fQ6V5FascdgnpQ-wG71MUdLB4GBsrIMK7I/s1600/index.jpg" /></a></div>
Here's a good idea from <a href="http://www.lmschairman.org/2013/01/the-spiritual-arms.html" target="_blank">LMS Chairman</a>. Why not make the <i>Novena to Our Lady of Good Success</i>, starting today if possible and ending on 1 February (the day before the Feast of the Purification and also the Feast of Our Lady of Good Success) for the protection of natural marriage against the proposed same sex marriage legislation?<br />
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I hadn't heard of this devotion (which apparently has full ecclesiastical approval) before but will be making it. If anyone can defend marriage and family life, it's Our Lady!<br />
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><span style="background-color: white;">Novena to Our Lady of Good Success</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span></span></span> </span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span></span></span><span>Hail Mary, Most Holy, Beloved Daughter of God the Father,</span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>through the intercession of Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres,</span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>grant Thy good success to this request (name your request)</span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
<b><span><span> </span></span></b></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span><span>Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be </span></span></b></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span><span>St Michael, pray for us</span></span></b></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Hail Mary, Most Holy, Admirable Mother of God the Son,</span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>through the intercession of Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres,</span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>grant Thy good success to this request (name your request)</span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
<b><span><span> </span></span></b></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span><span>Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be</span></span></b></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span><span>St Gabriel, pray for us</span></span></b></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Hail Mary, Most Holy, Most Faithful Spouse<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span><span>of God the Holy Ghost,</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>through the intercession of Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres,</span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>grant Thy good success to this request (name your request)</span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
<b><span><span> </span></span></b></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span><span>Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be </span></span></b></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span><span>St Raphael, pray for us</span></span></b></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Hail Mary, Most Holy Temple</span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>and Sacrarium of the Most Holy Trinity,</span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span><span>St Michael, St Gabriel, St Raphael, pray for us</span></span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #660000;"><b><span><span><span style="color: #073763;"> </span></span></span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Our
Lady of Good Success, Thou who art the all-powerful intercessor before
the Most Holy Trinity, deign to hear and answer my request,</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>so long as it contributes to the salvation of my soul, and the glory and exaltation of our Holy Mother, the Church.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;">
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span><span>Salve Regina (Hail, Holy Queen)</span></span></b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #660000;"><b><span><span><span style="color: #073763;"> </span></span></span></b></span></span></div>
Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-22993418560709185132013-01-21T20:53:00.002+00:002013-01-21T20:58:17.398+00:00Same sex marriage - why we must act urgently<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPgexnBjMe_gOda2o-2QCnyJxhlpFVfE82FReb6LTDupRYuH3rjA1jnPWiTLclVSZOlmWxC-6BqTTUWwn7F1P0x5uOAv9RhsCEdq8tBHKBx8fTUxCOA6ve9Jjd_ywrUAlGuQ5pcUrh3_A/s1600/10788708-3d-guy-making-a-romantic-marriage-proposal-in-front-of-a-big-heart--isolated.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPgexnBjMe_gOda2o-2QCnyJxhlpFVfE82FReb6LTDupRYuH3rjA1jnPWiTLclVSZOlmWxC-6BqTTUWwn7F1P0x5uOAv9RhsCEdq8tBHKBx8fTUxCOA6ve9Jjd_ywrUAlGuQ5pcUrh3_A/s200/10788708-3d-guy-making-a-romantic-marriage-proposal-in-front-of-a-big-heart--isolated.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Today two members of our parish pro life group, Stella and myself, had the good fortune to attend one of SPUC's Information Days for clergy and laity which are to be held around the country on the subject of the same sex marriage Bill that the Government wishes to introduce imminently. We were spoilt in that the meeting was held in our own church hall - other delegates had to brave icy roads and snow-delayed trains to attend, but I'm sure they thought it was worth it. An inspiring and informative day which has, I'm sure, left us all convinced of the necessity of urgent action.<br />
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The first speaker was Anthony McCarthy, a bioethicist and Philosophy tutor who now works for SPUC overseeing their educational work and publications and their website. His talk, <i>Protecting Marriage - Protecting the Unborn</i>, set the whole day in context by illustrating just why the issue of same sex marriage is so important for all of us and why an organisation whose primary concern is protecting the sanctity of life had got involved in the issue. He pointed out that one doesn't have to be "religious" in order to believe that marriage, defined as an exclusive and committed union between one man and one woman, should be protected. As Catholic Christians, yes we believe that Jesus Christ raised marriage to the dignity of a sacrament, but the very existence of that sacrament depends on a prior reality - natural marriage, as inbuilt into our very natures as male and female human beings. This natural reality precedes all civil definitions and thus determines them.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQENaRh49CStzVicmslH4PXCwVNOWzwxlKT-_IaXVwFSRDIydGi_pBJ2eIhzdSD6ra5mwb4hHKTdPdcajPi6aJXzQypniDiQYnvTvJDfvhKOo_vlI55ydmRcHxTu1jDyxhlkBOIV5VDDI/s1600/index.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQENaRh49CStzVicmslH4PXCwVNOWzwxlKT-_IaXVwFSRDIydGi_pBJ2eIhzdSD6ra5mwb4hHKTdPdcajPi6aJXzQypniDiQYnvTvJDfvhKOo_vlI55ydmRcHxTu1jDyxhlkBOIV5VDDI/s1600/index.jpg" /></a></div>
Natural marriage involves a very particular type of love; that between a male and a female, whose sexual union is oriented towards and contains the possibility of procreation. To attempt to introduce same sex "marriage" is not a widening of that definition but in fact abolishes it. If "marriage" is redefined as simply the union of two individuals (gender irrespective) who love each other and want to have sex (procreative potential irrespective), that is a new definition which supersedes and makes redundant the former more particular one. Marriage as we know it will have been legislated out of existence! The new definition is one which ignores all the natural attributes which come with our birth gender and its procreational characteristics; our bodies, our human natures, become blank slates which we can "orientate" as we wish.<br />
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The implications of this are far reaching and beyond the scope of this post to narrate in detail. What I find frightening is that we seem to be wiping out any givens when it comes to defining human nature. We are each a mini god, not only able but with a positive right to create ourselves into whatever we want to be, to do whatever we want to do, without any externally imposed limitations. This is a highly individualistic worldview which ignores the many familial and social ties that were previously accepted as resulting from our inherent male or female human natures. Ignoring ties means ignoring responsibilities and in a world of competing individual rights, whose right is going to dominate (because for the sake of social cohesion, someone's has to)?<br />
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Why has SPUC got so involved in this issue? The redefinition of marriage and the new genderless, "orientationalist" concept of the human being impacts, as Anthony pointed out, upon our notions of sex and complementarity - and therefore our concept of the human family itself, where a man and a woman commit to a union from which children can potentially result. Far more abortions occur outside of marriage than within it. It follows that marriage has a primary role in protecting the unborn child and to weaken marriage is to leave many more children in the womb vulnerable. Marriage and the family relationships stemming from it have in fact given rise to our societies as we know them and have very fundamental implications for our self-identity as individuals.<br />
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I've rambled on a bit but I think these foundational issues are important, because so many people will say "Yes marriage is important, but if people with same-sex attraction want to marry each other, let them - what difference will it make to the rest of us?" Anthony showed (with a skill I have not been able to reproduce) that it will in fact make a fundamental difference to the rest of us, to the way we view ourselves, to the ethos and structure of our society. He and Antonia Tully of SPUC (whose talk followed) both stressed the frightening legal implications for schools and churches. Not only are pastors, teachers etc who refuse to teach the equality of gay and "straight" marriage unlikely to be able to avoid legal censure, in the case of some professions to the extent of losing their jobs (despite the Government's talk of protection of conscience, any cases brought against such professionals are likely to succeed in court once the basic legislation equalising all sexual relationships is in place), but there are implications for school curriculum content. Antonia mentioned the insidious ways in which "gay sex ed" is already subtly infiltrating lessons. Just a photo here, a phrase there, but the mindset is being prepared and the avalanche has been triggered...<br />
<br />
So what can we do? Antonia and the third speaker, SPUC's Honorary Treasurer<b> </b>Bob Edwards, had some clear suggestions to make. First and foremost, lobby and/or write to your MP and get others to do so! Consider getting a group together to pop SPUC's leaflets through letterboxes (see <a href="http://www.spuc.org.uk/campaigns/" target="_blank">SPUC's website</a> for order details). Have you signed the <i>Coalition for Marriage</i> petition yet (you can do so via this blog on the right)? Catholic parishes should soon be receiving postcards from the Bishops for parishioners to send to their MPs; perhaps organise a table at the back of church so that people can sign these on the spot, and then arrange for them to be delivered to your MP <i>en masse</i>. Do other people in your church fully understand all the issues implied in same sex marriage and that opposing this marriage does not mean one is a homophobe (it is worth noting that all gay people are by no means united in support of gay marriage)? Can you work with your priest or pastor to inform others?<br />
<br />
This is a difficult and sensitive area, of course, and it is hard to convince people that in opposing gay marriage one can still respect the sensitivities of those with same-sex attractions and understand that they have often suffered greatly. None of us, gay or straight, are totally defined by our sexuality - we are more than that in our common humanity. I'd be the first to admit that there are many, many gay people who are far better human beings than I and far more worth knowing! That is not the issue. This is not about judgement or condemnation, but it is often seen as such. Neither, for that matter, are gay people the only ones of whom the Catholic Church asks celibacy. And from a secular point of view, civil unions already provide gay couples with the same legal rights vis-a-vis property and inheritance etc that married couples enjoy.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEOmUfS1RJ_2IhhXhBR97jVO_lySbTcdSQ7mwztEzlRAqkjOyrEgBbTf0zQaaVyDbR-W1KtAUfOtQsxWFUwl2TfAMWwX7dFXFXtiTliHwUNIMeUBNczmSqYlXRRuE7yVVkdbednkSXvAk/s1600/Mary-031.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEOmUfS1RJ_2IhhXhBR97jVO_lySbTcdSQ7mwztEzlRAqkjOyrEgBbTf0zQaaVyDbR-W1KtAUfOtQsxWFUwl2TfAMWwX7dFXFXtiTliHwUNIMeUBNczmSqYlXRRuE7yVVkdbednkSXvAk/s200/Mary-031.jpg" width="125" /></a>Our own group plans to meet soon to discuss some of the things we could do. And as our Deacon Tom pointed out at today's meeting, our most powerful weapon has to be prayer... For marriage, for our government, for all those who struggle with same sex attraction, for all of us that everything we do may be founded in truth and charity.<br />
<br />
<i>Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, sought thy help or implored thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of Virgins, my Mother. To thee I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petition, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.</i>Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-66323920270610982272013-01-20T18:35:00.000+00:002013-01-20T20:16:45.866+00:00Our impoverished response to human frailty<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZpllwvJD18EPXT8Ed_vZCwQHDImkAY5UOb0f8q19JfG0ljOs-FgDBPTiIW2eGRRHb44sdeOH-R6w4lYhrTD6_UGxgUW_vaA6_bnXaAJrlJgKqBKFe1fhoOtTMYzw8X2kXbPzYuZ4mpbg/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZpllwvJD18EPXT8Ed_vZCwQHDImkAY5UOb0f8q19JfG0ljOs-FgDBPTiIW2eGRRHb44sdeOH-R6w4lYhrTD6_UGxgUW_vaA6_bnXaAJrlJgKqBKFe1fhoOtTMYzw8X2kXbPzYuZ4mpbg/s1600/images.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
Katherine alerted our group this week to the story of two Belgian twins, deaf since birth who, when they discovered they were also losing their sight, requested (and received) euthanasia two weeks before Christmas because "they thought they had nothing to live for". They were only 45 years old. The Telegraph covered the story<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/9801251/Euthanasia-twins-had-nothing-to-live-for.html" target="_blank"> here</a>.<br />
<br />
I will leave the comment on this story to Professor Chris Gastmans, of the Catholic University of Leuven, who (in the words of the BioEdge site) "criticised the deaths as an impoverished response to disability". Professor Gastmans said,<i> "Is this the only
humane response that we can offer in such situations? I feel uncomfortable here
as an ethicist.... In a society as wealthy as ours, we must
find another, caring way to deal with human frailty."</i><br />
<br />
<div>
It seems to me that our view of what human life is and what makes it worth living has
become so diminished that we no longer have any way to offer hope in suffering. And that's bad news, because not only will suffering inevitably makes its presence felt to some degree or another in all our lives, but the degree of suffering considered bearable will likely diminish in a worldview that has less and less to offer to balance it.</div>
Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-87167095776493144672013-01-08T19:46:00.000+00:002013-01-08T19:46:23.298+00:00Chris' courageous decision<i>Group member Chris writes about a recent ethical dilemma she had to tackle (posted up on her behalf by Anneli due to technical issues!).</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw3oiEkMAXmbulfTJxQo5DRkRooICOl3CyEo20xezwdo8TywsCstkQYsJQ9HWrBEo5clAD98LpRv9xNG4vMABYjo92ZH-MGJd_mszOG16nEA84yQEhSeHmtL1yHz2fQxqv6twtuK7MYs4/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw3oiEkMAXmbulfTJxQo5DRkRooICOl3CyEo20xezwdo8TywsCstkQYsJQ9HWrBEo5clAD98LpRv9xNG4vMABYjo92ZH-MGJd_mszOG16nEA84yQEhSeHmtL1yHz2fQxqv6twtuK7MYs4/s1600/images.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
I recently went to France for the weekend with my son and we came across a large
charity event, where you could pay for a ride in a Ferrari. My son is car mad,
so, as an early Christmas present, I said that he could have a go.<br />
<br />It seemed
to be a national event as there was also a telethon taking place. The charity's
leaflets showed a photo of a young girl, so I presumed it was a children's
charity and didn't think any more about it. <br />
<br />It was only later, when I read
the leaflet, that I found out it was a charity dedicated to genetic research. My
heart sank, as I could imagine that they used human embryos. Shamefully, I was
also a little glad I hadn't known beforehand, as my son would have been so upset
if I had promised him a ride and had then said he couldn't have it. <br />
<br />I
thought some more about how most pro-lifers would refuse treatment for
themselves or for their children if the treatment was a result of genetic
research on embryos, and then I realised I'd done something far worse by helping
fund it! <br />
<br />I decided in the end to contact the charity and ask them to give my
money to another children's charity. I explained in my email the reasons behind
my request. I just hope they understand. Some people can't see a problem with
using aborted embryos for genetic results, as they see it as something good
coming out of something bad. I do understand their point of view but it also
feels wrong to benefit from something so tragic and so fundamentally wrong.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
* * * * * * * </div>
<br />
<br />
<i>Whilst she's posting Chris' words up, Anneli adds, "Thanks for sharing your experience, Chris, and well done for sticking to your principles. It can't have been easy to write that email. I think this is a situation more and more of us will be coming across these days with regards to medical research. I myself came across something similar with regard to a charity that's been supporting my daughter (see <a href="http://stjohnsprolife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/kind-hearts-and-consciences.html" target="_blank">previous blog post</a> - unfortunately we've never received a reply from the charity in question).</i><br />
<br />
<i>"St John's Pro Life Group has been having the very discussion Chris alludes to recently with regard to the morality of using vaccines, like the rubella vaccine, which are developed using a cell line derived from an aborted foetus. We will post more about this dilemma soon!"</i>Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-23231812522820720582013-01-01T15:12:00.001+00:002013-01-01T15:28:13.529+00:00Mary, Mother of God, pray for us in 2013<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb2E7gBpqaoY-eH210uxuS1bGg6TqFAgDOpj34iG9dZgIBazXn1cFWM1a-m4VWPO0lOry2gaYJa8sk4GEDLpwzLsqJLS8z0hnZq1UoO4GJI9yfkHH3e2dcnmhlW_QyjdXt90HihJcbkrc/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb2E7gBpqaoY-eH210uxuS1bGg6TqFAgDOpj34iG9dZgIBazXn1cFWM1a-m4VWPO0lOry2gaYJa8sk4GEDLpwzLsqJLS8z0hnZq1UoO4GJI9yfkHH3e2dcnmhlW_QyjdXt90HihJcbkrc/s1600/images.jpg" /></a></div>
We wish our readers a very Happy New Year and simultaneously make a resolution to update this blog a little more often...<br />
<br />
Today, of course, is the Solemnity of Mary, Holy Mother of God. Could there be a better day on which to pray for pro-life causes; for a change in the modern world's attitude to the dignity and sanctity of human life from conception to natural death and to its approach to human sexuality?<br />
<br />
Today many hold very different concepts of "human rights" and "self-fulfilment" to those proposed by Christianity. Crucially, they also hold different concepts of "compassion" and "solidarity". For Christians, all the aforementioned are found in obedience, humility, self-sacrifice and carrying the Cross. They are also found in the true love of neighbour which walks with others and supports them in challenging circumstances, rather than encouraging them to simply opt out - an option which may seem the easy solve-all, but which rarely is and often brings ultimately more destructive consequences in its wake.<br />
<br />
It is all about Love which is linked to Truth, because without this essential link Love becomes denatured and no longer allows us to help others towards what is truly best for them.<br />
<br />
Our Lady in her motherhood is, with Christ Himself, our ultimate model of these virtues and in a way which speaks particularly obviously to those facing the challenge of unplanned pregnancy. At the same time she is our ultimate model of strength combined with gentleness and kindness, qualities needed not only by every parent but by those who seek to support them. As "pro-lifers" let us ask Our Mother's intercession for all those facing difficult situations with regard to pregnancy, fertility, disability, illness and old age, and for ourselves that we may have the self-sacrificial courage to <i>be with them </i>all the way in helping them choose and carry through the life-affirming options amongst the many they will be presented with.<br />
<br />
Our Lady, Mother of God and Queen of the Family, pray for us!Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-39069114207247385682012-11-26T16:47:00.000+00:002012-11-26T16:47:08.204+00:00Blessing of the Graves<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>November is the month when, in the tradition of the Church, we remember the deceased and those who have died before birth are no exception. Group member <b>Stella Walls</b> writes about St John's service of the Blessing of the Graves earlier this month, at which the Memorial to the Unborn Child also received a blessing.</i><br />
<i> </i>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"On November 4th it was the Sunday of the Blessing of the
Graves at Hills Cemetery. I had been up to the Memorial for the Unborn Child
the day before, trimmed the surrounding grass, deadheaded the roses and pruned
them for next Spring. It was a reasonably pleasant day - but not so on Sunday!
The rain fell in torrents all morning but thank goodness stopped by lunchtime,
enabling me to place fresh flowers in the vases; but as usual it was so
cold.<br />
<br />
"Our Deacon Tom and Deacon Seamus from West Grinstead braved
the weather and came up for the service and blessings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tom Kent, our young aspirant seminarian,
accompanied Deacon Tom who was incredibly good and thoughtful explaining to him
who the deceased Sisters of the Holy Family were when blessing their graves and
telling him about their past role in the Parish. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deacon Tom also explained about the Memorial
and how it wasn't just for us but for unborn children worldwide and that we
just tended it. His prayers were beautiful and I felt honoured to be present at
the ceremony to represent Pro Life and the Lay Holy Family.<br />
<br />
"A thought came to me as I stood amongst the graves of so
many dearly loved ones that afternoon. I KNOW that to Jesus all children are
precious and I believe those who depart this world early become the cherubs in
Heaven."</div>
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Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-45310744674201577372012-11-26T15:57:00.001+00:002012-11-26T16:00:43.418+00:00Thank you from Aila<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje8-KWOz2ern5JrzJ2An35MyzFpjSbtKwejQcRrPlyH47jRsIz9QbCZKm4YNz11DzmEt9am6h9S-1dX-nDIzKS_a4CuagPCkZVqVvuEE7HEe6jRets046LeKy_KUKN_6edHmJd1EUho5c/s1600/Aila's+Fund+logo+white.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="93" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje8-KWOz2ern5JrzJ2An35MyzFpjSbtKwejQcRrPlyH47jRsIz9QbCZKm4YNz11DzmEt9am6h9S-1dX-nDIzKS_a4CuagPCkZVqVvuEE7HEe6jRets046LeKy_KUKN_6edHmJd1EUho5c/s320/Aila's+Fund+logo+white.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Since the beginning of the year St John's Pro Life Group has been helping our family raise the money needed to build a ground floor extension on our house consisting of a bedroom and bathroom for our 17 year old daughter Aila, who suffers from Friedreich's Ataxia. Through fundraising efforts and carrying a PayPal button on this blog, the Group has made a significant financial contribution - not to mention providing invaluable moral support and awareness raising. We hope that some of the reflections and reporting that have been made in connection with Aila and her needs have helped "raise the profile" of disabled people, their needs and their value.<br />
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The extension has now been built and we are at the stage of decorating and furnishing it, so the time has come to close "Aila's Fund" and to say a huge, huge THANK YOU to the Group and to all our benefactors. We cannot overstate the difference these adaptations are going to make to Aila's safety and independence and we ask the Lord's blessings and Our Lady's prayers for you all.Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-91088450121770245292012-10-25T08:47:00.001+01:002012-10-25T08:47:18.743+01:00Praying for an end to abortion<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Today we have our first blog post by group member Chris (but due to technical issues it has my name at the bottom!!!)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">40 Days For Life is an international campaign that, usually, runs twice a year and hold a peaceful vigil of prayer opposite the headquarters of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) in Bedord Square, London. Katherine and I went there on Sunday to show our support and also to see if it was something that the Parish might like to support in the future.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgewpuFMBfktUGl4js-k0XHfhTsWFb3wqnGKoSLzNwOzS3jWPtMpiB5JrLbKBQg15ZFjfyDpVYy_qe0W6q_Ox7hyO2PFfo8a8plw8ZoceO-Tw9SCCYp633OfC9uINImxQCZINNIW2U9Mto/s1600/photo_2%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgewpuFMBfktUGl4js-k0XHfhTsWFb3wqnGKoSLzNwOzS3jWPtMpiB5JrLbKBQg15ZFjfyDpVYy_qe0W6q_Ox7hyO2PFfo8a8plw8ZoceO-Tw9SCCYp633OfC9uINImxQCZINNIW2U9Mto/s320/photo_2%5B1%5D.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The vigil at the corner of Bedford Square, as you can see it<br />remained well attended after we retreated to find coffee!</i></td></tr>
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<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">We were booked into the 1pm to 2pm slot and arrived, much to our astonishment, at exactly the right time. We found three people at the vigil and in front of them were three boards, showing what the vigil was for and also a large sign with a passage from the Bible on it. The people were very welcoming and pleased to see us, especially the two Polish ladies, who had been standing there for two hours and we're rather cold! We took their place and had a chat with the man, Martin (who we assumed was one of the co-ordinators of the vigil), who was there.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">He said that the Polish community had been very supportive of the vigil. He said that there was another vigil up the road and, between them, they had already saved 35 babies from being aborted. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">The other week, a Pro Choice group set up near them and began shouting abuse. A lady who works nearby came over to the Pro Life group and said that, although she didn't necessarily share their views, she was disgusted by the other group's behaviour. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">While we were there, only one person said a negative comment as he passed by. Most people looked and were respectful.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">While we were there, we prayed as a group which was a beautiful and moving experience in itself as none of us knew each other but we had all been called there by our love for God and our neighbour. There was a blue book with various Scripture passages and prayers in it which we took turns to read aloud, we also said the Rosary. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_uoihpUgpYIxxUf_jzdPmN4t8XbTTNI_XNLnktxJYRGYywvyidTyCz2r2XYb7DQFmywYLbjv8AcDCbWbq53DurW-vJo5_nwNHIRYaBbp3hCs92IXWJ0XQzetFKeIDPZQVaCH13DPCXcM/s1600/photo_4%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_uoihpUgpYIxxUf_jzdPmN4t8XbTTNI_XNLnktxJYRGYywvyidTyCz2r2XYb7DQFmywYLbjv8AcDCbWbq53DurW-vJo5_nwNHIRYaBbp3hCs92IXWJ0XQzetFKeIDPZQVaCH13DPCXcM/s320/photo_4%5B1%5D.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">After an hour, we said our goodbyes and the man said that they'd be delighted if members from our Parish would be able to come to next year's vigil. Before heading home we stopped to light a couple of candles at the ever spectacular Westminster Cathedral. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">I'm really glad I went and I know Katherine feels the same. Please, please continue to pray for all those facing crisis pregnancies and for those helping with the vigil.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-55153126961070248442012-10-22T13:04:00.001+01:002012-10-22T13:10:34.156+01:00Teenage pregnancies - how can we help?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1FIDXCY798zDgxA0xYH9PJo5Iy2hp_3el3kbI-PoEsAqvYQ0kcrkKMsD8dqHzOqSeAbrTMLOjAKsh3Th52F6E0hSY8om38X1c4IIh4sfxWHrpoDWIY0aefG-y5jrpqLUOUMRnwRpGvvQ/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1FIDXCY798zDgxA0xYH9PJo5Iy2hp_3el3kbI-PoEsAqvYQ0kcrkKMsD8dqHzOqSeAbrTMLOjAKsh3Th52F6E0hSY8om38X1c4IIh4sfxWHrpoDWIY0aefG-y5jrpqLUOUMRnwRpGvvQ/s1600/images.jpg" /></a></div>
Thanks to Les Whittaker of the East Grinstead <i>Gospel of Life</i> group for drawing our attention to an article in his local paper which reveals that 75% of under-18s who fall pregnant in Mid Sussex have an abortion - in other words, 3 out of 4. This is apparently the highest rate in the county. Here in Horsham we fall into West Sussex whose rate stands at 59%, but this is still above the national average of 50%.<br />
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You can read the article <a href="http://www.thisissussex.co.uk/3-4-pregnant-mid-Sussex-girls-18-abortion/story-17065605-detail/story.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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Now pro-choicers might point to this as celebrating the availability of abortion facilities for young girls and their "freedom of choice". We wonder exactly how free this choice often is, however, in a social culture that lauds sexual freedom and presents abortion as the convenient and essentially scruple-free answer when pregnancy arises. It wouldn't be surprising if when combined with pressure from family and boyfriends, the necessity to adapt education and career plans and a natural concern at coping with motherhood at such a young age, this prevailing cultural outlook tended to panic young women down the road to the abortion clinic without pause for thought.<br />
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So what can pro-lifers do about these figures? The answer must surely lie in active support for girls coping with crisis pregnancies. Teenage pregnancy is a big deal and young women facing it deserve time and space to think through the options without pressure. One of the best places for them to do this is in a local crisis pregnancy centre. As Sara Jackson, manager of the Haven Crisis Pregnancy Centre in Burgess Hill, remarks in the article,<i> "We offer the opportunity for young women to come and talk through their options. Some may feel that abortion is the easiest option because it is over quickly. But we aim to give the girls a bit more time and we give them more information so they can make an informed decision."</i><br />
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It is also important to ensure that young women realise abortion isn't the consequence-free, simple solution it is sometimes portrayed as being, the easy alternative to facing an unplanned pregnancy. Rob Williamson, chairman of the Mid Sussex branch of LIFE which offers support to young girls who find themselves pregnant and even safe houses where they can stay and have their babies, says in the article,<i> "These statistics are shocking because, first of all, girls should not be put through this type of trauma. We are desperately sorry for the girls, of course, and we are
also sorry if this results in an abortion... the turmoil these girls can go through is huge. I think more teenagers are seeking out abortions because they do not feel ready for a baby, but we can help to support them."</i><br />
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So how can we each help to offer the support that will help young girls feel able to save the life of their babies by either keeping them or putting them forward for adoption rather than abortion? Of course, if we know anyone facing a crisis pregnancy, then we can put ourselves out to offer friendship, a listening ear and time to chat. It's vital to arm ourselves with local knowledge so that we can direct friends in the direction of nearby people and organisations that can help them. And even if we aren't personally close to anyone in this situation, we can still help. Our local pregnancy crisis centre - in Horsham this is <a href="http://www.careconfidential.com/Horsham" target="_blank">Oasis</a> - and charities such as <a href="http://www.lifecharity.org.uk/home/" target="_blank">LIFE</a> and <a href="http://www.goodcounselnet.co.uk/default.html" target="_blank">The Good Counsel Network</a> will appreciate our support, whether financially or in some practical way. For example, St John's Pro Life Group hope to organise a collection of baby goods at church for Oasis to give to young mums. See our minutes as linked to Katherine's <a href="http://stjohnsprolife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/blowing-out-cobwebs.html" target="_blank">previous post</a>.<br />
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And of course, we can all pray, pray, pray! Here at St John's group we've been saying a daily Memorare for the <a href="http://www.40daysforlife.com/london/" target="_blank">40 Days For Life</a> campaign and for all those facing crisis pregnancies. Perhaps you'd like to join us?<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of Virgins, my Mother. To thee I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petition but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.</i></div>
Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-90394479299882708412012-10-18T07:43:00.000+01:002012-10-18T07:43:00.554+01:00Blowing out the cobwebs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's been a long time since we've posted anything on the St. John's Pro Life blog...in fact over the last few months all of our regular activities in the parish have lain rather dormant but, at our meeting last week, we decided to renew our efforts in all areas, including posting on here!<br />
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So to start us off I thought you could all see what we intend to do over the coming months. You can <a href="https://www.box.com/s/qdod1lmfv6v0gzsyh8ji">download our recent meeting minutes here</a> or <a href="mailto:kleine.katerine@gmail.com">email me</a> for a copy. We intend to take things slowly, not bite off more than we can chew, but do more nonetheless. We'll also put up on here all the things we intend to do as they come along. If you see anything in the minutes you'd like to comment on then please, by all means do, or if you'd like to get involved in anything then that would be amazing too! You can always contact me via <a href="mailto:kleine.katerine@gmail.com">email</a> if you have questions about any of our upcoming activities.<br />
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It's good to be back, God bless!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-50678819091037946892012-07-19T12:33:00.001+01:002012-07-19T21:29:14.573+01:00Perfect babiesI have just read this brilliant post on Ignitum Today on "perfect children." If you haven't already seen it you really must. I've posted the link below:<br />
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http://www.ignitumtoday.com/2012/07/18/92-and-perfect-babies/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter<br />
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That statistic that 92% (which I'm assuming is just for the USA although I doubt it'll be little different for the UK) of babies diagnosed with Down's Syndrome are aborted is not only shocking but horrifying. Like the post's author I find it staggering that people can honestly believe that no life is better than a difficult one. Her story will, for many, raise questions as, obviously, in her case the conclusions drawn from the tests that were done were found to be inaccurate and for how many more children was this true? But regardless of whether the vast majority of children who were diagnosed with Down's syndrome did or did not have it it doesn't change the horror of the situation. So, so many children have been killed because people can't face the thought of bringing a child with a disability to term, there is a deep fear that the life that child will live will simply be unlivable, that they will be unlovable, that the lives of the parents will become too hard, that they won't have enough support and that it is cruel to bring a child with that kind of disability into the world. But, when faced with these sorts of fears and statements, I would always ask; "aren't we the ones with the disability?" After all it is we who are imposing the view that all life that is not 'normal', not 'average', not 'the same' as yours and mine is not worthy of existence. Is it not us who are so blind that we cannot even consider that someone with a different quality of life, with different abilities can still live a worthwhile life by simply living. And instead of pulling them and their families down with everything they can't do should we not try to maximise and emphasise what they can and pour our efforts into making that possible? Instead of spending billions on abortion spend billions on improving their quality of life and help them to live as full a life as we are able?<br />
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All of us, every, single one, is created in the image and likeness of God. Our innate dignity as human beings is founded in this. And that dignity, that expression of the image and likeness of God shines though the poor and sick and disabled and elderly just as much as through fit and healthy and young and wealthy. We need to see beyond the end of our own existence and truly appreciate the life of others. Yes, it may be different, but it is the beautiful, wonderful, awesome mystery of life just the same.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-37503078290715357522012-07-15T16:31:00.000+01:002012-07-15T16:31:22.734+01:00Memorial to the Unborn ChildSince our group's inception we have been holding small fundraising events (predominantly cake stalls...well everyone likes cake, don't they?) so that we could tidy up the Memorial to the Unborn Child in Hills Cemetery. The memorial, which consists of a simple marble tombstone (although I hasten to mention <u>no-one</u> is buried beneath the plot) that humbly commemorates all children lost before birth whether through miscarriage or abortion as well as still-births. Erected by the old SPUC branch in Horsham several years ago it had been left untended for a long while <u style="font-style: italic;">but</u> was still being regularly visited with flowers and soft toys being left behind. Over the last 9 months a group member's daughter, Bekah, has been digging and slowly preparing the site for planting. It was slow going as, since the ground had never been dug, the soil was as hard as concrete! But now, as you will read in the Pro-Life newsletter at the end of the month, I am very pleased to say that the work is done, the plants are in and it looks wonderful!<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">If you are up that way do go and have a look-see, say a prayer if you have time for someone you know of who didn't make it to birth or, perhaps, spiritually adopt a child in danger of abortion.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-65348562700499856792012-06-05T17:30:00.000+01:002012-06-06T21:02:16.050+01:00Aila's Fund concert a roaring success!<br />
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Last Friday we held our Diamond Jubilee concert here in St. John's in aid of <i><a href="http://stjohnsprolife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/ailas-fund.html">Aila's Fund</a></i> and, I'm glad to say, it was a great success! Lots and lots of you wonderful people offered to help either behind the scenes with the box office, the sound system, organising the raffle and the like or by offering to share your talents by playing an instrument or singing. And, praise the Lord, even more of you came along to watch and enjoy the evening's entertainments. It was an...eclectic mix I suppose you'd say...we tried to accommodate everyone's tastes (as much as was humanly possible) and had a range of styles from classical to gospel, jazz to spanish guitars. On behalf of everyone involved in <i>Aila's Fund</i> I'd like to say a big <b>THANK YOU!!</b> to everyone who helped make the evening what it was, to the office staff and clergy, to the performers and to the wonderful audience. I believe we raised over <b>£800</b>! <span style="color: red;">[Final total was actually just over £1,360 !! - Anneli] </span>Not bad from one event, eh?<br />
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Here's some snaps from taken by the lovely Marilyn George...</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><i>Our lovely audience settling in as the concert began...</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><i>Fr. Terry kicked things off with a Handel<br />flute sonata...and a rendition of<br />'Annie's Song' for Fr. Richard!!</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><i>Bernard accompanying some of the performers.<br />He also played 'Crown Imperial March' on the<br />organ.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><i>A brilliant duet with Claire O'Brien on flute and Cozette Rice on clarinet.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><i>'Voices' sang beautifully for us...</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><i>Drinks and the raffle in the hall during the interval.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><i>The Jazz Band sent us swinging into the second half...</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><i>Singing along to the Spanish guitar music...</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><i>...and here they are!</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><i>The Gospel choir brought the evening to a superb close with a song<br />chosen especially for Aila.</i></td></tr>
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<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-76423938107343526192012-05-26T16:05:00.002+01:002012-05-26T16:05:58.683+01:00Watch the miracle of conception and early lifeThanks to Les Whittaker of the East Grinstead "Gospel of Life" group for sending me this amazing video. It is a medical visualisation of conception and the development of the foetus in the womb, based on MRI scans. Watch it and be amazed at the miracle which is the development of human life from its earliest single-cell beginning to an intricate and complex intelligent being - all before birth! The most complicated parts of this development happen in the first few weeks. <br />
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The human being is a precious marvel from his/her earliest days and worthy of all the respect and protection we can offer him.<br />
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<br />Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-22905719323653976252012-05-18T19:30:00.000+01:002012-05-18T22:53:30.960+01:00Back to Basics 2: Catholic Marriage (1)<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">When
my husband Edek and I were engaged, I – a non-Catholic at the time – was given
a book called <i>How to Survive being
Married to a Catholic</i>. It set the
fundamental teachings of the Church on matrimony out in cartoon strip form and
was rather funny as well as very useful.
The page on sex, I remember, began with a cartoon depicting a grim-looking
Bishop pointing his crozier in rather threatening fashion at a romantic couple below. He was perched high atop towering words which
read, “NO YOU CAN’T”. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">“NO
YOU CAN’T” does rather sum up the impression many both inside and outside the
Church have of Catholic teaching on sex and marriage, especially just now with
gay partnerships so much in the news. However,
the boundaries that the Church places on sexual relationships arise out of the
desire to protect something beautiful, meaningful and overwhelmingly
positive. May I suggest an exploration
of the Church’s great big “YES!” to the beauty of human sexual love, taking the
quotation below as our starting point. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">It’s
too big a topic to cover in one go, though, so will be covered in a trinity of posts (fittingly enough really, as we shall see...)</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">The
matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a
partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of
the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant
between baptised persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a
sacrament. (Catechism of the Catholic
Church 1601)</span></i></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">'TIL DEATH DO US PART</span></b></div>
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<b><i>"The matrimonial covenant..."</i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">The
rate of change of modern life can be frightening at times. It’s not just that we’re advancing so rapidly
in technological terms: that in and of itself is a value-free thing which can
be turned to good or bad according to the use we make of it. However, it seems that our approach to every
aspect of life has become transitory, marked by impermanence, the desire for
change, a mistrust of commitment, a valuing of some nebulous concept we call “progress”
at the expense of tradition. The way we
view relationships is no exception. We
cohabit, we expect easy access to divorce; increasingly, children live in
single parent families or households where one partner is not their natural
parent. “If it breaks, rather than try
to fix it we dispose of it and get a new one” doesn’t just apply to our
treatment of toys, socks or computers.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY6yY1e_tVfB_ADRsJxWVyv7_lqKVajUSXzFA7DVyzBqUkdny4v3q5JvRMG5I0x5n-0bm1P87EI_YxYNy30NC7nPBVAX-G1AVQ1_eaf62g2I_aEcXqXt2a6d3j_iEEVAgsWkMZCcAS7yg/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY6yY1e_tVfB_ADRsJxWVyv7_lqKVajUSXzFA7DVyzBqUkdny4v3q5JvRMG5I0x5n-0bm1P87EI_YxYNy30NC7nPBVAX-G1AVQ1_eaf62g2I_aEcXqXt2a6d3j_iEEVAgsWkMZCcAS7yg/s200/images.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Marriage,
in the eyes of the Church, is a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">covenant</i>. It is a binding partnership which two
parties, the man and the woman, make together in clear recognition that amongst
its terms is that of indissolubility – for better, for worse. Why would two people do that? Because they recognise that permanence and
stability are the only conditions in which love can flourish. Where the cold winds of conditionality blow,
the seedling plant of human love dares not grow and bloom. “Accept me for who I am” is the
clarion call of many these days – well, Catholic marriage is the ultimate manifestation
of this desire, a promise of permanent acceptance, even if you mess up or get
wrinkly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">That’s
exactly the type of relationship that God has had with His people from the very beginning. The history of humankind as related in the Old Testament is a series of Covenants, made by God so that His people could live in close relationship with Him. It’s
exactly the type of relationship Jesus came to reaffirm and secure when He established the "New
Covenant in His blood" - and that's the reason why
marriage reflects the union of Christ with His bride, the Church, and with every human soul. As the Catechism says,</span><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"> <i>Seeing
God’s covenant with Israel in the image of exclusive and faithful married love,
the prophets prepared the Chosen People’s conscience for a deepened
understanding of the unity and indissolubility of marriage. The books of Ruth and Tobit bear moving
witness to an elevated sense of marriage, and to the fidelity and tenderness of
spouses. Tradition has always seen in
the Song of Solomon a unique expression of human love, a pure reflection of
God’s love – a love “strong as death” that “many waters cannot quench”. (CCC 1611)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Christ
Himself affirms this in Matthew 19:8 when he “unequivocally taught the original
meaning of the union of man and woman as the Creator willed it from the
beginning: permission given by Moses to divorce one’s wife was a concession to
the hardness of hearts” (CCC 1614).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">God’s
in it for the long run with each of us, just as he was with Israel throughout
its chequered history. He asks us to be
in it for the long run with each other.</span><br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“...by which a man and a woman establish
between themselves a partnership of <u>the whole of life</u>...”</b></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">That’s
all very well for God, you might say. I’m
only human and there’s only so much I can or think I should put up with. (Before going on, it should be said that, of course, in cases of physical or mental abuse this is true and no-one should be asked to remain under the same roof as a spouse who, for example, beats them.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Such cases aside,
marriage does demand it <i>all.</i> All of you,
all of your love. All your patience, tolerance and forgiveness. It’s because marriage demands it all that it is so wonderful and beautiful, such an unparalleled opportunity
for growth and fulfilment as a human being.
“No pain, no gain” does not apply just to the gym. Push your capacity for virtue and see how your moral muscle power and your heart's ability to pump out love both grow!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij-BeeILwzS_1FWf-J2NrqnMhX9bdyGmvn5lVamDmHCgqekCUz__tni8Zrm1T5MX6qECAN5PFR7-iSGilidhYU3pGzZBKZHRoY263PscddR-2guk_XCmtVNu30kv9tPwnDPubIku9K5QM/s1600/index.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij-BeeILwzS_1FWf-J2NrqnMhX9bdyGmvn5lVamDmHCgqekCUz__tni8Zrm1T5MX6qECAN5PFR7-iSGilidhYU3pGzZBKZHRoY263PscddR-2guk_XCmtVNu30kv9tPwnDPubIku9K5QM/s200/index.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We all have bad days... wish I looked<br />
this good when I was having one</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">God’s
nuptial covenant with us brought Him to earth to suffer and die on the Cross so
that He and we might enjoy each other in love for all eternity; similarly, married
love is sacrificial. Good marriages work
so well because the sacrifice is mutual – the spouses, as encouraged by St
Paul, “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph 5:21). I don’t need to detail how one makes those
sacrifices; big and little, they are called for every day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">It
can help to avoid two traps. One: you
are not two people living under the same roof; you are “one flesh” and each
other’s priority (even when there are children on the scene). Making that a lived reality rather than a
pretty idea requires effort. Two: don’t
even vaguely hope for perfection. God wants you to try
for perfection, He helps you get closer to it, but He doesn’t send you packing
because you haven't attained it yet. Give your spouse the same leeway!</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">“...
this covenant between baptised persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to
the dignity of a sacrament....”</span></i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">The
disciples muttered and murmured amongst themselves when Jesus gave them the news that from here on
in, marriage was forever. It’d be better
not to go near a woman in the first place, they decided. However they were not allowing for the Jesus
Factor. Many engaged couples are told on
marriage preparation courses that Jesus is the third person in their marriage. Through Him, they receive what is known as a “grace
of state” – supernatural aid to help them fulfil their vows. The Catechism puts it beautifully,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"> <i>...Jesus
has not placed on spouses a burden impossible to bear, or too heavy – heavier than
the Law of Moses. By coming to restore
the original order of creation disturbed by sin, he himself gives the strength
and grace to live marriage in the new dimension of the Reign of God. It is by following Christ, renouncing
themselves, and taking up their crosses that spouses will be able to ‘receive’
the original meaning of marriage and live it with the help of Christ. This grace of Christian marriage is a fruit
of Christ’s cross, the source of all Christian life. (CCC 1615)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">It’s
this presence of Christ in marriage that the Church has recognised
in instituting it as a sacrament. That is, like Baptism or Holy Communion, marriage is a vehicle of God's "grace" or life-changing power. It’s
the one sacrament which the Latin Church does not bestow via an ordained
minister; the man and woman confer it upon each other, with the minister there
as witness on behalf of the Christian community (see CCC 1623). It has to be bestowed with the free consent
of both parties, and we’ll look at that in a further post.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Christians
are ambitious for their marriages. Man
and wife, they are working together for a great and glorious ideal – to reflect
in the world the love of God for humankind, of Christ for His Church and for
every soul. Together they aspire to offer
themselves as a joint vessel of the grace and goodness of the Lord, a
sacramental chalice of the Lord’s blood “poured out for many”. That’s an ambition to make every other goal
pale by comparison. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">As a
married couple, you form the fabric of a living breathing sacrament. You are a means through which God acts in the world. Next time you hold your spouse, then, remember how
precious, how sacred their flesh is!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: red;"><b>IT'S GOOD FOR YOU</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"><b> </b></span><b style="color: #274e13;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">“...is
by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and
education of offspring...”</span></i></b><br />
<b style="color: #274e13;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></b>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">We’ve
discussed that the stability and acceptance offered by a permanent marriage
partnership offers the best environment for the flourishing of the human
personality, secure in love and acceptance, and is even a necessary antidote to an
increasingly transitory world. Marriage
also, the Church teaches, shines a divine light on human
nature so that we see it as God intended it.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_23x4AT7XEB-vKOUTdDQuqpvM7RiVSrxcCLSzPFhnpw3_ZIJNMkYqfWInkxKjSE5yzM_vl1JpiA3XvqyUiZT9zUwRKpBCoI8NOKhgEfHuzMs-UIJxR3ib4DKakkzn5thU2bG2rSY0xkc/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_23x4AT7XEB-vKOUTdDQuqpvM7RiVSrxcCLSzPFhnpw3_ZIJNMkYqfWInkxKjSE5yzM_vl1JpiA3XvqyUiZT9zUwRKpBCoI8NOKhgEfHuzMs-UIJxR3ib4DKakkzn5thU2bG2rSY0xkc/s200/images.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"> <i>The
vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they
came from the hand of the Creator.
Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations
it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures... These
differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent
characteristics. Although the dignity of
this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity, some
sense of the greatness of the matrimonial union exists in all cultures. “The well-being of the individual person and
of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state
of conjugal and family life.” (CCC 1604)</i></span></div>
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What are these "common and permanent characteristics"? The Church refers back to Scripture, to the opening two chapters of Genesis <span style="line-height: 115%;">where
we see humanity created as male and female and given the command to be fruitful
and multiply; where God sees that it is not good for the man to be alone and
gives him woman as a “helpmate”, representing “God from whom comes our help”
(CCC 1605). In fact the human being, in
his intrinsic need to love and be loved, is reflecting the nature of God, Three
in One, who exists in a permanent relationship of love. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Marriage
reflects this Trinitarian love precisely in its composition as a relationship between <i>man and woman</i>, a relationship which is <i>inherently fruitful</i> (just as the Holy
Spirit springs from the love of Father and Son within the Trinity). This is why
gay marriage is not “marriage”. It is a relationship
of a different type. One cannot separate
out the procreative aspect of the sexual relationship from the “unitive” or
loving aspect without denaturing it... but that will be the subject of one of
the two further posts, when the call to have children will be looked at as well
and we’ll finish our unpacking of the quotation above!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">This is already a very long post and we haven’t covered:</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">“Free consent” and what about when it
all goes wrong?</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Sex, love and children</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">So
watch this space! Further “Back to
Basics” are planned on euthanasia and embryo research amongst others but please
do let us know if there’s a particular topic you’d like delved into.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></b></div>Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-24731525146873889602012-05-11T17:30:00.000+01:002012-05-11T17:42:02.815+01:00A breath of fresh air in a muggy modern world – the life of St Gianna Beretta Molla<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Thanks to her recent feast day (28 April) I have come
across a few programmes and blog posts recently about St Gianna Beretta Molla,
patron of mothers, physicians and unborn children. She died in 1962 and was canonised by Blessed
Pope John Paul II in 2004. These
programmes and posts prompted me to find out a bit more about her, and she blew
across my soul like a breath of fresh air!
Why?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">I had known the basic facts about St Gianna and the
reason why she is such an inspirational saint for pro-lifers. However, if you’d asked me what her sanctity
consisted in I would have replied, “She sacrificed her life for her unborn
child even though she could legitimately have saved herself” (St Gianna was
diagnosed with a large fibroid tumour in her womb early in her fourth pregnancy,
that could not be left untreated. The
Catholic Church would have allowed a hysterectomy to save her life, as this
would not have been a direct abortion but the child’s death would have been an
unintended secondary effect – the moral principle of “double effect”. The Saint, however, chose to have a much
riskier operation to remove the tumour so that her child might live. She died of
septic peritonitis after a difficult pregnancy and birth).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"> </span>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">What I hadn’t realised was that St Gianna’s whole life
was dedicated to sacrificial love (one of her best-known maxims is, “One cannot
love without suffering or suffer without loving”). All through her life this seems to have been
her mission, indeed her <i>raison d’être</i>. Endowed from an early stage with a strong
sense of vocation, she would have liked to follow her brother overseas as a
missionary but was dissuaded because her health was not strong enough. Instead, she devoted herself to the formation
of young girls in the “Catholic Action” movement and to doing good in the St
Vincent de Paul association. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSnkHuB2byUk7szdcsGgs3wMPWbDDXYG9bpl1afIw3xF5OXKbgf4nn8lAB12rjvU7z9YVzXXqUEVky9goiKDE1w7d0gEvoHXWJH_7pjs_FfKqZs2oaYufRs99iQNM0HiIpc7jHcAD5IcQ/s1600/Pietro-Gianna-Molla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSnkHuB2byUk7szdcsGgs3wMPWbDDXYG9bpl1afIw3xF5OXKbgf4nn8lAB12rjvU7z9YVzXXqUEVky9goiKDE1w7d0gEvoHXWJH_7pjs_FfKqZs2oaYufRs99iQNM0HiIpc7jHcAD5IcQ/s200/Pietro-Gianna-Molla.jpg" width="193" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Her vocational sense did not diminish; it is seen very
clearly in her attitude to her work. She
was a doctor, practising both in general medicine and paediatrics, and –
somewhat unusually for women in the 1950’s – continued her job after marrying
and starting a family. She had an
enormous reverence for her patients, in every dimension of their being. Thus her husband, Pietro, could say when
interviewed at around the time of her beatification in 1994<i>, “Gianna had a holy respect for the body and the person of the
patient... She often repeated: ‘Whoever touches the body of a patient, touches
the body of Christ.’ It was a
quasi-sacramental concept, according to which Gianna sought to cure illnesses
but at the same time bring comfort to spirits.
The sick realised they were treated with dignity and were grateful.”</i> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">St Gianna would surely have been an enthusiastic advocate
of the Theology of the Body! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"> </span>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Her sense of vocation is also strong in her other great
calling – marriage and motherhood.
During their engagement she wrote to Pietro, <i>“I have so much trust in the Lord, and I am certain that he will help
me be a worthy spouse to you. I like to
meditate often on the first reading for the Mass of Saint Anne: ‘Who shall find
a valiant woman?... The heart of her husband trusteth in her... She will render
him good, and not evil, all the days of her life.’ (Prov 31:10-12.) Pietro, I wish I could be the valiant woman
of the Scripture for you!” </i>Ten days
before their wedding she wrote, “I would like our new family to be a cenacle
gathered around Jesus”.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7jPOZnHx4tGe11-0YthClJWgGlgAba2UYr0Qx17GG51enlVzNMPAxCKwAccu8qQbwSzVC4fraN0XnY7aSlHknAS9M4Tm9dZ6uK1kzgaM_YfvIG01uZD9QYi_eav78ZYHqvifau-vfaeQ/s1600/helen+h.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7jPOZnHx4tGe11-0YthClJWgGlgAba2UYr0Qx17GG51enlVzNMPAxCKwAccu8qQbwSzVC4fraN0XnY7aSlHknAS9M4Tm9dZ6uK1kzgaM_YfvIG01uZD9QYi_eav78ZYHqvifau-vfaeQ/s320/helen+h.jpg" width="215" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">St Gianna was a virtuous woman. When her cause for beatification was
introduced, Pietro wrote – in the form of a “conversation” with his late wife –
a summary of how she conformed to the theological and cardinal virtues. St Gianna, who had a great reverence for
Church teaching and did her best to pass it on to the young women in her care
in Catholic Action conferences, would have seen life in these terms too. She attended Mass daily if at all possible
and her life, as Pietro tells us, “rested on prayer” – the Rosary, meditation,
and a great devotion to Our Lady of Good Counsel to whom she consecrated each
of her babies after their baptism. At
her suggestion she and Pietro prepared for their wedding day with a triduum of
Mass and prayer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">And yet with all this she was joyful. She lived life to the full. She loved creation; she loved skiing; she
loved attending plays and concerts; she expanded her somewhat workaholic fiancé’s
worldview by encouraging him to play as well as work. Pietro says, “In our workaday life, Gianna
introduced the elements of beauty and festivity”. In fact, amongst her notebooks we find that
she wrote a whole <i>Hymn to the Smile</i>!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"> </span>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">So: sacrificial love; vocation; prayer; virtue; joy.
Pietro praises her distinctively “feminine” qualities. Her role as wife and mother was of central
importance to her. All this, it seems to
me, makes her a <i>vital</i> (both in terms
of importance and of alive-ness!) “sign” in our times. Reading the book co-authored by her husband
and writer Elio Guerriero, I was deeply refreshed by her simplicity, her
straightforwardness, her cutting to the heart of what is important in life and
what makes it worth living. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxQJOU3fkQl5CKCKcR0jl3aUZEbDanK-htpVj2qZGD3YiSMlB5bvS3ZrSivlAGbBBv-bjljaNUf1ATLPrZUGHWBmOzVPYdVDVYdFHuv1RZxFeB9Z2HSyuokgvgo_jcPBrkJAsRM6LSOS0/s1600/eleio+g.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxQJOU3fkQl5CKCKcR0jl3aUZEbDanK-htpVj2qZGD3YiSMlB5bvS3ZrSivlAGbBBv-bjljaNUf1ATLPrZUGHWBmOzVPYdVDVYdFHuv1RZxFeB9Z2HSyuokgvgo_jcPBrkJAsRM6LSOS0/s200/eleio+g.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">A few days before St Gianna’s beatification, Cardinal
Martini said, “Figures like Gianna Beretta Molla are a sign of hope for us,
even in this confused time that we pass through.” I would say, <i>especially</i> in this confused time.
In an age of specious sophistication, dissent masquerading as
intelligent debate, arrogant intellectualism, individualistic rejection of
authority and a sense that we have “moved beyond” the old-fashioned simple
approaches of virtue and devotion (and that’s just within the Church!), St
Gianna witnesses – in the words of Cardinal Martini – to a “simple charism of
fidelity to the Gospel”. I could almost
feel myself unwind as I read more and more about her. “Thank goodness for that,” my soul seemed to
say. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;">Thank Goodness for St Gianna Beretta Molla. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Facts and quotations above are drawn from the book <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/St-Gianna-Molla-Mother-Doctor/dp/0898708877/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336754126&sr=1-1" target="_blank">"Saint Gianna Molla" by Pietro Molla and Elio Guerriero, trans. James G Colbert, published by Ignatius Press, ISBN 0-89870-887-7</a></span></i> </span><br />
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</div>Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-68994960429320684072012-05-10T17:22:00.001+01:002012-05-10T17:25:47.385+01:00Civil rights for the unborn?A thought-provoking video by ProLife Wisconsin (hat tip to John Smeaton)...<br />
<br />
It brings to mind the words of Ruth Pakaluk, featured in an <a href="http://stjohnsprolife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/pro-life-read.html" target="_blank">earlier post</a>. <i>"Human rights are rights that pertain to us simply in virtue of the
fact that we are human, not for any reason above and beyond that; the
fundamental human right is the right to life, and so, if that right is
denied, then all human rights are in effect denied; the thing growing in
the mother's womb is surely alive (otherwise it would not need to be
killed by abortion), and it is human; thus, to deny that the thing
growing in the mother's womb has the right to life is to deny that
anyone has any human rights whatsoever."</i><br />
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<br />Anneli Figurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09657521679685461708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8634646778140328742.post-71244984540386648832012-05-08T23:54:00.001+01:002012-05-09T11:08:35.292+01:00Back to Basics: 1. From conception until natural death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Every human life, from the moment of conception until death, is sacred because the human person has been willed for its own sake in the image and likeness of the living and holy God. (<b>Catechism of the Catholic Church 2319.)</b></i><br />
<br />
This is one of the most frequently quoted phrases by pro-lifers, one you've more than likely heard or read before. The Church has a lot to say about the sanctity of human life, she proclaims it boldly in fact, and it all stems from this one little sentence. In these 34 words more is said about the wonderful gift of life, its meaning and purpose than often meets the eye. And for some it also raises a lot of questions. I have tried to address some of the more frequently asked ones...<br />
<br />
<b><i>When does life begin?</i></b><br />
<b><i><br />
</i></b><br />
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Before I answer this question I'd first like to ask you one...when do <u>you</u> think a person becomes a person?<br />
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a) At birth<br />
b) At 24 weeks<br />
c) When there is an audible heartbeat and organs are forming<br />
d) At conception<br />
<br />
We asked this very question to our parish's confirmation candidates a few weeks ago and, whilst most of them answered d), there were some who thought c). There is a lot of conflicting opinion about precisely when human life begins; read different books, visit different websites and you will be told very different things. Part of the reason for this is that people often use strange, alien terms to refer to an unborn child during the various stages of development (e.g. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zygote">zygote</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foetus">foetus</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_embryo#The_human_embryo">embryo</a> and many others) which dehumanise it and desensitise us to what it is too. But the fact is that a person is a human life from the very first moment, from the point of conception that zygote is an unborn child. Yes, he or she doesn't have arms or legs or a head yet but not being fully formed yet doesn't make them any less of a human being, in the same way that a toddler is no less a person than an adult purely because they haven't finished growing. A fertilised ovum will <i>always</i> result in a child growing in the womb of the mother, there is no point at which it suddenly becomes human having not been so before.<br />
<br />
<b><i>What does the Church have to say about life beginning at conception?</i></b><br />
<b><i><br />
</i></b><br />
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The Church has always believed that human life starts from the moment of conception. Until 1751 New Years Day in the English calendar was not January 1st but March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation when the angel Gabriel announced to Our Lady that she was to become the mother of God (Luke <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1%3A26-38&version=NIV">1:26-38</a>). Our ancestors, along with the rest of the Body of Christ, recognised that Jesus' life on earth began long before his birth on December 25th. His incarnation began in the womb of the Virgin Mary, he became man at that moment, was fully human from that point onwards. The same is true of each of our lives; we are fully ourselves, totally human from conception. And because of this we have the same right to life as any other person. (<a href="http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2323.htm">CCC 2323</a>)<br />
<br />
<b><i>What does it mean to be "created in the image and likeness of the holy and living God"?</i></b><br />
<b><i><br />
</i></b><br />
Scripture and tradition speak at length about our innate dignity as human beings. That word, 'dignity', is one often thrown around, twisted and warped to mean a whole host of different things in a wide variety of contexts. But our true dignity stems from our being created in the image and likeness of God (<a href="http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/1700.htm">CCC 1700</a>), we are given a special gift, a unique honour in creation in that we resemble the divine. And this image and likeness, this dignity, is expressed in all of us, it is what makes each of us truly equal with our neighbour, none of us have more dignity than someone else. This image and likeness is expressed through the sick, elderly, disabled and dying, the toddler and the unborn child just as much as it is shown in the young, the fit, the successful and the healthy. Nothing can ever change this, no set of circumstances, no other person can ever alter the fact that we are made in God's image and that we are loved and cherished by him more than we could ever hope to fathom. And because we all share the same innate dignity we all have the same right to life. Just as no one can stop you from being created in God's likeness so can no one take away your dignity and your inviolable right to exist.<br />
<br />
This is an immense and beautiful gift given to us by our Father in heaven, our lives are not something that we can create or bestow upon ourselves or others but something that we have been entrusted with.<br />
<br />
<b><i>What is 'natural death'?</i></b><br />
<b><i><br />
</i></b><br />
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Our lives are a gift from God from the moment of conception and this carries on until the moment we die. Because our lives are not our own (man does not have full dominion over his life, he cannot control when he comes into existence and only has limited control over his mind, body and spirit) they are not ours to end prematurely. Our human existence is directed towards doing the will of God and we do this through the big and small, major and minor events of every day right up until we breathe our last breath. In living the life that God has ordained for us and dying when he chooses we offer him our full obedience (<a href="http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/1011.htm">CCC 1011</a>), we set our worldly desires and will to one side and set our eyes on the things of heaven.<br />
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But as bleak as this may sound to some death is <u style="font-style: italic;">not</u> a negative, nor is living out our full life. In living a full life (i.e. a life not cut short) we are given the invaluable opportunity to carry our very own Cross, to walk with Christ, to journey with him towards the Father, to grow in love and holiness for God and our fellow man. And because of Christ's triumph on the Cross at Calvary death is not the end but only a gateway into life, life with God for all eternity (<a href="http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/1010.htm">CCC 1010</a>). It is something that we should look forward to and prepare ourselves for through a regular reception of the sacraments.<br />
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That being said it is not something that we can or should hasten. Suffering is something that is as painful to watch as it is to endure but that does not mean that there is no value in it, that a person's life in those times of darkness and pain is less worth of having than yours or mine. We are called to love our neighbour, to care for them as we would have others do to us (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+12%3A30-31&version=NIV">Mark 12:30-31</a>), to try and ease their discomfort through the means at our disposal (e.g. pain medication etc.) but not to perform so-called 'mercy-killings' as, due to our innate dignity as human beings, that person is still created in the image and likeness of God right up until the end and we have no right to say when a life becomes 'worthless' or 'too hard to endure'.<br />
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<i><b>Don't we have the right to an abortion or the right to die?</b></i><br />
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There is a notion that we have the "right" to an abortion or the "right" to die as and when we choose, some even refer to them as "human rights." Human rights were created and given international recognition after the Second World War to ensure that never again would the rights of our fellow man be violated in such a dreadful way. These rights are there to protect our lives, to keep our right to life from being threatened by others. We, to name but one example, have the right to live free from the threat of torture, something designed to keep us safe and well.<br />
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Abortion and assisted suicide/assisted death can <u>never</u> be "rights" as they fundamentally undermine our right to life, they purposely seek to destroy it and this is totally contrary to what human rights were created for in the first place. Abortion, assisted suicide and assisted death are attacks and violations of our dignity as human beings, they destroy that life which has been freely created and freely given and are not a "right" and can certainly never be the correct course of action to take.<br />
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Although I tried to think of a poetic conclusion to draw this post to a close it unfortunately didn't quite come together. So instead I leave you with the same quote I opened with and hope that you will see more in those 34 words, understand better the Church's need to proclaim the Gospel of Life than you perhaps did to begin with.<br />
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<i>Every human life, from the moment of conception until death, is sacred because the human person has been willed for its own sake in the image and likeness of the living and holy God. (<b>Catechism of the Catholic Church 2319.)</b></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4