The Meaning of Life (pt 1)

This is a Three part series of posts that will Deal with the Meaning of life

We are called to Know Him, to Love him, and Serve him in this world and spend eternity with him in the next.

This is the meaning of life, plain and simple. It is through living our vocation and persevering through the struggles and tribulations of daily life that we praise and honor God. This post will consider ways that we can better serve our Lord.

Firefighter, Pilot, Solider,Homemaker,Lawyer - You get the Idea we all have a role to play, the path that we choose to follow may vary but we all hope to be heading to the same destination that is the Beatific Vision. No road heading in this direction is easy, this road is one of great difficulty, if we are so lucky. It is in the times of greatest struggle that we really may have a chance to get to really know and serve the Lord.

While the acts of our day may often seem mundane, we must remove our initial reaction and perception. It is quite easy to get frustrated or angry at a screaming toddler, the gut reaction is usually one of haste and immediate gratification to silence the child. Instead of these instances of frustration we should learn to treat the child and his tantrum with total love and calmness, if the issue can not be resolved with tenderness and compassion the issue must not be resolved with the opposite emotions of anger and frustration. It is in acts of love toward the most unappealing situations that we can serve God.

Whether its a toddler, working late in the office, In the line of fire - this the Cross God has asked us to carry. God never gives us more than we can handle, in thinking we know what we can or can not handle we only do injustice to God, as he knows us better than anyone. Is life Fair? NO! Some have what we perceive to be no large yolk around their neck, we then sin by envying the light load of others. Whatever we are called we can serve better when we embrace our Cross like Jesus and continue along our way.

The rocky road of our life can be endured much more easily, and we can serve much more effectively when we live in an abundance of Grace. Grace from God overflows in the Sacraments, all of them bestow great amounts of grace. Since only two of the seven can be given continually, participating in the Eucharist and Confessing our sins regularly we can affirm all the total grace that has been given.

I leave you with the response we should all have when we are called to serve God even in the most dire circumstance:

And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.

Luke 1:38

Eat Jesus Again for the First time

While attending the mass at Conception Mo. (See the previous post) the Archpriest of the ceremony stood at the ambo and gave a short speech. He wanted to emphasize the real presence of our Lord in communion, he wanted to remind people that it was only 1-Catholics, 2-that had observed the Eucharistic Fast, 3-and were living without MORTAL sin- as we are all absolved from venial sin during the mass- were allowed to come forth and receive communion,

To those that met the requirements set forth by that Church He said come forward and get the Most Holy Communion you have ever received come Kneel down, the priest will bless you with the Blessed Sacrament and then you must receive on your tongue, he said dont reply anything, just realize what you received and meditate on the fact that you received Jesus Christ, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity!

So I have been thinking, why do so many Catholics today either a) Not Believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, or b) are totally ignorant of this fact - even in all Novus Ordo parish's when you go to receive Jesus, you are told, and in a way almost asked to confirm " THE BODY OF CHRIST", then you respond "AMEN", Amen means YES!, so if a Catholic that chooses not to believe in the real presence of Christ goes to communion why do they respond AMEN? Why would the priest say "THE BODY OF CHRIST" if it was not so.

Why has catechesis of the true presence of Christ declined? I don't have the answer for you, I can only think of a few factors that may perpetuate the issue, one possibly being the continuation of the indult of Communion in the Hand, maybe priests are not preaching enough of how Jesus is present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, he wanted to let us know that we are all called to be saints and that certain saints only received communion maybe a total of 5 times in their life, if 5 times was enough for them to be saints then we must adhere to the churches instructions.

Once we have everyone believing in the truth of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist then the next problem I foresee is stopping the outrageous amount of sacrilege, Catholics whom use birth control, and that are not validly married seem to be the most common offender of this sacrilege, not to mention the scores of people that only attend confession once or twice a year when they are constantly living in a state of mortal sin. I am not here to judge, but I do feel called to protect Jesus in Most Holy Communion.

The wife and I are very close to completing our convalidation in the church, we have not been receiving communion for quite sometime, it has been somewhat of a penitential time preparing to re-enter a state of sanctifying grace, As I have been making my spiritual communion each week at Mass and as the time comes to re-enter this state of grace, after the convalidation is finalized and after a good heart felt confession, I truly feel as if I will be making my First Holy Communion for a second time. I'm not sure if I will be able to hold back the tears of joy.

Pictures From Solemn High Pontifical Mass

Here are some Pictures, WolfTracker over at Kansas City Catholic has some additional ones as well
Enjoy!.. I sure did




















Altar Before:

Altar After:

Taking First Vows

Baby found in freezer; Pa. woman charged

Baby found in freezer; Pa. woman charged:
"By JOE MANDAK - Associated Press Writer

PITTSBURGH --
A woman was charged with abuse of a corpse after police found the remains of a baby in her freezer.

Police charged Christine Hutchinson, 22, of Pittsburgh, after interviewing her Thursday evening, several hours after the remains were found in her apartment.

Officers got a tip from someone who knew Hutchinson that there was 'possibly a baby that was dead and was in a freezer in an apartment in Bloomfield,' a working-class neighborhood several miles east of downtown, Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki said.

Detectives found what initially appeared to be a late-term fetus in a brown bag in the freezer, police said, though it wasn't immediately clear whether the remains resulted from a miscarriage, late-term abortion or a death shortly after birth.

But later, Lt. Daniel Herrmann said the abuse of a corpse charge applies only to human beings. Under the law, he said, a fetus is not considered a human being.

An autopsy was scheduled for Friday. Police said that they did not believe the death was recent but gave no further details.

Police also questioned the woman's ex-boyfriend but said they do not believe he was the father. He was not charged.

Hutchinson was in custody awaiting arraignment late Thursday"



This sad story poses a question for me, Why was it so hard to determine if this baby was " from a Miscarriage, late-term abortion or death shortly after birth"

its amazing that if this baby had just been aborted that this mother would not be in jail right now, but instead she kept the baby in the freezer for some unknown reason, we can all speculate as to why.
If this baby was found to have died after birth then the mother could be charged with a crime,

Only with Satan can one not explicitly call EVIL a EVIL and LIFE a LIFE

how can you differentiate, this baby was found dead in a Freezer, No matter how it got there it was WRONG and I hope whomever is responsible is Convicted for harming LIFE, Period.

"Pope wishes to 'extend the possible use of the 1962 books to all Latin Church'"

RORATE CÆLI:Pope wishes to "extend the possible use of the 1962 books to all Latin Church":




Full Discussion at Rorate Caeli, but this is another sign that this motu proprio, is coming and possibly sheds some light on what else might be included, now just like anything else it poses more questions, either way I still see it as a step in the right Direction The Letter is as follows:

Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei and a member of the Fifth General Conference of Latin American Bishops, delivered the following address yesterday in Aparecida (in Spanish):

Card. Darío Castrillón Hoyos
President Ecclesia Dei
Aparecida, May 14, 2007

[Delivered in Aparecida, May 16, 2007]


Dear and Venerable Brothers,

I allow myself to present a brief information on the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei and on the state of the pastoral reality which the Holy Father has placed under its competence.

This Commission was created by the Servant of God John Paul II in 1988, when a notable group of priests, religious, and faithful, who had made manifest their discontent with the Conciliar liturgical reform and who had congregated themselves under the leadership of French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, separated themselves from him because they were not in agreement with the schismatic action of the ordination of Bishops without the appropriate pontifical mandate. They preferred, therefore, to stay in full union with the Church. The Holy Father, by way of the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei Adflicta, entrusted the pastoral care of these Traditionalist faithful to this Commission.

Nowadays, the activity of the Commission is not limited to the service of those faithful who, at that time, wished to remain in full communion with the Church, nor to the efforts made to put an end to the painful schismatic situation and to attain the return of these brothers of the Saint Pius X fraternity to full communion. By the will of the Holy Father, this Dicastery extends its service, moreover, to satisfy the just aspirations of those who, due to a particular sensibility, and not having kept links to the above-mentioned groups, wish to keep alive the ancient Latin Liturgy in the celebration of the Eucharist and of the other Sacraments.

Undoubtedly, the most important effort, which concerns the entire Church, is the search for an end to the schismatic action and to rebuild the full communion, without ambiguities. The Holy Father, who was for some years a member of this Commission, wishes it to become an organ of the Holy See with the proper and distinct end of preserving and maintaining the worth of the Traditional Latin Liturgy. Yet it must be said with all clarity that it is not a turning back, a return to the time before the 1970 reform. It is, instead, a generous offer of the Vicar of Christ who, as an expression of his pastoral will, wishes to put at the disposal of the whole Church all the treasures of the Latin Liturgy which for centuries has nourished the spiritual life of so many generations of Catholic faithful.The Holy Father wishes to preserve the immense spiritual, cultural, and aesthetic treasures linked to the Ancient Liturgy. The retrieval of this wealth is linked to the no less precious one of the current Liturgy of the Church.

For these reasons, the Holy Father has the intention of extending to the entire Latin Church the possibility of celebrating Holy Mass and the Sacraments according to the liturgical books promulgated by Blessed John XXIII in 1962. There is today a new and renewed interest for this liturgy, which has never been abolished and which, as we have said, is considered a treasure, and also for this reason [the interest] the Holy Father believes that the time has come to ease, as the first Cardinalatial Commission of 1986 had wished to do, the access to this liturgy, making it an extraordinary form of the one Roman Rite.

There are good experiences of communities of religious or apostolic life recently erected by the Holy See which celebrate this liturgy in peace and serenity. Groups of faithful who attend these celebrations with joy and gratitude assemble around them. The most recent establishments are the Institute of Saint Philip Neri, in Berlin, which functions as an Oratory, and which is also present, and well received, in the Diocese of Trier; the Institute of the Good Shepherd, of Bordeaux, which gathers together priests, seminarians, and faithful, some of them from the Fraternity of Saint Pius X. The proceedings for the recognition of a contemplative community, the Oasis of Jesus Priest, of Barcelona, are well advanced.

In Latin America, as is well known, we must thank the Lord for the return of a whole diocese, that of Campos, Lefebvrian in the past, which now, after five years, presents good fruits. It was a peaceful return and the faithful who have enrolled themselves in the Apostolic Administration are glad to be able to live in peace in their parochial communities; furthermore, in effect, some Brazilian dioceses have made contacts with the Campos Apostolic Administration, which has placed priests at their disposal for the pastoral care of the Traditionalist faithful in their local churches. The Holy Father's project has been partly proved in Campos, where the peaceful cohabitation of the forms of the only Roman Rite in the Church is a beautiful reality. We have the hope that this model will yield good fruits, also in other places of the Church where Catholic faithful with diverse liturgical sensibilities live together. And we hope, furthermore, that this way of living together will also attract those Traditionalists which still remain far away.

The current members of the Commission are Cardinals Julián Herranz, Jean-Pierre Ricard, William Joseph Levada, Antonio Cañizares, and Franc Rodé. Its consultants are the Undersecretaries of some Dicasteries.

Several communities spread throughout the world have been up to now under Ecclesia Dei. 300 priests, 79 religious men, 300 religious women, 200 seminarians, and several hundreds of thousands of faithful. The interest of the young curiously increases in France, the United States, Brazil, Italy, Scandinavia, Australia, and China. At the moment of its return, 50 priests, around 50 seminarians, 100 religious women, and 25,000 faithful came from Campos.

Today, the group of the Lefebvrians includes 4 Bishops who were ordained by Mons. Lefebvre, 500 priests, and 600,000 faithful. Several contemplative monasteries, and some male and female religious groups have joined the group, which has parishes (they call them priories), seminaries, and associations. They are present in 26 countries.

Let us ask the Lord that this project of the Holy Father may soon be accomplished for the unity of the Church.

My Take...

First off, I would like to Thank WolfTracker and Dusty for their coverage of the "PlannedParenthood" yearly gala, with guest of honor the governor of Kansas, Kathleen"Cafeteria" Sebelius. I have been sharing their coverage with many at my work as well as with email, the pictures and information has been great thanks!


I listen to a "Mother Angelica Classics" The other night on the EWTN podcast's ( if you have never checked out their podcast's I highly recommend them) she was speaking of natural disasters, tornados, floods, and all the other calamities of sorts. We always deserve what God gives us, the good and the bad, now I'm not saying Greensberg Kansas was the cesspool of the nation, but one must take note of Kansas' affinity for these twisters in relation to the amount of babies that are murdered in this state each year. Further more we have a public figure claiming to be a member of the Holy Catholic church but refusing to help her brothers and sisters in Christ to protect the most innocent of life.


Per her statements in 1989 she has clearly made personal decision to not follow the churches teachings.

If you couple this with the pope's most recent comment to Catholic leaders who support the use of abortion and contraception, that they have excommunicated themselfs by support such evils

I pray that our priests recognize the offenders and refuse communion to these "Leaders", I often wonder sometimes if a "Most Wanted" Poster is needed in our parish's of pictures of the Vocal "Catholics" who openly support abortion and contraception to increase awareness of this.
I can not imagine any priest in the Topeka area willing to give "Cafeteria" Sebelius the Eucharist after all the evidence proving her support for the murder of the unborn.

A Big Event for the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles

"Solemn Pontifical Mass: May 19, 2007, 1:30 P.M., Conception Abbey Church, Conception, MO.

For those who plan to attend, it would be wise to arrive early. Celebrant of the Solemn Pontifical High Mass: Most Reverend James C. Timlin, D.D., Bishop Emeritus of Scranton. Deacon: Rev. Fr. Christopher Henderson, CPM, current chaplain. Subdeacon: Rev. Michel Berger. Most Rev. Robert W. Finn, D.D., homilist, and presiding over the Profession ceremony. The Right Reverend Gregory Polan, OSB, Abbot of Conception, presiding over the Investiture of the new novices. (Sister Kaylynne Dunne, from our community, will be finishing her postulancy and receiving her name in religion.)"SOURCE

This is a pretty rare event as I understand it..

If you cant make it to this one the next one that I am aware of is in St. Louis on July 16 per the ICRSS St Louis website.

Pope visits Brazilian drug clinic..

BBC NEWS | Americas | Pope visits Brazilian drug clinic
"He urged recovered addicts to be "ambassadors of hope" and said the clinic bore testament "to the Gospel of Christ amid a consumer society far removed from God"."
"At the clinic, which claims to have an 80% success rate and is run by Franciscan friars, patients receive spiritual guidance while working on a farm as beekeepers, milking cows or tending apple orchards."


This is awesome to see our Pontiff living the Gospel to some of the most meek of all mankind. It also seems these Franciscans have found how to recover the people not only in their physical ailments but spiritually as well, true works of mercy.

Each act of beekeeping, milking etc.. is an act of serving God in itself.

Along with our newest Saint Galvo this has turned into a very interesting trip to Brazil thus far, I am anxious to see whats next. Who knows maybe a Motu Proprio for a "Latin" Mass will come before he leaves this "Latin" Country.

My Conscience is clean.....

Pope Steadfast in Abortion Opposition

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON Associated Press Writer
SAO PAULO, Brazil - Pope Benedict XVI began his first papal trip to Latin America stressing church opposition to abortion Wednesday, suggesting that Catholic politicians in Mexico had excommunicated themselves by legalizing abortion in that nation's capital.

Benedict, who will inaugurate an important regional bishops' conference during his trip, also spoke strongly against abortion during his first speech in Brazil. Speaking in Portuguese, he said he's certain that the bishops will reinforce "the promotion of respect for life from the moment of conception until natural death as an integral requirement of human nature."

Thousands of faithful waited in the cold rain for a glimpse of Benedict, then chanted "Bento, Bento" and waved flags of different South American nations as he blessed them at the monastery where he is staying.

The Vatican says Benedict will confront major challenges during his visit, such as the church's declining influence in Brazil, the rise of evangelism, and efforts to expand access to abortions in the region.

Catholic officials have been debating for some time whether politicians who approve abortion legislation as well as doctors and nurses who take part in the procedure subject themselves to automatic excommunication under church law.

The pope was asked where he stands on the issue during the flight to Brazil, in his first full-fledged news conference since becoming pontiff in 2005.

"Do you agree with the excommunications given to legislators in Mexico City on the question?" a reporter asked.

"Yes," Benedict replied. "The excommunication was not something arbitrary. It is part of the (canon law) code. It is based simply on the principle that the killing of an innocent human child is incompatible with going in Communion with the body of Christ. Thus, they (the bishops) didn't do anything new or anything surprising. Or arbitrary."

Church officials later said the pope might have inferred from the question that the Mexican bishops had issued a formal declaration of excommunication for the legislators, something Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera has said he has no intention of doing.

Benedict's spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope was not setting a new policy and did not intend to formally excommunicate anyone - a rare process under church law that is separate from the doctrine of self-excommunication.

"Since excommunication hasn't been declared by the Mexican bishops, the pope has no intention himself of declaring it," Lombardi said in a statement approved by the pope.

But Lombardi added that politicians who vote in favor of abortion should not receive the sacrament of Holy Communion. "Legislative action in favor of abortion is incompatible with participation in the Eucharist. ... Politicians exclude themselves from Communion," he said.

Pressed again to say whether the lawmakers had been excommunicated, Lombardi reiterated: "No, they exclude themselves from Communion."

Excommunication is the severest penalty the Roman Catholic Church can impose on its members. When someone is excommunicated "his status before the church is that of a stranger," the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia says. In practical terms, that means the excommunicated person is forbidden from receiving the sacraments and participating in public worship.

Church teaching says anyone who has an abortion is automatically excommunicated. "Being a conspiring or necessary accomplice" to an abortion also means excommunication under church law.

The Mexican politicians who supported the measure shrugged off Benedict's comments Wednesday. "I'm Catholic and I'm going to continue being Catholic even if the church excommunicates me," said leftist Mexico City lawmaker Leticia Quezada. "My conscience is clean."

On the plane from Rome, Benedict said the exodus of Catholics for evangelical Protestant churches in Latin America was "our biggest worry."

But he said that the spread of Protestantism shows a "thirst for God" in the region and that he intends to lay down a strategy to answer that call when he meets with bishops from throughout Latin America in a once-a-decade meeting in the shrine city of Aparecida near Sao Paulo.

"We have to become more dynamic," he said. Evangelical Protestant churches have attracted millions of Latin American Catholics in recent years.

The Vatican also has promised that Benedict will deliver a tough message on poverty and crime during his five-day visit to Brazil - the world's most populous Roman Catholic country.

Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, visited Mexico and addressed Latin American bishops just three months after assuming the papacy. Benedict has waited two years for his first trip to a region with nearly half the world's 1.1 billion Catholics. But he denied being "Eurocentric" or less concerned about poverty in the developing world than his predecessors.

"I love Latin America. I have traveled there a lot," he told reporters, adding that he is happy the time had come for the trip after focusing on more urgent problems in the Middle East and Africa.

Benedict, who visited Brazil as then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1990, will celebrate several open-air Masses, including a canonization ceremony for Brazil's first native-born saint, and visit a church-run drug and alcohol rehabilitation center.

Marcelo Zapata, 19, flew from Chile in hopes of glimpsing the pontiff. "The pope is the representative of Christ on Earth and I'm emotional about meeting him," he said. "I never met any other pope and this may be the only time he'll come to Latin America because he's already 80 years old."

Ivany Yazbek, 49, managed to touch the hand of John Paul II when he visited Brazil in 1980. "I don't know if this pope will be as charismatic as the other pope, but we'll find out," Yazbek said.

Shivering in the cold, Edmundo Barbosa, a 32-year-old salesman, said, "I just want to see what he looks like, and if I could talk to him I'd ask for peace."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm Catholic and I'm going to continue being Catholic even if the church excommunicates me," said leftist Mexico City lawmaker Leticia Quezada. "My conscience is clean."


I'd Like to focus on this for a second, I believe Leticia is misinformed on the teachings of the Catholic church. First the church did not excommunicate her, she removed herself from communion with the church, secondly if you remove yourself from communion with the church then you are not Catholic. I find it interesting that even with the Holy Father making it crystal clear that these lawmakers are NOT to receive communion that she would still "continue being Catholic". I find it sad that anyone that cannot fully understand the Pope's statement is making laws in ANY country. One would think that lawmakers would be able to understand such crystal clear statements by the leaders of the Catholic Church.



On the plane from Rome, Benedict said the exodus of Catholics for evangelical Protestant churches in Latin America was "our biggest worry."...Evangelical Protestant churches have attracted millions of Latin American Catholics in recent years....

This second thing is a topic that is related to what Traditional Catholic Mom recently touched on, also Rome of the West did a nice post on the pentecostal movement. Latino's have had the stereotype of being Roman Catholic for ages, while I do not think this will be going away you can see a growing trend. This seems that the people of the Americas have strong devotion to God while they are missing the fullness of the Body of Christ. It would not be so outrageous to think that protestant missions are the only ones getting to this part of the world. Something is obviously lacking in keeping people faithful.

Checking In...

It has been a few days since I have posted and I wanted to touch base with everyone to see how they are doing, and to get some things off my mind. This is just random Junk.. don't mind me

1. I hate Money- I hate all the stigma that it brings, I hate how I must spend so much of my time working for it to support the family when I could be out preforming Corporal and spiritual works of Mercy or raising my children.
   
2. Truth- Why Oh, Why is it so hard for people to see the truth about so many things, why do people pull their own blinders over situations and make them worse when the truth is the best answer.. Best for them, best for everyone, maybe not what they want to hear but Truth always wins out.. why fight it?
3. I want to Move to Ireland - at least I think I do.

Also readers I wanted to share something else from my work-

There is a young woman whom I work with she currently can not have children and has many a genetic disorder, she is currently undergoing IVF treatments to try and concieve, she is also a member of the cult of the Jehovah's witness (who's new kingdom hall is being built less than a mile from my home). This young woman is very nice and friendly and will tend to talk your ear off if you allow it, to me she has not spread a word of her religion. I wonder if My Holy cards, Crucifix, Catholic Calender are too much for her, or maybe I fit the profile of a Catholic that the Awake and Watchtower magazines paint of Roman Catholicism, Im not sure... I am also not so sure how devout she is to her faith but has tried to plant seed in other co-workers that I have promptly up rooted.

I am faced with a question as to try and evangelize her.. but hear that JWs are hard to crack but they can be shown the truth..

anyone else want to post random thoughts?

Are we All Welcome?

A Catholic man has written into a Catholic online forum, he had an amazing "day dream" during communion the other day about how, "whereby Christ in the Flesh walked into the Church. Everyone filing up to Communion stopped dead in their tracks, turned around towards Him and began pressing back to reach Him. I, however, remained sadly rejected in place." he continues, "At that moment, someone in the crowd grabbed my arm and said, "C'mon! It's the Lord"! I explained that I couldn't go to Him because I was in sin. At that, many of the people who were pushing their way back to Him, had overheard me and began explaining that it's for the worst sinners that He came, and that He didn't want anyone kept from touching His garment. No one held me back from receiving Jesus. I was urged to go right up to Him and touch his garment, to be nourished, to be cleansed."


This man brings up a good question....
But Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P. provides a better answer:


"The Church doesn’t hold the worst sinners at arms distance, the sinners themselves do. The Church isn’t forcing them to sin. They are doing that quite on their own.

The Church does not withhold the Lord’s compassion any more than He did. But He was only compassionate with those who were repentant and then He warned them not to engage in such activity again.

Actually when you were waiting for an annulment, you could have received Holy Communion if you were not having marital relations with someone with whom you were not validly married. Perhaps you didn’t know that to do so is a mortal sin. One cannot profess one’s unconditional love for the Lord while at the same time engaging in sinful activity. THIS is where it can’t be both!

The Church wasn’t politely holding your arm. You could have gone to Confession and determined to live celibately until you were validly married—and then received Holy Communion. Many do. Unfortunately, often priests fail to tell people this."

Quotes Taken From:
SOURCE: Do we really want unity among the faithful?

Irish teen in court abortion plea

BBC NEWS | Europe | Irish teen in court abortion plea:
"A 17-year-old pregnant Irish girl is appearing in the High Court in Dublin to press for the right to travel to Britain for an abortion.

Doctors have told the girl that her four-month foetus will not live more than a few days beyond birth.

She is in the care of Ireland's health service which has issued an order stopping her from going to Britain.

But a lawyer for the girl argued that the health authority had no right to stop her travelling.

Eoghan Fitzsimons told the court that police had responded to a request by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to prevent her leaving the country, saying they could not and would not do so without a court order.

Abortion is illegal in Ireland except where the mother's life is threatened by a medical condition or suicide.

Thousands of Irish women get around the ban by privately travelling to the UK, where abortion was legalised in 1967, to undergo terminations."

I am glad to hear that Ireland is sticking to its guns and its laws.
Miracles do happen and maybe just maybe the baby could be rehabilitated and survive.. at the very least the baby could be born long enough to be baptized.

I pray that the Lord shows her his mercy so that she may know that her baby even it is just alive for a short time is a blessing.

For the Full story click on the link up top

Of Temptation And Demons....

Everyday on my journey to be closer to God, it is a constant struggle not to drown in the sea of temptation. I turn left, I turn Right, but it matters not where I look , I am surrounded by evil doers and demons of all kinds.

I see them presented to me in many shapes in forms, sometimes I'm lured very close to sin. The Demons are ever present in my daily life, I even dread going to the grocery store as my eyes wander, and my thoughts turn toward impurity.
At work, at the store, out for a walk- I repeat in my mind over and over "GET THEE BEHIND THEE SATAN!", and it will subside.

The devil's minions are very real, some more powerful than himself, when you have a clean soul from confession, the enemy HATES your soul so pure and clean. We are truly in WAR, a war over our very mortal soul.

We live in a culture where the devil has indeed made most to believe his best lie- That he does not exist- it is through his lies and empty promises that we are drawn into sin, that we separate our soul from God who truly loves us, and we embrace satan who hates us the most, our embrace of evil and sin does not have to be verbal, or physical, but it starts with very simple things, such as a curse word here, an inappropriate gesture there, soon you have given the enemy your hand and he will devour your arm. The Evil one will bathe in the pleasure of devouring your arm, but he will pain your return to virtue.

We must pray for the fortitude to identify the demons in our life, just as we have faith that God is there and we do not see, we must also know that satan is equally real, and he is vying for our souls. The enemy will do everything in his power to tempt you, he appears in material things, in women wearing scantly clad clothes, in a slow driver in the freeway... it is in the little ways that we must honor God, and follow his teachings instead of allowing our selves to be quick to anger or to other sinful actions and thoughts.

Remember this war is real.

St. Michael the Archangel, Protect Us in battle!

Feast of St. Joseph The Worker

O St. Joseph whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the Throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires. O St. Joseph do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our Lord; so that having engaged here below your Heavenly power I may offer my Thanksgiving and Homage to the most Loving of Fathers. O St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms. I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press him in my name and kiss His fine Head for me, and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, Patron of departing souls, pray for us.
Amen

Say for nine consecutive mornings for anything you may desire. It has seldom been known to fail.