Friday, February 24, 2012

Emptied to Overflowing

As Ash Wednesday approached, I concluded that I really wanted needed to challenge myself a bit more than usual this Lenten season. In a way, I've been craving Lent for quite awhile. I've hungered for its discipline and its promise to fill me with the nourishment needed to bring me to Easter Sunday a better person, more spiritually aware and open to continued growth and maturity.


It is in embracing a life of self-denial, in giving up the things we love too much, that we are able to cling to our Creator who in loving us to death brings us to life


Dearest Jesus, permit me to die to myself. Take all of me; my strengths as well as my weaknesses; all that I have offered in a spirit of sacrifice and create a new spirit within me.


It is in embracing a life of prayer that we enter into a personal relationship with Jesus. It is the manner in which we get to know Him, to fall deeply in love with Him. Through prayer He teaches us, too, how to love others - to love our neighbor whomever they may be.


Dearest Jesus, abundantly bless my neighbor, my family, my friends and particularly my enemies, this day and every day. My hope is in You and the grace that will bring me to Easter truly knowing how much You love them and the promise that my own love for them will have grown. 
 Dearest Jesus, remind me, too, throughout these 40 days, to begin and end my day in thanksgiving and praise for all the blessings bestowed upon me and upon those I hold dear. 


In embracing a life of work we understand that even in the often mundane, ordinary circumstances of life, our work is honorable and redemptive.


Dearest Jesus, help me to realize that my work honors the talents and gifts You have given me. I want to be genuinely - not begrudgingly - grateful for those working moments! Grant me the grace to better understand how the hardship I may experience while mopping floors, cleaning out closets, or scouring the toilets, provides me an opportunity to participate in Your redemptive work by offering it all to You in union with Your own suffering. 


By embracing a life of almsgiving we are encouraged to give materially to the poor or to consider giving monetary donations to charitable organizations. We must also contemplate giving more of our time, our love, and our attention to others and to God without expecting anything in return.


Dearest Jesus, help me to be truly grateful for all that I have and move me toward genuine generosity - not only to give materially to others, but to truly give more of myself and to expect less! To surrender all to You - all of my spiritual and temporal possessions, including the rewards of any good action of mine, past, present and future with the right to make use of me and what is mine, without exception, for the greater glory of God through time and eternity.(Adapted from Saint Louis Marie de Montfort's prayer of Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary).

By embracing this season of Lent with hearts open wide, we learn to walk the Way of the Cross, in union with our dear, dear Lady as she invites us, nay, begs us, to accompany her Son in His passion and journey to death. Gazing upon Him on the Cross, we see how He so desperately thirsts for us - for all of us. By pouring ourselves into Him in answer to His fervent plea, we soon discover that it is His mercy, His love and the glory of His Resurrection on Easter Sunday morning, that in turn fills us to overflowing.



Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.

Monday, February 20, 2012

A bit of a Random Rant ...

Fair warning: this is going to be one of those "I just need to get it off my chest" posts. It's just that there has been so much on my mind and in my heart over the past few weeks. At any rate ... I apologize if it all seems a bit of a random rant.

Regarding the HHS mandate controversy -


  • No matter how many voices claim that this is a women's rights issue - it is not. It is and continues to be a fight for religious freedom and conscience rights. It is not about the legality or accessibility of contraception.  The USCCB is only interested in protecting our Constitutional rights and freedoms as Catholic citizens of the United States of America. The Obama administration is responsible for driving the wedge and politicizing this issue - not the bishops.
  • Polls do not always reflect the truth. Do yourself a favor and read this and this, too.
  • Since some do want to make this all about contraception - do you actually know why the Catholic Church opposes its use along with sterilization? As a cradle Catholic even I didn't always accept the Church's teachings - sure out of rebellion and monstrous pride, but mostly out of ignorance. Thanks be to God, after about 10 years into my marriage I discovered my grievous error and had a complete change of heart. Do yourself another favor, open your heart and your mind and read this (including the list of additional resources) before you lash out at the Church for her "draconian, oppressive" beliefs. In the end, you may not agree, but hopefully you will have a better understanding of where the Church is coming from and why she simply cannot accept the terms of the HHS mandate. 
Regarding internet etiquette:


  • I realize that social networking sites such as Facebook, or the comment sections on the endless variety of blogs or even online journals, etc., are far from the most ideal mechanisms for debating religious or political issues - however, why must anyone resort to using profanity, vulgarity, below-the-belt insults and the like to make their point? I have noticed that it occurs across the board, but honestly, it seems to be most prominent among those who describe themselves as liberal Democrats. At any rate, no matter what 'side' you're on, as soon as I encounter it your argument no longer holds any weight or validity. You may as well be 'talking' to the wall. I do not expect agreement on every issue, but if you would like me to seriously consider your opinion, please, for goodness sake, refrain from disgusting, petty insults. It does nothing to support your cause.
Finally, as a pro-lifer -

  • I believe with every fiber of my being that life begins at the moment of conception. The particular stage of development doesn't matter. Whether a zygote, a blastocyst, an embryo, or a fetus - she is still a human life, with an eternal soul created by God and deserving of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Some claim she is merely a 'blob of tissue' until she reaches a particular place in her development. So, at what stage does she become a human being worthy of the aforementioned rights? When she can survive on her own outside the womb? Isn't that a bit arbitrary? I mean, some babies survive at 26 weeks gestation while others do not. Who decides? Has science determined that for us? Obviously, I am struggling to understand this point of view. It just makes no sense and never has. And, well, then there are others who do acknowledge that abortion indeed destroys a human life at any stage, but they argue that the rights of the mother trump those of the unborn. Even more malicious, if you ask me, particularly in light of this document.

Saint Thomas More, pray for us, and pray for our country.

Saint Michael, the archangel, defend us in battle ...

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Bravo, bishops!

In response to President Obama's preposterous compromise regarding the HHS mandate, the USCCB has issued the following statement:

Bishops Renew Call To Legislative Action On Religious Liberty

February 10, 2012
Regulatory changes limited and unclear
Rescission of mandate only complete solution
Continue urging passage of Respect for Rights of Conscience Act
WASHINGTON – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have issued the following statement:
The Catholic bishops have long supported access to life-affirming healthcare for all, and the conscience rights of everyone involved in the complex process of providing that healthcare. That is why we raised two serious objections to the "preventive services" regulation issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in August 2011.
First, we objected to the rule forcing private health plans — nationwide, by the stroke of a bureaucrat's pen—to cover sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortion. All the other mandated "preventive services" prevent disease, andpregnancy is not a disease. Moreover, forcing plans to cover abortifacients violates existing federal conscience laws. Therefore, we called for the rescission of the mandate altogether. 
Second, we explained that the mandate would impose a burden of unprecedented reach and severity on the consciences of those who consider such "services" immoral: insurers forced to write policies including this coverage; employers and schools forced to sponsor and subsidize the coverage; and individual employees and students forced to pay premiums for the coverage. We therefore urged HHS, if it insisted on keeping the mandate, to provide a conscience exemption for all of these stakeholders—not just the extremely small subset of "religious employers" that HHS proposed to exempt initially.
Today, the President has done two things.
First, he has decided to retain HHS's nationwide mandate of insurance coverage of sterilization and contraception, including some abortifacients. This is both unsupported in the law and remains a grave moral concern. We cannot fail to reiterate this, even as so many would focus exclusively on the question of religious liberty.
Second, the President has announced some changes in how that mandate will be administered, which is still unclear in its details. As far as we can tell at this point, the change appears to have the following basic contours:
 ·It would still mandate that all insurers must include coverage for the objectionable services in all the policies they would write. At this point, it would appear that self-insuring religious employers, and religious insurance companies, are not exempt from this mandate.
·It would allow non-profit, religious employers to declare that they do not offer such coverage. But the employee and insurer may separately agree to add that coverage. The employee would not have to pay any additional amount to obtain this coverage, and the coverage would be provided as a part of the employer's policy, not as a separate rider.
·Finally, we are told that the one-year extension on the effective date (from August 1, 2012 to August 1, 2013) is available to any non-profit religious employer who desires it, without any government application or approval process. 
These changes require careful moral analysis, and moreover, appear subject to some measure of change. But we note at the outset that the lack of clear protectionfor key stakeholders—for self-insured religious employers; for religious and secular for-profit employers; for secular non-profit employers; for religious insurers; and for individuals—is unacceptable and must be corrected. And in the case where the employee and insurer agree to add the objectionable coverage, that coverage is still provided as a part of the objecting employer's plan, financed in the same way as the rest of the coverage offered by the objecting employer. This, too, raises serious moral concerns.
We just received information about this proposal for the first time this morning; we were not consulted in advance. Some information we have is in writing and some is oral. We will, of course, continue to press for the greatest conscience protection we can secure from the Executive Branch. But stepping away from the particulars, we note that today's proposal continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions. In a nation dedicated to religious liberty as its first and founding principle, we should not be limited to negotiating within these parameters. The only complete solution to this religious liberty problem is for HHS to rescind the mandate of these objectionable services.
We will therefore continue—with no less vigor, no less sense of urgency—our efforts to correct this problem through the other two branches of government. For example, we renew our call on Congress to pass, and the Administration to sign, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act. And we renew our call to the Catholic faithful, and to all our fellow Americans, to join together in this effort to protect religious liberty and freedom of conscience for all.