In our last post, we highlighted Catholic composer, Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992). As we pointed out 2008 is the centenary of his birth and he is being honored all over the world with concerts and symposiums. We went on to highlight one of his works: Vingt Regards sur l’enfant Jésus (“Twenty Gazes/Contemplations of the Infant Jesus”) and in particular one composition, ‘Premiere Communion de la Vierge‘. (No. 11, “Virgin’s First Communion”).
This composition represents the Virgin on her knees, worshipping the unborn Jesus within her. Because Messiaen wanted his listeners to be aware of his inspirations and how he constructed various passages, he wrote extensive program notes, which appear as prefaces to his scores or as liner notes for recordings of his music. Here is what Messiaen wrote about the Virgin’s First Communion:
“11. Première communion de la Vierge [First Communion of the Virgin]. A tableau in which the Virgin is shown kneeling, bowed down in the night-a luminous halo around her womb. Eyes closed, she adores the fruit hidden within her. This comes between the Annunciation and the Nativity: it is the first and greatest of all communions. Theme of God, gentle scrolls, in stalactites, in an inner embrace. (Recall of the theme of La Vierge l’Enfant from my Nativity du Seigneur for organ, 1935). Magnificat more enthusiastic. Special chords and durations of two and two in which the weighty pulsations represent the heartbeats of the Infant in the breast of his mother. Disappearance of the Theme of God. After the Annunciation, Mary adores Jesus within her…my God, my son, my Magnificat!-my love without the sound of words.”
These notes with explanations for all 20 gazes/compositions in Vingt Regards sur l’enfant Jésus can be found here. If you wish to purchase recordings of his songs or a book on his life here is a link to Amazon. We must mention that he is a modern composer and if you don’t like modern classical music – his compositions may not be your cup of tea.
Olivier Messiaen (December 10, 1908 – April 27, 1992) was a devout French Catholic composer. This year marks the centenary of Olivier Messiaen’s birth. From June 20-24 2008 the MESSIAEN 2008 INTERNATIONAL CENTENARY CONFERENCE is being held in Birmingham, England. Another conference entitled ‘Olivier Messiaen: The Musician as Theologian’ will be held at Southern Methodist University/Dallas, September 25-26, 2008 Among the many Messiaen concerts/series around the world is another being held in England this year, the Philharmonia Orchestra Messiaen Celebrations (February 4 – October 23 ) and one in Chicago at the University of Chicago: 2008 MESSIAEN FESTIVAL October 2-11 Ten Concerts.
One of the reasons that we are highlighting Olivier Messiaen during the centenary of his birth is because of Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus, a collection of pieces for solo piano. The French title translates “Twenty gazes/contemplations on the infant Jesus”. It is considered to be one of the greatest piano works of the twentieth century, and the summit of Messiaen’s keyboard writing. The idea of les regards, the spiritual gazes, came from the devotional book Le Christ dans ses Mystères by the Irish-Belgian Benedictine abbot Dom Columba Marmion.
The gaze is a profound moment of passionate contemplation, spiritual communication and two-way recognition: an exchange, to use one of Marmion’s favorite words, in which love and knowledge passed in both directions between God and humanity.
Some of Messiaen’s ‘gazes’ on the Infant Jesus include: Gaze of the Father, Gaze of the Star, The Exchange, Gaze of the Son upon the Son (click here to see all of the pieces)…the piece that touches on our blog’s theme is: ‘Premiere Communion de la Vierge’. (No. 11, “Virgin’s First Communion”) and represents the Virgin on her knees, worshiping the unborn Jesus within her.
Messiaen used his talents to praise God and share through his music his profound enthusiasm for the Truths of his Catholic faith. Many of his pieces were explicitly Catholic: Twenty glances upon the Infant Jesus, Hymn to the Holy Sacrament, The Lord’s Nativity, Three Small Liturgies of the Divine Presence, and the opera St. Francis of Assisi just to name a few.
In an article in the New York Times, Anthony Tommasini writes:
“The dimension of Messiaen’s music that may most set it apart derives from his spiritual life. His faith was innocent, not intellectual. As a child he loved the plays of Shakespeare, especially their “super-fairy-tale” aspects, he said. In the stories of the Catholic faith, as he told Mr. Samuel, he found the “attraction of the marvelous” he had coveted in Shakespeare, but “multiplied a hundredfold, a thousandfold.” For him the Christian stories were not theatrical fiction but true. Messiaen espoused a theology of glory, transcendence and eternity. Religious subjects permeate his works, though not the Passion and Crucifixion of Jesus. His embrace of the wondrousness of faith is reflected in the essence of his compositions.”
Our next post will feature Olivier Messaien’s personal notes explaining the “Virgin’s First Communion” with a link where to purchase this recording. We will also have a link to all his personal notes for Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus ( “Twenty gazes/ contemplations on the infant Jesus” ).
Filed under: Mary, Quotes from Great Christians, The Incarnation, Unborn Jesus
“Humanly speaking, the time of Advent must have been the happiest time of Our Lady’s life. The world about her must have been informed with more than its habitual loveliness, for she was gathering it all for the making of Her Son…
It must have been a season of joy, and she must have longed for His birth, but at the same time she knew that every step that she took, took her little Son nearer to the grave.
Each work of her hands prepared His hands a little more for the nails; each breath that she drew counted one more to His last.
In giving life to Him, she was giving Him death.
All other children born must inevitably die; death belongs to fallen nature; the mother’s gift to the child is life.
But Christ IS life; death did not belong to Him.
In fact, unless Mary would give Him death, He could not die.
Unless she would give Him the capacity for suffering, He could not suffer.
He could only feel cold and hunger and thirst if she gave Him HER vulnerability to cold and hunger and thirst.
He could not know the indifference of friends or treachery or bitterness of being betrayed unless she gave Him a human mind and a human heart.
That is what it meant to Mary to give human nature to God.
He was invulnerable; He asked her for a body to be wounded.
He was joy itself; He asked her to make Him a man.
He asked for hands and feet to be nailed.
He asked for flesh to be scourged.
He asked for blood to be shed.
He asked for a heart to be broken.
The stable at Bethlehem was the first Calvary.
The wooden manger was the first cross.
The swaddling bands were the first burial bands.
The passion had begun.
Christ was man.
This, too, was the first separation.
This was her Son, but now He was outside of her: He had a separate heart: He looked at the world with the blind blue eyes of a baby, but they were His own eyes.
The description of His birth in the Gospel does not say that she held Him in her arms but that she “wrapped Him up in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger”.
As if her first act was to lay Him on the cross.
She knew that this little Son of hers was God’s Son and that God had not given Him to her for herself alone, but for the whole world.”
A meditation by Caryll Houselander from “The Reed of God”.
One of the subscribers to the e-newsletter sent this beautiful meditation to us. Thanks Diana.
“St. Joseph presents us with a similar, yet somewhat different, type of devotion to the Sacred Infancy.
During the nine months the accumulation of grace upon him must have been beyond our powers of calculation. The company of Mary, the atmosphere of Jesus, the continual presence of the Incarnate God, and the fact of his own life being nothing but a series of ministries to the unborn Word, must have lifted him far above all other saints, and perchance all angels too.
Our Lord’s Birth, and the sight of His Face, must have been to him like another sanctification. The mystery of Bethlehem was enough of itself to place him among the highest of the saints.” From Bethlehem by Father Faber
St. Joseph is a model for all those in the pro-life movement. He took unborn Jesus and Mary into his heart and life. He took care of them, saved them from disgrace and even death, supported them and helped them find shelter. Father Faber talks about the grace Joseph received in this ministry – think of all of the graces you receive in your ministry to the unborn and their mothers.
‘And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40)
Just one of the thousand’s of pregnancy counseling centers and homes!
…a place where the Corporeal and Spiritual Acts of Mercy are lived each day
Filed under: Poems
My love my treasured one are you
my sweet and lovely son are you
you are my love my darling you
Unworthy I of you
Alleluia …
Your mild and gentle eyes proclaim
the loving heart with which you came
a tender helpless tiny babe
with boundless gifts of grace
Alleluia…
King of kings most holy one
God a son eternal one
You are my God and helpless son
My ruler of mankind
This is a carol from the Hebrides (The group of Islands of the West coast of Scotland)
On September 17, 2004 Archbishop Myers had an insightful yet succinct article in The Wall Street Journal titled, A VOTER’S GUIDE Pro-Choice Candidates and Church Teaching.
He begins by talking about a statement released by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (headed at the time by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) called “On Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion“. He goes on:
“Cardinal Ratzinger stated that a “Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion, if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of a candidate’s permissive stand on abortion.” But the question of the moment is whether a Catholic may vote for a pro-abortion candidate for other reasons. The cardinal’s next sentence answered that question: A Catholic may vote for a pro-abortion Catholic politician only ‘in the presence of proportionate reasons.’
What are “proportionate reasons”? …for a Catholic citizen to vote for a candidate who supports abortion and embryo-destructive research, one of the following circumstances would have to obtain: either (a) both candidates would have to be in favor of embryo killing on roughly an equal scale or (b) the candidate with the superior position on abortion and embryo-destructive research would have to be a supporter of objective evils of a gravity and magnitude beyond that of 1.3 million yearly abortions plus the killing that would take place if public funds were made available for embryo-destructive research.
Frankly, it is hard to imagine circumstance (b) in a society such as ours. No candidate advocating the removal of legal protection against killing for any vulnerable group of innocent people other than unborn children would have a chance of winning a major office in our country. Even those who support the death penalty for first-degree murderers are not advocating policies that result in more than a million killings annually.”
The rest of the article wrestles with that question: ‘What are proportionate reasons?’ He comments on lots of issues – the war in Iraq, the death penalty, welfare, social security, taxes, and others showing how abortion takes precedence over each of these issues. It is an excellent article and just as relevant today as it was in 2004. To read the entire article click here.
Mary is the ‘Holy House’ who bore God in her womb and is forever to be honoured by Elizabeth Want
In his Apostolic Exhortaion entitled Vita Consecrata (March 25, 1996) John Paul II has a thought provoking quote from St. Augustine:
“Beautiful is God, the Word with God … He is beautiful in heaven, beautiful on earth; beautiful in the womb, beautiful in his parents’ arms, beautiful in his miracles, beautiful in his sufferings; beautiful in inviting to life, beautiful in not worrying about death, beautiful in giving up his life and beautiful in taking it up again; he is beautiful on the Cross, beautiful in the tomb, beautiful in heaven. Listen to the song with understanding, and let not the weakness of the flesh distract your eyes from the splendour of his beauty.” #24
Archbishop John J. Myers led the Stations of the Cross for Life in Englewood. Participants walked in procession past a clinic that performs abortions while praying the rosary.
In our last post we discussed Archbishop Raymond Burke and a pontifical appointment he and Archbishop John Myers received. Today we will feature a few quotes from Archbishop Myers who was Bishop of Peoria, IL from 1987-2001 and has been Archbishop of Newark, NJ since 2001.
In June 1990 he wrote a Pastoral Statement on the Obligations of Catholics and the Rights of Unborn Children. Here are a few quotes:
“Public law wisely does not attempt to forbid every immoral act or require that citizens fulfill every one of their moral obligations. There are, however, certain evil acts which the law of any just society must forbid. One of the central purposes of public authority is to prevent injustices. Gravely unjust acts, especially acts of unjust killing, cannot be legally tolerated. Nor can public law permit the unjust killing of a whole class of human beings while protecting the lives of others.”
“Let there be no doubt that striving for legal abortion is radically inconsistent with the Catholic faith. Any citizen or public official who helps to make abortion more widely available, or any priest, religious, or theologian who teaches that it ought to be made available, commits a grave injustice against the most vulnerable members of the human family.”
“There is, and can be, no such thing as an authentic “pro-choice” Catholic.”
“As voters, Catholics are under an obligation to avoid implicating themselves in abortion.”
In May 2004 he wrote another pastoral statement called: A Time for Honesty. In this statement he discussed the issue of abortion and conscience. Here are a few quotes:
“…’respect’ for another’s conscience should never require abandoning one’s own properly formed conscience. Conscientious opposition to abortion, rooted in an understanding of the sanctity of human life, may not be sacrificed simply because others, whose consciences are gravely mistaken, would unjustly take the life of an unborn baby.”
“Human life is a gift from God and as Catholics we have a most grave obligation to defend all human life from the moment of conception until natural death. God help us if we fail in this most fundamental obligation.”
A FUTURE POST WILL INCLUDE QUOTES FROM ARCHBISHOP MYERS’ 2004 WALL STREET JOURNAL ARTICLE titled “A Voter’s Guide“.
Catholic politicians who vote for abortion
First, check out can. 915 of the Code of Canon Law.
Second, read Archbishop Raymond Burke’s recently published article in the Canon Law journal Periodica de re Canonica, vol. 96 (2007) called, The Discipline Regarding the Denial of Holy Communion to Those Obstinately Persevering in Manifest Grave Sin.
We devoted a post to this topic on May 1, 2008, focusing on the denial of Eucharistic communion to Catholic politicians who, after being instructed by their pastor in the Church’s teaching about the sacredness of human life, persist in promoting abortion. But we wanted to give a little more information and also an update. The article by Archbishop Burke might be legitimately seen as a turning point in the Church’s efforts to discipline those who want to stand defiantly against human life within the womb and also want Catholics to vote for them in every election. These are the deceitful Catholic politicians who want their cake and want to eat it too, or in their case want you to abort your baby and want to kiss your baby on the campaign trail too!
With the aforementioned article Archbishop Burke is leading a nimble Canonical charge against Catholic politicians who want to aggressively promote the culture of death within our society. God bless him! Well, that is exactly what is happening. I subscribe to the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, and on the back page of my May 14, 2008 English Edition, under the “Roman Curia” heading I read the following news: Appointments by Pope Benedict XVI to the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts. I see a blank expression on your face! This Pontifical Council is the official body which authentically interprets Canon Law. After naming six cardinals appointed as members the list ends humbly with two Archbishops: “Archbishop John Joseph Myers of Newark, U.S.A. and Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke of Saint Louis, U.S.A.”
While Archbishop Burke is no stranger to the Vatican – years ago he served on the Roman Rota – yet this recent appointment following his publication of a somewhat controversial article on a very controversial subject suggests that the Vatican is on board with Burke and bored with the old approach of “letting sleeping dogs lie” (especially when they are really wolves in sheep’s clothing).
OUR NEXT BLOG WILL FEATURE ARCHBISHOP JOHN J. MYERS
The Annunciation by Robert Campin (ca. 1375–1444)
This is a very unusual Annunciation picture by Robert Campin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art gives a detailed description of the painting.
“In a novel departure from tradition, the Annunciation is imagined as taking place not in a church but in a Netherlandish house, with objects providing visual cues for devotional instruction. The lily signifies the purity of the Virgin, who is seated on the ground, reading, to suggest her humility and piety. The Virgin’s husband, Joseph, is shown diligently at work; the mousetrap displayed on the window ledge is an allusion to the cross the unborn Christ carries in the center panel (according to Saint Augustine, the cross was the mousetrap with which God caught the Devil).”
You will notice that beneath the triptych we isolated and enlarged unborn Christ carrying the cross that was referred to in the above description. To see the triptych enlarged click on the above painting.
Blessed Columba Marmion who was devoted to the cross of Christ wrote the following:
“We ought not to consider Christ’s Sacrifice as offered only at the time of the Passion. Christ is a Victim from the moment of the Incarnation, and it is as Victim that He offers Himself…. He accepted to fulfill all that was decreed: He said to His Father: “Behold I come”: Ecce venio (Heb 10:7). The initial act of offering whereby He wholly yielded Himself up, virtually contained all His sacrifice….” .
Blessed Columba Marmion, O.S.B.
Christ The Ideal Of The Monk
14th Century Wall Visitation
Today, Saturday March 31, 2008 is the Feast Day of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This Feast Day celebrates a great mystery of the Christian faith, one discussed by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta when she accepted her Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and also by John Paul II in his great encyclical letter the Gospel of Life. Yet perhaps many Christians have not fully grasped the beautiful message we discover over and over again in this wonderful event related by St Luke, the Evangelist of the Child Jesus (see Luke 1:39-56).
For past posts, more theologically oriented than today’s see:
The Visitation – God visits His People
The Visitation – The unborn Christ begins his saving mission
What did Fulton Sheen think was One of the most beautiful moments in history?
Newly conceived Jesus acknowledged by John the Baptist
Now Mary’s cousin Elizabeth was not only older than her but also surpassed her (according to the world’s standards) in the dignity of her position as the wife of a priest (Zechariah) who served at the Jerusalem Temple. Yet in the mystery of the Visitation, Elizabeth bows to Mary (and her unborn child Jesus): “…and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blesssed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” Elizabeth continues to bless Mary as “the mother of my Lord” and especially for her faith!
But we have another “match up” here. The older unborn baby – John – defers to or acknowledges, so to speak, the younger but greater unborn baby, Jesus. John leaps for joy at the approach of the Unborn Savior, but in a spiritual sense he kneels and worships the Unborn Christ Child. Three months later, just after John’s birth, the priest Zechariah (husband to Elizabeth and father to John) will sum things up quite simply: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people…” (Lk 1:68). Yes, Unborn Jesus, who is the Lord (according to Elizabeth and the Holy Spirit), has been visiting the home of Zechariah for three joyful months.
We too, like Unborn John, Elizabeth and Zechariah should worship Unborn Jesus and honor His mother Mary. We should also – along with all society and the medical and social service professions – show deference to all innocent unborn children, and their mothers, acknowledging the awesome dignity and reality of the hidden mystery of life, growing and maturing towards birth’s revelation.
Filed under: Sacred Heart
Today, Friday, May 30, 2008 is the Feast Day of The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus!
Speaking on behalf of God, the prophet Samuel described King David as “a man after his own heart”, that is, after God’s own heart (I Sam 13:14). St Paul refers to this also in a sermon in a synagogue at Antioch when he quotes the Lord: “I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will” (Act 13:22). Note the link here between God’s heart and God’s will, and David’s disposition to seek both of these.
Now we leap the chasm from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, from David to his distant descendant Jesus, Son of David. One day, Jesus opened up the mystery of God’s heart and will to His disciples, knowing full well that His words would go out to all of us, that is, to the ends of the earth: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Mt 11:28-29).
What Jesus does here is he invites every human being to be a man or a woman after God’s own heart! And He describes God’s heart: “gentle and lowly” – nothing to be afraid of here, nothing to fear. And He makes a promise: “you will find rest for your souls” here, upon His Heart (as did the apostle John; Jn 13:23-25). If you labor and are heavy laden, then this is the way to follow the Lord, seek His heart and seek His will, as both David and John did.
He first spoke directly of this will from His mother’s womb, probably, as St Alphonsus de Ligouri contends at the first moment of His conception, that is, at the one cell stage of His human development:
Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired,
but a body hast thou prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God…'”
(Heb 10:5-7)
At the one cell stage of His life, Christ was focused upon the will of His Father and acknowledges that He has been given a body (and heart) to dedicate to the will of God!
‘Fantastic Ruins with Saint Augustine and the Child’ François de NOME,
about 1593 – after 1630
In a vision Saint Augustine saw a child trying to empty the sea into a hole dug in the sand; when Augustine told him that this was impossible, the child replied that Augustine was engaged on the equally impossible task of explaining the Trinity.
Many have assumed that the child St. Augustine saw in his vision was the Christ Child – Below is a beautiful passage on the Incarnation from a sermon given by St. Augustine:
“He by whom all things were made was made one of all things. The Son of God by the Father without a mother became the Son of man by a mother without a father. The Word Who is God before all time became flesh at the appointed time. The maker of the sun was made under the sun. He Who fills the world lays in a manger, great in the form of God but tiny in the form of a servant; this was in such a way that neither was His greatness diminished by His tininess, nor was His tininess overcome by His greatness.”(St. Augustine, Sermon 187)
Governor Sarah Palin is the current Governor of Alaska. She is pro-life and a member of Feminists for Life. She was told last December that the child she was carrying had Down Syndrome. On April 18 she gave birth to Trig Paxson Van Palin who is her fifth child.
This is the announcement that the family made after Trig’s birth:
“Trig is beautiful and already adored by us. We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives.”
Governor Palin also said about Trig:
“I’m looking at him right now, and I see perfection,” Palin said. “Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?”
What a beautiful pro-life example when you consider that at least 80% of children with disabilities are aborted in this country.
Another pro-life politician who recently had a baby with Down syndrome is Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rogers. U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington state Republican, has just celebrated the first birthday of her son Cole, her first child, who was born with Down syndrome. She is busy campaigning for a third term, and Cole often travels with her between Washington, D.C., and the Pacific Northwest.
Here is what she says about her son:
“Cole opened my eyes to the pain and trouble a lot of families endure,” Rodgers said. “He’s allowed me to see people and circumstance more deeply, and the generosity of people.”
“It’s in human nature to focus on the negative, on what the person can’t do. In our mind, we are focused on what he can do, what he will be able to do and do very well.”
She is also spearheading a new Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus:
“It’s the goal of the Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus to allow every child with Down syndrome to reach their full potential. We’ll work to raise expectations and improve education, make it easier for people with Down syndrome to find jobs, and promote funding and research for effective treatments and therapies,” McMorris Rodgers said.
In an article entitled, Getting to Know John McCain, Karl Rove writes about Cindy and John McCain’s decision to adopt a child from one of Mother Teresa’s orphanages.
“…in 1991 Cindy McCain was visiting Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Bangladesh when a dying infant was thrust into her hands. The orphanage could not provide the medical care needed to save her life, so Mrs. McCain brought the child home to America with her. She was met at the airport by her husband, who asked what all this was about.
Mrs. McCain replied that the child desperately needed surgery and years of rehabilitation. “I hope she can stay with us,” she told her husband. Mr. McCain agreed. Today that child is their teenage daughter Bridget.
I was aware of this story. What I did not know, and what I learned from Doris, is that there was a second infant Mrs. McCain brought back. She ended up being adopted by a young McCain aide and his wife.
“We were called at midnight by Cindy,” Wes Gullett remembers, and “five days later we met our new daughter Nicki at the L.A. airport wearing the only clothing Cindy could find on the trip back, a 7-Up T-shirt she bought in the Bangkok airport.” Today, Nicki is a high school sophomore. Mr. Gullett told me, “I never saw a hospital bill” for her care.”
A few things not mentioned in Karl Rove’s article about Cindy McCain is that after earning a Masters in Special Education at the University of Southern California she became a special needs teacher. She has also founded and supported many very worthy charities including American Voluntary Medical Team (AVMT) which brought emergency medical relief to countries all over the world. Another organization she founded is the Hensley Family Foundation, which donates monies towards children’s programs in Arizona and nationally. And she has been a longtime active volunteer in an organization called Operation Smile, a nonprofit organization that has been repairing child and young adult cleft palates and cleft lips in countries around the globe.
Original Unity of Man and Woman
“Catechesis on the Book of Genesis”
(1979-1980)
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
FAMILIARIS CONSORTIO 1981
ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE JOHN PAUL II INSTITUTE
FOR STUDIES ON MARRIAGE AND FAMILY 2001
“The union of love, based on matrimony between a man and a woman, which makes up the family, represents a good for all society that can not be substituted by, confused with, or compared to other types of unions.”
Pope Reaffirms Truth about Marriage and Family 5/17/2008
The good news is that there is a group in California that has collected enough signatures to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot this November to overturn this ruling by the California Supreme Court. Of course, they need our help. Here is a link to an article about the current status of this proposed ballot initiative:
California court may not have the last word on marriage
by Maggie Gallagher | 16 May 2008
To see how you can help – go directly to this group’s website:
National Organization for Marriage
Filed under: Pro-life
One great way to spread the pro-life message is through advertising. With this in mind I thought I would highlight some interesting pro-life ads.
When I was at the March for Life someone from Canada told me about the above ad. This Canadian ad was rejected by some cities in Canada as too controversial. Incredible!
Of course the pro-abortion side wants everyone to imagine that the child is just a tissue. The above ad addresses that fallacy in a somewhat humorous way.
Here is an ad from a group (Prolife Across America) that specializes in thought provoking pro-life billboards. Click here to see more.
Feminists for life have some thought provoking ads for magazines. Click here to view more ads.
At the March for Life I got to meet a wonderful couple, Maureen & Michael Nuzzi, who started an organization called Truthbooth. “The mission of the “Truth Booth” is to educate the public on the pre-natal development of the child in the womb using ultrasound video footage presented through an unmanned kiosk” (usually at malls).
Finally, one of the challenges to pro-life ads is rejection. Here is a cartoon about this:
Since the early 70’s in the U.S., Canada and many other countries – there have been a lot of creative pro-life ads developed. Sadly, many of them were rejected by the pro-abortion slanted media. We want to salute all of those pro-lifers who have created and continue to get create pro-life messages through print, media, video, radio and billboard ads.
Filed under: Poems
A Child My Choice
By Robert Southwell (1561-1595)*
Let folly praise that fancy loves, I praise and love
that Child
Whose heart no thought, whose tongue no word,
whose hand no deed defiled.
I praise Him most, I love Him best, all praise and
love is His;
While Him I love, in Him I live, and cannot live
amiss.
Love’s sweetest mark, laud’s highest theme, man’s
most desired light,
To love Him life, to leave Him death, to live in Him
delight.
He mine by gift, I His by debt, thus each to other
due;
First friend He was, best friend He is, all times will
try Him true.
Though young, yet wise; though small, yet strong;
though man, yet God He is:
As wise, He knows; as strong, He can; as God, He
loves to bless.
His knowledge rules, His strength defends, His love
doth cherish all;
His birth our joy, His life our light, His death our
end of thrall.
Alas! He weeps, He sighs, He pants, yet do His
angels sing;
Out of His tears, His sighs and throbs, doth bud a
joyful spring.
Almighty Babe, whose tender arms can force all
foes to fly,
Correct my faults, protect my life, direct me when I
die!
*Father Robert Southwell, Poet, Jesuit, martyr; born at Horsham, Norfolk, England, in 1561; hanged at Tyburn, 21 February, 1595. He was imprisoned for being a Catholic priest in England at first in Topcliffe’s house, where he was repeatedly put to the torture in the vain hope of extracting evidence about other priests. Later he was transferred to the Tower of London. It is thought that much of his poetry, none of which was published during his lifetime, was written in prison. On the 10th of February 1595 he was tried before the King’s Bench on the charge of treason, and was hanged at Tyburn.
UNBORN WORD of the day 
