Reclaiming Our Children

Sibling retreat

Asking for prayers for our upcoming sibling retreat...

If you can please join in praying for all who are coming...a novena to Our Lady of Czestochowa...

 

Blessed Lady, Mother of the Church
With the choirs of angels and with our patron
Saints we come before your heavenly throne.
For centuries you have granted your miraculous
favors at the great mountain of Jasna Gora,
the source of your mercy.
Hear our prayerful hearts filled with
love and devotion
Help us to live and gospel, fortify our faith
and enkindle our love for the church
Grant us, your children, these special graces
Hail Mary (3 times)
Memorare
Our Lady of Czestochowa pray for us (3 times)

Testing for death

great point over at Jivinjehoshaphat  in response to a Salon piece...so sad that a mom would thinking kiling her baby is an act of love and yet so many are made to feel just that...even guilty for considering bringing them to life..the thinking of a society of death. So ingrained many actually believe it...

They are all for prenatal testing to search and destro but totally against it for life...

Abortion is an act of love?

In a Salon piece about how she would have aborted her son if she had known he would be born with Tay Sachs, Emily Rapp writes ths:

Prenatal testing provides information, a value-less act. I maintain that it is a woman's right to choose what to do with the information that attaches value and meaning, and that this choice is—and must be—directly related to that individual's experiences.

I wish pro-choice advocates felt the same way about ultrasounds and scientifically accurate information about prenatal development. However, most seem to feel that it's "extreme" to provide that kind of information and allow women to "attach value and meaning" to it. Isn't it strange of how information that could lead to the decision to have an abortion is so valued in the pro-choice community while information which could lead to a choice not to have an abortion is so despised?

Rapp also believes killing her child in the womb would have been an "act of love" because it would have stopped his suffering. I wonder if she thinks killing him now (he's nearly 2 and beautiful) would also be an act of love since it would also end his suffering?

But that's the sort of obvious question abortion advocates never really answer or even seem to consider, isn't it?

 

Instant gratification Lent 8

 

We are a society that wants instant gratification. Everything around us speaks to it. From music to advertisements, we are told this or that will make us happy, but the truth is, it does not, or at least not in the long term. True happiness only comes from union with God. Because of our desire for instant gratification, it is hard for us to be patient even when it comes to trusting God with our healing and believing in His love for us.

 We have somehow lost the concept of patient waiting, instead looking to our “feelings” to gage reality, when in fact our feelings are often very far from what is truth.

In healing from abortion many women and men want it,”right here, right now”. They are looking for that instant gratification unable to separate the forgiveness of God from the consequence we may have as a result of our decision. Because you may face pain does not mean you have not been forgiven if you have confessed. There are often consequences to the damage we have done to ourselves that need to be worked through. All the suffering will not disappear in an “instant”, in fact, it is this suffering that is often the catalyst that draws us closer to God, heals us deeply, and teaches us how to love with true love.

 Although anything is possible with God, healing does not come in a day or a weekend. I always cringe when I hear this promise made. Healing comes in God’s time not ours because He knows better that we do what we need. The promise of instant gratification sets people up to believe God loves others and not them(a fulfillment of the stinking thinking of those post abortive…”My sin is unforgivable”) instead of trusting He is working in their lives, even when they may be in pain.  Like the people in the gospel who asked for a sign, we are always asking God to prove His love for us in a way that is accepting to us. In spite of the poor choices we may have made in life, we still feel we know better than He does!

As we struggle with the pain of our abortions, may each of us trust in God enough to know He is healing us even when we do not “feel” it. May we seek always His will, instead of our own, knowing that is where our healing takes place.

 

"He is bringing me to understand deeply how everything depends on His will,
and how He allows certain difficulties precisely for our merit ..."
— Diary of St. Faustina, 1409

Queens-Rachel's Helpers

Forgiveness-showing the mercy shown Lent 7

"If you forgive men their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions."

It can be so hard to forgive if we have been coerced into abortion or if those around us did not support us.  Just as we often feel we can never be forgiven, we also often times feel like we cannot forgive people who may have abandoned us or forced us to abort our unborn children. We think, how can anyone expect you to do that?

Yet, that is exactly what God asks us to do. Forgive those who “trepass against  us”. 

I remember how hard it was for me to forgive my dad who pressured me into abortion as a teen. I had to make up mind that I was going to do it, and not once, but over and over and over again. I had to show him the mercy that God had shown me.   Chances are, my unforgiveness never really affected my dad, but it tormented me because it separated me from  God’s peace.

Not easy I admit, and without constant prayer and the grace of God, impossible. But with His help, in time, I was able to forgive, and that forgiveness gave me peace because I was doing Gods will.

 “It is not easy to love with a deep love, which lies in the authentic gift of self. This love can only be learned by penetrating the mystery of God's love. Looking at him, being one with his fatherly heart, we are able to look with new eyes at our brothers and sisters, with an attitude of unselfishness and solidarity, of generosity and forgiveness. All this is mercy!” ( Pope JPII Homily at canonization of St Faustina)

 I learned to feel sorrow for my dad instead of anger as my relationship with God grew...I learned to show him the mercy God had shown me, instead of judging him. It took years, but it happened, and in the end God allowed me to be an instrument, through my forgiveness, not my anger, to bring my dad back to Him.

 Today think about who you need to forgive in your abortion experience and offer some prayers for that intention.

The UnChoice Challenge

Pop Quiz..take the UnChoice Challenge:

http://theunchoice.com/popquizgeneral.htm#2

Christ's Passion for me!

Christ’s “Passion” for Me

Passion: A powerful emotion; ardent love; an abandoned display of emotion; intense driving or overpowering feeling or emotion

I know God loves me! It is not something only in my head, it is internalized. A belief I know is true in the core of my being. There is nothing better! The amazing thing is that He chose to reveal this truth to me at the same time that I learned about the depth of my own misery.

When I honestly faced my abortion and the sinful life I had been living at the time. This deep truth and knowledge of His love have been life altering. It has turned me from someone timid and shy, to someone willing to speak out about her worse sin. It has given me the courage to stand up to adversity.

It has given me the ability to forgive even when the pain is deep. In it I find perseverance to do this work and the willingness to suffer for others. I don’t always succeed in my desires to serve God. In my human weakness, I fail a lot and when I do manage to succeed I know my ability is in itself a gift from God. But, I also know despite my failings He is still passionately in love with me and forgives me if I am repentant.

It takes deep love to heal deep wounds. It takes “passion”. Christ’s Passion. Once internalized His “passion” changes us forever because we act on His truths, not our own, and we are filled with confidence because we know what He has done for us, not two thousand years ago, but right here, right now.

I pray this Lenten season to be emptied of self so that I may love Jesus “passionately” with His love…I pray the same for each of you. May you have a blessed Lent.

Getting out of your own Way Lent 6

Sometimes we can get so stuck on our own pain from abortion that our world becomes “self centered”.We become obsessed with thinking about it 24/7. Everything speaks to us about it. We can go over things in our head a million times and fill our lives with “if only’s”.

 This constant focus on self Is not only unhealthy but it is not helpful.  “Would have”, “could have”, “should haves” and “if only’s”, will get you nowhere, and addressing your abortion 24/7 will not make the pain leave any earlier. In fact it will most likely make things worse.

 Instead, find a ministry or therapist that can help you work through your abortion.(If you cannot find one, call us and we will help  877-586-4621).  Put your abortion/s in a box except when you are  in a place where you will actually get help by learning of the dynamics, spiritual support, and an ear that can help you understand what happened.  Some people fear that this will mean you are forgetting your baby. That is not true. You will still be dealing with it but in a healthy way in an environment where you can get actual help and clarification instead of just tormenting yourself.

 In Matt25: 31-46,it speaks of helping others. Whenever you see yourself sinking into the habit of obsession, take your focus off of yourself by doing something for someone else. Not only will it help the other person but it will help you as well.

Set the Captives free

a post abortion testimony...

Set the Captives Free: Why (and How) Abortion Should Be Talked About in Church

"Kristen decided to share her secret with someone she trusted, a youth pastor. He told her something that forever changed her life and the life of her baby. 'Abortion is not an option,' he said. 'Two wrongs don’t make a right.' The kind pastor suggested that adoption would be a more loving option. 'His words reminded me that this was a baby we were talking about.'"

--Peter Baklinski, LifeSiteNews.com, February 20, 2012

Not all Christian pastors would have spoken these words to Kristen, and not all Christian denominations teach their clergy to counsel in this way. I know this, tragically, from personal experience.

In 1987 I became "with child." I was not married and not in a relationship with the father. I had already been seeing a counselor for several months. She was a Presbyterian minister. When I told her I was pregnant, she agreed with everyone else I'd consulted that abortion was the only solution that made sense in my situation. Like everyone else, she said nothing about a baby. There was no acknowledgment that I was already my child's mother and responsible for his welfare, no warning of the great damage that abortion would do to my life, my heart, my mind, or my soul.

I'd joined the Catholic Church as a freshman in college, by myself, by my own choice. The next year I transferred to a Jesuit university. For three years I attended Mass almost daily, took more than the required number of theology classes, and centered my social life around a charismatic prayer group. For a few years after college I remained very involved with my home parish in a variety of ways. Then, in my mid-twenties I got a job at an Episcopal school, where I was employed for four years. Long before the end of the first year of that job I had stopped going to Mass and was attending the Episcopal church every Sunday instead. After the abortion I pretty much gave up on church for more than twenty years. In all the years prior to the abortion and until my return to the Church almost twenty-two years later, I did not, as far as I can remember, ever hear a sermon on abortion--not at an Episcopal liturgy, not at a Lutheran service (from age 9 to 17), not even at a Catholic Mass. I do, however, remember getting the message, loud and clear, from magazines, books, TV, teachers, and friends, that abortion was not only right, it was my right as a woman in the United States of America. Of course the real meaning of the word abortion was kept hidden behind the rhetoric.

 

the rest is here:http://heleapt.blogspot.com/2012/02/set-captives-free-why-and-how-abortion.html

Allowing People to Help you (Lent 4)

If you are like I was, I found it very hard to ask for, or accept help from anyone after my abortion. I had major trust issues and did not want to be vulnerable… the vulnerability of my abortion both before and after, were enough to last a lifetime.

I would shy away from people offering help, convincing myself I was not worthy to receive any..after all I did not want to “bother’ anyone or, I was going to do it myself. Who needs people when they fail you anyway?

 It took me a long time to admit that it was my pride that stopped me from asking for, or accepting help. I was afraid of rejection, of being let down again, or letting people see my struggles. Now, I am not talking about people who are not capable of being there, but good people who truly wanted to help.

It was so hard for me at first to allow anyone to help me. I only did it out of desperation at first, and perhaps God brought me to that place so I would see how much I needed to meet Him through other people…I saw needing help as a weakness, but as I came to know Him I also came to learn that we need to allow people to help us just as much as we need to help other people. "Love one another as I have loved you"

I love the 6^th Station of the Cross, when Veronica wipes the face of Jesus. He, God Himself, does not push her away and say “I am God, I do not need your help” instead, he humbles Himself and allows her this gift of wiping His face, and in return for her kindness he leaves her the image of His face.

When we feel like we do not want to ask for help or allow other to help us, whether it is about our abortion and healing or any other issue, let us remember Jesus and His humility and willingness in allowing Veronica to wipe His face and reach out for the help we need.