Catholic Mothers Online

I had the opportunity to be a guest writer on Catholic Mothers Online. This site provides the Catholic blogroll you see on different blogs. Excellent way to read about other Catholic men and women in the blogosphere!

Check it out here: http://bloggingcatholics.blogspot.com/

Adoption commercial

Click here to view: Imagine


I am so in love with this commercial. It is an awesome testimony to the beauty and necessity of adoption. We may not be a nation of life but with commercials like these we can well be on our way. Check it out.

Mothers Day

There is something about the celebration of motherhood that just sits right with me. I had a great day with my daugher, husband, mother and one of my sisters. All day Olivia kept telling me and whoever else would listen 'Happy Mother's Day!'. I am pretty sure she even told the waiter at one point.

It is a good thing that we get one day to celebrate. One day to honor the absolute beauty of being a mother. I hope and pray that your day was peaceful and full of 'Happy Mothers Day!'

Pro-life video

Love this youtube grassroots effort. Check out this video:

http://www.catholicvote.org/index.php?/site/homepage/#

Celibacy and the Catholic Church

In light of the recent news from Miami I thought I would bring up why our priests are required to remain celibate.

Fr. Cutie was found to be 'with' a woman on a local beach. Photographers captured this on camera and from there rose the most recent scandal.

I started to read the 'opinions' of AOL readers listed below the article and it seriously made me feel sick. There was so many slams against the church mainly highlighting the 'ridiculousness' of celibacy. There were many erroneous claims and it got me thinking about how much the faithful actually knows about why our priests don't marry.

Here are a few points that may be helpful when talking to those who aren't aware of why:

1. The tradition in the Western or Latin-Rite Church has been for priests as well as bishops to take vows of celibacy, a rule that has been firmly in place since the early Middle Ages. (This is different then the Eastern rite where some priests are married. There are rules bound to this priesthood and marriage as well). www.catholicanswers.com

2. Some believe that celibacy is unbiblical, or even "unnatural." "Be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1:28); Paul commands that "each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband" (1 Cor. 7:2). It is even argued that celibacy somehow "causes," or at least correlates with higher incidence of, illicit sexual behavior or perversion. www.catholicanswer.com

- All of this is false. Although most people are at some point in their lives called to the married state, the vocation of celibacy is explicitly advocated—as well as practiced—by both Jesus and Paul. www.catholicanswers.com

-Celibacy is neither unnatural nor unbiblical. "Be fruitful and multiply" is not binding upon every individual; rather, it is a general precept for the human race. (This is not to be confused with the calling of married couples... they are to be fruitful and multiply. But that is for another post). Otherwise, every unmarried man and woman of marrying age would be in a state of sin by remaining single, and Jesus and Paul would be guilty of advocating sin as well as committing it. www.catholicanswers.com

3. The Catholic Church forbids no one to marry. If a priest decides to become a priest he does so with the voluntary notion that he will remain celibant. www.catholicanswers.com

4. Pope John Paul II spoke about priestly celibacy during a general audience in 1993. He spoke of the Scripture:
"I will make you Fishers of Men" (Mt 4:19, Mk 1:17, Lk 5:10)
It is followed by "they left everything and followed him". (Lk 5:11, Mt 4:20, Mk 1:18,20)

JP II writes "This did not only mean renouncing material possessions, such as "house" or "lands," but also being separated from loved ones: "brothers or sisters or mother or father or children," according to Matthew and Mark, and "wife or brothers or parents or children," according to Luke (18:29)."

5. The Second Vatican Council gave the reasons for this "inner consonance" of celibacy and the priesthood: "Through virginity, then, or celibacy observed for the kingdom of heaven, priests are consecrated to Christ by a new and exceptional reason. They adhere to him more easily with an undivided heart; they dedicate themselves more freely in him and through him to the service of God and men, and they more expeditiously minister to his kingdom and the work of heavenly regeneration, and thus they are apt to accept, in a broad sense, paternity in Christ." They "evoke the mysterious marriage established by Christ, and fully to be manifested in the future, in which the Church has Christ as her only spouse. They give, moreover, a living sign of the world to come, by a faith and charity already made present, in which the children of the resurrection neither marry nor take wives" (PO 16; cf. PDV 29, 50; CCC 1579).

6. These lofty, noble spiritual reasons can be summarized in the following essential point: a more complete adherence to Christ, loved and served with an undivided heart (cf. 1 Cor 7:32-33); greater availability to serve Christ's kingdom and to carry out their own tasks in the Church; the most exclusive choice of a spiritual fruitfulness (cf. 1 Cor 4:15); leading a life more like that definitive one in the world to come, and therefore, more exemplary for life here below. Above taken from Vatican-General Audience

It's important for Catholics to be able to explain why the Church asks its priests to be celibate. There are so many misconceptions, many which might be right in our own families. Let us continue to pray for priests and their celibacy as it is a great gift to God.

Pro Life activist

As a stay at home mom I often wonder how I can be an active member of the Right to Life movement. I know I am called to be a voice for the voice-less but I amidst diapers and applesauce my time is limited. I have had the opportunity to be an active member of the movement from age 13 on. I attended the Washington D.C. March for Life for many years, was the president of my high school Pro-life group and became a side-walk counselor in college. The opportunities presented themselves and I wanted nothing more than to be active.

Now that I am a blessed parent I find that I don’t have the same time I did before. I can hardly get laundry, cleaning or cooking into my day. But truthfully my heart desires more. In our turbulent society, amidst the culture of death, I cannot count on ‘someone’ else volunteering. But I can pray that God will reveal my time and talents so that I may use them in a way that glorifies Him and helps put an end to abortion. I know that I am a wife first, a mother second and an activist third. And my activist heart desires to volunteer some of my time for those who are not able to fight for themselves. Here are a few suggestions to help you get started:

1. Join your parish Right to Life movement. Don’t have one? Start one!
2. Join other moms for a rosary and pray for the end to abortion.
3. Volunteer a few times a month at your local pregnancy center.
4. Donate old maternity clothes and baby items to pregnancy centers.
5. Keep updated on the political aspect of abortion. By keeping educated you can be a better defender of the faith.
6. Study and memorize what the Catholic Church says about why abortion is wrong. If you know your facts you will have a better chance of helping to educate someone who is pro-abortion.
7. Refuse to say ‘Pro-choice’. Instead say ‘Pro-abortion’. There is no ‘choice’ for the baby.
8. Educate yourself about all aspects of the Pro-life movement- stem cell research, In vitro fertilization, etc.
9. Join 40 days for Life. Check out www.40daysforlife.com
10. PRAY AND FAST. AND THEN PRAY AND FAST SOME MORE!

Review of 'Praying Scripture for a Change'

"If we want to hear God in our prayer the first step is reading well." p. 43

I had the opportunity to review ''Praying Scripture for Change' as a part of the review program the Catholic Company provides. 'Praying Scripture for Change' can be viewed and purchased here.

'Praying Scripture for change- An Introduction to Lectio Divina' by Dr. Gray is a phenomenal read about how to use Scripture to pray. Unfortunately my cradle Catholic tendencies have rendered my Bible reading pretty sad. It's not that I don't know the absolute importance of God's written Word, I do. It's more that I have never made the firm commitment to use Scripture as a means of prayer. (Making the commitment now!)

Besides all the amazing quotes placed throughout the book, Dr. Gray provides specific instructions about HOW to use Scripture as prayer. And Dr. Gray.... we need the HOW!

His instruction includes:

Lectio: Read well, slow down, ask who, what, where, and when

Meditatio: Meditate- digging below the surface, ask why

Oratio: Dialogue (inner), bringing the passage to God in prayer, how does it apply to our lives?

Contemplatio: Contemplation, 'a restful gaze upon the author of all beauty and wonder

Operatio: living out our faith with virtue

This book requires careful reading and processing. It requires the reader to take their time and to really understand what direction is being provided (kind of what Dr. Gray is telling the reader to do when reading Scripture). But the best part is it truly is written for the common lay person. I have picked up many a book that was WAY over my head. This book truly meets the reader at a realistic place. The book provides concrete examples of how to utilize the steps Dr. Gray provides. I love that Dr. Gray reminds the reader that Jesus is the one who teaches us to pray through the written Word. Christ had to teach his disciples 'how' to pray!

'Praying Scripture for a Change' is not just a book. It is an opportunity to spiritually mature in a way that incorporates Scripture. Other faiths really have a wonderful grasp on the importance and wonder of the Bible. Dr. Gray provides the Catholic with an opportunity to embrace Scripture and take it to heart. I highly recommend this book.

A few of my favorite lines:

"The reason anyone anywhere at anytime has ever been moved to prayer is because God, by His Spirit, was drawing him toward him." p. 7

" In short, God doesn't just teach us how to pray; His Spirit empowers us to pray". p. 8

"We must always keep in mind that prayer is God's invitation to enter into an intimate relationship of love and life with him. If we forget that this is what is happening when we pray, we start treating prayer as a simply an obligation, as a hoop that must be jumped through in order to avoid offending God and provoking His displeasure." p. 8

"Scripture is living and active, and so it ever remains God's Word spoken to whomever has the courage to pick it up and receive it". p. 16

"Scripture is a love letter from our Divine Bridegroom, and, like the saints, we too should eagerly and often read the Scriptures and hear there the voice our Beloved speaking to us". p. 17

Make sure to check out other amazing books and products at http://www.catholiccompany.com/

Cutting through pro-abortion rhetoric

Cutting through Pro-abortion rhetoric found here:

http://bigtweet.com/c/b/twitter/unbornhumanlife/AuaLl

What is a saint?

What is a saint:

"the holy one" who leads a life in union with God through the grace of Christ and receives the reward of eternal life

Three Steps to Sainthood:

1. Recognition of heroic virtue

2. Beatification and the first miracle

3. Canonization

Ten Reasons Why the Prolife Movement is Winning

By Father Frank Pavone

http://www.priestsforlife.org/articles/ten-reasons.pdf

Actively Prolife

To be actively pro-life is to contribute to the renewal of society through the promotion of the comon good. It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop.

-Evangelium Vitae, Sect 101

Thanks to Priests for Life for bringing this to our attention.

Feast Day of St. Catherine of Siena

Today is the feast day of St. Catherine of Siena, a doctor of the Church-

Catherine said,

"There is no perfect virtue-none that bears fruit- unless it is exercised by means of our neighbor." She exercised this virtue throughout her life, whether by nursing lepers, negotiating peace between feuding cities, or bringing the papacy back to Rome.

St. Catherine, pray for us.

Feast Day

Today is the feast day of

St. Louis de Monfort

and St. Gianna!

Pray for us!

Plan B for 17 year olds

The FDA has signaled that it will approve Plan B, the so-called "morning after" pill, without a prescription for women age 17 and older.

The article found here is short and to the point. What is interesting is the comments listed after the article.

Here is one that caught my eye:

"I think that this is a great idea. 17 year olds these days i think most of us do know what we want now a days. And were maturing much faster also. some of really do love who were with and knows that there the only one so of course some of us have sex. Or make love. whatever your preference is.So we all get BC (birth control) but again were 17 too and we still do have fun and we forget to take it or something goes wrong during sex. Were all human and mistakes are made so thankfully the plan B is there. And the little comment about keeping your legs closed this person is just a clown and a fool. Because hat person i can guarantee has had sex and is in no place to make 17 and older girls feel bad about it."

Wouldn't it be amazing if we were able to teach 17 year olds that the alternative to sex is abstinence? I would love to get into the school systems and talk to 17 year olds about how sex effects women differently than men. About how the same hormone that is released during breast feeding is also released during sex to ensure bonding and only women have that hormone. About how maturing fast is not a good thing. About how society is telling teens that they don't have enough self control to be abstinent so mind as well give them birth control. About how seventeen only comes once in life and there is nothing worse than complicating an already difficult time with sex. About how saving yourself for your future spouse is one of the most beautiful gifts you can give your husband to be.

I feel bad for the seventeen year olds who have bought into society's lies. Pope John Paul II was a huge advocate of youth. Let's pray for the conversion of our youth through the intercession of Pope John Paul II and that we may know how God wants to use us to help teach abstinence to the youth!

Most influential person

I was about to check my email when an article caught my eye on aol.com. It reads:

Surprises Abound on Most Influential List
AOL

comments: 197

(April 27) - Who's the World's Most Influential Person? The answer is moot.
No, really. Time Magazine asked readers to vote online for the most influential person, and the winner was "moot" -- aka Christopher Poole. He's the founder of 4chan.org, an image-based bulletin board that averages 13 million page views a day and 5.6 million visitors a month. 4chan has spawned other wildly popular sites, such as Lolcats.



So, naturally I naively click on the site to check its content out and wouldn't you know the worlds most influential person has spearheaded a porn site.

How ridiculously sad. He is 21 years old and contributing to the destruction of our families. He has created a site that averages 13 MILLION page views a day. Husbands, sons, brothers, grandfathers and surely some women are all able to access pure filth because of the worlds most influential persons creation. And furthermore, if you didnt know about the site before, you will surely know now due to his new title.

My heart literally aches thinking that this is what we are dealing with. I guess that choosing an individual who has created a pornography site as the worlds most influential person definitely confirms where our society's priorities are.

What scares me the most is that pornography is literally at our fingertips. I was talking with a friend who provided this great visual. She said,

'I cant imagine what it would be like if every time I sat down at the computer it offered me chocolate. Chocolate is my favorite treat and Iets say I should never eat it. The thought of it being continually offered to me over and over is too much to comprehend. It is possible to think that every time your spouse or significant sits down to open his inbox he is probably being greeted with porn. At first he would say, No way and delete it. But time after time may lead to opening one. And another, etc.'

I like to think that porn is someone elses problem. But looking at our most influential person right now I can see that pornography is a community problem. The Catechism states that our political entities should be the ones in charge of monitoring and should prevent the production and distribution of pornography. So I started to think about where porn lurks in America.

First I thought about my time in Europe. I can remember being in Austria and there being awful porn pictures out in public. There are no laws concerning pornography there and pictures are everywhere. Talk about disgusting. But here in America the porn is sneaky. It literally lurks right in our laps when we are on the computer. It is quietly hidden in the programs of television. It use to exist only in the movie channels but now it sits right out in the open on prime time television. It sits on the shelves in our grocery stores on magazines like Vogue and Cosmopolitan. Slowly we are becoming desensitized to the overt porn lurking in our society.

How do we combat it?
What can we do to protect our loved ones?

Suggestions:

1. We have basic cable and will not buy movie channels.
2. We never buy magazines like Cosmo or Vogue.
3. We are conscious of lewd jokes and never respond to them in a positive manner.
4. We are conscious of the dangers of porn on the Internet and will take necessary measures to protect the family when our daughter is old enough to use the computer.
5. Prayer prayer and more prayer!

What do you do? How can we come together as a community and combat lewd and offensive material?

The catechism reads:

2354
Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.

Even more interesting:

2211
The political community has a duty to honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure especially:
- the freedom to establish a family, have children, and bring them up in keeping with the family's own moral and religious convictions;
- the protection of the stability of the marriage bond and the institution of the family;
- the freedom to profess one's faith, to hand it on, and raise one's children in it, with the necessary means and institutions;
- the right to private property, to free enterprise, to obtain work and housing, and the right to emigrate;
- in keeping with the country's institutions, the right to medical care, assistance for the aged, and family benefits;
- the protection of security and health, especially with respect to dangers like drugs, pornography, alcoholism, etc.;
- the freedom to form associations with other families and so to have representation before civil authority.

We pray for an end to pornography. We pray that our loved ones eyes and hearts be protected. We pray that we are always catalysts of truth and promote the highest level of human dignity. Mary Mother Most Pure, Pray for us.