Click on the image below for another great “Ask Grace” episode answering a viewer who asks, “Why does God make people with disabilities? Is it just their cross to carry?”
Previous:
Don’t Run From Suffering; Run to the Cross
TOB Tuesday: The Anatomy of Attraction
Sorry for the lack of TOB Tuesday posts for the past few weeks. This week, take a look at Dr. Edward Sri’s post at The Integrated Catholic Life on the anatomy of attraction drawn from JPII’s Love and Responsibility:
A man eating lunch at a restaurant notices an attractive woman at another table, and is immediately drawn to her beauty. His heart stirs, and he finds himself wanting to see her again.
Yet, this is not the first time she has caught his eye. And his attraction to her is more than physical. She works for the same large company, and he has been drawn to her warm personality, her cheerful smile and her kindness toward others. He is taken in by her alluring personality as much as by her natural beauty.
Basic attractions like this happen all the time between men and women. Sometimes they are felt very quickly: A man standing in line at a store may immediately find himself attracted to a woman he sees walking by. A woman at church may notice a man praying after Mass and find herself wondering about him the rest of the day. Sometimes deeply felt attractions take a longer time to develop: A man and a woman who were friends or colleagues for several months may gradually find themselves attracted to one another emotionally and physically.
In his book Love and Responsibility, John Paul II analyzes the anatomy of an attraction. What is really happening when men and women find themselves attracted to one another?
Read more. I find this particularly interesting as I seem to have a knack lately for being attracted to and developing feelings for men who have absolutely no interest in me whatsoever!
Cute 7 Billionth Baby Blogging!
Welcome to the world, Danica May Camacho!!
Read: Baby 7 Billion’s Got Everyone Spooked. Yes. She is terrifying! Just look at that face. She’s saying: “Hello, world. I have come to destroy you with my cuteness. Be afraid. Be very afraid! Mwahahaha!!”
Get a grip, people. It’s not as bad as you think.
It’s a Mixed Up, Muddled Up, Shook Up World
Wow. I love a man who cares about his appearance, but this is a bit ridiculous. I’m not even really a fan of women going to some of the lengths described below to enhance their looks. From the UK Daily Mail:
We’ve had guyliner and manscara but now we have the guylashes – false eyelashes for men.
…
Eylure – a brand endorsed by Girls Aloud and stocked in stores across the UK from Boots to Harrods – are selling fake eyelashes for men priced at £4.75 a pair.
…
According to market research company Euromonitor, U.S. consumers spent $4.8 billion on men’s grooming products in 2009, double the $2.4 billion recorded in 1997.Meanwhile the number of chemical peels, laser hair removals and other cosmetic procedures on men has increased by 45 per cent since 2000, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
…
Last year a survey revealed that more than three million men in Britain regularly wear make-up.
Great, now I’m going to have the Kinks stuck in my head all day:
“girls will be boys and boys will be girls, it’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world except for Lola. Lo-Lo-Lo-Lo-Lola…”
If the world was mixed up in 1970, it’s practically turned on its head in 2011. I don’t know what’s worse, “image conscious” men wearing makeup and “guylashes” or women to suppressing their fertility and all that makes them feminine in order to compete with men in the workforce. Nevermind. They’re both equally disturbing trends.
Don’t Run From Suffering; Run to the Cross
EWTN’s “Ask Grace” on redemptive suffering:
Previous posts:
Refusing to Suffer is Refusing to Live
Take Up Your Cross
How Do You Respond to the Cross?
Encouragement: The Cross
It is Not By Fleeing Suffering That We Are Healed
Lessons from a Little Flower
The Apostolate of Suffering
Pain: God’s Megaphone to Rouse a Deaf World
Don’t Put off Sanctity
Earlier this year I agreed to write for a new Catholic blog that launched for young adults in August. It’s now November and I haven’t written a thing – until now…finally! It’s definitely not some of the best writing I’ve ever done. I have not been in the mood to write at all lately, which is why it took me for-freaking-ever to finally get together something I was comfortable publishing. In fact, I think I’ve edited it about a dozen times after I published it. But, if you’re interested, head on over to Virtuous Planet and check out: Don’t Put off Sanctity, for You Know Neither the Day Nor the Hour
“There is only one real sadness: NOT TO BE SAINTS.” -Leon Bloy
The Injustice of Anonymous Sperm Donation: a “Cryokid” Speaks Out
For many people, third party reproduction is a great way to treat infertility (actually it’s more of a way of circumventing infertility than treating it, but whatever) and, for the most part, anonymous gamete donation is approved in order to maximize inventory as more people would feel more comfortable “donating” their baby making parts if they can be assured that there will be no awkward moment in the future when they’ll be contacted by some stranger asking “are you my daddy?”.
That all may be well and good for the infertile woman/couple who get the baby they’re entitled to, the “donor” who does not want to have anything to do with the life he might help create, and the deep pockets of an extremely under regulated fertility industry, but what about the children conceived through this technology?
The Catholic Church has maintained that this is a violation of every human being’s right to be conceived in an act of love and ““born of a father and mother known to him” (CCC 2376, emphasis mine). And here’s the thing: the kids agree!
A generation of adults conceived by third parties are speaking out, and they’re not happy. I’ve provided numerous examples here before, but this statement from Lindsay of Confession of a Cryokid is one of the most eloquent explanations I’ve read of what it feels like to have half of your identity deliberately withheld from you (click image to enlarge):
I am a donor-conceived adult. Only about 10% of us even know the truth of our conception, the rest will forever be living a lie to themselves and their heirs.
Our best interests and our lives are forever tied to an unregulated multi-billion dollar industry. We are threatened by the infertility industry and by society simply because we ask the question “who am I?”. We are brainwashed and lied to by those who should care about us the most. Our entire lives are comprised of lies, even our birth certificates are fraudulent documents, nowhere mentioning that our biological father is a sperm donor, let alone his name.Clinics and doctors are legally able to destroy any and all records pertaining the the creation of us, including the identity and medical history of our biological parent. Better records are kept of livestock than of us. We are the most sought after human commodity in modern times, and we are the product of a financial transaction.
Countries and states across the globe are rectifying this century old status quo and stepping up against the infertility industry and demanding changes in anonymity, payment, and the treatment of the adults already conceived through “donated gametes”. Yet America refuses to listen and instead turns a blind eye to the grave injustices being played out on us in compensation for allowing an industry to function solely by its own self-set regulations that are tipped in their favor.
I work very hard but I will never have millions of dollars. I will never have the political power that comes with this wealth and the ability to sway politicians to my point of view. I will never have the lobbying power that is attached to the infertility industry.
All I have is my voice. I am the 99%.
h/t Mary Meets Dolly
Previous posts:
One Man Has 74 Offspring and More Donor Conceived Children Speak Out
Anonymous Donor Daddies, The Kids Aren’t Alright
Cute World Series Daddies Blogging
I found the picture! Look at all those proud Cardinal papas and their stinking cute kiddos. What a great pic (click to enlarge):
Also, check out: Pujols Family Foundation and a World Series Flashback – Go Cards!
Pujols Family Foundation and a World Series Flashback – Go Cards!
Well, our legislature might suck here in Missouri, but our Cardinals sure don’t! Congratulations to the 2011 World Series Champions! I’m not a big baseball fan, myself, but even I couldn’t help getting a little excited (not a word I generally associate with baseball) after watching game 6 Thursday night. Game 7 wasn’t nearly as exciting, but I sure loved seeing all those cute kiddos and proud Cardinal papas up on the trophy stage after they won (hopefully I can find a pic of that online soon)! Pitcher Chris Carpenter even did his entire post game interview up there with his daughter perched on his shoulders. So precious.
As good as they are on the field, many of them do even more impressive things off the field to help improve the lives of others. I am particularly fond of the foundation started by Albert 
Pujols and his wife Deidre. After their daughter was born with Down syndrome, they started the “Pujols Family Foundation” dedicated to the love, care and development of people with Down syndrome and their families. It is based on the belief that every person is special in the sight of God and through it they promote awareness of and hosts events for people with Down syndrome. Pujols has also given a significant sum of money to help build The Albert Pujols Wellness Center for Adults with Down Syndrome at St. Luke’s Hospital in Chesterfield, MO.
People with Down syndrome should be loved and celebrated, not snuffed out of existence.
World Series flashback: the last time the St. Louis Cardinals were in and won the World Series was 2006 when Missouri was in the midst of a huge debate over a proposed constitutional amendment that would give scientists in the state a right to clone and kill embryos for scientific research. Then, Cardinals pitcher Jeff Suppan appeared alongside other athletes and actors in a television commercial opposing “Amendment 2” and human cloning that aired during game 4 of the series. Shortly after that, Shortstop David Eckstein, the most valuable player of the 06 WS, joined Suppan and others in a similar print ad that ran in newspapers one week before the election. Here is the commercial:
GO CARDS!!
2 Week Old Baby Girl Rescued From Earthquake Rubble in Turkey
Praise God!
Look at that tiny little thing! Amazing. From the story on Tuesday:
Earthquake rescuers in eastern Turkey have pulled a two-week-old girl from the wreckage of an apartment building, freeing her from the arms of her mother, who was still trapped.
The baby, named as Azra Karaduman, was freed from the rubble in the town of Ercis, which was badly hit by the quake. Her mother, Semiha, had been clasping her daughter to her chest.
Television footage showed orange-clad rescuers clapping as the naked infant was carried from the rubble. She was wrapped in a blanket and passed to doctors.
Several hours later the mother, who had been pinned down next to a sofa, was freed, and the child’s grandmother was also believed to be alive. Azra’s father was thought to be inside the building and it was not known if he had survived.
Read more. Three generations rescued – wonderful! Mother and baby, pictured right, are recovering nicely.
Last I checked, the death toll from a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in eastern Turkey on Sunday has risen to over 500.
Click here to see video of the incredible rescue of baby Azra, her mother and grandmother.