TOB Tuesday: Time for a Sexual Counter Revolution!

ChelseaAbortion, Sex, Sexuality, Theology of the Body, TOB Tuesday1 Comment

This is a great article from Jennifer Hartline at Catholic Online:

With our government on the verge of passing health care legislation that, absent explicit language placed within it prohibiting Federal funds from being used for abortion, will mandate abortion coverage paid for by you and me, I figure now’s a good time for a radical discussion about sex. We’ll never change the way we view abortion until we change our attitudes about sex. It’s time for a sexual counter-revolution.

The sanctity of human life from the moment of conception throughout all of life up to and including a natural death is the only foundation our society will ever be able to stand upon if we hope to flourish as a truly free people. It’s quite obvious our foundation is crumbling. To repair it, we must go back to square one and correct our ideas about sex. Unless we give sexual intercourse its due reverence, we’ll never give human life its due reverence. The two can never be separated, as Pope Paul VI tried to tell the world in his prophetic encyclical, Humanae Vitae. If we don’t regard all life as sacred – and thus the creative act of sex—then we will always find ways to rationalize and justify the murder of a child as a “right.”

I’m not naively suggesting that prior to 1973 people were all living chaste and faithful lives and that sex was held in the highest esteem by all, to be expressed within the bond of marriage. I am saying that the decision to legalize the killing of our preborn children cemented a poisonous shift in our mentality, and that poison has corroded every aspect of our society, especially our treatment of sex. We replaced responsibility with “rights” and it’s been a downhill race toward insatiable debauchery ever since. …

…There is a solution to the problem of nearly all unwanted and unexpected pregnancies, but it’s the only one that nobody wants to talk about or consider seriously….

Sex isn’t a right; it’s a profound gift that serves a profound purpose. It isn’t just a healthy, human activity; it’s also the ultimate expression of love and selflessness. It’s not a recreational pastime with no strings attached. Sex comes with some huge responsibilities, and if we’re not willing to accept ALL those responsibilities, we have no business having sex. It’s that simple.

Read the rest, pass it along and let’s get this revolution going!!

How many times have I said this? People did not wake up one day and decide they wanted to have the right to kill their unborn children, but they did progressively decide it was their right to have sex without meaning, limit or consequence. If we are going to have any impact on abortion, we must encourage people to live out their sexuality as God intended, in a way that respects the dignity of the human person, the sanctity of the marital act and the “great mystery” that it symbolizes.

Over at TOB 4 U I have compiled a pretty good list of Theology of the Body resources and links to TOB websites and blogs. All great stuff to read, listen to and pass along to help spread this wonderful message which George Weigel called a kind of “theological time bomb…that would explode within the Church at some indeterminate point in the future” that would reshape the way we see our sexuality and our embodiedness as male and female.

TOB Tuesdays

Cute Baby Blogging: Crazy Driver

ChelseaCute Baby Blogging, Disabled, video1 Comment

Happy Monday, everyone! I just got word that my new wheelchair has been approved by Medicare with a co-pay of a little over $500. Not bad considering the chair costs a couple thousand. This will be my third Ti-Lite cross-fold wheelchair in the last 10 years (yes, 10 years!!). A Google search for Ti-Lite recently brought up this video of an adorable little boy with Spina Bifida cruising around in his first Ti-Lite:

Talk Like A Pirate’s Wench Wantin’ Holy Matrimony

ChelseaHumor, Marriage, Theology of the Body2 Comments



Avast, me hearties! This is great. In honor of “Talk Like a Pirate Day” the Ironic Catholic has a dialogue between “Lizzie, the Pirate Wench” and her priest after she discovers Theology of the Body:

Lizzie: Ahoy, Fath’r! I be needin’ some spiritual view from the mizzenmast.

Fath’r: Aye, Lizzie, what need ye?

Lizzie: I be thinkin’, Fath’r. Ye know that me and Jack have been caboodlin’ in the anchorhold fer some time now.

Fath’r: (countenance darkening) Aye, aye, ’tis known.

Lizzie: I be realizin’ that Jack be usin’ me for me wenchful looks. I just now be reading that “theology of th’ body” stuff and am thinking we may be in a “walkin’ the plank” relationship.

Fath’r: Aye, what yer doin’ dunna invite fullness of life, lassie.

Lizzie: I jus’ not be knowin’ what to do now, Fath’r. I love the scurvy buccaneer, but I be a pirate wench all me bleedin’ life.

Fath’r: Lizzie…ye dunna strike me as a lily-livered lass.

Lizzie: By the powers, Fath’r! I dunna care if you be a holy priest, there be no need to be insultin’! I can take a cutlass to ye wit’ the best of the scallywags on this here ship!

Fath’r: Me hearty, ’tis a compliment. Ye need be takin’ your fearlessness and tellin’ Jack about the beauty of the married state. Wit’out the cutlass.

Lizzie: (defeated) But Fath’r, Jack be a swashbucklin’ gentleman of fortune livin’ life on the account. He be more willin’ to part with all the hands’ pieces of eight combined than walk down the marriage aisle. I never be hearin’ of a married pirate. ‘Tis unnatural.

Fath’r: Lizzie, me daughter, thinkin’ yourself as nothin’ but a pirate’s wench be unnatural. Ye be a lass of God. Ye be created fur more than this. And what ye be doin’ wit’ Jack now–’tis like a life on the worst grog, lass. Ye deserve the wat’r of life.

(long silence)

Read the rest, mateys!

See all of IC’s pirate humor here.

Could Abortion Funding Kill Health Care Reform?

ChelseaAbortion, Health Care, PoliticsLeave a Comment

Pro-life Democrat Rep. Bart Stupek says he believes they have the votes to defeat the health care bill in the House if it does not specifically exclude coverage for abortions (h/t Jill Stanek):

Glad to see some members of Congress taking such a stand in opposition to our Country federally funding the murder of unborn children. Now – to get them this dedicated to doing something about this murder being legal in our country to begin with…

Some of you may still be trying to understand how pro-lifers can claim that abortion is part of healthcare reform while the president and some members of congress, like Claire McCaskill, continue to insist that it is not. It is true that the word abortion is nowhere to be found in any of the proposed health care legislation. But that does not really matter as long as we as a country consider abortion to be a “safe, legal” medical procedure. National Right to Life does a very thorough job of explaining just how the proposed health care bills can, and most likely will, be interpreted to allow for abortion coverage unless language is written into the bills that specifically excludes abortion as a benefit.

Really, we’re not just making this stuff up. Time Magazine, FactCheck.org and the Associated Press confirm that abortion will be covered under the current health care proposals. Even some Democrats, like Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (see video) and Sen. Chris Dodd, say abortions will be covered.

Other helpful stuff from NRL: why the Hyde Amendment will not prevent government funding of abortion under H.R. 3200 and Rebutting the “Private Funds” Myth

What it Really Means to Be a Man

ChelseaMenLeave a Comment

Masculinity is so misunderstood in our society.

For those of you trying to raise good, manly men of God Kevin Whelan started a project with his sons that he calls the Manhood Project – See how that’s been working out with his MHP updates: one, two, three, four, five

What women are really looking for is confidence, protection: good advice for a “nice guy” who feels disadvantaged by the female attraction to “bad boys”. Related advice from the Art of Manliness (a must read for all things masculine): Nice Guys Don’t Have to Finish Last

Male and Female He Created Them

ChelseaSexuality1 Comment

I love this column from Mary Moore at The Catholic Sun on what she noticed while observing her children during a recent family outing:

The roles were carved out and epitomized throughout the entire weekend. Every stick found was, for our son, a weapon or tool and for our daughter, a bridge to help wounded animals cross dangerous half-inch rapids. The youngest charge in our crew, a two-and-a-half year-old, followed quickly in her big sister’s shoes, petting and caring for critters in proper maternal manner.

The bestowing of names and roles upon creatures for our daughters, and racing and hunting the same vermin for our son, are not the result of taught behaviors. I have never guided our children toward categorical groups of toys. They have quite naturally been drawn, each by their own nature, to those suitable to their respective maleness or femaleness, or at least reconciled the ones that were atypical of their nature into something fitting to it. I know from dozens of conversations with other parents that mine are not an exception in this.

Read: Male and female He created them: Outdoor lessons teach eternal truths

The Apostolate of Suffering

ChelseaDisabled, Suffering2 Comments

In my scripture reading today I came across Christ’s instructions to His Apostles on how they were to go out and spread the Good News (Lk. 9:1-6). This part of the Gospel has inspired missionaries throughout the centuries to travel around the world in order to share our faith with others and help those in need. It also reminds those of us who are not called to go to such great lengths in our apostolate that we still have a duty to spread the Good News to those around us, our friends, family, co-workers, etc…

This really is the call to all Christians everywhere and without exception. But what about those who don’t appear to have too much to offer in the way of evangelization? The sick, the suffering, the severely disabled, the emotionally disturbed, the home bound. For many of these people life itself can be painful. Maybe they can’t communicate or get out of their own beds. Are they worthless as apostles under such circumstances? Have they nothing at all to offer?

On the contrary:

Those who pray and suffer, leaving action for others, will not shine here on earth; but what a radiant crown they will wear in the kingdom of life! Blessed be the “apostolate of suffering”! –St. Josemaria

If only every suffering soul could see how valuable their life really is – not only for their own sake, but for the mission of the church throughout the world!

A great modern example of this is St. Therese of Lisieux who is the patron saint of missions, yet she never set foot outside the Carmel walls. Though unsurpassed in humility and “littleness”, as she called it, Therese was a very ambitious little soul. In her autobiography she divulges that she had a great desire for the foreign missions and making Christ known to the whole world:

Ah! in spite of my littleness, I would like to enlighten souls as did the Prophets and the Doctors. I have the vocation of the Apostle. I would like to travel over the whole earth to preach Your Name and to plant Your glorious Cross on infidel soil. But O my Beloved, one mission alone would not be sufficient for me, I would want to preach the Gospel on all the five continents simultaneously and even to the most remote isles. I would be a missionary, not for a few years only but from the beginning of creation until the consummation of the ages. But above all, O my Beloved Savior, I would shed my blood for You even to the very last drop. (p. 192-193)

Even her superior acknowledged that she had such a vocation, but that her health prevented her from doing so (p. 217). Much of her life in the Carmel was spent in poor health, especially after she contracted tuberculosis, from which she would die at a very early age. Unable to actively participate in the missionary apostolate, she surrendered herself completely to the apostolate of suffering for the sake of souls:

“suffering opened wide its arms to me and I threw myself into them with love…Jesus made me understand that it was through suffering that He wanted to give me souls, and my attraction for suffering grew in proportion to its increase” (p. 149)

And so it can be for those in extreme suffering and with our own sufferings. Instead of considering life less valuable or without meaning because of deteriorating health or decreased physical mobility we can endure our sufferings and offer that which we endure to our crucified Lord for the salvation of souls. We can do this because of the feast we celebrated yesterday, the Triumph of the Cross. For when we unite our sufferings to Christ on the cross, it is not for the sake of suffering itself, but for the redemption of that suffering through the Victory of the eternal sacrifice of the Word made flesh.

Had there been no cross, Christ could not have been crucified. Had there been no cross, life itself could not have been nailed to the tree. And if life had not been nailed to it, there would be no streams of immortality pouring from Christ’s side, blood and water for the world’s cleansing. The legal bond of our sin would not be cancelled, we should not have attained our freedom, we should not have enjoyed the fruit of the tree of life and the gates of paradise would not stand open. Had there been no cross, death would not have been trodden underfoot, nor hell despoiled.
Therefore, the cross is something wonderfully great and honourable. It is great because through the cross the many noble acts of Christ found their consummation – very many indeed, for both his miracles and his sufferings were fully rewarded with victory. The cross is honourable because it is both the sign of God’s suffering and the trophy of his victory. It stands for his suffering because on it he freely suffered unto death. But it is also his trophy because it was the means by which the devil was wounded and death conquered; the barred gates of hell were smashed, and the cross became the one common salvation of the whole world. (from a discourse of St Andrew of Crete)

Information Overload

ChelseaPro Life3 Comments

Consider this post a bunch of stuff I have been meaning to share with you over the last few weeks but never got around to. I don’t know if it’s writer’s block, lack of inspiration or just simply a disciplinary failure on my part, but I’ve not managed to finish many of the posts I’ve started lately. And there have been many. I also think I may be having a bit of a three year blogging itch. I’m starting to feel like everything I write or try to write I’ve written before and I’m not sure how many times I can re-write it.

At any rate, here’s a few things that have caught my eye lately:

Assisted dying: what’s disability got to do with it? – this guy laments that the debate on assisted dying has been hijacked by disabled people who want to live. It needs to be reclaimed for terminally ill people who want to die. I guess he’s never heard of Daniel James and the many other non-terminal patients who travel to Switzerland to enjoy their life ending services. Perhaps if assisted suicide really was limited to the terminally ill the disability rights advocates wouldn’t have so much to say about it (though, it would still be wrong).

This blogger asks: When did marriage become an outdated concept?
 Answer: since it has become our own creation, not God’s.

Sentenced to death on the NHS, Down Syndrome Man starved to death in British hospital. Really, and they wonder why we think that the government health care plan being discussed here in America might not favor the elderly or the disabled. Especially since a Federal panel is already in place to apply a cost- effectiveness standard to health care. And it’s membership includes this guy who, among other things, has suggested that doctors take the Hippocratic Oath too seriously, “as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others” (Journal of the American Medical Association, June 18, 2008).

Green Sex! Seriously, the next time you’re lectured by a woman about “going green” and eating organic and all that, ask her if she’s taking a hormonal contraceptive that’s poisoning her body with various chemicals as well as polluting our streams and waterways with the disposal of hormone-laden sewage. The answer might surprise you – or not.

Sign up for a pro-llife credit card! What a sweet idea. With thi card a percentage of your purchases will be donated to Crossroads Pro-Life

This weekend pro-life advocates will be praying for 27 hours outside the White House to protest abortion funding in health care reform.

40 Days for Life starts in about 2 weeks. It will run from Sept. 23 – Nov. 1. Find out who is participating in your area.

Affecting the Character of Our Country

ChelseaAbortion, Prayer1 Comment

On Twitter this evening someone said:

health care is a moral issue….affecting the character of our country

So is the legalized murder of our unborn children – and more so. The sooner we realize this, the better.

“Most merciful Jesus, I beseech You through the intercession of Your dearest Mother who nurtured You from childhood, bless my native land. I beg You, Jesus, look not on our sins, but on the tears of little children, on the hunger and cold they suffer. Jesus, for the sake of these innocent ones, grant me the grace that I am asking of You for my country.” (St. Faustina)

TOB Tuesday: Desire’s True Light

ChelseaLove, Lust, Sex, Sexuality, TOB Tuesday1 Comment

This is a really nice post from Brian Killian exploring the two different experiences of sexual desire:

Sexual desire can propel us upward, or it can pull us down. When it ascends to heaven it is good and holy and fulfilling, but when it drags us down it is degrading and leads to a fall.

This fall can be called many things: lust, concupiscence, disordered desire. But when desire aims for its true target, the result is unity. This unity is a moral unity, the ‘oneness’ sought by love. It’s objective, suggestive, and bonding.

Read more and check out Brian’s new blog, Nuptual Mystery, which is dedicated to exploring the mystery of that unique relationship that exists between married men and women, as well as the more general issues of chastity, eros, etc. that affect everyone.

TOB Tuesdays