Love Makes Suffering Bearable

ChelseaDisabled, Embryo Screening, Pro Life3 Comments

The other day a good friend drew my attention to an obituary that ran in our local paper recently. It comes from the family of a young girl who died just 42 minutes after she was born:

Hailey Marie Glavin

GLAVIN Hailey Marie Glavin was born Friday, June 12, 2009, at St. Mary’s Health Center in Jefferson City. Hailey spent her life cradled in the arms of her loving parents. In 42 minutes, Hailey’s life was complete as she peacefully went home, but not before leaving her footprint in this world and in the hearts of many. Twenty weeks into life, Hailey was diagnosed with Trisomy 13. Her condition was said to be “incompatible with life”, but Hailey proved otherwise. Although her life only lasted moments, they are moments that others will live and experience for a lifetime. Hailey’s proud and blessed parents, Tim and Rachelle Glavin, and big brother, Ryan Glavin, survive at their home in Jefferson City, Mo.

This obituary reminded me a video I saw not too long ago of an interview with Diane Elder, another woman who decided to give birth despite knowing that her child was also not likely to live long after. Elder contacted CNN for the interview after the news channel had, as part of their coverage of the Tiller murder, previously aired a similar interview with a woman who elected for a late term abortion (h/t SuzyB.org)

And then there was this interview at Conversion Diary with Jason and Angie Berger whose daughter Sunni was born with Mitochondrial Disease, an energy disorder that has stalled her at less than one year of development, cognitively and physically:

When asked how he created such stunning works of art, a famous sculptor once said that he instills in his mind a clear image of the form and then removes everything that is not a part of it. In a way, God has shorn from Sunni nearly all of the adornments that would be considered part of a basic human life. She cannot act on her own, communicate, or possibly understand even simple concepts. She is left as a nearly pure example of human life without anything to distract us from its elegant beauty…

Sunni, and the way we care for her, is a witness to others. I sense in people a revulsion to seeing a person, especially a child in so damaged a condition. That is a natural reaction, and one that most labor hard to conceal. But it is important to Angie and I that Sunni be seen by others and that we be seen caring for her and enjoying our lives despite the sadness that it can bring.

If only everyone could see life this way! By truly loving the disabled/unborn child and treating him/her as a human being worthy of the good of life (if only for a short while) these families have discovered that this act of love, though it may not take the suffering away, can make it bearable for everyone involved.

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.
~Mother Teresa

To love is the vocation of every human being on earth. It is the commandment Christ gave us before he died, the message of the Cross itself and a truth repeatedly revealed and realized throughout human history, especially in the midst of extreme suffering.

I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. … In a position of utter desolation, when a man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way – an honorable way – in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. (Man’s Search for Meaning, by Holocaust survivor and psychoanalyst Victor Frankl)

Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this saying, (namely) “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:8-10).

TOB Tuesday: Why Sex Sells

ChelseaMedia, Sex, TOB TuesdayLeave a Comment

In light of the recent dust-up over an over-sexed Calvin Klein billboard recently displayed over a busy New York intersection, I thought I’d offer this article from Christopher West on Why Sex Sells. This isn’t the first time CK has come under fire for their advertising techniques. In the mid nineties the fashion company released a series of tv commercials (eventually pulled off the air) that looked like a bunch of under-age models auditioning for a part in a porn movie. Sex and sexual innuendo are often used to sell everything from automobiles to office equipment. But why use sex? What is the appeal? Though it does seem pretty obvious, could there be a deeper meaning for the human attraction to all things sexual to the extent that it even influences some people’s buying habits? In West’s article he quotes from philosophy professor James K.A. Smith who wrote:

“I think [Christians] should first recognize and admit that the marketing industry – which promises an erotically charged transcendence through media that connect to our heart and imagination – is … able to capture, form, and direct our desires precisely because they have rightly discerned that we are embodied, desiring creatures…. They have figured out the way to our heart because they ‘get it’: they rightly understand that, at root, we are erotic creatures – creatures who are oriented by love and passion and desire” (“The Erotics of Truth, and Other Scandalous Lessons from Augustine of Hippo”, Comment, June 2008)

What Mr. Smith means by “erotic” here is the inner desire and yearning of the human being for what is true, good, and beautiful. All of the things that we desire essentially point to a deeper yearning within our hearts – a desire to be fulfilled, satisfied. But sex, specifically when engaged in its proper context, becomes the very image of that which is our ultimate fulfillment and that which alone can truly satisfy – the Trinity. Both West and Smith conclude, then, that the proper response from Christians is to

“honor what the marketing industry has right – that we are creatures of desire – and then respond in kind with counter-measures that demonstrate where desire really points us (to God).”

This doesn’t mean we should approve of the use of such advertising, or consider it to be good by any stretch of the imagination. Sex in advertising is meant to incite lust which is the antithesis of the life giving love of God. It distorts the beauty of God’s plan for human sexuality and in a world of infallible human beings marred by concupiscence, the less sexually explicit or even suggestive images that we see the better.

Cute Baby Blogging

ChelseaPersonal, Pro Life6 Comments

It never fails – kids love the wheelchair! Whenever I’m around little kids they love to touch and grab at my wheelchair. I’m not quite sure what the attraction is. It’s not very shiny or anything. But they’re sure fascinated with it. Last night I did dinner and a movie with two of my friends and their two boys who were no exception:

petapeta

I hope some of you guys are still bearing with me here (does anyone read this blog?). Maybe it doesn’t seem like a long time for some of you, but it kills me that I haven’t put anything on here since last Wednesday. I’ve also not been real happy with some of the stuff I have put up – like my heart’s just not been in it. I’m battling some serious writer’s block along with the time wasting distractions that follow. I wish I had a better excuse (you know, like, I’m just soooo busy I can’t get around to blogging!), but that’s it. I’ve even started several posts that I just can’t seem to finish! I don’t know what it is (other than the fact that I have absolutely no discipline), but I hope this week will be better! If not, then I don’t know what to tell you (maybe I’m just not cut out for this blogging thing after all? time to call it quits?) Pray for me.

What’s Next?

Chelsea2008 Election, Abortion, Culture of Death, Infanticide, videoLeave a Comment

The following video asks the logical question – if the murder of unborn children up to and including their very final stages of in-utero development remains legal, what will come next? Indeed some, like well respected and influential philosopher Peter Singer, already suggest that parents should have the right to decided within 28 days after birth whether they want to keep or kill their child.


(h/t Jill Stanek)

TOB Tuesday: A Protestant Perspective

ChelseaFaith, Religion, Theology of the Body, TOB TuesdayLeave a Comment

Theology of the Body is not just for Catholics! For all my protestant readers here is part of what sounds like an excellent a talk from Glenn Stanton from Focus on the Family. In it he mentions that Focus has talked about using the TOB in their ministry – how cool is that?!:

You can order the complete talk on DVD from Our Father’s Will Communications. Also, Christopher West has a talk for non Catholics that is available as a free download. Get: Theology of the Body: A Bold, Biblical Response to the Sexual Revolution.

TOB Tuesdays

The Pill Alternative

ChelseaContraception, Natural Family Planning1 Comment

Whether it’s acne or unusually painful period cramps, the birth control pill is often prescribed for non-contraceptive medical reasons without doctors actually taking the time to discover and effectively treat the underlying problems that cause such things to occur. In this video Dr. Paul Carpentier, certified by the American Academy of FertilityCare Professionals, discusses this problem and what can be used for treatment instead:

It might surprise some people to know that the modern method of charting a woman’s cycle is not just for the purpose of natural family planning, but also helps identify and effectively treat many female medical problems relating to PMS, infertility, ovarian problems, miscarriage, endometriosis etc… Find out more at the Pope Paul VI Institute or NaProTechnology.com

The above video is from American Life League’s “The Pill Kills” press conference at the National Press Club the other day. Saturday ALL held its 2nd annual protest against the birth control pill, a championed invention for women and “reproductive freedom” that has been shown to have many terrible, even deadly, side-effects. To find out more visit ThePillKills.com

PETA’s Audacity Knows No Bounds

ChelseaPro Life, Right to Life3 Comments

    peta

In a pathetic effort to use the murder of abortionist George Tiller to its own advantage, PETA is set to release a billboard campaign in Witchita, KS aimed at people on both sides of the abortion debate:

PETA plans to have billboards in the Wichita area that promote vegetarianism, prompted by abortion Dr. George Tiller’s murder. The group hopes that the billboards will help pro-life and pro-choice advocates find common ground in support for animal rights.

“People who are pro-choice shouldn’t choose cruelly produced foods, just as pro-life folks shouldn’t support deadly slaughterhouses,” says PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich in a press release. “It’s time for everyone to reject violence and live up to their ideals–if you’re truly acting out of a desire to end suffering, start with what you put on your plate.”

The Wichita Eagle reports that PETA’s campaign manager Lindsay Rajt said while the billboards are not yet up, PETA has no plans to cancel the campaign.

This is low, even for PETA.

The Couple That Prays Together…

ChelseaMarriage, ReligionLeave a Comment

In the first reading for this Thursday’s Mass we heard the beautiful wedding night prayer of Tobias and Sarah:

When the girl’s parents left the bedroom and closed the door behind them, Tobiah arose from bed and said to his wife, “My love, get up. Let us pray and beg our Lord to have mercy on us and to grant us deliverance.” She got up, and they started to pray and beg that deliverance might be theirs.
And they began to say:

“Blessed are you, O God of our fathers,
praised be your name forever and ever.
Let the heavens and all your creation
praise you forever.
You made Adam and you gave him his wife Eve
to be his help and support;
and from these two the human race descended.
You said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone;
let us make him a partner like himself.’
Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine not because of lust, but for a noble purpose. Call down your mercy on me and on her, and allow us to live together to a happy old age.”

They said together, “Amen, amen,” and went to bed for the night. (Tobit 8:4-9)

A good marriage must be rooted firmly in prayer and a mutual desire for holiness and union with Christ.

Limbaugh Tells Hannity Life Issue “Very Very Important” When Considering Sotomayor

ChelseaEmbryonic Stem Cell Research, Politics, Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court2 Comments





I have to admit, I was very impressed with Rush Limbaugh last night when he told Sean Hannity:

If, and I’m speaking for me personally, if i learned, if I can be assured that she is actually a pro-life person and does think that Roe vs. Wade is bad constitutional law and if she would rule on the right side on the life issue, I might look past this racism. You can deal with that. But that’s something very very important to me and she could be stealth in that regard

See video below.

Now, I’m not saying that I necessarily think that that’s going to end up being the case here. But I wonder how many other mainstream conservative pundits who have been quick to condemn Sotomayor as a “liberal, racist, activist judge” have ever even stopped to at least ask the question: Where does she stand on the most important issue of our time and could a possible anti-Roe position (there’s some uncertainty here, at least) trump whatever other flaws she has?

I’m not completely confident that we will get a crystal clear answer on Sotomayor’s Roe position, unless she totally supports it, but kudos to Rush for at least asking the question and giving the issue of life some priority. Something we don’t often get from many of our more high-profile Republicans.

Read Rush’s comments from his show yesterday: What if Sotomayor is Pro-Life?

TOB Tuesday: A Real Love Song

ChelseaLove, Lust, Marriage, Sex, Sexuality, Theology of the Body, TOB TuesdayLeave a Comment

Matt Maher sings his song “Set Me as a Seal” based on the Song of Songs (See lyrics.):

A few years ago, Pauline Books and Media released a revised version of the Theology of the Body text – a collection of 129 Wednesday audiences delivered by John Paul II on God’s plan for human love. The biggest difference in this version of the TOB is that it contains six undelivered talks never before translated in English including a deep reflection into the Song of Songs. For the most part this biblical Song is taken up with a more supernatural translation in mind. Greater emphasis is (rightly) put on how the book illuminates the spousal love between Gos and His chosen people, however, our Holy Father tells us that

The love of bridegroom and bride in the Song of Songs is a theme by itself, and in this lies the signularity and originality of that book…it is not possible to separate it from the reality of the primordial sacrament. (TOB 108:1, 3)

Solomon’s song takes marital love back to “the beginning” when the language of the body was spoken honestly, always for the good of the other and always expressing a love “as strong as death.” Says Christopher West:

Through the witness of the lovers’ duet in the Song of Songs, we come to understand that the body “speaks” a language of divine love, of holiness. Not only does it speak – the body sings. And it not only sings, but it sings the greatest of all songs – The Song of Songs.

Or, at least, it is meant to do so. Sin introduces a sour note to the song. The good news is that Christ comes into the world to restore the true Song in our hearts precisely by redeeming our bodies.

What sin had distorted, Christ redeemed and now helps us to realize through the grace of the Holy Spirit. So we can once again look upon our spouse, not merely as a lover and companion, but also as a brother or sister now in Christ, a common relationship that calls us away from lust and toward a love that seeks not its own.

Recommended: Christopher West’s book Heaven’s Song: Sexual Love as It Was Meant to Be – and his columns reflecting on the Song of Songs part I, part II, part III, part IV and conclusion.

Bonus video – Paul Gibson’s beautiful recording of a love lyric from Marcia Falks translation of “The Song of Songs”

TOB Tuesdays