Hello, all! Still in GA visiting some relatives. Here’s a pic of my aunt and her six kids after they gave her her Mother’s Day present yesterday:
“The very soul of a woman is meant to be maternal.”
~ Alice von Hildebrand
For all of you interested in Theology of the Body, which I talk about on here quite often, Jason Evert, will appear on EWTN’s Life on the Rock tonight (May 7) at 8 PM Eastern to talk about his new book, Theology of His Body/Theology of Her Body. This book is a 2-in-1 presentation that every teen should read, as it lays the foundation for a chaste and faithful life.
Jason and his wife Crystalina are world traveling TOB/chastity speakers. They are responsible for the popular TOB for Teens program which has been airing on EWTN every Thursday at 11:30 PM Eastern, with encore episodes each Friday at 2:30 AM Eastern.
If you don’t get EWTN through your cable/dish provider you can watch it live online at EWTN.com – scroll over the “Television” tab and click on “Live TV.”
TOB for Teens overview:
It is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not help the young to accept and experience sexuality and love and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection (Evangelium Vitae n. 97)
Hello, my dear readers! Just a quick note to let you know that I will be doing some traveling/family visiting for the next week and a half. I’m in St. Louis right now to visit with a good friend of mine before heading down to good old Newborn, Georgia tomorrow (yes, I’m driving by myself) to see some relatives. I’ll be driving back home next Thurs/Fri. in order to be back for my middle sister’s graduation from the University of Missouri on Saturday – which we have other relatives coming in for for a few days. Needless to say blogging will probably be a bit light. I will probably tweet more than anything else so be sure to check me out there!
Prayers (to St. Raphael for safe travel) are greatly appreciated!!
Just last week another report surfaced about a Planned Parenthood employee covering up an obvious statutory rape (I meant to post this last week, but never got around to it). This time the “victim” was a woman posing as a 14 year-old girl who suspects she might be pregnant after being sexually active with a 23 year-old man. Not only does the PP clinic worker invite the girl into the clinic for a pregnancy test and “contraception services” without even acknowledging the abuse, but she also informs her that she can send her abuser in to pick up the contraception for her! But what do you expect from an industry that essentially exists to cover-up the sexual transgressions of men. George Tiller’s “women’s” clinic is (in)famous for doing this for years – with girls as young as 11!
No, contrary to what they would have you believe, Planned Parenthood is no friend to women. By offering abortions and encouraging contraception, PP perpetuates the message that the female body, rather than being a sacred life-giving vessel, is nothing more than an instrument for her partner’s sexual gratification. In this sense, of course, they also equally degrade men who are consequently encouraged and given license to indulge in their every lustful desire instead of being called to greatness and to uphold the beauty and dignity of woman.
I cannot, for the life of me, understand why women continue to support such a clearly anti-woman organization. Except that most women today have themselves bought into the modern view of woman which talks a lot about freedom and choice, but really makes them slaves to the lustful desires of man. If you don’t believe me, the next time you’re in the check-out lane at your grocery store just take a look at one of the most popular woman’s magazine of our day whose cover is splattered with headlines for articles about the many ways women can attract men and please them sexually (a few lovely examples: “Little Touches He’ll Love You For”, “50 Things Guys Wish You Knew”, “10 Things Guys Crave in Bed”, “The Surprising Trait 80% of Men Find Sexy”, “His #1 Sex Fantasy”) – or their website whose homepage includes a large advertisement for their section on “Sex Tips From Guys” (men don’t fare much better, either, with Playboy, FHM, Maxim, etc…).
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is why our babies are being murdered by the thousands everyday. Sure, society claims it’s because a woman’s body is her own and she can do what she wants with it, but in all honesty it is largely the result of our culture convincing women to surrender their bodies to man’s lust.
We are worth much more than this, Ladies! Our bodies are sacred, the crowning achievement of the work of God’s creation – His masterpiece. And when we conceive the hand of God literally reaches down and touches our female body and creates a new and living soul within us. This is not a hindrance to, but the very fulfillment of the meaning and purpose of our sexuality – to share in the life-giving love of God!
Read more:
The Privelege of Being a Woman
The Princess and the Kiss – an excellent story of chastity for young girls
Mulieris Dignitatem
Alice von Hildebrand on Feminism and Femininity
Advocates of non-marital sexual relations often like to cite the “naturalness” of sexual intercourse. You hear it all the time: “sex and sexual attraction is “natural,” you can’t expect people to abstain or confine themselves to just one partner forever. That’s just so, well, UNnatural!” Oddly enough, however, these people who condemn the “unnatural” practices of abstinence and marital fidelity think nothing of using various forms of contraception to intentionally thwart the most basic and natural purpose of sexual intercourse – that is, the creation of new life. Here, citing a study by Prof. Lionel Tiger, Dr. Janet Smith explains how even animals sense that there is something not quite right about this:
Talk about unnatural! Hormonal contraceptives alter a woman’s biological make-up in a very major way. What’s worse, By suppressing her fertility, she actually loses what it is about her that makes her a woman and therefore attractive to men – at least for the right reasons.
Fertility is not some abnormal medical condition. It is a normal, healthy part of the reproductive cycle and, for human beings, a gift that allows us to image the life-giving love of God in the Trinity.
Yesterday the Bach Society of St. Louis gave an absolutely beautiful performance at St. Joseph Cathedral in Jefferson City, MO for a benefit for our local Our Lady Queen of Peace Center – a pro-life women’s clinic that specializes in using the CREIGHTON MODEL FertilityCare™ System to help women morally and effectively avoid pregnancy as well as identify and effectively treat fertility and other problems. A good friend of mine started using their services after years of infertility and other failed fertility treatments. Using NaProTechnology and the Creighton charting system, she was able to conceive and now has two beautiful babies! We need more clinics like this!
Visit the Bach Society website for concert information and to purchase recordings of some of their performances.
Today the Family Research Council issued this action call:
As you may know, President Bush’s policy was to allow funding for research that involved embryonic stem cells taken from human embryos so long as the cells were obtained on or prior to August 9, 2001. Since then, the government has funded research on over 22 stem cell lines. President Bush’s policy erected a wall and did not encourage the further killing of human embryos for their cells.
However, on March 9, 2009 President Barack Obama issued an executive order that overturned President Bush’s policy and opened the floodgates for funding more embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) that creates an incentive to create and destroy human embryos. President Obama designated the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to draft guidelines for distributing funds for this research. Last week, April 23, NIH officially posted draft guidelines to open federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells. What these guidelines do is send your tax dollars to experiment on stem cells taken from human embryos that supposedly are “leftover” from in vitro fertilization. Instead of promoting the adoption of these human embryos, these draft guidelines would require their death.
The public comment period on these draft regulations is 30 days, and we ask that you submit comments to oppose these regulations on or before May 26, 2009. To submit your comment, please go to this website and fill out the form with your comment.
It is important to note that some of our members of Congress are upset that the new NIH guidelines are too narrow and do not allow for the cloning of human embryos for this scientific research. Sen. Diana DeGette says that she hopes they will allow for federal funding of SCNT (also known as cloning), but if they don’t right now, she plans on introducing pro-cloning legislation worded in such a way so that they can change their mind in the future. This is exactly what National Right to Life warned about in its March 31 letter to members of Congress about the “forthcoming bait-and-switch on legislation on embryonic stem cell research and human cloning.”
As it is right now federal funds are prohibited from being used for the deliberate creation and destruction of human embryos for research thanks to the recent renewal of the Dickey-Wicker Amendment. But it may only be a matter of time before that legislation is also reversed and the NIH is given the ability to fund research on human embryos, including therapeutic cloning, according to its own discretion.
This year American Life League has extended its annual Pro-Life T-Shirt Day to last for an entire week. It officially started this Tuesday and is to last until next Monday, May 4.
As trivial as it seems – I mean, it’s just a t-shirt, right?? – this really is a great opportunity to be a witness for the cause of life. Chances are life issues are not a big topic of conversation with friends when you’re out having drinks, walking together in between classes or doing anything together, really. But if you’re wearing a shirt with a pro-life message it just might provoke a much needed conversation. In another way, there is also a chance that it might be seen in passing by a woman with a crisis pregnancy who just needs to be reassured that what she is dealing with is in fact a “child, not a choice.”
If you have the resources, I highly encourage participation in this pro-life witness, and not just during this week, but anytime! T-shirts can be ordered online at the ALL store and other pro-life stores. Cafe Press has a lot. You can even make your own. I did it a few times for a group of ours by printing a nice pro-life picture/message onto some iron-on transfer paper and putting it on some plain white t-shirts.
Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, has written a new book with the help of Father José Granados explaining John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. Here is a description of the book titled “Called to Love“:
Christianity has long been regarded as viewing the body as a threat to a person’s spiritual nature and of denying its sexual dimension. In 1979, Pope John Paul II departed from this traditional dichotomy and offered an integrated vision of the human body and soul. In a series of talks that came to be known as “the theology of the body,” he explained the divine meaning of human sexuality and why the body provides answers to fundamental questions about our lives. In Called to Love, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson and Father José Granados discuss the philosophical and religious significance of “the theology of the body” in language at once poetic and profound. As they explain, the body speaks of God, it reveals His goodness, and it also speaks of man and women and their vocation to love. Called to Love brings to life the tremendous gift John Paul II bestowed on humanity and gives readers a new understanding of the Christian way of love and how to embrace it fully in their lives.
In an interview with the Knights magazine the Columbian, Anderson explains that, because the TOB reveals that the human person is meant to image the Trinitarian love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it is “an important concept for the work of the Knights of Columbus” since the order is “based upon the principles of charity, unity and fraternity.” As an explanation of the dignity of the human person and true meaning of sexuality, the TOB is also essential to the Knights’ work in defending the sanctity of marriage and the right to life of all human beings.
Visit CalledtoLove.net for more information.