TOB Tuesday: TOB and Lent

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

“The body in fact and only the body is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It has been created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden from eternity in God, and thus to be a sign of it.” (TOB 19:4, Feb 20, 1980)

Lent is a very “bodily” season in the Church. Not only do we help discipline ourselves spiritually through bodily or sensual mortifications, but we also spend a significant amount of time reflecting on Christ’s Passion and death which is the greatest physical and emotional pain ever suffered. And these things prepare us for and lead us into the glorious season of Easter in which we not only celebrate the Resurrection of Christ’s body, but also look forward to the resurrection of every-body on the last day.

In part I of his reflection on Healing the Inner Man with Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving, Fr. Samuel Medley considers how the Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving counteract our concupiscence toward pride, lust and greed:

Jesus is alive and active in the Church and her liturgy as our divine physician, seeking to use our Lenten penitence to bring us to the redemption of our bodies. The pride of life, that brutish arrogance of spirit that comes from not recognizing that God is God and we are not, is healed with the spirit of prayer, the soul of which is humility. The concupiscence of the flesh, that lustful desire which seeks to desire others as objects of gratification of our bodily urges, is crushed and quelled by that bodily prayer we call fasting. The concupiscence of the eyes, that avaricious craving for material goods that spoils and sours trust in diving Providence, is suffocated by generous love in giving what we have to those in need that we call almsgiving.

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So let us remember that it is not only our prayer, but also our actions during Lent that help bring us closer to Christ, especially our daily voluntary mortifications, which we unite to Christ on the Cross for penance, for healing, for redemption. (p.s. it’s also a good idea to follow up on these penances with that great Sacrament of Penance)

TOB Tuesdays

Sebelius “Not Fit to Serve”

ChelseaAbortion, Politics, videoLeave a Comment

I like this video on Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, now Obama’s pic for Health and Human Services Secretary (h/t: Catholic Fire):

As far as I’m concerned, no one who so ardently defends the practice of sucking the brains out of partially delivered babies and covering-up rapes should ever be associated with the words “health” or “human services” much less in charge of a Gov’t agency supposedly devoted to the two.

Is it just me or does Obama really have a thing for pro-abortion Catholics? I wish we didn’t have so many for him to choose from…

Aim High!

ChelseaChastity, Sex, Sexuality, Theology of the BodyLeave a Comment

There is a great quote from artist Michelangelo that goes,

“The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we hit it.”

This low aiming is precisely what we’re doing to our young people when we teach them “abstinence, but…” education. By “abstinence, but…” education, I mean the so-called “comprehensive sex education” which tells our young people that, yes abstinence is the only 100% effective means of avoiding pregnancy and STDs, but…you can’t be expected to control your hormones so now let’s learn all about using condoms and birth control so that you can be “safe” when you inevitably give in to your lust. What low expectations we have for our youth! We are seriously failing our children if this is the best we can do.

How can we take such a permissive approach to something that can potentially have serious life altering and even life ending consequences? Do you realize that with the expanded availability of contraception and acceptance of promiscuous sexual behavior we have seen the number of known STDs rise from only 2 significant diseases in the 1970s to more than 25 today? And can we honestly say that teenage pregnancy and abortions have gone down significantly in the last 40 years either? The answer is no and it’s not because our young people need more education on so-called “safe” ways to engage in immoral sexual behavior.

Are we as permissive with other things that can cause our children serious harm or drastically alter their lives? Do we tell them that abstaining from heroin is the only 100% effective way to ensure that you don’t overdose, but you can’t be expected to control your desire to shoot up, so here’s a clean needle and a safe measure of the drug? Now, we have to be careful here, of course, because unlike heroin or other drugs, sexual intercourse is not bad in and of itself. And we certainly do not want our young people to think that! It must never be our aim to scare kids into chastity or abstinence. But sex can become like a deadly drug when it is engaged in outside its proper meaning and context – contraceptives be damned.

Weather permitting, I will be attending a seminar on the Theology of the Body for Teens this weekend. TOB for Teens is a program designed to give teens an authentic understanding of human sexuality. It encourages them to see and love with a pure heart and calls them to something higher and greater than what the world would have them settle for. Supposed “failure” should never deter us from this important task. After all, how can we ever encourage them to aspire to greatness or practice self-control in other areas when we constantly tell them it’s not possible in this most vital and intimate part of their lives?

TOB for Teens overview:

Get the program

The Miracle of Life

ChelseaPro Life, Right to Life, videoLeave a Comment

I’m sure this is not new, but I recently came across this beautiful video on the miracle of human life from Catholic Media House:

Love and Responsibility Immersion Course 2009

ChelseaFamily, Love, Marriage, Religion, Sex, Sexuality, Theology of the BodyLeave a Comment

As JP II’s groundbreaking teaching on sexuality and the human person is very slowly making its way into the hearts and minds of the Catholic faithful (and even many protestants) very few people realize just how far the late pontiff delved into understanding and explaining the Catholic tradition of family life and sexual morality. So I was pleased to receive this message today from the Theology of the Body Institute:

“The sexual urge in a person is a fact which must be recognized and welcomed as a source of natural energy.” This quote from Karol Wojtyla’s classic text, Love and Responsibility shows that, even before he gave the Church the theology of the body as Pope John Paul II, he had been shepherding the modern generation into a new understanding of sexual attraction. In the Love & Responsibility Immersion Course, Dr. Janet Smith examines this philosophy of the human person and human sexuality that undergirds John Paul II’s theology of the body.

Join fellow theology of the body enthusiasts from all over the world, for five days of prayer, study and discussion of John Paul II’s foundation for the theology of the body! Together with special lectures by Christopher West, Dr. Smith will unfold a new appreciation for our creation as male and female, to “effectively deploy the energies latent in [our] sensuality and [our] sentiments, so they become allies in [our] striving for authentic love.” (Love and Responsibility, pg. 200)

This work of JP II’s, before he was JP II, is a deep and frank discussion on responsible love as it relates to marriage and sexual relations. It would utterly shock most people to know that the words written on these pages came from a celibate priest, but it lays it all out there, leaving nothing up to interpretation. There is an entire section titled “Sexology and Morals” which, if you can believe it, even includes his thoughts on the proper gratification of sexual needs – and it’s hotter than anything you’ll find in Maxim or Cosmo. For a brief taste see this previous post in which I quote from that very section.

In today’s world the Catholic Church is vilified for her teaching on sexual ethics and even often blamed for contributing to the problem of things like AIDS and abortion because this teaching rejects the use of contraception even among married couples. Truthfully, however, if the world actually understood and lived what the Church teaches in this area abortion, AIDS and other sexually related social ills (pornography, broken families, homosexual “marriage” etc…) would not be the major problems that they are today. Pro-lifers need to realize that, while it is certainly important to help women in crisis pregnancies to choose life for their unplanned and often unwanted child, real abortion prevention begins in the bedroom – in women and men realizing and living the truth of what their bodies and the sexual act are really made for.

It is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not…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)

This five day course offered by the TOB Institute, to be held June 14-19 in Quarryville, Pennsylvania , is a very worthwhile undertaking for anyone who wishes to really understand and share with others just what the Church believes about sex and the Marriage covenant. If you are interested you can register online or download the information and a registration form. Register by March 13th for the early registration discount!

Other courses offered this year include two TOB Head to Heart Immersion Courses: June 28 – July 3 and September 27 – October 2, and a course on Theology of Sexual Healing and Redemption: August 23-28. All courses will be held in Quarryville, Pennsylvania.

Check out Janet Smith’s timeless presentation “Contraception: Why Not?”: part 1, part 2

Get Love and Responsibility
And in case you’re wondering how a celibate priest could possibly know anything about sex and marriage, see my previous post: How Do They Know? They’re Celibates!

Whose Hopes are Unproven? REALLY!?!

ChelseaAdult Stem Cell Research, Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Umbilical Cord BloodLeave a Comment

Last Saturday the LA Times ran a story with the headline: Cord blood: Banking on unproven hopes. The article highlights some studies in which human patients have have been successfully treated with stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood, particularly mentioning the case of 3-year-old Dallas Hextell who was treated for cerebral palsy with his own cord blood that his parents banked after he was born:

Within a few weeks of the transfusion, his nystagmus — spasms of the eye — disappeared, the Hextells said. Five months later, he could stand.

A month after that, he took his first steps on the front lawn while his parents were taking down their Christmas lights. “Quick, go get the video camera,” Cynthia shrieked.

Then the focus shifts to “some medical experts” who, though “intrigued” by the research, warn that it’s “too early” and that “no scientific evidence exists yet to show that any of these therapies are beneficial in humans.” Dr. George Daley, a hematologist and stem cell researcher at Children’s Hospital Boston, is quoted as saying:

“There have been many instances where what looks like a miraculous improvement in an investigational therapy ultimately doesn’t pan out.”

(Of course, none of those instances are ever actually mentioned specifically.) And the doctor who was responsible for Dallas Hextell’s successful treatment is described as being “troubled by the publicity that her trial and Dallas Hextell have elicited.”

Contrast that to this story (by a different author) published by the Times just one month earlier on the FDA’s approval of the first human clinical trial involving embryonic stem cells. Talk about unproven hopes and research with no scientific evidence to show that such a therapy would be beneficial in humans! There hasn’t been much success with ESCs in rats, yet for crying out loud! Yet, the article describes the approval as “ushering in a new era in medicine” without even a hint of skepticism, besides cautioning at the end that a cure could still be years away (my emphasis):

As a Phase I trial, the study will primarily assess the safety of the treatment, which has been under development by Menlo Park, Calif.-based Geron Corp. for nearly a decade. But scientists, doctors and patients said they were most eager to see whether low doses of the cells would produce any therapeutic benefit.

If so, it would help validate years of hope and investment in the nascent field of regenerative medicine. Besides patients with spinal cord injuries, stem cell therapies could ultimately benefit people with such intractable diseases as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.

Now, I know better than to expect much from the media these days. But I still can’t help feeling like SNL’s Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers here. REALLY, LA Times!?! Really. Therapies with umbilical cord blood cells that have been shown in a number of human patients to at least reduce the symptoms of the disease they were meant to treat should be viewed skeptically but we should consider the first ever human trials with with (the thus far tumor inducing) ESCs to be the beginning of a “new era in medicine?” REALLY!?! Huh, Wow!

To be fair, the LA-T piece did mention in one very small sentence that direct injections of pure ESCs (which this new trial is not) tend to grow tumors and that the FDA approved treatment has supposedly had some success in mouse trials. But that still doesn’t make it some breakthrough medical treatment – especially when you don’t consider something that has actually treated human patients to be one.

Related:
Fetal Stem Cells Cause Tumors in Human Patient: Should Geron ESCR Human Trial License be Reconsidered?

TOB Tuesday: Theology of the Body and Ephesians Ch. 5

ChelseaMarriage, Theology of the Body, TOB TuesdayLeave a Comment

I finally uploaded another video from Christopher West in Rolla, MO last year. Here he explains the ever-so controversial Ephesians Ch. 5 as it’s meant to be understood – he then relates it to why so many women like Titanic and men like Braveheart:

Ephesians 5:21-33 (West uses the translation “submission,” the translation I’ve got here (from the NAB) is “subordinate”):

Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body. As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So (also) husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

“For this reason a man shall leave (his) father and (his) mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church. In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband.

TOB Tuesdays

Meet Patrick Thibodeau

ChelseaDisabled2 Comments

Every pregnant woman who gets a positive prenatal diagnosis for Down syndrome should see this video (h/t: Jay):

Despite the headway we’ve made in trying to accommodate the needs of disabled persons in the world so that they too can have a place in the community and enjoy many of the same opportunities as others with no physical or mental handicap, there is still a general belief that the lives of these disabled people are devoid of much happiness or pleasure. Why else would roughly 90% of parents choose to kill their unborn children who are prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome?

The truth is that, in the midst of the many hardships that come with disease and disability, there is still plenty of opportunity to really enjoy life. You just have to be willing to see it.

Previous posts:
I Enjoyed Every Minute of It!
People With Disabilities Can Live “Normal” Lives
Life is Worth Loving
Life is Worth LIVING!!
Helping Disabled Children to Live
Better Off Dead?

On Retreat!

ChelseaPro LifeLeave a Comment

Dear readers, I’m off on my much needed annual retreat! There is a lot that I have wanted to comment on so I regret that my blogging has been so light lately, but I am getting a lot of other stuff done! Thanks for your patience. Please keep me in your prayers this weekend, as you will be in mine!

Peace to you all!
Chelsea

Change Worth Praying For

ChelseaPrayer, Pro LifeLeave a Comment

Convert ObamaIf you’re looking for something to offer up your prayers and fasting for this lent, check out ConvertObama.com. From the website:

It’s not about partisan politics, party affiliations, or attention. Our mission is simple: for the church militant, to unite in prayer and sacrifice, offering up sufferings, prayers, and supplications for the conversion of Barak Obama, an end to abortion in his policies and plans, and an end to abortion in our country.

While you’re at it, offer some up for all of our pro-choice Catholic politicians – especially Nancy Pelosi. Read here, here and here.

Previous posts:
Prayers for Obama
Pray for Pelosi