How perfect is the construction of life in the womb! A little too perfect to just happen by chance.
h/t Jivin J
This video is from the BBC program “Inside the Human Body.”
TOB Tues: Keep Holy the Marriage Bed
Sex is not merely some recreational activity designed for human pleasure. St. Paul tells us that when husband and wife come together as one flesh, the language of their bodies is a “great mystery” that is meant to prophesy to the world the union between Christ and the Church. Therefore:
Both husband and wife should be fully aware of the sanctity of the marriage bed. It must always serve as a means to grow in mutual love. And it should be kept pure on account of the great reverence they bear for the sacrament that blessed their union.
WarTide!
I’m pretty sure I’d love this even if I wasn’t an SEC brat: in Alabama, some Auburn fans have set aside their long-standing and very bitter rivalry with the University of Alabama to help out the devastated college’s hometown after it bore the brunt of one of the deadliest storms in American history last month. Over the past few weeks, the group Toomer’s for Tuscaloosa has brought truckloads of supplies to needy residents and has organized many other volunteer efforts through their busy, busy Facebook page. As someone on Facebook noted:
A football game pulled Auburn and Alabama apart. Tragedy has brought them together.
It’s all quite remarkable to behold. I get worn out just reading all the updates of all their relief efforts from their Facebook page, which has nearly 85,000 “likes”. People are so into the spirit of this effort that I’ve even seen the term “WarTide!” coined – a combination of Auburn’s “War Eagle!” and Alabama’s “Roll Tide!” Love it.
This is why there is suffering in the world, folks. Unfortunately, it often takes tragedy to bring people together.
“suffering is present in the world in order to release love, in order to give birth to works of love towards neighbour, in order to transform the whole of human civilization into a ‘civilization of love'” -JP II, Salvifici doloris (I think)
Here’s an NBC Nightly News piece on the group:
This is not the first time these rivals have helped each other out, either. During the 2010 college football season, a Crimson Tide fan with “too much Bama” in him poisoned Auburn’s beloved Toomer’s Corner trees after the War Eagles handed the reigning National Champions their third loss of the season. After that some Bama law students formed Tide for Toomer’s and helped raise $50,000 to help save the trees in an act to help unify the two schools and their fans.
Keep up the great work down there everyone, and from this born and raised Gator-baby: “WarTide!”
Visit http://toomersfortuscaloosa.com/ to find out how you can help.
Happy Mother’s Day!
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The very soul of a woman is meant to be maternal. –Alice von Hildebrand
On Facebook this year everyone has been posting pictures of their moms in honor of Mother’s Day. This is the one I put up of me and my mom. Don’t ask me what she’s got on her face. It’s from the birthday party of a friend of my parents many years ago, but I thought it was cute.
Thank you, Mom, for choosing life and for helping me, through your own steadfast faith, to see and desire to live the way to life eternal!
God bless all of you mothers out there – biological, adoptive, spiritual – and every woman who has been a positive influence in the life of a child!
Mary, our Mother, Mother of God and the Queen of all mothers, we love you! Pray for us!
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
-Prov. 31:30
7 Quick Takes Friday
1. My good friend Gina is blogging at A Virtuous Wife – check her out!!
2. Diary of a Doula: Heidi is a doula (midwife) in the Kansas City area. This is her blog. She recently shared the story of her miscarriage and the “intimidation and minimization” she received throughout the process, combined with “vague, allusive, insensitive, de-humanizing descriptions about what I should expect during the course of my ‘labor.'” This has inspired her to start a “Miscarriage Awareness Project” – click here to find out how you can help.
3. Andrew Klavan: The Hilarious World of Abortion:
“Abortion is part of a complex of sex-related behaviors, practices and attitudes that over the last 40 years has lead to a drastic increase in the number of single-parent children.” Nailed it!
4. Cloning for embryonic stem cell research means putting women’s health at risk – chilling account of a woman who sold her eggs for ESCR.
5. The National Right to Life Convention is in Jacksonville, FL this year – June 23-25. So far, guest speakers include Abby Johnson and Fred Barnes. You know I’ll jump at any opportunity to head down South. J’ville, here I come, baby!!
On May 17th at 8:00 PM local time*, come be a part of the UNITEforLIFE webcast with Abby Johnson, a former abortion clinic director for Planned Parenthood. Join us for heartfelt discussions as Abby shares her long-held desire to help women in crisis, and the moment of pure awakening that led her to re-evaluate her life’s work.
7. This weekend, many Catholics are excited about the release of There Be Dragons, a movie about the life of St. Josemaria Escriva. Check out this previous post for some advice from St. Josemaria for parents of handicapped children. Then check out the St. Josemaria YouTube channel for more video from the saint!
For Those Who Don’t Know Nothin’ ’bout Birthin’ Babies
“Lawzy, we got to have a doctor. I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ babies!!”
Well, Prissy, sometimes there’s just no time to wait for a doctor, so pay attention. The Art of Manliness has a great post on what to do in an emergency delivery situation. It’s addressed to husbands of expecting wives, but it’s useful information for everyone. I mean, chances are pretty good none of us will ever find ourselves in such a situation, but it’s always good to be prepared!! It does happen. The short list:
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Don’t panic
Assess the situation
Call for help
Get mom comfortable
Scrub up and prepare the birthing area
Watch and guide – don’t force
Rub the baby down
Don’t cut or tie the cord
Deliver the placenta
Get medical attention ASAP
Do read the AoM post for more details on each. It also helps to have seen childbirth before, so, if you never have, be sure to check out the video they have posted of a cheesy 1966 California State Police Education Film on how to deliver a baby in a pinch. It’s a little strange, though, I must admit. The video is obviously scripted/acted, not a documentary, but they definitely somehow got a woman to agree to give birth in the back of a police car and let them film it. How does one time the filming of such a thing? Strange. But still helpful.
Blessed JP II’s “Theological Time Bomb”
Note: this should have been posted yesterday for TOB Tues.
On Sunday the Catholic Church confirmed what most of us already knew and what God Himself made known through at least one miracle – that John Paul II is in heaven…and interceding on our behalf! Soooo…does this make me a relic?? 😉
Of all the things that John Paul wrote and spoke about during his pontificate, papal biographer George Weigel says his “longest-lasting theological contribution to the Church” is what is now known as the Theology of the Body. Weigel called it a kind of “theological time bomb” that would “would explode within the Church” at some point and:
(reshape) the way Catholics think about our embodiedness as male and female, our sexuality, our relationships with each other, our relationship with God – even God Himself
For those who aren’t familiar with it yet, the TOB, a collection of 129 Wednesday audiences given between 1979-1984, is JPII’s vision of the human person and what it means to be made in the “image and likeness of God.” In it, he encourages a true reverence for our bodies and the gift of our sexuality and challenges us to live it in a way worthy of our great dignity as human persons (from the TOB website). It is worth noting that in terms of theology and Church teaching there is nothing “new” in the TOB. JP II just provided a new focus, a new emphasis on certain things, connecting a few dots and tying up a couple of strings that have been lying dormant for centuries.
As hard has it is for the layman to understand, the TOB is not some stuffy intellectual commentary, but is rich with pastoral experience and ready-made for pastoral effectiveness. And he did not simply deliver the wednesday audiences that made up the TOB early in his pontificate and never return to the subject again. Many of his magisterial documents contain elements of the TOB including:
Familiaris Consortio
The Letter to Families
The Letter to Women
The Dignity and Vocation of Women
Pope Benedict has also included elements of TOB in many of his teachings, especially in his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love).
If the TOB time bomb has not already exploded, it is pretty darn close. In the last 20+ years, what could have easily faded into the past like so many other Church documents and papal audiences, or remained in the world of Catholic academia, reserved for graduate level theology dissertations and such, has been translated, interpreted and made widely available in easy to understand terms to the general Catholic public. It hasn’t been without it’s fair share of controversy or interpretive disagreements, nevertheless, it’s nothing short of amazing to see such widespread enthusiasm to preach, teach, know, understand and, most importantly, live the Church’s teaching on sexual morality – especially in today’s culture!
As I said, there is an abundance of TOB resources for every level of understanding – books, pamphlets and, of course, many, many talks on CD and DVD. And, for those looking to get a really in-depth knowledge of the material there are even week-long institutional TOB courses. If you’re interested in furthering your TOB knowledge, check out these websites for more information:
Ascension Press
Our Father’s Will Communications
TOB Institute
TOB for Teens
What a Happy Day!!
“The happiest days are the days when babies come.”
-Mrs. Melanie Hamilton Wilkes, Gone With the Wind
My friend‘s son, Caleb Michael Beul, was born today at 10:05 am. Look at that face! Welcome to the world, little guy!!
Easter Giveaway, Given Away!!
Congratulations to Sherry from Spokane, WA! She is the lucky winner of the first ever Reflections of a Paralytic (ROAP) giveaway: an autographed copy of Abby Johnson‘s powerful pro-life testimony, Unplanned (which she is pictured signing to the right!).
I do hope to do more of these, so be sure to “like” the ROAP Facebook page to be automatically entered in any future giveaways!
Speaking of Abby Johnson, check out this moving post she wrote recently about the remorse she now feels for being responsible for so many abortions:
Every day of my life I think about the women I took from. I took away their motherhood, I devalued them, I broke their confidence, I betrayed them. How I wish I could look into every one of their faces and tell them how sorry I am. If I could restore some of what I took from them, I would give my life to make it happen. I wish I could be there to wipe their tears when they mourn for their lost child. To know that you committed a terrible wrong that you can’t make right is one of the most desperate feelings in the world. And as desperate as I feel, I can’t make those wishes come true. But I do my best everyday to make it up to those women and their children. I failed them once, but I won’t do it again. I know they haven’t forgotten their children, and I haven’t either.
Appeals Court Overrules ESCR Defunding
In case you missed the news – yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals finally issued a ruling on the Obama administration’s appeal of a ruling by District Court Judge Royce Lamberth that blocked all current federal funding of embryonic stem cell research due to current federal law (via the Dicky-Wicker Amendment) that prevents the government from funding research that involves the destruction of human embryos. The appellate court has ruled in favor of the administration.
This doesn’t change anything in practice since a stay on the Lamberth ruling was granted pending appeal. This is also not the final word on the matter. Now the ball is literally back in Lamberth’s court for further proceedings or a trial with the final decision probably ultimately coming from the Supreme Court at some point in the future. Let’s hope Lamberth sticks to his guns on this one. His ruling was spot on. If they have a problem with it, it’s Congress they need to talk to (not that I wish they would do that!!), not the Court.
Let me also just say – this is not a reversal of a “ban on ESCR”. Prohibiting the federal government from funding something does not outlaw it.
Previous coverage:
Court Blocks New Fed. Funding for ESCR!
Boo-hoo! Scientists Can’t Destroy Embryos on Taxpayer Dime 🙁
Appeals Court Suspends Federal Embryonic Stem Cell Research Funding Ban
ESCR Funding: it’s Primarily About Ethics, not Science