Gianna Jessen rocks my world! On Twitter the other night she said: “i write about the realities of limping through this world, and the pain of it. but what’s funny is, i feel sexy as hell. so i’m still on the painful road, but i don’t believe i’m ugly anymore. and i believe this road of much sorrow will grant … Read More
Endurance
Do not grow slack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer (Romans 12:11-12) image via: Art of Manliness
There is Beauty in Human Weakness
At the National Right to Life Convention I went to several presentations that dealt with euthanasia, assisted suicide, and society’s view of people/life with disabilities. It got me thinking about a post I did a while back on the beauty of human weakness, which I sort of re-visited in a post for Creative Minority Report last week: G. K. Chesterton … Read More
Authentic Love
“Authentic love is not a vague sentiment or a blind passion. It is an inner attitude that involves the whole human being. It is looking at others, not to use them but to serve them. Love, in a word, is the gift of self.” – Blessed John Paul II In today’s culture it is considered “loving” for families to end … Read More
Victims of America’s Eugenic History Tell Their Stories
Unfortunately, it’s not a very distant history. Many people forget, or don’t even know that the Nazi Holocaust began with the forced sterilization of so-called “undesirables,” namely, the physically and mentally handicapped. What even more people don’t know is that before Hitler, the United States lead the world in the forced sterilization of these “unfit” human beings and was likely … Read More
The Difference Faith Makes
Yesterday I wrote about an article in the UK Daily Mail written by a mother who chose to kill her unborn son who was diagnosed with spina bifida. Today I was just struck by the stark contrast between her negative and fear based vision of life with a handicapped child and a recently uncovered email written by former Governor Sarah … Read More
Everyone Has the Right to Pursue Happiness
It’s one of the fundamental human rights that our founding fathers here in the US formally recognized in our Declaration of Independence. And, yet, so many human beings here and throughout the world are judged by someone else’s standard of happiness and snuffed out (denied their other most basic human right to life) and never given the chance to pursue … Read More
Most Paralyzed People are Happy to be Alive
Peter Saunders wrote recently at the MercatorNet euthanasia blog about how television dramas make rare events appear common and so distort public opinion on key issues. He talked specifically about the UK soap opera Emmerdale which is involved in an assisted suicide plot line involving a young man who is paralyzed in a car accident and asks his mom to … Read More
Your Handicapped Child is a Blessing
I wish more families who have children diagnosed with Down syndrome and other diseases before birth would get advice like this instead of pressure to abort: In a related video, St. Josemaria talks about true “liberation” from suffering and the value of the prayers of sick people – the apostolate of suffering. On our retreat last week, the priest said … Read More
Abbie Dorn: a Glimmer of Hope and Prayers for an Even Brighter Future
Last year I highlighted the story of Abbie Dorn (shown here with her mother, niece and nephew in 2010), a mother who was severely brain damaged after giving birth to triplets. Her story is terrible on a few different levels. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Abbie’s husband, Dan, abandoned her not long after her brain injury, which left … Read More