This blog is my attempt to faithfully live and proclaim the Gospel of Life. It is my answer to the call for a New Evangelization for the greater glory of God.
Today is Michaelmas Day, the feast of St. Michael the Archangel. This day holds particular interest to me because St. Michael the Archangel is my patron saint. Let us remember St. Michael the Archangel as we pray.
Saint Michael the Archangel, Defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; And do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
Please contact the New York City Council immediately at (212) 788-7116 or use the online form posted at: http://snipurl.com/3vsoy
Ask them to stop the proposed "clinic access" bill that attempts to silence 40 Days for Life and other pro-life efforts. ****************************************************
Link Abortion Proponents' Clinic Proposal Attacks Peaceful 40 Days for Life vigils in New York Contact: Amber Dolle, 40 Days for Life, 804-852-2979
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 /Christian Newswire/ --"It's no coincidence that on the opening day of this fall's nationwide 40 Days for Life campaign, a New York city council member joined with prominent abortion advocacy groups at city hall to propose sweeping new legislation designed to stifle peaceful pro-life expression on the streets of the nation's largest city," said David Bereit, national campaign director of 40 Days for Life. "This proposal flies in the face of both freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and reasonable New Yorkers won't tolerate it."
The proposal would create 15-foot buffer zones around "reproductive health care facilities" and seems to target, among others, Chris Slattery, who directs 40 Days for Life campaigns in the Bronx and Queens and has a history of effective pro-life activism as president of Expectant Mother Care-EMC FrontLine Pregnancy Centers.
Under the plan, clinics would be permitted to file harassment charges against anyone within the 15-foot area without even having to prove intent. "This legislation is clearly intended to harass and intimidate peaceful people who are often simply standing and praying; when they do speak to women outside the facilities, they're not 'harassing' anyone," said Bereit. "The simple fact is that telling people the truth about abortion is detrimental for the clinics' business."
"These mostly volunteer street counselors," agreed Slattery, "often hurt abortion businesses by successfully and peacefully dissuading abortion patients from entering their sites when offered free help, education, medical care and housing."
The legislative proposal was announced at a news conference that included representatives of Planned Parenthood, NARAL, the New York Civil Liberties Union and Dr. Emily's Women's Health Center - an abortion corporation whose Bronx location is the site of a 40 Days for Life prayer vigil.
Slattery says he will vigorously oppose the legislation. "Within minutes of learning of this new proposed bill on Wednesday, I contacted David Bereit, and we have begun assembling a crack legal team and activist support network for a full scale counter-attack against this unfair, biased and blatantly unconstitutional bill," he said.
The 40 Days for Life campaign is a community-based effort that is going on in more than 170 cities from coast to coast. It began September 24 and continues through November 2.
40 Days for Life starts this Wednesday, September 24th. Please consider joining me in participating in 40 Days for Life. This is the first time I have heard of this campaign and I am very excited to participate for the first time. In order to participate you may do one or all of three things: Pray and fast, prayer and vigil outside a Planned Parenthood center or abortion clinic, and community outreach. Please visit the website and read more about this great campaign for life. In addition to the three things listed above, I encourage you to sign up to receive daily emails about 40 Days for Life and participate in the daily devotional. You can find all this information on the website. Prayer is very powerful and with your help, we can end abortion. We are already seeing great things happening. Talk with people in your church and in your community. Spread the word about 40 days for life. God bless!
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Prayer and fasting
As you prepare for the fall 40 Days for Life campaign (September 24 - November 2), please remember that prayer and fasting are the foundation. If there is no abortion facility in your town, praise God! But wherever you are or whatever you're doing, you can pray to end abortion. And you can pray for God's guidance for those involved in prayer vigils and pro-life action around the country.
Also please consider fasting. Some people are unable to fast from food for health reasons; that's understandable. Fasting simply involves renouncing an activity that can put a barrier between you and God. It could be television, the internet, chocolate, coffee, etc. You really can do without it. Take the time you usually spend in those activities and give it back to God.
To help guide your prayer, we have a 40-day series of devotionals that accompany the 40 Days for Life campaign. They are all posted for your convenience. You can still pray, even if a formal campaign is not currently being conducted. God will use your 40-day commitment to prayer in some way, in some fashion.
Specific prayer requests are also included in the 40 Days for Life e-mail updates. Please use the form on this page to receive these important messages.
Constant vigil
The visible, public centerpiece of 40 Days for Life is a 40-day, round-the-clock prayer vigil outside a Planned Parenthood center or other abortion facility in your community.
It is a peaceful and educational presence. Those who are called to stand witness, this 24-hour-a-day presence send a powerful message to the community about the tragic reality of abortion. It also serves as a call to repentance for those who work at the abortion center and those who patronize the facility.
If you do not have an abortion facility or Planned Parenthood office in your town, you can still conduct 40 Days for Life. However, you will need to select a different location which has some strategic significance ... perhaps near city hall, a courthouse, or a highly visible intersection.
Community outreach
During 40 Days for Life, the pro-life message is proactively taken to every corner of your community.
A door-to-door petition and education drive reaches out to every household in your town or city. Informational flyers are distributed in neighborhoods to raise awareness about the local crisis of abortion. Citizens are invited to sign a petition of support for the sanctity of human life, and people are given the opportunity to visibly show their support for 40 Days for Life by wearing wristbands, placing signs in their yards, or displaying bumper stickers on their vehicles.
This one activity alone can help a community rapidly identify hundreds, or even thousands, of pro-life supporters during the 40 days. These people can then be encouraged to pray and join in local pro-life efforts.
Church involvement begins by meeting with local pastors, other church leaders, and members of different congregations. The Body of Christ is invited to pray together and participate in 40 Days for Life, uniting in one focused mission that can save lives and make an eternal impact.
Media outreach is conducted through carefully targeted news stories, talk shows, editorials, and letters to the editor. This enables you to get the pro-life message out to many people who would never see the inside of a local church.
If your community has a college campus, many students can be impacted through an intense 40-day campus outreach. This can consist of flyer raids, sidewalk chalking, petition drives, table displays, and much more.
The thought that a man who would make the following comments could be our next president is very frightening to me! ----------------------------------------- "If [my daughters] make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."
Q: Do you personally believe that life begins at conception?
A: This is something that I have not come to a firm resolution on. I think it's very hard to know what that means, when life begins. Is it when a cell separates? Is it when the soul stirs? So I don't presume to know the answer to that question.
Read More ---------------- He also supports teaching sex education to KINDERGARTENERS... these kids don't even know how to read yet! Terrible! Obama is Terribly wrong on practically every single important social issue of our time. We can not let this man become president.
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ABC News' Teddy Davis and Lindsey Ellerson Report: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told Planned Parenthood Tuesday that sex education for kindergarteners, as long as it is "age-appropriate," is "the right thing to do."
"I remember Alan Keyes . . . I remember him using this in his campaign against me," Obama said in reference to the conservative firebrand who ran against him for the U.S. Senate in 2004. Sex education for kindergarteners had become an issue in his race against Keyes because of Obama’s work on the issue as chairman of the health committee in the Illinois state Senate.
"'Barack Obama supports teaching sex education to kindergarteners,'" said Obama mimicking Keyes' distinctive style of speech. "Which -- I didn’t know what to tell him (laughter)."
"But it’s the right thing to do," Obama continued, "to provide age-appropriate sex education, science-based sex education in schools."
If you have troubles viewing the video clip, you can get details on this website. Remember to pray for the unborn and those lost to abortion. God bless! http://www.bornalivetruth.com/
Before I get into my post about Christian responsibility, I'd like to say a quick prayer for those affected by Hurricane Ike.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.Heavenly Father, please look over those people who have been affected by Hurricane Ike over the weekend. Bless them and keep them safe.Many areas are without power and several have no home to go back to and are struggling to find basic necessities of life such as food.May these people find strength by turning to you during this difficult time and touch the hearts of those who have not been effected so that we do all that we can to comfort those in need.We ask through Christ our Lord.Amen.
As good Christians, we have a responsibility and an obligation to make it a lifelong quest to know our faith well and share its truths with others.We should strive for Christian unity.Jesus established one church and although it is now been divided several thousand of times, we all believe in the same, one God.We can contribute to Christian unity through prayer, study of our faith, communication with other denominations and religions, and through cooperation.Remember in one of my previous posts that we must do all things with love.Acting as if one is superior to another is not the correct way to spread the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We do not have the ability to offer salvation to others, but we do have the ability and responsibility of leading all towards salvation: towards Jesus Christ.Only through God can we be saved, but we can help lead people to Jesus.We must do this.Since humans have been given the gift of free will, we can not force people to accept God.We are not to slam a bible over someone's head.We can quote scripture all day, but if we do not teach with love in our hearts we will not be able to lead people to God.What we as Christians must do is to provide others every opportunity to accept, know and love God.
We are on this earth to prepare ourselves so that we may be worthy to enter the kingdom of Heaven AND to help lead others toward that same goal.In order to do this, we must first educate ourselves and continue to educate ourselves in our faith.We are on a lifelong journey toward Heaven and this requires constant work to better ourselves.We must be an example that others can see and want to follow.It reminds me of the church hymn that includes the line, "They will know we are Christians by our love."This is very true.If we live good Christian lives, our great happiness and joy should shine brightly to others.Everyone is searching for happiness, but many never truly find it.This is because they don’t know and love God, who is the very source of happiness.Christians know that they don't need "things" to be happy, but our happiness comes from the fulfillment and joy stemming from a life of service to God and to others.Our example of service to God and others is a good start for us to begin our lifelong responsibility to lead others and keep ourselves focused on God.
Simply living a selfless life is not enough.We must look for opportunities to evangelize and act when those opportunities present themselves.We don't evangelize by force but through love.Remember that evil can only triumph in the world if good people do nothing.It is not enough to know what is right and wrong.If we see something that is wrong and we do nothing, we are responsible for the sins of others since we knew they were wrong and did nothing.We must take action and be an active participant in important decisions in the work place, in our homes, and on the streets.We must live our lives not simply stay alive.We have every reason to live our lives with passion and enthusiasm because we know that through God we can be saved.This is a wonderful thing!If we keep these things in mind, people will come in droves to see what it is that makes us such a happy and loving group of people.They will come in droves to learn the Truth.They will come in droves seeking to know, love and serve the Lord and one another.They will come and it is our duty to lead them toward that understanding.We are to love God and our neighbor above all other things.Do all things with love and in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and people will follow.God bless!
Am I truly living or am I simply surviving?This is a question we should ask ourselves from time to time.We have not been brought into this world simply to survive.While living and surviving are closely tied, there is a distinct difference between the two.Obviously we must survive in order to live, but must we live in order to survive?Survival requires us to be alive in a physical sense, but living has a deeper meaning than simply our physical presence.It is true that to be alive means that we are not dead, but we can be mentally or spiritually dead and yet still be alive physically.To be truly alive in a mental and spiritual sense we must pursue a positive, satisfying existence.The definition of a positive, satisfying existence could mean different things to different people.In my opinion, this means that we must seek God in our daily lives.After all, God is the source of all that is good in the world.God is the source of our happiness.God is love.If we do not actively pursue to know and love God, we will always feel emptiness.We will feel abandoned and alone, but God never abandons us.We may think that He does, but really it is just a lack of understanding on our part.Surviving is not good enough for us.We are not like the other animals of the world.We were made in the image and likeness of God.We seek more than simply survival on this earth.We seek eternal life in heaven.So we must frequently ask ourselves whether or not we are simply surviving or are we living our life according to God’s will?This living does not require physical wellness or material wealth.To be truly alive is something all of us can achieve regardless of the significance of our earthly standing.In fact, often times material wealth and physical wellness lead us to complacency and may lead us to a life devoid of truly living.Think about everything I have said about living and then read the following quote I have heard or read from an old acquaintance.This is a very common feeling among many people in relationships of all stages.
“I got so caught up living for someone else and forgot to live for myself”
Have you ever felt this way?Have you ever said or thought something like this?I bet you have at least at some point in your life.I have.Maybe I didn’t say the same exact quote, but I think we all at times reach a point where we think we’ve had enough.We work so hard for someone or something and we don’t see a return.Maybe we do something nice for someone and we don’t receive thanks for our deed.We might be inclined then to no longer do good deeds for that person.After all, that person does not appreciate what I do for them than why should I do anything?
The answer is love.We do it out of love.If we can’t understand that, then we don’t know what love truly is and we won’t understand why relationships crumble when adversity strikes.I believe one of the main reasons we have such a high divorce rate in the U.S. and in the world is because we don’t really know what love is.If we all truly knew and understood what love is, we would not make comments like the one above.If we want to know what love is, all we have to do is look at a crucifix.God is love.The very life of Jesus Christ is the definition of love.All we have to do is follow his example.Granted it is not always easy, but when we fall we have the opportunity to recognize our sinfulness and turn back to God.He is always willing to forgive us sinners who sincerely repent and ask for strength to overcome our sinfulness.In the course of our lives we will be presented with difficulties and hardships.We will encounter disappointment, failure and sadness.All of us will suffer at some point in our life.How we respond to our sufferings defines our character.If we are living a life only for ourselves, it is as if we are walking through life with deaf ears and one eye closed.We will not be able to react reasonably when we encounter difficult times.We will not be able to see the bigger picture, the greater importance of our life.How said it would be if we were on this earth to live a life for ourselves?Think about that!No wonder so many people are depressed.That’s a really sad outlook on life.
The fact of the matter is that we are not on this earth to live for ourselves, but to live for others and for God!When I hear people say they forgot to live for themselves, I pray to God that I may never forget the importance of living my life for others and for God.I’m not saying this is easy.It is in our nature to look after our own best interests.Capitalism is based on this very notion.It is not wrong to take care of ourselves, but when we live solely in order to fulfill our own wants we are not following Jesus’ example.
I am going to repeat the comment in question and when you read it a second time, I want you to focus your thought on Jesus.Read this comment and think about the life of Jesus.Think about how much he sacrificed and suffered for others.Think about his reaction to those who persecuted him and nailed him to a cross.Take a look at a crucifix and tell me if you agree with this basis for living your life.
“I got so caught up living for someone else and forgot to live for myself”
As followers of Christ, we must follow his example.If we follow Him we will discover love.We will not simply survive, but we will discover what it truly means to live!
