“Be
fore I formed you in the womb I knew you.”
Jeremiah 1:5
That is simply awesome.
He knew all that would happen to me…
He knew me.
He knows me.
It is awesome.
Indeed.
It is a great blasphemy to destroy life, to abuse life, it is the ultimate rejection of God and His eternal plan of salvation.
I’ve been going through a lot these past months. At night I sleep with St. Therese’ reliquary next to my bed. I simply ask her to pray for me - nothing else. Today, when I visited Roman Catholic Blog, I saw this post, and it seemed it came straight from Little Therese herself:
Seven Disguises In Which God Frequently Sends His Graces
In the disguise of ingratitude from friends.
In the disguise of being misunderstood.
In the disguise of failure.
In the disguise of being dishonored.
In the disguise of sickness.
In the disguise of poverty.
In the disguise of our daily work.
Our Lord isn’t anxious for us to suffer so let’s not complain to Him any more than is necessary! He sees us in our misery and looks forward to our final victory. If we could only appreciate the great work He’s doing in preparing these crosses for us. - St. Thérèse of Lisieux
“The suffering endured for God are the greatest proof of our love for Him” - Saint Alphonsus Ligouri - Roman Catholic Blog
Today is a day of penance and prayer in the United States, on this the anniversary of Roe v Wade.
It is also the day when Right to Life advocates gather in Washington. Although, media pretty much ignores the event.
For a long time I did as well. I just didn’t think about contraception or abortion. I was celibate. While for years I believed as I was told - it was a woman’s choice - after all, men don’t have babies.
In 1996, I watched a documentary by the Swedish film-maker, Lennart Nilsson, entitled “Miracle of Life” on PBS. It is the most astonishing documentary I have ever watched. It is filmed inside the woman’s body. Filming takes place during the act of intercourse, filming the moment of ejaculation to that of the sperm uniting with the egg and so on. We see a single cell embryo, developing before our eyes into the foetus, growing into a fully developed infant, culminating in birth.
The film was an epiphany for me. Not only did I witness the end purpose of sexual intercourse, I understood how the pursuit of sexual pleasure, in any other fashion, is simply unnatural and a perversion of God’s gift of sexuality. This of course has become obscured in our contraceptive age, which has resulted in many people thinking sex is just another form of recreational pleasure. As a result of viewing the film, I no longer could see how anyone would approve of any sexual deviancy after viewing the complementarity of the male and female bodies, engaged in the beautiful act of love and procreation.
My greatest revelation came about as I understood that the single cell embryo was indeed a human being, a real person - I knew it because I actually watched the person develop! I came to understand the evils of contraception and that abortion is the murder of a living human being. It completely changed my thinking.
Since then, I’ve seen the gruesome photos of aborted babies, along with the horrible illustrations of what a partial birth abortion is. They are indeed effective and mighty revealing of the horrors of our Nations silent holocaust. Nevertheless, in our day and age, when sex is equated with pornography, I believe we also need to teach and show the real meaning of the sexual act, as well as it’s place in society. This documentary might be an added tool for that purpose.
(Note: I never again saw the film on PBS - Although it is available on line and at Amazon. I assume it is now used as a teaching aid, which is good.)
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