respectlifetoday

40 Days for Life begins in 4 weeks with a record number of cities taking part!

This fall a 238 cities in 6 countries will take part in the National 40 Days for Life campaign.  Three of those locations are in or close to our diocese - Trenton, Cherry Hill and Tom's River.    Please consider giving an hour of your time, once a week for 6 weeks, to help save lives.      If you've never prayed in front of an abortion clinic before, now is the time.   Go to 40daysforlife.com for details.                                                                                                                                                   
The following is from an e-mail from Shawn Carney, the Director of the National Campaign.
           Effie

It's official!

The news release was just sent out:

http://christiannewswire.com/news/5046114776.html

40 Days for Life begins four weeks from TODAY and this campaign is a record-setter ... already!

Before you click on the list of cities, here's the rundown on the fall 40 Days for Life campaign:

* 238 locations (the most ever!)

* 46 US states

* 6 Canadian provinces

* Australia, Denmark, Northern Ireland

* Many new cities ... including London, England!

The full list of locations for the 40 Days for Life campaign has just been posted at:

http://www.40daysforlife.com/location.cfm

This campaign will run from September 22 - October
31 and will be the largest and longest coordinated pro-life mobilization in history ...

... and you can help save lives by getting involved TODAY!

Here's what to do:

1) Go to the list of 40 Days for Life locations:
   http://www.40daysforlife.com/location.cfm
 
2) Using the map, or the list of locations, click
   on the site that is closest to where you live.
 
3) You will be redirected to the web page for
   that local 40 Days for Life campaign.
 
4) On that local web page, SIGN UP with your name
   and e-mail address to get involved and help
   save lives!

That's it!

You will then receive information on the plans for your nearby 40 Days for Life campaign, and how you can help make an impact locally.

Here's a quick list of the blessings that God has provided through six previous coordinated 40 Days for Life campaigns:

*  350,000 have joined to pray and fast for an
   end to abortion

*  11,500 church congregations have participated
   in the 40 Days for Life campaigns

*  2,811 lives reported as spared from abortion --
   and those are just the ones we know about
  
*  35 abortion workers have quit their jobs and
   walked away from the abortion industry
  
*  6 abortion facilities completely shut down
   following local 40 Days for Life campaigns

*  Women have been spared from the effects of
   abortion, including a lifetime of regrets
  
*  850 news stories have been featured in radio
   shows, newspapers, magazines and TV programs 
  
*  Women and men with past abortion experiences have
   begun post-abortion healing and recovery

*  After 37 years of legalized abortion, people of
   faith are experiencing a renewed sense of HOPE!

I'm excited and am really looking forward to what God will do this fall ...

... and I'm personally inviting YOU to be a part of it!

Blessings,

Shawn Carney
Campaign Director
40 Days for Life

PS: If you've already signed up with a local 40 Days for Life campaign before, you will not be added to the list a second time -- our system automatically screens to prevent duplicates:

We cannot sit back

I usually do not read blogs that are attached to news stories, but I could not resist when I read the CNN news story entitled “Emergency Contraception Approved by FDA”. The FDA has approved a new prescription drug for “emergency pregnancy prevention” to be taken up to five days after unprotected sex.

 

As I read this blog I was appalled and then heartsick at the tone of the “conversation”. There were so many things in those 138 blogs that sickened and infuriated me that I don’t know where to begin.

 

First, the bloggers were so rude, to put it mildly, to each other it was almost too hard to wade through their disrespect. There was the usual debate about when conception begins and the difference between an abortion and this pill that “prevents” pregnancy and therefore prevents abortion. HUH? But, as you could have guessed, it quickly turned to anti abortionists, prolifers and ultimately Catholic and other religions bashing.

 

I was heartsick at the hatred that poured out of some of these bloggers. But my concern grew as I realized how uninformed and misinformed these bloggers were on the topic of “life”. Education can only go so far, when the culture we live in is one of self service, self love and disrespect. Pope John Paul II spoke of our culture of death, and this is the result of our descent into that pit.

 

Do I know there are many, many people that strive everyday to beat back this tide? Do I know there is a foothold, however slim I may think it is, on this war against the total disregard for any part of life? I do, and that is the hope I cling to. I know that many in the “prolife movement” become burned out only to take up the cause again and again because we can do nothing else.

 

We cannot sit back and hope someone else will do it. It remains our job as followers of Christ to live in and promote a culture of life. We must persevere, we must continue to not only educate our children, but to go against societal dictates and bring them to a full understanding of what it means to be Catholic, a world where all life is respected and revered as God’s creation, and assure them of God’s never failing love.

 

I think I will avoid news story blogs for the time being, I need time to recover from this one.

 

 

Susan 

News from around the world

Dutch woman arrested for committing infanticide without doctor approval    

A woman has been arrested for killing her four newborn children and packing their remains away in suitcases in the Netherlands - a country where infanticide is legal as long a doctor administers the dose.    

Florida abortionist suspended for the fourth time

He's been suspended for botched abortions, committing illegal late-term abortions, and dispensing drugs without a license.  In the past he also pled guilty to impending justice while being investigated for extortion.    Once this latest suspension is over, he will once again be permitted to practice medicine.  I wish we could say that this is an isolated case, but it's not.   We can find similar stories all over our country. 

Thousands have died in China and Pakistan due to flooding and landslides.   May God rest their souls.   May the intercession of Our Lady of the Assumption bring the survivors comfort, healing and hope.

Least we think everything is bad news, I'll leave you with these:

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/aug/10081316.html   The city of Chicago has dropped the charges against another pro-life who was arrested while peacefully praying in front of an abortion clinic.

Something beautiful to read

This one will give you hope for the future 

Effie  

Is anybody else getting tired yet?

In Kazakhstan children are being used to harvest tobacco.  Their workday begins at 4 AM and ends around midnight.     This is not an isolated event.   Child labor exists all over the globe.   As does human trafficking, and sexual slavery.   Human trafficking can even be found  here in the United States.   

Far too often the news from Iraq and Afghanistan is about people blowing up innocent people.   A few days ago a man in Connecticut who was fired for stealing returned with a gun and killed several of his co-workers.

In parts of India and Pakistan, South east Asia and the Middle East Christians have been persecuted and killed because of their faith.   "Civilized" countries in Western Europe aren't exactly easy places for Christians to practice their faith either.    Just last month in Illinois a professor who was teaching Catholic 101 was fired for ....... teaching about Catholicism.  He has been reinstated. 

Thousands of unborn children every day (millions every year) are killed - often in a manner so brutal that it would be considered inhumane if done to an adult or even to a dog.  Abortion supporters and activists try to hide the truth with words like like "choice" while trying to keep women from learning about a choice called life.   Unborn babies are dying, women's lives are being destroyed, as are men's.

  

The list of crimes that people do to one another goes on and on and on.   

It's easy to get tired, it's easy to get discouraged, it's easy to want to ignore the world and go live as a hermit somewhere.    But we can't do that.   We can't hide.   We have to be informed about what is going on in the world, in our own back yards.  

I found a great quote for those times when you wonder if you're doing enough, when you wonder if your little bit is making a difference, when you wonder what you should be doing. The quote is by John Henry Cardinal Newman: 

    

God has created me to do Him some definite service.  He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.  I have my mission - I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.  - John Henry Cardinal Newman

Effie   

For the priests who have touched my life

Today is the feast day of St. John Vianny, the patron saint of parish priests.    As a result, I'm going to repost (with some editing) something that I put on the blog last October.  

People sometimes wonder how a priest could possibly understand issues that lay people deal with.  As if celibacy has somehow taken away his ability to be caring or compassionate.  I'll tell you how he can understand.   He can understand because he has heard the pain, our pain.   He can understand because he has also felt pain, sometimes the same pain.   Priests don't choose celibacy because they hate the world, they choose it because they love the world - that means each of us. 

I once knew a priest who was confined to a wheelchair.  While he could no longer be an active priest there was one thing that he could still do, hear confssions.  He told me that it was a prvilege to be able to lift the burden of off people's shoulders.   Wanting to help lift, and even carry, that burden for us is a goal of every priest that I have been blessed to know.   

People who have had abortions carry a huge burden.   When we are dealing with pro-life issues it is easy to get so focused on saving babies that we forget about the millions of women and men who are suffering because of abortion.   But priests don't forget.   Priests are the ones (not planned parenthood, not abortion supporters) who reach out to those who are suffering because of abortion.   Priests are the ones who try to mend broken hearts and heal broken lives.   It is our priests, through their ministry, who bring us to the healing and mercy of Christ.

I know a priest who was adopted as a baby.   He is an incredible priest who my family has been blessed to have as a part of our lives.    We have gained so much thanks to a woman who many years ago said yes to life.  Society needs to realize that the decision to abort a baby does not only affect the woman, it affects all of us.   This priest once said that he had three mothers - his birth mother, his adopted mother, and the Blessed Mother.   I have been blessed, everyone who knows this priest has been blessed, because of the yes of all three of these women.  

To the mothers of all of the priests who have touched my life, thank you.  

One of my favorite Gospel passages is about Bartimaeus calling out to Jesus for healing.   The people in the crowd told him to be silent and not bother Jesus.   But Bartimaeus wouldn't stop calling out to Jesus for help.  Jesus heard him, came to him and healed him.  

Today it is our priests who are calling to us to come and receive the healing that Jesus is wants to give us.   Many times, for many reasons, we are the ones who tell the priest to be silent.   Maybe we're to busy, maybe we think we don't need or deserve to be healed, or maybe the priest isn't saying what we want to hear.    Whatever the reason it doesn't stop our priests from reaching out to us time and time again so that they can help us find the healing that Christ wants to give us.   A priest once told me that the most frustrating thing about his ministry is when people don't ask him for the help that he knows he can give them.  But that doesn't stop him from trying to reach out to people.

This post has been my long winded way of saying thank you to all of the priests who have given of themselves to help lift the burdens off of our shoulders. 

Thank you especially to those of you who have been there for me, who have challenged me, encouraged me, guided me, listened to me when I was upset, gave me a hug when I needed it,  laughed with me and sometimes laughed at me <s> .    I am blogging on this website because of a priest, I am active in ministry because of a priest, and I am growing closer to Christ because of a few priests.   For all the priests who have touched my life, thank you for the many times that you have led me to Christ through your words, your witness and the sacraments.   

My pastor once told me that it's good to have my convictions challanged.   Father you got it wrong.   What's good is knowing that you are always there for me, for all of us, when that happens

Let us keep our priests in our prayers today and every day.   Thank you Fathers.   You are appreciated more than you know.   

I will leave you with a quote from St. John Vianney: 

"The priest is not a priest for himself; he does not give himself absolution; he does not administer the Sacraments to himself. He is not for himself, he is for you."

Effie  

People sometimes wonder how a priest could possibly understand issues that lay people deal with.  As if celibacy has somehow taken away his ability to be caring or compassionate.  I'll tell you how he can understand.   He can understand because he has heard the pain, our pain.   He can understand because he has also felt pain, sometimes the same pain.   Priests don't choose celibacy because they hate the world, they choose it because they love the world - that means each of us. 

I once knew a priest who was confined to a wheelchair.  While he could no longer be an active priest there was one thing that he could still do, hear confssions.  He told me that it was a prvilege to be able to lift the burden of off people's shoulders.   Wanting to help lift, and even carry, that burden for us is a goal of every priest that I have been blessed to know.   

People who have had abortions carry a huge burden.   When we are dealing with pro-life issues it is easy to get so focused on saving babies that we forget about the millions of women and men who are suffering because of abortion.   But priests don't forget.   Priests are the ones (not planned parenthood, not abortion supporters) who reach out to those who are suffering because of abortion.   Priests are the ones who try to mend broken hearts and heal broken lives.   It is our priests, through their ministry, who bring us to the healing and mercy of Christ.

I know a priest who was adopted as a baby.   He is an incredible priest who my family has been blessed to have as a part of our lives.    We have gained so much thanks to a woman who many years ago said yes to life.  Society needs to realize that the decision to abort a baby does not only affect the woman, it affects all of us.   This priest once said that he had three mothers - his birth mother, his adopted mother, and the Blessed Mother.   I have been blessed, everyone who knows this priest has been blessed, because of the yes of all three of these women.  

To the mothers of all of the priests who have touched my life, thank you.  

One of my favorite Gospel passages is about Bartimaeus calling out to Jesus for healing.   The people in the crowd told him to be silent and not bother Jesus.   But Bartimaeus wouldn't stop calling out to Jesus for help.  Jesus heard him, came to him and healed him.  

Today it is our priests who are calling to us to come and receive the healing that Jesus is wants to give us.   Many times, for many reasons, we are the ones who tell the priest to be silent.   Maybe we're to busy, maybe we think we don't need or deserve to be healed, or maybe the priest isn't saying what we want to hear.    Whatever the reason it doesn't stop our priests from reaching out to us time and time again so that they can help us find the healing that Christ wants to give us.   A priest once told me that the most frustrating thing about his ministry is when people don't ask him for the help that he knows he can give them.  But that doesn't stop him from trying to reach out to people.

This post has been my long winded way of saying thank you to all of the priests who have given of themselves to help lift the burdens off of our shoulders. 

Thank you especially to those of you who have been there for me, who have challenged me, encouraged me, guided me, listened to me when I was upset, gave me a hug when I needed it,  laughed with me and sometimes laughed at me <s> .    I am blogging on this website because of a priest, I am active in ministry because of a priest, and I am growing closer to Christ because of a few priests.   For all the priests who have touched my life, thank you for the many times that you have led me to Christ through your words, your witness and the sacraments.   

My pastor once told me that it's good to have my convictions challanged.   Father you got it wrong.   What's good is knowing that you are always there for me, for all of us, when that happens

Let us keep our priests in our prayers today and every day.   Thank you Fathers.   You are appreciated more than you know.   

I will leave you with a quote from St. John Vianney: 

"The priest is not a priest for himself; he does not give himself absolution; he does not administer the Sacraments to himself. He is not for himself, he is for you."

Effie