Had a beautiful weekend with my dad (seen here with me) and stepmother in the Northern Neck section of Virginia. Now it's off to speak in Dublin for the second time since June (contact the John Paul II Centre there for details) and to speak in London for the first time ever (at the historic Farm Street Church). It's all to promote my book, The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On. My friend Henrietta G. Tavish will be filling in here at The Dawn Patrol while I'm gone — today through October 9 — and I will try to give updates from the road when I can.
I arrived home tonight after a mini-vacation and found dozens of e-mails from people who had seen me on EWTN's "Life on the Rock." Many of them were forwarded to me by the show's producer; they were viewers' questions that could not be answered on the air due to time constraints.
Because I leave tomorrow night for several days of speaking appearances in Dublin and London, I am sorry that I will be unable to answer most of those e-mails — or indeed much of my huge backlog of unanswered messages — until I return on October 9. However, one question that was sent in to EWTN jumped out at me, and I would like to answer it now:
How do you heal the scars of sin? Thanks.
-Daniel
Dear Daniel,
Thank you for your profound question. Because I am short on time, I will try to answer it as concisely I would have were I asked it on "Life on the Rockjavascript:void(0)." However, it is deserving of a book of its own, and perhaps readers may suggest relevant books in the comments section. (One that I would suggest, which I am currently reading for the first time, is Fulton J. Sheen's Lift Up Your Heart.)
There are two kinds of scars: the ones on the outside, which are visible to everyone, and the ones on the inside, which are known only to you.
The scars of sin on the outside are the things that other people know about your past behavior. These, sadly, cannot be changed. You can choose to limit what you share about them; not everyone has to know everything about you. But if others already know what you have done, then the only thing you can do is resolve every day to show them — and, more importantly, God — that you are no longer who you were.
Even if you become a new creation in Christ, some people who know your scars will never let you live them down. It is very hard to deal with that kind of rejection. I can only tell you that not everyone is like that. As you continue on your path of regeneration, you will eventually find friends who are understanding and forgiving. In the meantime, offer up your sufferings to Jesus on behalf of the very people whose judgmentalism causes you to suffer. If you do so, I believe with all my heart that you will receive graces.
The scars of sin that are on the inside may hurt just as much as the ones on the outside, but there is much more that you can do to heal them. While they may never disappear completely, they will diminish greatly if you apply the right medicine — confession, prayer, spiritual direction, and corporal works of mercy.
Corporal works of mercy are important because, as their name implies, they are a kind of prayer that you can do with your whole body — visiting the sick; giving food, drink, clothing, and shelter to the needy, and helping others who are unable to help themselves. While confession removes the stain of sin from your soul, I believe that any good works one does with one's body helps one heal from the lingering emotional effects of sins committed with the body.
The most important thing to remember is that God promises that if you delight yourself in Him, He shall give you the desires of your heart. That means that He will heal you. What's more, we have His word that, should we join Him in Heaven, He will wipe away all tears from our eyes.
The following prayer request was sent by my friend Steve to his friends — please pray for his mom and all his family:
My mother, Margaret, has been hospitalized since last Wednesday. So far, she's been diagnosed with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). This has been my Mom's most serious and long-lasting hospitalization in many years. She sounded OK when I talked to her this evening, but I do believe she tends to try and keep me and my sisters from worrying. My Dad is with her and being good to her, and it sounds like her physicians are pretty sharp.
Whatever you think of me, my mother is a wonderful woman, and I am very close to her. Even if you don't pray, or believe in prayer, any positive thought you spare is appreciated. At the moment it's all I know to do.
"Rock" Around the Clock A Guest Post by Henrietta G. Tavish
Dawn's appearance last night on EWTN's "Life on the Rock" is now available online at the network's Website. Just go to the Streaming Video and Audio page, and click on the "View" link next to "Life on Rock" under the "Archived Video in RealVideo" category in the left column. The show should also be available for podcasting shortly here.
Update: For those who prefer the big(ger) screen experience, EWTN will present an encore presentation of Dawn's interview on its television network on Sunday, September 30, at 11:00 p.m. est.
This morning, I leave for Birmingham, Ala., to appear on EWTN's "Life on the Rock" at 8 p.m. Eastern time tonight. It is a true thrill of the chaste to appear on the premier prime-time show of Mother Angelica's network. Naturally, I am nervous and excited, and would be very grateful for your prayers. If you do not have EWTN at home, you can watch the show live on the network's Web site. Go to the "Television" tab there and then click on "Live TV."
If you are reading this after 8 p.m., then hopefully it is because I piqued your interest about my book, and not because I became the first-ever "Life on the Rock" guest to have an on-air coronary or something. Normally, this blog contains posts about whatever's on my mind that day (usually related to pro-life or chastity issues), but today I've filled it with posts about my book, The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On, for those interested in learning more after seeing me on the show.
If you're in Dublin, Ireland, or London, England, come to one of my talks as I tour there beginning next week:
October 3
Speak to Newman Society, University College Dublin, 1 p.m.
October 4
Debate, University College Dublin, 7 p.m.
October 6 and 7
Theology of the Body conference, Dublin. Contact the John Paul II Centre for details on this or any of my other Dublin appearances.
October 8
Speak at Farm Street Church, London, 7 p.m.
* * *
I will be posting only sporadically between now and October 10. My friend Henrietta G. Tavish will likely check in with occasional posts and updates on my tour. Thanks very much for your prayers, support, and readership.
"The fruits of this accepted single-woman lifestyle resemble those of a drug habit more than a dating paradigm. In a vicious cycle, women feel lonely because they are not loved, so they have casual sex with men who do not love them."
Now it can be told: This was taped in the photo studio of New York Daily News photographer Thomas Monaster, unbeknownst to him (but with the kind permission of my then-employer's photo desk). Coincidentally, Monaster took some classic photos of the video's inspiration.
One night last January, in the basement of a Lower East Side bar called Lolita, New York City's Jinx Society hosted a debate between me and Virginia Vitzthum (at left in this video clip), author of a book on hooking up through the personals. The topic: "Is Chastity a Good Idea for Singles?"
My appearance on EWTN's live "Life on the Rock" is tomorrow, 8 p.m. Eastern time. If you can't get it on cable or satellite, you can watch it via the "television" tab on EWTN.com. Topics slated for discussion include The Thrill of the Chaste and my work as director of the Cardinal Newman Society's Love and Responsibility program. I am very excited about making the trip to the network's Birmingham, Ala., HQ and being on the popular, long-running show.
A Kentucky TV station has the story of 10-month-old Ava Grace Milam, whom doctors wanted aborted because, they claimed, they expected she would be capable of nothing but "existing." Now, she is doing much more than just staying alive — and parents hope she will do even better with a treatment of stem cells from umbilical-cord blood.
More from WBKO (emphasis mine):
Ava Grace Milam weighed less than four pounds when she was born because of a fetal stroke.
Fetal strokes are so rare that according to a Yale University study, only 54 cases have been reported in the last 25 years. ...
Tami Milam named her daughter Ava Grace because it sounds like "Amazing Grace."
Ava suffered a stroke while she was still in her mother's womb.
"They didn't know at the time how bad, but they knew it was bad," Milam said.
Doctors found blood in Ava's brain and her body had stopped growing after the stroke.
"They [the doctors] asked for an abortion because they didn't know if she'd be able to do much more because of brain damage," Milam admitted.
Instead, Ava's parents gave their daughter a chance at life and she has beaten the odds.
"She shows emotion. They said she wouldn't be able to do that--that she would just exist, is what they told us," she continued.
Ava laughs, cries and eats like normal babies, even though doctors had predicted she'd need a feeding tube.
But the stroke did affect Ava's speech and movement, and at ten months old, she still can't crawl or push herself up.
She is also showing signs of cerebral palsy.
"That's all I'm asking for is a chance--a chance to live and not to just stay like this for the rest of her life," Milam said.
That chance will come in the form of umbilical cord stem cell treatment .
The match will be made in California and the injection done in Mexico because the procedure isn't approved by the FDA.
Milam says for Grace, she's willing to do whatever it takes.
"Because life is so much more than this, and I want her to experience all of this," Milam assured.
The stem cell injections will cost the Milam family $16,000.
If you'd like to donate to help baby Ava, you can contribute to the Ava Grace Milam Fund at any South Central Bank.
I do not know whether the treatment Ava's parents seek for their daughter is considered safe, so I'd advise using your own discretion in choosing whether to donate towards the procedure. The point to note here is that this is just one of countless cases where doctors urged abortion because of a worrisome prenatal diagnosis — one which proved to be wrong.
Another question, of course, is whether any human being should have the right to deny another human being existence, even if that existence is nothing more than the gift of life itself. Which is to say, even if it is everything.
11:52 PM |
Prayer request
Please pray for reader Del, who writes in response to an interview where I talked about my firing from the New York Post:
I was really glad to read your story on LifeSiteNews. I needed to see that today, especially the account of your firing from the NY Post.
I have just learned that I am under investigation by my employer's HR team, for handing out Miraculous Medals to selected coworkers. (I've been doing this for months... so they have plenty of evidence. I even gave YOU a Medal once, at the Chesterton Conference.)
I could use some prayers. Thanks for reminding me to appeal to our good friend, St. Maximilian Kolbe. If you will say a prayer for me, I would be most appreciative.
And please present my need to your prayer circle of single women with Apostolates [the Edel Quinn Prayer Circle]. I would like to keep my job and my apostolate, too.
If you have legal advice or prayers for Del, you can reach him via the e-mail address he left on his comment. I'd recommend he contact the ACLJ.
10:35 AM |
London calling
I am thrilled, elated, exhilarated —and every other related word in the thesaurus — to report that I will be giving my first-ever London talk on The Thrill of the Chaste Monday, October 8. The Hermeneutic of Continuity has the details. Watch this space for an itinerary of my Dublin dates as well. For now, got to catch a train to speak at Seton Hall ...
Was out unexpectedly late tonight, so must get sleep. Will post my Dublin and London tour dates in a.m.
If you need some reading material in the meantime, Julie "Bible Girl" Lyons, editor of the Dallas Observer, has published my conversion story. (For the Catholic part, you'll have to go to LifeSiteNews.)
No, I don't know what this song, "Pentecost Hotel," is about — except that it's not Christian. Post-Christian, yes; Christian, no. I do know that it was my favorite song during the summer of 1994, when my peers were listening to the other rock band called Nirvana. And it's still got the most beautiful melody and arrangement of any "rock" tune before or since (far more beautiful than the lyrics deserve), which is no doubt why it still is able to make me sad.
"As I thought more about Sally Field's remarks I realized that she's typecasting women just like Betty Friedan stereotyped women in the suburbs of 1950s and '60s.
"Field got caught somewhere in the midst of her various television and movie roles. Her Gidget and Flying Nun characters epitomized the warm, fuzzy, trite characterization of women that the feminists decried. Make no mistake, Field has played a lot of strong characters, but she's throwing it all away to suggest that all women really are like women in Gidget-land. And if we were in charge, there would be no wars and nothing bad would happen. Unfortunately, Gidget wasn't a particularly deep character; so Field communicated strength by screaming at the audience and using a little vulgarity. How very unGidget-like. How very unwomanly. How weak. If anything, her lack of control personifies the 'little woman' who really shouldn't trouble her head about important things, especially things like war."
Last week, I did back-to-back speaking dates promoting The Thrill of the Chaste at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., and the University of California, Berkeley. Here are a few notes on Boone; I'll finish them and add some reminiscences of Berkeley tomorrow.
Located 3,300 feet up in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Boone, North Carolina, home of Appalachian State University, is a quirky combination of strip mall and Shangri-La. Gorgeous scenery and crisp mountain air is countered by ubiquitious signs of gentrification, like the new townhouse-style apartments that bulge out the side of one of the rocky inclines as though they're about to fall off.
"God stopped making dirt up here," remarks my host, Presbyterian pastor Brian Lowe, who heads the Hope Pregnancy Resource Center, referring to the scarcity of back yards.
There is plenty of green space on the App State campus, where I am warned by Brian and another local not to refer to the school in my talk as "appulAYshun." It's "appulATCHin."
My talk is advertised by green flyers bearing the headline that was used for Relevant magazine's profile of me:
Hmmm. I hope that when the students find out what my talk's actually about, they won't go after the egress.
I am speaking in the school's mammoth Farthing Auditorium. It is about the size of New York City's Town Hall, except that it seats about 200 more people. Or, rather, it would on another night; my crowd totals about 120. The organizers had hoped for more, but that's actually a good number in my opinion, even for a large school, considering that the students are coming of their own volition and not at professors' urgings.
What impresses me about the turnout at this and other talks I've given is that these collegians are really there to hear about chastity. (Despite my fears over the advertising, they know it's not a sex talk.) It shows that they feel uncomfortable or unsatisfied with the sexual "freedom" offered them by university life (which is quite cosmopolitan, despite the mountain location; App State is part of the liberal UNC system). One would be hard pressed to get 120 high-schoolers — who have yet to experience such freedom — to come to a talk about chastity that isn't required.
Navigating my way around the backstage and realizing I am the "star" is surreal. I can't quite figure out if I am in "This Is Spinal Tap" or "A Mighty Wind." Probably "Spinal Tap," as my challenge is to make chastity seem more modern than Stonehenge. But it's also "Mighty Wind"-like, in that, for the first time ever, I have an opening act — the lovely and kind Christian folk-rock singer Laura Kaufman.
Laura, her band (which includes her husband), and her crew give me warm words of encouragement as we wait in the wings. With a few minutes to go, I ask them if I can join them in prayer and we do one of those football-style huddles. They are good pray-ers, and their fellowship strengthens me as I prepare to take the dauntingly large stage.
Working on proposal for second book this weekend, hence holding off on Berkeley/Boone post. In the meantime, stop by commenter Uncle Jim's Second Chance and welcome him to the blogosphere. Speaking of Uncle Jim, congratulations to the new blogger's real-life nephew Dennis Schenkel, who just professed vows in advance of entering the transitional diaconate.
Typo Mars Planned Parenthood Press Release A guest satire by HENRIETTA G. TAVISH Special to The Dawn Patrol
AURORA, ILL, September 19 --Due to a clerical error, a Planned Parenthood press release neglected to note that its proposed Aurora clinic performs abortions – embarrassing the organization at a time it is embroiled in litigation over whether it will be able to satisfy the town's dire need for the popular procedure.
The press release stated that "[e]very day our health center is not open, more women go without Pap tests, birth control supplies, and breast exams" but did not make a single mention of abortion. The omission enraged local residents, nearly all of whom are clamoring for a facility to kill the unborn so that they will not be raised by the poor, teenagers, or their own grandchildren.
The regional Planned Parenthood President, Steve Trombley, said that he "could not fathom" how the word "abortion" was left off the press release. "From the beginning, we've been trying to assure Aurora that it will be the abortion capital of the world, but then this happens" he said. "We're proud of what we do, and hopefully in the future we'll be able to get the word out that we perform abortions, abortion, abortions."
The press release fiasco marks the second time the clinic's progress has been stalled by a typographical error. A similar mistake was made on an building permit application earlier this year, which neglected to reveal that the building would be occupied by the nation's largest abortion provider.
8:28 PM |
Prints' purple reign
My friend Drusilla sends news of a Web site offering "modest sewing patterns." She adds: "And the word must be broadcast that modest does not mean hideously frumpy!"
While I wholeheartedly agree, frumpiness appears to be beyond the concerns of the makers of the site. Judging by their references to Hutterites and Mennonites, they appear to be Anabaptists — not exactly the target audience of Glamour or even Wendy Shalit's prudently chic ModestyZone.
When I was at Berkeley this week, Mary Price, president of UC Berkeley's Lepanto League (seen introducing me at my talk Wednesday night), shared with me a local resident's reaction to news of the latest arrival in the student's family.
Mary is the third-oldest in her family. Her new baby brother, Theophilus, is her parents' eleventh child.
The fourth-year philosophy student told me that her family's jubilation over its newest member apparently baffles at least one fellow Berkeleyan. When the resident heard that the eleventh child had been born to the family, he or she said to Mary, "Isn't that a bit much?"
More on my recent talks later. And yes, that was me who wrote JMJ on the blackboard ...
[This entry, proposing a way to put the Internet to good use, originally appeared last May. I'm taking the opportunity to repost it for those who missed it because Father Charlie Donahue of UC Berkeley's Newman Hall complimented me it after I described its premise during my talk at the university Wednesday night.]
A reader writes that, his engagement having ended, he is now "back to the proverbial square 1 on another Web site, resigned to go through the whole process of being stood up, ignored, and made to jump through the same old hoops all over again."
I assume that he's talking about the experience of online personals, one which I know all too well. I wish I could say that I no longer belong to a personals site, but the last one I joined was like the "Catholic singles" version of a Roach Motel™. After charging me a small fortune for a "lifetime membership," it gave me no option to quit once I realized I was wasting my lifetime searching its membership. Now I am forever on the site's membership rolls as "temporarily inactive" — as though I plan at any moment to return to waste precious hours that I will never get back. No thanks.
My advice for anyone who is looking with dread at having to "go through the whole process" of online dating is to do an experiment, just for tonight.
During the time when you would normally sign on to a personals site and check your messages, don't; just let the messages sit. (Believe me, anyone who is truly interested in you will forgive you for taking a day to get back to them. If they fall in love with someone else in the meantime, you'll know it wasn't meant to be.)
Pick three requests from the first page of results. Click on each one, read the whole request, and then pray for the requester's intentions, according to God's will.
That's it.
I guarantee you that if you do that tonight, then tomorrow you will be closer to entering into a happy, lasting marriage than you would be if you spent the entire evening IMing someone on a personals site. What's more, you will be better prepared spiritually for meeting your spouse during the course of your everyday, non-websurfing life.
Will share a bit more about how my talks went — and maybe a photo or two — after I get some sleep. Many thanks to Henrietta for filling in during my absence. I'd like to hereby invite her to keep guestblogging as often as she'd like, since I will continue to be on tour for most of the next three weeks.
Killing Delayed is Killing Denied A Guest Post by HENRIETTA G. TAVISH
A federal judge has denied Planned Parenthood's motion for an injunction requiring the City of Aurora, Illinois to permit the immediate opening of its new abortion clinic. More at Jill Stanek.
My own sad conclusion that this victory will at best delay the opening by a few weeks. I hope I am wrong. But while Planned Parenthood does not have a legal right to lie to municipal authorities, it does have the (unfortunate) right to build its killing centers wherever the zoning code permits. A city cannot exclude it forever, regardless of what deception it may practice during its initial attempts to invade a community. A business which claims it is building an organic vegetable restaurant but instead constructs a pizzeria might have its opening delayed pending an investigation, but will likely be allowed to open in the end if the area is zoned to permit any sort of food establishment. As Aurora's code apparently permits any type of "health services" to be rendered so long as they are legal, Planned Parenthood will ultimately open shop. (Planned Parenthood, for its part, makes no distinction between eating organic vegetables, having an abortion, and running a red light, but that's another story).
Some solace may be taken in the fact that the delay may have saved some lives. No matter what happens, the protests will continue in Aurora and hopefully persuade more women to reject that most unfortunate of "choices." And the publicity may also awaken other communities who find this unwelcome intruder in their midst, and enable them to mobilize before it is too late.
4:04 PM |
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
PRAYER REQUEST UPDATE
I'm happy to report that the college student for whom I recently asked you to pray is holding on and showing improvement as of yesterday. Thank you for your prayers, and please continue to pray for her.
8:21 PM |
Planned Parenthood Announces Day of Prayer Against Parental Notification Laws
A guest satire by HENRIETTA G. TAVISH Special to The Dawn Patrol
AURORA, ILL, September 19 -- Following up on its "pro-faith, pro-family" Day of Prayer in support of an Aurora abortion clinic, Planned Parenthood has announced a similar vigil to beseech God to help abolish laws requiring that parents be notified before a clinic kills their unborn grandchildren.
"Our timeless and cherished faith traditions inform us that the sacred decision to bear a child should be between an unemancipated minor, her God and an indifferent twenty-something abortion clinic 'counselor,' " said Rev. May I. Killem. "While we deeply respect parents' rights to share their differing faith perspectives with their daughters, we pray that they, too, will respect our spiritual conviction that the decision to abort be made without their knowledge or input."
The abortion provider's Council of Clergy also asked God to give ministers and statutory rapists the strength to deliver young women across state lines in the event they lived in a jurisdiction whose legislators had not yet recognized the divine wisdom of barring parents from the family planning process.
The Council closed with a candlelit memorial to the millions of girls who know that their parents will just "kill" them if they come home pregnant. A special prayer was offered for Jennifer Harris, whose parents "killed" her when she was caught smoking, "killed" her when she totaled the family car, and then "killed" her yet again when she became pregnant. "On behalf of Planned Parenthood," they asked, "we pray for an end to the senseless killing of our children."
11:06 AM |
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Planned Parenthood Seeks End to "Abortion" Discrimination
A guest satire by HENRIETTA G. TAVISH
Special to The Dawn Patrol
WASHINGTON, DC, September 18 – Claiming that it is subject to discrimination by local building codes which require clinics to disclose in advance whether they will provide "abortion" services, Planned Parenthood is supporting legislation that would permit a uniform, neutral term to be used to describe all forms of medically-assisted reproductive choice.
Under a bill sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), municipalities would be required to allow the term "fetal relocation" to be used on building permit applications and to recognize it as referring to both abortion and childbirth. The law is intended to ease tensions in cities where medical facilities are being built, as fewer protests occur when the community believes it is possible that the staff might be delivering rather than killing babies.
"Scientifically speaking, both procedures result in the transfer of fetal tissue from the inside to the outside of a woman's body," said Mahoney. "It's wrong to stigmatize a particular outcome by linguistically differentiating between two equally valid alternatives." Maloney also noted that every day of so-called "living" is actually a day closer to dying, and recommended that the legalistic distinction between "life" and "death" be eventually phased out as well.
Legal scholars predicted that the proposed law would survive judicial scrutiny in light of recent Supreme Court precedent. In Gonzales v Carhart, Associate Justice Ginsburg condemned the use of the misleading term "abortion doctor" to describe doctors who perform abortions, insisting that they should instead be referred to as "obstetrician-gynecologists" and "surgeons." "It violates equal protection to draw an arbitrary distinction between physicians who perform delicate, life-saving fetal surgery in the operating theatre of a university hospital and those who engage in late-term skull-crushing with an unsterilized nutcracker in a store front mill," she opined. Although Ginsburg technically wrote for "the minority," experts suggested that that term was functionally equivalent to "the emerging majority."
Planned Parenthood clarifies clinic position: "One-third of Aurora’s population is Latino"
A guest satire by HENRIETTA G. TAVISH
Special to The Dawn Patrol
AURORA, ILL, September 17 – Seeking to eliminate some of the confusion surrounding its construction of an abortion clinic in an Illinois suburb, Planned Parenthood today sought an emergency injunction to open the facility immediately on the ground that one-third of Aurora’s Population is Latino.
The organization's lawyers pointed out that Aurora's has a "large and growing" population that its existing "Express" sites cannot properly handle. Specifically, they noted that those outlets have "only a limited reproductive health care menu" which does not include certain surgical entrees. "Your Honor, it's like going into a Taco Bell and finding you can't get the 'whole enchilada,' if you know what I mean," said lead counsel Will Slaughter. "Latina women deserve better."
The City had originally delayed the opening on the ground that the organization had misled authorities during the zoning and permit process. But Planned Parenthood argued that its statistics regarding the Latino population were indisputable, and whatever harm might result from other inaccuracies was outweighed by the risk of a one-half Latino city. Counsel cautioned that an "unmet need" for certain services had already resulted in undue "racial and ethnic diversity" in various neighborhoods in New York.
Had a beautiful time speaking to Women for the Third Millennium in Dallas on Saturday. Today I fly to North Carolina for tomorrow's talk at Appalachian State and then it's off to Berkeley — see my book's Web site for details. Please come if you're in the neighborhood.
A special guest will be posting here while I'm gone, between now and Thursday night. I'll try to stop in if I have time.
[As noted above, this is a guest post; thanks to John J. Simmins for contributing it. — Dawn]
The Charles County Fair is an 83-year-old tradition in Charles County Maryland. It is a traditional county fair, right out of the movies. Charles County is one of three counties that comprise what is known as Southern Maryland and is the cradle of Catholicism in America. It is an old, plantations farming area and until recently the most important crop was tobacco. The queen of the fair is still called “Queen Nicotina”. Even though, Charles County is home to the second largest (unincorporated) city in Maryland, it remains a community with a very rural flavor.
Charles County Right to Life is a chapter of Maryland Right to Life. We have had a presence at the fair for decades. We offer information on abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research and abortion alternatives. Maryland is a tough state to have a right to life chapter in. They don’t get more pro-abortion than Maryland. We have more partial birth abortions in Maryland than all our neighbors combined. Throughout the years, we have had some giants in the pro-life movement in Charles County and I am very blessed by knowing them. Working the fair is one of the front lines in the abortion battle in Maryland. We get ALL kinds at the booth. You really feel that you are touching lives at the fair. The fair runs from September 13 through September 16.
The fair is going very well so far. There are two stories stand out from the first night of the fair. On the first night of the fair, I was working the booth with Father Flum, the assistant pastor of St. Peter’s in Waldorf. Father Flum is an awesome man of God and I am blessed to know him. He and Monsignor Parent, the pastor at St. Peter’s, are wonderful spiritual leaders and everyone, especially the children, look up to them as models of what Christian men should be.
Father Flum at the fair
Father Flum and I were passing the time by celebrating someone depositing a $20 bill in the donation jar. Most of our donations are ones or the occasional five dollar bill and it takes a long time to get enough money to pay for the booth and stuff we give away. As we were talking, a gentleman came up, he seemed a regular working class guy. He was there with his wife and teenage daughter. He paused and looked over our literature and then brought out his money clip and discretely pealed of a bill and put it in the donation jar. After he left, I remarked to Father Flum, "Hey, it looks like we got another 20!" Father replies, “John, you should look a little closer.” The man put a $100 bill in the donation jar. I don’t think he was the kind of guy that could easily afford $100. I can only assume that there must be a powerful story behind that donation, maybe only known to him and God.
The other story that sticks out in my mind is when a little girl came up with what I figured were her brothers and sisters. We always have a petition at the booth on various topics that may come up in the state legislature in Annapolis in January. I’m not sure how much good it does. The delegates and senators seem less concerned with what the people want and more concerned with what the unions and developers want, but we try each year. The little girl very carefully filled in all the fields in the petition that we had, writing very slowly as an 11- or 12-year-old would. When she finished, she placed the cap back on the pen and said to me "I'm adopted, so abortion hits really close to home for me." I wanted to hug her.
Our tremendous volunteers at our booth have shared some powerful experiences with me over the last couple of days as well. One story can only be described as a heroic attempt to save the life of a baby that the state of Massachusetts is desperately trying to kill. Next week, my volunteer will be adopting this baby. I won’t go into it here, my friend is a real writer and will be putting the tale to electronic pen soon and I hope to share it with you.
You know sometimes I wonder, particularly in Maryland, if we're doing any good at all. Then I have experiences like these.
12:19 AM |
"I wouldn’t have thought I’d be interested in reading about ['learning not to have sex'] myself. I’m pleased to say that, after 17 years of marriage (In spite of it? Because of it?), it’s still sexytime in the Lyons household, and the discipline of abstinence is -- thank you, Jesus -- a rather distant memory. But I was so wrong. Eden’s book, apart from being exceptionally witty and well-written, has such extraordinary insight about sex and intimacy and the reasons we look for love in all the wrong places and end up suffering for it, that I couldn’t wait to tell a dear married friend all about it.
"I learned something, y'all. I told Eden, unable to constrain the whoopin’ and hollerin’ Pentecostal in me, 'The Holy Spirit is all over your book!' So, I admit, what follows is fangirl stuff. Just trust me and buy the book. That’ll shut you up."
— Julie Lyons, editor of the Dallas Observer alternative weekly (published by Village Voice Media), in "Exit to Eden", her interview with me for her Bible Girl blog.
Buy The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On on Amazon.com.
' I entered through the open door of his waiting Heart' A guest post by Therese on healing after abortion
[Dear Readers - The following was sent to me by reader Therese after I invited post-abortive readers to submit guest posts. - Dawn]
Dawn, I don't know about a guest post. My abortion story is the same as every post-abortive mother could tell...
The delayed periods, the dread, the positive pregnancy test; the admonition by friends and family: Do something about it, being told by our family's minister (this is really a quote), "It's just a blob of tissue at this point"; obtaining the cost of airfare and "the procedure" from my estranged spouse; flying to NYC one day and home the next; relieved it was over; realizing a few years later that I'd really killed my own daughter, the dread again.
Some women react to this realization by lashing out at others. Some by joining groups to "support" them in their decision. Some turn their self-hatred inward, on themselves, rather than outward. Some live lives of quiet desperation, some not so quiet.
The only thing that saved me was Jesus in his body on earth, the Catholic Church. The sacraments that Jesus instituted 2,000 years ago were in place and waiting for me when the reality of what had happened dawned on me. I entered through the open door of his waiting Heart and still receive his Body and Blood in Communion with absolute awe.
But this isn't a lived-happily-ever-after story because, in doing post-abortive counseling, I've seen that Mercy is the hardest thing for most people, including me.
These are the roadblocks to it:
1. I'm too bad. 2. Divine Mercy is too easy. 3. I don't need that religion or holy stuff. 4. My abortion was just a choice, not a sin. 5. I had no choice, I had to do it.
The common thread in all these statements is, basically, "I'm too proud to accept forgiveness & mercy. I refuse to become a little child." Fortunately, God knows that we are really, really little children and can only take a few baby steps at a time usually. So he allows us time, time and more time to begin to see and live Reality. We don't have to, and can't possibly, get it all at once.
I guess its just important for everyone who has been involved in abortion to know that if we reject Divine Mercy, for whatever reason, we reject what Jesus did for us on the Cross and we end up condemning ourselves and compounding our sin. That would be a sad way indeed to celebrate today's feastday, the Triumph of the Cross!
"There was a very intelligent woman who was not a Christian. She began to listen to the great music of Bach, Handel and Mozart. She was fascinated and said one day: 'I must find the source of this beauty,' and the woman converted to Christianity, to the Catholic faith, because she had discovered that this beauty has a source, and the source is the presence of Christ in hearts, it is the revelation of Christ in this world."
I was reminded of those words recently spoken by the Holy Father this past Tuesday, when I had the great blessing to attend Washington's first-ever Gold Mass — a "Mass of the Holy Spirit for Professionals in Music and the Performing Arts" at the St. Stephen Martyr Catholic Church.
The church wisely did not advertise the providers of the Mass's music in advance (there is only one real Star of this show), but, now that it's over, the lineup is well worth mentioning. The Kennedy Center Quartet, whose namesake venue is in St. Stephen's parish, provided string accompaniment (among its members is acclaimed cellist David Teie). Alongside them was the church's own trumpeter, Phil Snedecor and its Schola Cantorum, whose lineup includes several excellent opera singers. Directing the music was St. Stephen's organist, Christopher Candela, a real treasure. His long and impressive résumé includes five years as an assisting organist at St. Matthew's Cathedral and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Here, from the booklet provided for worshippers, are the main musical selections that were heard (not counting plainsong chants):
Prelude music — Mein glaubiges Herze, J.S. Bach Fantasia in G Minor, J.S. Bach String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Opus 110, Shostakovich
Opening hymn — "Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven"
[The Confiteor was sung to a melody based on Russian chant, adapted by Candela. It was lovely and moving.]
Kyrie Choral Extensions (from Missa Aetera Christi Munera), Palestrina [sung by the Schola]
Gloria (from Coronation Mass, K 317), Mozart
Preparation of Altar and Gifts — My Eyes for Beauty Pine, Herbert Howells [sung by Schola]
Hymn — "Spirit Seeking Light and Beauty"
Agnus Dei (from Missa in Simplicitate), Jean Langlais
Communion motets [sung by Schola] — Super flumina babylonis, Palestrina Salmo 150, Ermani Aguiar
Final hymn — "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name"
Recessional — Suite in D Major for Trumpet and Strings, Purcell
If anyone present had tin ears (and I doubt it, judging by the quality of the voices in the pews), they still got to hear a great homily by Father John Albert Langlois, OP, director of formation at the Dominican House of Studies. He explored the question of whether it is possible for a composer to create inspired music without living a holy life. His answer was that musical talent is a gift from God — one that, like all divine gifts, can never be deserved. The only proper response is to return it to its Source.
That Source felt very present as the Schola sang and the players performed the glorious musical selections. Now, I wouldn't argue that such classic musical selections all deserve a place in the everyday liturgy. Many of them were written as concert selections, many are longer than the usual hymns, and it felt a bit strange to stand as some of them were played (like the gorgeous Mozart "Gloria"); the temptation was to sit down and let them wash over me. But there's no question that it truly felt like a "Mass of the Holy Spirit."
I wasn't the only one who felt it. As I entered the church, I was walking behind a health aide pushing a wheelchair in which sat a very old woman elegantly dressed in purple. I saw the old woman again at Mass's end, when we were singing, "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name," as Bishop Holley recessed up the aisle, blessing the worshippers. She followed him up the aisle — pushing her empty wheelchair.
The woman's health aide followed her, a hand supporting her back. But the woman didn't seem to need the help. Seeing me gazing at her with an open-mouthed smile, she smiled in return and gave me a friendly wave. She looked so joyful — like a toddler whose parents' allowed her to have fun pushing her own empty baby carriage.
Outside the church, I told Monsignor Edward J. Filardi, St. Stephen's pastor, that it was the first time I'd ever seen someone enter a church in a wheelchair and leave pushing her wheelchair. He told me that the woman had just turned 100 years old. That would mean she was born a year after Shostakovich, whose music we had heard. I'd like to think that he, and the other late composers who gave their gifts back to God, were delighted that day to see how God's gifts, through their human labor, keep on giving.
Via Jill Stanek and ProLifeBlogs, here are clips of the September 11 Aurora City Council meeting where it was announced that the city would not allow Planned Parenthood's clinic to open until its lawyer determined whether the organization had committed fraud. These clips show both sides of the debate, including local opponents of the fraudulent facility who dispute Planned Parenthood's libelous claims that they are "extremists":
A Los Angeles Times article by a pro-choice journalist has background on Planned Parenthood's gaining permission to build the clinic by hiding its ownership of the building.
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