Time to Celebrate! … ?

Today I took my parents and kids to the Henry Ford Museum; Target was hosting free admission in honor of Martin Luther King Jr Day. The air was electric with excitement — so many people clearly believe this new administration is something to celebrate.

Oh, how I wish I could share their enthusiasm. If it had been Alan Keyes, say, I would have been singing right along. As it was, I could only breathe a prayer for a little less resentment, a little more grace.

On the news tonight, the anchor confirmed that the “Obama team” has been meeting regularly in order to get in place some crucial bits of legislation. Not surprisingly, one of the first will be signing FOCA into law.  I can’t help but think of the millions of children whose lives are going to be wiped out thanks to this particular “spirit of change.”

“The measure of a society is how it treats its weakest and most vulnerable members.” This video illustrates this better than I ever could …  CatholicVote.com

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"In His Sign" Podcast

Last week I was interviewed by Bill Donaghy at “His His Sign” and “At the Heart of Things” about Behold Your Mother: Mary Stories and Reflections.

Here is a link to the podcast, if you’d like to hear it!

I spent this weekend with the women of St. Charles Borromeo Church in Greenville, MI, speaking of the “Good Girls of the Gospel: Women of Courageous Virtue.” Mary, of course, is the perfect model of courageous virtue … but then, she is the perfect woman, who had one perfect Son. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have either of these things going for me … which is why I love to explore the lives of some other spiritual matriarchs.

One of the women who was repeatedly mentioned this weekend was the woman in Luke 8 who was healed from the “issue of blood.” For twelve years this woman faced down doctors and neighbors … and finally found the healing she sought by touching the hem of Jesus.

What strikes me about this story is the fact that Jesus didn’t let her slip back into the crowd unnoticed. “Who touched me?” He asked. In that moment, the woman had to own up to the fact that she had reached out to the Lord, and sought His healing touch for both her body and her soul. In that moment, she knew what it was to be loved, accepted … welcomed.

To me, this encounter speaks hope for those who struggle with infertility, inability to carry a child to term … and those who struggle in the aftermath of abortion. So many struggle in silence, when the Lord wants to bring healing and grace into your life. No one is beyond the mercy of God. Nothing you could tell Him would surprise Him about you. He already knows it all.

The question is, are you willing to let go of this chapter of your past, and live in joy-filled hope?

Save Our Children!

A wise man once said, “The greatness of any civilization is measured by the treatment of its weakest members.” America has always been a great nation. We enjoy unrivaled personal and civil liberties. And yet, we are now a nation in undeniable decline. How did we get here?

To put it simply, we have forgotten ourselves, where we came from and where we’re going.

* We have abandoned spiritual principles that brought us greatness, turning “freedom of religion” into “freedom from religion,” poisoning decency and sacrificing the common good in the name of “tolerance” and “individualism.”

* We have robbed our children of their right to take their place as vital members of society, having abandoned and neglected them on one hand, and and overindulged and under-disciplined them on the other.

* We have wasted our natural abundance and vast resources, allowing those less fortunate — both around the world and in our own backyard — to die of poverty.

* Above all, we have sacrificed millions of young lives — both born and not-yet born — in the name of freedom.

Today my friend Sarah posted this YouTube video that is a must-see for any woman — especially any African American woman — who has ever considered abortion. It is profoundly ironic how the abortion industry has waged “Black Genocide,” legally, by swathing itself in red-white-and-blue bunting and calling it a “choice” rather than a “child.”

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Our two Democratic presidential contenders have the blood of thousands and thousands of preborn children on their hands. Senator Obama has gone so far as to argue in favor of actually denying medical care to children who survive abortion. (For more information about “Democrats for Life,” click here.)

Five hundred thousand children across our nation are being herded together into group homes, or are kept in permanent “limbo” without a family to call their own. (Here is information about how to become a foster or adoptive parent.)

Four hundred thousand children are in a state of embryonic suspended animation, abandoned by the very people who were willing to go to any lengths to have a child — even if that meant sacrificing their own flesh-and-blood. (If you would like to rescue one of these little ones, click here for more information on the “Snowflakes” program.)

In the first four centuries of Christianity — when the Catholic faith was considered a dangerous Jewish sect, and our leaders were routinely rounded up and executed by the Roman State — history records that thousands of Roman citizens nevertheless converted because of the witness of the lives of these ordinary Christians. In particular, they were admired for tending to those in prisons and hospitals … and because of their efforts to rescue and raise as their own countless abandoned Roman infants (infanticide was legal in the Roman Empire up to eight days of age).

There is a lesson for us here … The question is, how will you respond?