Thursday, December 27, 2007

What we can learn can make us better

I am unworthy by myself, but I can be great with God.

Its amazing how the two major themes keep coming back to me over and over.
The light of Christ and the foundation of Love for the world.

In one hand, a concept so pure and simple, to Love as Jesus Loves and then to go out and show the world this Love.

Very simple indeed, until we include the twisted heap of secular concepts to our children and dying culture. But instead of focusing solely on the destruction of those that surround us, let us focus on building up the strength of those near us.

Its one thing to know the problems, its another to share that vision of a new world with all you can. By doing the best you can do, you make it happen, not because you are good, but because with God you can be great.

Lets look at what Sanger did in her systematic breakdown of society to the Culture of Death. She didn't say anything wrong about the people, she actually built them up. People, being inherently selfish, found their way to more and more "truths" that could make them feel good. They liked what she said. They liked the fact that they didn't have to worry, that they could be all they could be. (but the sacrifice was it was all they could be without the image of God)

She told the woman they can be equal with men, if they didn't get pregnant, they would be able to be successful and continue to climb the ladders of success without stopping to give birth, and enjoy all of life's little pleasures. She told the men, that this was how to help their wives, they were worth more than how they were treated. She was right, they were and are worth more than how they were ever treated. But her concepts crossed over into a hedonistic lifestyle that focused on the self more than others.

So looking at the human condition, looking at the human need, what is it that we need in our lives to build us up? Its not just rallies and marches, or just posters and buttons. Its dignity and understanding.

For Men, you want to be truly manly? Is that not what you are seeking?
The Eucharist, taking it in and letting it transform you is manly.
Being Holy, which means, being pure, being outside the box of society, being respectful to women and others, being selfless, giving up yourself for others, this is how to be manly. By being lazy, by cheating, by giving into temptation and lust, by mistreating others cause you can, this is a trap, you are nothing but a coward, unwilling to face the world as a true man.

For Women, you want to be worth something? Is this what you seek? Equality and respect? Start with the Eucharist, let it transform you, be the bride you are meant to be. Let your heart of Love shine in the darkness. You are being treated like garbage now, being tossed aside for pleasure, being used as a sex toy and seeking the powers of equality through workplace, but what about the things you really are about, the truth of your holy body, the truth about how precious you are, the only one that can give life in this world, the only one that receives a miracle within your womb, your equality may come at the workplace, but the real equality is being treated the same way with respect and dignity, living a pure life, avoiding temptations, being a strong woman in a society of darkness. You want to be equal, then be as manly in your courage to take up this call. Transform your current self into something greater than an object.

Is this harsh? Is this honesty hard to hear? Yet it sinks into the your very being, into your heart and rests there waiting to be acknowledged. Think about it, what if it was true, that you just give yourself to others, give yourself as a person, your love, not just your body. This transformation can occur in you, and you can gain much dignity and respect, you will walk amongst the giants with no shame, with true freedom, no chains tied upon your feet or shackles on your hands, you will be successful in all you do because there will be something different about you. With God, you can be great and YOU can make a difference. The money isn't the happiness that you seek, it feels good, the pleasures of the skin feels good, the instant gratification feels good, but the feelings quickly fade. The true and ultimate happiness is found within us where Jesus touches our hearts.

When we are selfless in our actions we will feel no anxiety for our wants, but feel only anxious for the Lord, and all the twisted concepts of this world will return to their true shapes, and you will see that all things God has made is good, for in the beginning, this is how it was made, and this is how it should stay.

Please keep me in your prayers and I will certainly keep you in mine.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

And now, the time is here...

Yesterday was Christmas.
The night before was Christmas Eve.
The celebrations went on and on, the kids tearing at paper, the families gathered, the food served.
And amongst it all, not once was there a desire to receive anything else but our Lord Jesus Christ.

Even with todays struggles and challenges, the downs are merely just less than the ups, but they are in no way hopeless.
In fact, Because Jesus was born to us, because He came down to Earth to become Man, to be the Word made flesh,
once can always have hope.

God is hope, and all we fear is nothing. All we see and touch, taste and hear, all that we smell, is only part of the sensations we will soon experience. We will be in the bosom of Heaven, and all that has been invisible to us, will be made visible.

If only today, the day following Christmas, people would seek these invisible things with the wisdom provided to them. And not to act out and butcher the pureness and beauty of the event and ways. We have twisted Christmas, we have twisted the idea of love, but in the end, hope shows us these things can return back to the way they were, slightly heavier, with more creases and more wrinkles, but these lines are new lines of wisdom, as now our palette holds more than a blank canvas, but a canvas that has seen a horrible past that can be used to create a most beautiful future.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Modeling Faith Formation

*NOTE WORKING DOCUMENT*

I know, a sensitive topic, But I figured, if we are to understand and go out and offer the new evangelization to people, we need to also speak their language.
Not sure why this all came to me but here it goes.

We start with the definition of success.
Most say it has to do with money, but let us expand that out further.
I believe we can identify three factors that indicate success in a materialistic and non materialistic way. They are:
1.Accomplishment
2.Belonging
3.Happiness

Once these three things are identified, we can start to apply some conditions that influence each of these.

Now we apply techniques and studies based on social emotional intelligence. This usually is applied to educational programs in schools, but can apply to adult learning and in fact any learning. This includes Faith formation since it is a form of learning to trust, grow in faith, etc...

Social Emotional Intelligence has several conditions and criteria that make it effective more in one case or the other. The main things that S-E demonstrates is a higher aptitude to learning with a more supportive and safe environment. This environment can be as small as a classroom or as large as a country.

This allows us to work on the needs of the learner both at an emotional-social level and at a mental/pedagogy level.So they can be nurtured in order to achieve better results.

When we apply this to a country situation in order to understand faith formation, we see very similar effects in community life, family life and faith life.

In most 1st world western countries, the definition of success is often skewed and twisted to that of a material desire. The three factors are only 2/3 fulfilled. The person has accomplished something by increasing wealth, has a feeling of belonging to another level in the social hierarchy, but fails to maintain a happiness that is eternal, since the material objects and desires can only provide an instant gratification and pleasure, and seeking more doesn't mean long lasting, in fact can result in loss of happiness as one becomes bored with the feeling of instant happiness.

In most developing countries we see accomplishments of smaller scale, mostly of a survival nature, a belonging to a family, a nuclear trustworthy and safe environment, and happiness in the small blessings they receive. I am sure there are sceptics out there, but be my guest and explain to me why we see rather happy poor people and the only thing they have in their suffering is faith and family?

In the western world case, we find more cases of depression, suicides, agnostic and atheist behaviors (caused from replacing God with material idols. What could cause such a thing? I think this is a direct confirmation that the family is an important unit of society, it is the functional and needed unit in order for success. Faith is also a needed item, because success cannot be achieved if there is no eternal happiness available or achievable. We find many church goers strictly there for Sunday service, but the warmth is not there to form a strong supportive, and safe community. (safety from the devil and the temptations of sin). Because the western world focuses on Independence and everyone being the leader of the pack, the more western society takes apart the family unit. Add concepts of population control, hedonistic urges for self pleasure and self service, and once can easily see the demise of such a culture.

The poor on the other hand are lacking in material wealth, but strong in family, community and faith. The potential level of success per each member of such a culture is much higher than that of the western culture, as long as they are able to be challenged. There must be a balance in our growth and formation; our learning as it would be.




In the diagram, This is a similar concept to the wheel diagram of God to the world, demonstrating the need for God (the Hub) to power the individual through growth formation (spokes) in order to succeed in the outside world (the wheel).
But each spoke represents instead a triangle growth model. The very tip starts with self, and as one grows, they should be growing outward towards selflessness through service to the world. The four spokes are:

1. Faith Formation
2. Secular Standards Formation
3. Personal Formation
4. Sexuality Formation

When one of these are unbalanced, we lose potential for success as defined above.

If we are too focused on secular standards for instance (material wants) then we start to take away from our faith, personal and sexuality growth.

If too little, the same thing happens but the individuals ability to grow equally amongst the spokes is hindered. Usually a person will find another area to fill in gap and vice versa.

If Faith is strong, but no understanding (learning) of Secular society/personal/sexuality - once may not blend well in society and be less capable to evangelize beyond the inner circle this person has created.

If Personal formation is too strong, then too much is focused on self instead of others, potentially loosing faith, or understanding of one's true self.

If Sexuality is too little, one may seek the selfish pleasures instead of the true understanding of our sexuality as a part of our being. If too strong, one may lose potential to evangelize outside their inner circle as well.

I think the overall pattern is this,
If too high, then the capacity of outreach is less,
If too low, another area is gaining and capacity of outreach is less.

I suppose it best to describe the capacity of outreach as a function of serving others in a servant leadership manner.

Being unbalanced in one area or another I don't think can be described as a bad thing, but just less potential to live a balanced full life. We can look at examples of saints that were cloistered and yet lived fulfilling lives.
I believe this model can help individuals in determining areas of their lives they can work on to balance better and be able to more easily become more selfless.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Strategies in Our World To Bring Love and Life

Society is basically selfish these days, that is what we have been taught

Have pleasure for yourself,
Have things instantly for yourself

Less and less people watch out for others..

This has been the outcome of what is being taught in the schools, teachers have books the schools want to use, these books tell a different story, a rather unchristian themed story of life.

Taught to be independent , but also fend for yourself, competition is good for everyone, markets etc...

so in the solution, the focus on the educational books cannot be visibly Christian (meaning no labeled as Christian, but all Christian teachings/values), otherwise many business and schools will not buy books at first.

But the values can be values like selflessness.

This is 360 deg affirmation.

If we produce material that is focused on serving others first, through activities and concepts..business models, etc...

And Media that reinforces the idea of sharing and accountability as oppose to more money, more honey , more power, more happiness

Then even the non believers, that cannot fathom God as the source of happiness, will see a greater calling to a better happiness.

We will use Christian values translated into secular concepts, very very basic concepts..

But will reinforce them in this way.

Slowly, we can overturn the tide of selfishness.
This will allow other teachings like TOB concepts of chastity and true sexuality to be taught.

You know that a true understanding of sexuality showing how the two come together in union is beautiful.
Symmetry in nature is beautiful
Creation is beautiful

These will be the foundational pieces
Slow but consistent, and massive, very massive..

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Reflecting on Pope's Encyclicals

God is Love,

We must transform from ethos to agape.. bring our lust into Divine Love.. Holy Love...

This defines what God is fro us, this is what defines for us the love in which Jesus Loves us, that we must follow
But.. that defines the Love only.. not how to get closer to God to experience this LOVE..

that is where HOPE comes in..
For, within HOPE, we can grow closer to God, in order to feel and then express to everyone we meet God's Love

It is in HOPE that we can see the change in our hearts actually happen
the transformation is not a silly story.. but a reality.. cause Jesus.. when we see Him as HOPE.. allows us to drop our riches in this world in order to follow Christ
Next, after we are able to create in us the HOPE and fill ourselves with Divine Love, then we can move mountains with....

.........FAITH
for our faith then leads us to salvation
we now can love as Jesus loves, and Hope for a new future, and Hope with certainty because our Love in Christ , the Word made flesh, the FAITH of our souls then allows us to do anything in God's name
and we can heal
and then serve others..

LOVE, HOPE, FAITH

TOB in a nutshell..

TOB in a nutshell..

Sexuality is a way we need to show God's greatness.

When we enter into marriage, either as a vocation as a celebate or the sacrament, we must commit faithfully, freely, totaly and fruitful

For in the end, The greatest thing we must remember is to love one another as Jesus loves us.

The confusion of society and sexuality would be gone, no need for laws to control, if we only followed Jesus' teachings, and our body's should show us that..
in all we do, in private and with others.

Are you ready to do this?

Responding to the Golden Compass

This was in response to a friend of mine who was writing about the Golden Compass:

Here's the deal with pullman, he's a confused atheist..
His concepts of no God are muttled and confused.
His concepts of sexuality, even more perverted.
His understanding of the church's terachings on sexuality... uneducated.
He should read TOB.. :) (had to squeeze that in there)

His heart is filled with hatred and his view of the world and CS Lewis is most certainly twisted. If only he read CS Lewis' Great Divorce, would he understand I think the journey his own life must take before he can be truly happy.

There is no happiness greater than that of Heaven, but I guess for someone who is twisted about the existence of Heaven and God, he tries to find the worldly happiness, how unfortunate that he wont find what he seeks, at least not in the everlasting form. Perhaps he will find it in a quick counterfeit, but in the meantime, I pray for him and others like him to step out of the darkness. After all the darkness is only the lack of light, and this serves as more of a reminder that the only way we can find these lost souls that hide in darkness, is to bring the light of Christ to them.

Rather affirming message for me in this season of advent, that we must cleanse ourselves through God's grace, so that we may climb higher mountains and shine the light further.

As for watching the movie, even the regular critics had issues.
Too much for kids, too silly for adults, yet it did make a box office hit.
Perhaps we are only spreading the news to our own, and not taking our lights to the streets. Is it bad to watch this?

Well, I don't think its good to watch it without talking about it to the kids, so it does serve that opportunity, and I don't think boycotting it without explanation is good either, for the more we boycott, the less marketable we are to the industry. Perhaps if we not just exposed the darkness here but also explained the truth of God's message and CS Lewis' message, we could claim yet another victory for Christ.

Will I watch it? I don't think so, at least not until its in the $9.99 DVD sale box at walmart or a friend has one to watch, I did however go to the bookstore to read the ending of the third book, and yes.. Pullman needs our prayers, he is twisted and hateful and only Christ can transform him into something more. It was done with scrooge, and so perhaps this is our modern day example of scrooge-like souls we can pray for.

God Bless
Shaun

Monday, December 10, 2007

Some Good Zenit Articles on HOPE

Just wanted to share some good articles on HOPE, youth, and true Love.

Young People Losing Hope, Says Pope

Hope, an Encounter With Love


How affirming?

God Bless

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Part 3: Working Document

Below is a document/talk I am working on.. you can watch its progress, some things in here will be edited out, but for the meantime, all that is included here explains a lot of this series.

PRO-LIFE RECOLLECTION

Talk 1: Expose

INTRODUCTION

Today is a coming of a new age : Truth of World
Today, we gather from all over the area. From different ministries and organization. Our backgrounds bring us from different schools, different families, cities and countries. It’s a great day too cause here we have gathered together despite these differences in our character and we will share our beliefs and values and ideas on building a future in the Culture of Life. Today we will learn what the truth is about ourselves, our country, our world and the love of life that will enable us to move forward as we build this new future.
And as I stand here today in front of you, I join you on our journey at this point in our society and lives. Everything we do, at work, at home building a family, with the poor bringing back dignity revolves around something greater than us. And we are surrounded in a world of division and brokenness, so it is fitting and wonderful to come together and start this journey on a world united in Love and Life.
Today is a Discovery of Self
For the past 90 years, the pro abortion movement has been redefining terms, introducing new concepts that were outlawed by moral and human law. Millions of lives have been lost since those days. And the influences and ideas of some of the founders of the movement made there way to other wars and other battles. In the beginning, the intent was snared by the devil, his manipulation and temptations led these founders down a path of pure pleasure. A poison in their minds, in their actions and in their future. But even amongst these odds, many stood fast and we have always been in God’s grace. We go to work and become successful; we build families, and become happy with our blessings.
Yet we also tend to forget the foundation on which our blessings are built upon. We tend to forget and take for granted how each act we do against our God is always forgiven. That our Father in heaven is constantly watching over us, guiding us, challenging us and molding us.
Should we be concerned? As a citizen of this world, as a person that has kids, knows kids or has ever been a kid, the answer simply is yes. If we continue to build an environment in which the values of today continuously overwrite the foundation on which our faith and our livelihood depends on, then we are left with nothing more than an empty shell.
So as we progress in this understanding today on these topics of what is real and what isn’t, we have to start with the facts and the fiction.
________________________________________

FACT OR FICTION
Since 1917 the world has seen a change in its lifestyle, a rather drastic one at that. The leaders of small activist groups that saw the likes of people such as Max Eastman, John Reed, Upton Sinclair, Mabel Dodge and Emma Goldman1 in the famous Greenwich village of New York, gathered together and pondered at the realization of the human condition. It is a shame that there was not more faith involved in their actions, but nonetheless this group of people became the influence of a woman named Margaret Sanger. During her work as a nurse in the streets with the poor side of East New York, she reflected and blamed the premature death of her mother on the 11 births she gave. After also teaming up with England’s psychologist Havelock Ellis, Sanger came to the conclusion that birth control “would fulfill a critical psychological need by enabling women to fully enjoy sexual relations, free from the fear of pregnancy.”
The fiction however couldn’t have been more far from the truth. God has created us in a very special way. He has chosen to create us in his image and likeness and then breathed life into us from his very existence. Many times we try to find the easiest way to gain pleasure and happiness, even if it forsakes the Creators goal for us. Sure the feelings are positive, and can be a hard temptation to resist, but it’s the waiting for God’s time and God’s chosen person for you that makes it even more pleasurable and a way for us to worship and thank God for His blessings. The Birth Control movement took this fact of life and turned it all around, it was a time where the intellectual movement was dawning, and in all fact was really a modern day Babel. With the help of Mary Dennet, Sanger and women doctors finally found the loophole in the law that had been prohibiting them from giving contraceptive advice to women, they were able to get the law changed to provide doctors the right to counsel on birth control for medical reasons. In 1916, the first Birth Control Clinic was opened in Brooklyn.
From this point forward, the abortion movement evolved into a large scale liberation movement for sexual freedom which provided a way for woman not to worry about pregnancy. Little did they know they were now destroying God’s major gift to the world. Sanger’s ideas and concepts became more lewd as her beliefs in Eugenics and sexual independence in relationships became more publicly popular amongst her peers. After separating with her husband, she continued her affairs and even after marrying again, she kept her sexual independence.
God has created us to love each other as he has loved us. Giving his only son to us, He raised us up and took on our sins. But by following the lust in our hearts instead of waiting for the fulfillment inside us, we find ourselves trapped in a world of temporary happiness and pleasures. But is it really what we are seeking?
This is what today’s battleground looks like:
Because of the efforts of such movements as I just described, sex education in the classrooms has become more radical, with books like “its perfectly normal” available for our children, a book that is pornographic in its own right as it displays young cartoon children in sexual acts including sexual intercourse, masturbation and homosexual acts.
The average age of first sex for children in America is 15.8 years old *, the average length of first sexual relationship is only 3.8 months. 24.3% of all adolescents reported having first sex during the same month as the start of their relationship. Roughly 25% were “one-night” stands.
Studies from the Medical Institute for Sexual health found that the average teen spends 3 to 4 hours in front of the TV each day, which includes an average of 6.7 scenes with sexual topics every hour. And add that to the average teens time with music at 40 hours a week with 42% of the top selling CD’s played on the radio containing sexual content that is “explicit” or “pretty explicit”;
And this is just the statistics for the youth.
All of this information leads to an over exposure of sex before our children can truly learn what the desires inside them are there for. What God has created us for.
To go deeper down the rabbit hole, the movement was only a catalyst for the next movement, the sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s. During these times the sexual liberation also provided a support and venue for pornographic images and easier access to the material at younger ages. And although our society leads us to believe the pleasurable side of pornography, the damages on our youth and future generations is almost irreparable. Leading to masturbation, sexual abuse, dysfunctional marriages and a society that is already reaching a negative birth rate. The more children are brought up in such a society, the more chances they will experience the ripping power of lust without control, a control only found with our Father in Heaven.
And we have been warned of such things,
In Col 3:2 it says “Set your minds on the things above rather than earthly things”,
In Proverbs 24:1 “Avoid letting the world teach us to love what is evil or to envy the evil doer”
________________________________________

The Effects of Life
After the dust settles and we see the land before us, I think you and me both can also find the blessings in our society. In Deuteronomy we are asked to choose between the blessings or the curse, between life and death.
And so although all these things occur, we have to also recognize the other side of the picture. Our Lord and savior came down to teach us and provide us with instructions on battling Evil.
In the beginning God created Man, and He said Man should not be alone, so out of His rib He created woman. And before original sin, both man and woman were naked without shame (Gen 2:25), the only sexual desire was the desire to love in God’s image. (Perfect Love casts our fear (1 Jn 4:18))
The devil then choose to tempt us and trick us and take away our ability to be a gift to one another. The gift of God’s love in its pure essence. Once this had gone away, sexual desire was now inverted and self seeking.
This creates a concept of lust. Which is sexual desire cut off from God's Love. In God's plan, the sexual desire (eros) should be inspired and transformed into agape (divine love). So in our world today, much of the founders of such movements as described have been inwardly seeking self gratification. They wish to fill a void within them, and not realizing that it can and will be filled by divine Love, the twist the truths into the image of the world today.

All of these things tend to lead us further from the truth of how we were made, and what we can do. This is where we just choose the blessings, and recognize the support we have from our families, friends and communities. Imagine if you will a mirror, and in this mirror is not just your reflection, but your reflection as God has intended it, in his image and likeness, this very reflection is full of light and purity, shining forth divine light and love into the darkness. But this light and reflection are slowly marred by the countless temptations that we entertain, the sins we commit both to ourselves and to other. Each time we commit an act against our true intent, we mar the image more. It is only when we accept Christ, and the ways he has shown us to live a more pure and holy life does he start to clean that mirror so that God's image and likeness can be seen by all.

Most of the time, it is beyond us what we do, the influences are great in society. But today, I am standing before you to tell you about the freedom God has offered us. As I presented the lay of the land, it seems so dark and dull, sad and upsetting, but I come to you as a Brother/Sister to present the HOPE of Christ.

You have heard that it was said " You shall not commit adultery, But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (MT 5:27-28). This Hope however is greater than the feeling that perhaps weighs your heart now. Because before there was sin, there was GOD. It "is deeper than the sinfulness inherited, deeper than lust... The word of Christ.. reactivates that deeper heritage and give it real power in man's life" (TB 168)

Through Christ, we can claim a real victory over these things which trap us, including the distortion of lust. Think of it this way my dear brothers and sisters, "If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law" (Gal 5:18). This is not a simple solution to break the law, but rather a message God was delivering to us reaffirmed by Christ, that with change hearts we would no longer need the rules, because our ethos (desires) would be in line with God's plan.

The problem in us lies that we desire wrongly, we desire to commit adultery in our hearts because our ethos is misguided by the ways of the world. In the case of Margaret Sanger and her friends, the lust was greater to them then receiving everlasting happiness. This is why it is important that although we feel no harm that our children and us for that matter, are exposed to music and programming in movies and TV, they in fact are reinforcing the wrong concept of sexuality. It wasn’t many years ago we could find programming that we really good bring our children to. But now, it is harder to find such things, because society is getting more and more used to this new definition of sexuality.

I leave you with this thought, we are told in MT 5:8, that "Blessed are the Poor in heart, for they shall see God", If we are able to expose the truth of what society has pressed upon us, we can understand the path that we need to take to Christian purity. A call to purity not in being prudish, but glorifying and witnessing God's divine love in our lives, a way for us reveal God's mystery revealed in who we are.

Just remember that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever" and no matter what has been done in our society or what we have done, our HOPE and light is in Christ and we can reform our hearts to untwist the twisted meaning of sexuality and desire in today's world, and almost see Heaven here on Earth.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Part 2: Anti-Abortion Movement Split Spills onto Presidential Race

Link to Story below:

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/groups/prolife_action/index.html

so what does this mean?
Well from a standpoint of choices and politics..
I think it necessary for Catholics and Pro Lifers alike to understand values.

Going back to our open topic of Sanger and IPPF, the values we talk about where in fact tainted on purpose, very strategically in order to create a new culture. Rich, Educated people that didn't want to loose the power and prestige.

Perhaps this sounds much like a Hollywood movie, but it all stands true nonetheless.
The Eugenics programs and Abortion programs were designed initially for the poor, later to the developing countries where education was becoming a major push. If these countries ever gained on the US elites, then we would see new leaders and new powers. The fact is for the past 90 years the abortion movement really has been an elitist group. Check their books and standings, the truth is in the facts.

So what can we do. what does this mean. The first thing is to be open to God's calling for each of us. There was a struggle in Will Wilberforce because he had wanted to seclude from society and only serve as a monk to God, but God had plans for him to go beyond that. So we must too, not hide and seclude ourselves from secular society.

Boycotting and hiding only make our power over the abortion group weaker.
Because we are no longer marketable, we are no longer buying and adding to the economy, we really become a true minority and aren't worth investing into.

And here's the second warning although pro life supporter numbers are going up, or should I say, pro choice numbers are going down, the definition on the street of what pro life is, is not the real values laid out by Jesus and Mary.

Contraception use is high, even among the "faithful", drug and alcohol abuse is still high, teenage pregnancies, premarital sex, masturbation, living out a homosexual lifestyle still high on lists.

Sex ed in classrooms still feature books like "its perfectly normal" a book that couldn't be more pornographic. Videos like blue dove and the last train still are shown in classrooms in developing nations. And 34% of IPPF funding comes from our tax dollars.

We must continue to not just defend, but to engage the culture of Life, it must be the norm, and not in a cafeteria style, choosing here and there, but in a very open, God-fearing and God-trusting way.

oh and here's a fun read for you, a big no brainer report: Keep the family alive:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/03/AR2007120301797.html

I'll continue again on a large idea that we can participate in. Meanwhile, continue your preparedness for our Savior Jesus Christ. The Holy Family is coming to down!

God Bless

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

NOVENA-OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE /PATRONESS OF THE PRO LIFE MOVEMENT

Our Lady of Guadalupe Novena


Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Patroness of the Pro-life Movement. In preparation for her Feastday, Priests for Life invites all believers to join in a special novena for life from December 3 through 12th by saying the prayer below, indicating to us that you will be saying it, and getting as many others as possible to say it as well.

The image of Our Lady, given to St. Juan Diego (whose feast is Dec. 9), shows Mary as pregnant with Jesus. The Aztec Indians, among whom this image circulated, practiced human sacrifice because they believed the gods were against them. This image proclaimed the Gospel that “God is with us” (Emmanuel) and that therefore we can have the hope that gives us the courage to say “Yes” to life, just like Mary did.

In our day, the image is helping to end child sacrifice as it is brought to abortion facilities worldwide.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Novena Prayer for Life to Our Lady of Guadalupe

Oh Mary, Mother of Jesus and Mother of Life,
We honor you as Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Thank you for pointing us to Jesus your Son,
The only Savior and hope of the world.

Renew our hope in him,
That we all may have the courage to say Yes to life,
And to defend those children in danger of abortion.

Give us your compassion
To reach out to those tempted to abort,
And to those suffering from a past abortion.

Lead us to the day when abortion
Will be a sad, past chapter in our history.

Keep us close to Jesus, the Life of the World,
Who is Lord forever and ever. Amen.

Part 1: Research on IPPF and Life

The following is a collection of research I have been conducting.

This link provides the leading 15 prolife (labeled as anti-choice in PP) organizations.

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/news-articles-press/politics-policy-issues/abortion-
access/antichoice-organizations-6127.htm


I was reading the other day on Margaret Sanger.
Boy, does her life story make me sad, a ilttle upset as well.
Anyways, her actiond started International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), she loved sexual intercourse. straight forward. She could have cared less about women's rights and family rights. She was interested in promoting hedonisitc values and concepts. Contraceptives and Abortion were products of her work, and she had a systmatic way implementing it. A method still in use today in mnay developing countries. In the next set of blogs I will continue to write on the life of Margaret Sanger and the work of IPPF. Not that any of this is new, actually, there is a autobiography that states her involvement in many things that Planned Parenthood has hidden from the public.

She also was a fond believer in Eugenics (Cleansing of the race), thats right, actually some of her books and publications were translated to German and used by German scientists during the second World War, I wouldn't be surprised if they influenced some concepts of the holocaust.

She was fiery for sure, and her influence seemed rather large.
But I leave you with this, if the above organizations know these things, how many are willing or able to develop a new culture in the world. Yes I am speaking of the culture of Life, but I am also speaking of a strong NGO to not just go against, not to just defend life, but to promote it, via media, books, publications, seminars, clinics, everything Sanger created, there can be a good version created as well.

If this interests you, perhaps you have recieved a similar calling. Comment on your thoughts and watch out for the continuation of this topic.

It is ok to work secular for the Kingdom of God, for to seperate oneself from society, only prevents us from knowing and changing the darkest of hearts. We are called to bring light to the world, even Jesus instructed us that a lamp should not be covered or put in a place low, but should be placed high upon the mountaintops for the whole world to see.

Are you willing to Expose and Explain then live as an example of Christ?