Thursday, August 24, 2006

A Bitter Pill . . .



It was about 5 weeks ago, a sweltering 98 degrees, on a July night at 8:00 p.m. It was so humid the moon looked like it could drip, when I was chilled to the bone by one young mom's words. I met Sally, (not her real name) a home Spa Party. Usually I avoid these home parties like the plague - I just don't like them. Sally was bemoaning the fact that she was once again pregnant. She said, " I'm the only woman I know of who's become pregnant twice while on the pill!" Then she said - "I'm cursed." That's when I felt cold. A few were laughing about her "plight" and told her to "try other ways" and she laughed, too, but it was ugly laughter, like the "snickering of demons." I'm not insinuating at all that these women there were evil, but some "uninvited guests" most certainly were. It was like Screwtape Letters, in real life. It was unnerving. The bounteous assorted hors dourves, which suddenly seemed more like "demonic delicacies," lost their appeal, so I left and went in the family room and silently prayed Hail Mary's for Sally and her friends. It was like doing battle. The flippant materialistic attitude was rampant during the evening.

Driving home that night I was thinking how potentially so much better our marriage would have been, had we been open to life from the start. I'd have been too busy to find time to chase after elusive happiness when we drifted so far apart in our 2nd decade of marriage. Maybe we wouldn't have drifted so far apart with more kids in tow(?) Once our kids were both in school all day, I allowed my ennui and dissatisfaction to get the best of me. Combine that with a friend (more like a "cohort in complaining") and it was disastrous. I understand now when Dr. Ray has told us his wife has said many times that she's a better mother of 10 kids than she would have been of 1, 2 or 3. I believe that would have been the same thing I'd be saying had we been open to life.

Learning what the pill really is and what it does, since returning to the Catholic Church, has been a "hard pill to swallow"- no pun intended. I know I've been forgiven for using it, but there's a hollow hurt in my heart that will never go away. It's part of my cross to embrace and carry now. The excuses for using birth control are based only in selfishness and fear. The emotional and spiritual bonding that should have grown from the start between us, as husband and wife, was destroyed by the pill. That's the brutal truth. We took vows at our wedding to accept children lovingly from God, yet within hours and for years, we selfishly said "no" to God and His gift of life.

Our gratitude is deep toward God, in that he graced us as we stayed together to work it all out, and we didn't shatter our family with a divorce. I offer up my grief and sadness for having contracepted, for the salvation of Sally's soul and others that are lost in this abhorrent, selfish trap of the enemy he's using for the destruction of souls and families. Pope Paul VI was right. Evil was loosed, like at no other time in history, with the creation and use of the pill. God forgive us. JMJ pray for us and save souls!

susie

Sunday, August 13, 2006

A friend sent this link to me a couple of days ago.
After reading the horrific news, I perused some websites and came across this picture of Blessed Mother Teresa. How completely polar opposite this saintly woman compared to me, and other women of the world who complain or have ever complained about our appearance as we age. Just in case the article link above disappears, you can maybe find it in the archives:
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 8, 2006


One woman who never would have pondered such self-serving attitudes. One who never would think of altering her face to look younger or prettier with the tissue from aborted babies. One, who in my opinion, has done more for babies and this world, changing it for the better one soul at a time, than any recent person I know. One who suffered the Long Dark Night of the Soul for over 40 years, coping with the loss of "feeling Christ near" and yet chose to be near and serve the "lepers" of society and offer them Christ. Feelings did not rule this woman, faith did.
Dear Mother Teresa, pray for us and our selfish, self-seeking, self-absorbed, self-loathing materialistic society and especially us women who get down about aging and not looking young or as pretty anymore. God forgive me when I've battled those complaining thoughts that creep in from time to time. I have so long to go on my journey to become one iota as selfless as you, Mother. May our hearts become centered on Christ and his death on the cross, the cost of our having opportunity to gain redemption and the opportunity to see heaven and enjoy the beatific vision of our Lord forever if we abide in His grace. amen.
JMJ We love you! Pray for us! Save souls!

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Mary and her fiat . . .

http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/mary2b.htm

THE ALMIGHTY NEEDED MARY'S FIAT..HER YES..TO PROCEED WITH HIS PLAN OF THE MERCIFUL SALVATION OF MANKIND. IN HIS LOVE HE BECAME VUNERABLE BEFORE HIS PERFECT CREATION. ALL OF HEAVEN WAITED WITH HELD BREATH FOR HER ANSWER. EVEN SATAN AND HIS MINIONS. WHEN SHE EMBRACED HIS BELOVED TO HER WOMB UNDER HER HEART ALL OF HEAVEN REJOICED AND ALL OF THE HELLISH FALLEN ANGELS WERE FURIOUS!! THUS THE WAR AGAINST THE WOMAN..AND HER SEED..WHICH IS JESUS AND HIS BODY..US...THE HOLY ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND IT'S VISIBLE HEAD..THE POPE.

HER SEED...HER SEED..HER...SEED...HERS..IF IT IS STATED THAT HER SEED IS JESUS CHRIST AND ALL THAT ARE BAPTISED IN CHRIST ARE OF THE BODY OF CHRIST THEN THAT MEANS THAT WE ARE OF HER SEED TOO. AND IN THE WORDING FROM BELOW...THY SEED.. MUST MEAN THE PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT BAPTISED IN CHRIST. SO IN GENESIS WE ARE ALREADY SPOKEN OF AS THE CHILDREN OF THE MOTHER OF CHRIST. THE WOMAN..IF YOU NOTICE IN SCRIPTURE.. JESUS CALLS HER WOMAN MANY TIMES TO DEFINE HER AS THE WOMAN FROM GENESIS.

GOD SPEAKING TO THE SERPENT..

15 I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.

15 "She shall crush"... Ipsa, the woman; so divers of the fathers read this place, conformably to the Latin: others read it ipsum, viz., the seed. The sense is the same: for it is by her seed, Jesus Christ, that the woman crushes the serpent's head.

It just makes my heart squeeze with joy and holy awe before this Truth. We are spoken of in Genesis. You , me, everyone who is a part of the Body of Christ is from her seed...

and I add: thanks Kat, for these thoughts.

The Rosary, a powerful weapon against the devil


The first “Hail Mary” was brought from Heaven
by Gabriel the Archangel, the messenger of Holy Trinity


The following text of Father Gabriel Amorth, chief exorcist of the Vatican, is taken from the March-April, 2003 issue of “Echo of Mary, Queen of Peace”:

The recent Apostolic Letter of John Paul II, "Rosarium Virginis Mariae" (released last October 16) encourages all Christians to turn back to the prayer strongly recommended both by the latest Pontiffs and recent Marian apparitions. Paul VI called the Rosary a compendium of the Gospel. To make it more complete, John Paul II added the 'mysteries of light' to cover Jesus' public life. Padre Pio called the Rosary beads a weapon of extraordinary power against Satan.

One day a colleague of mine heard the devil say during an exorcism: "Every Hail Mary is like a blow on my head. If Christians knew how powerful the Rosary was, it would be my end." The secret that makes this prayer so effective is that the Rosary is both prayer and meditation. It is addressed to the Father, to the Blessed Virgin, and to the Holy Trinity, and is a meditation centred on Christ.

Today more than ever, the world is in need of prayer and meditation. It is in need of prayer because people have forgotten God, and without God the world has put itself on the edge of a precipice. This is why in Her messages, Our Lady insists so much on prayer. Without God's help, Satan wins. The world is also in need of meditation because if the great Christian truths are forgotten, souls become void. This void is grabbed up by the enemy, and he fills it with his lies. And today we see the results with widespread belief in superstition and occultism.

The most obvious danger for our society today is the downfall of the family. The rhythm of today's world has broken the family unity. Little time is spent together, and even when the family is together, its members don't speak because the television speaks. Where are the families which recite the Rosary together in the evenings? Pope Pius XII insisted in his own time: “If you pray the Rosary together, you will experience peace in your families; you will get on together.” “The family that prays together, stays together,” would say Father Peyton, the untiring apostle of the family Rosary. “Satan wants war,” Mary said one day in Medjugorje. Well, the Rosary is the weapon which is able to guarantee peace for the world, because it is a prayer and a form of meditation able to transform hearts and defeat the enemy.

Protected by the Rosary

The following inspiring episode from World War II, written by Sr. Mary Sheila O'Neil and reported in the October-December, 1979 issue of Garabandal Magazine (P.O. Box 606 Lindenhurst, New York 11757 USA) also illustrates the power of the Rosary:

It was a busy day in March. As a teacher-principal in the 1950's, I had to make sure that each day provided the time for the two separate roles. On that March fourth, an incident between a teacher and a parent had kept me out of my class for almost an hour that morning, so for the rest of the day, I was desperately trying to make up class time. Hence, the knock on my door at 2:00 p.m. was not welcome.

With relief, I found it was only a salesman who needed my signature and even produced his pen. As he did so, his Rosary had caught onto the pen's clip and came out as well. I signed as I said indifferently, "So, you are a Catholic." "Oh no," he said, "but a lot of us owe our lives to Our Lady, and I promised Her I would always keep my Rosary with me and say it every day."

Twenty minutes later, I was still at the door listening, fascinated, to the account of one of the wonderful experiences a group of airmen had had with Our Lady. My visitor hesitated to start, for he had noticed my "non welcome" opening of the door. But eager now to hear his story, I assured him that the class was doing an exercise, and I begged him to proceed. He continued:

It was May, 1940, and we had joined the Air Force in late September. At Halifax, we were given an intensive training course, because they needed us overseas, and to us young lads, the whole program was exciting.

We were grouped into squadrons, each of which consisted of six to ten planes, and each was trained to maneuver as a unit. Therefore about thirty to fifty men made up a squadron, along with the squadron leader who gave all the orders and kept the group functioning in unity.

In May, our squadron was told we were going overseas and would be in action at once. We would work on nightly missions over enemy territory until the war was over. We were waiting for our new squadron leader, due to arrive in two days on a 9:00 p.m. air-force flight. Being an officer, he would, we thought, go at once to the officers' quarters.

We watched the plane, glimpsed him from the distance, and resigned ourselves to waiting until the next day to "size him up." A couple of hours later, this squadron leader, Stan Fulton, in full uniform, entered our bunk house.

“Well men, we're going to spend some dangerous hours together, but let's hope we all meet back here when it's over. Ah, there's a free bunk and I am tired! I'll meet each of you tomorrow.”

With that, he threw his bag on an upper bunk. Our squadron leader, an officer, sleeping here with us! We liked him at once and our liking and our admiration grew each day.

That first night he knelt on the floor and prayed his Rosary in silence. Astounded, we were struck dumb. When he finished, he looked at us with his friendly smile and said, “I hope you guys don't mind a fellow saying some prayers because where we're going, we're going to need them.”

The next day our maneuver practice, under his command, assured us that Fulton was not just our military leader, but our friend. He was one of us; he never tried to intimidate us with his rank.

That night, he repeated his prayer session. Although our group had trained together for six months at least, I had never seen anyone kneel in prayer, and had no idea that any of our group was Catholic; but the third night three of our companions joined Fulton in saying the Rosary. The rest of us did not understand but we kept a respectful silence.

A few nights later — we were quick learners — we all answered the Hail Marys and Our Fathers. Fulton looked pleased, and thus we ended each day in prayer.

On June 1, 1940, we were to leave Halifax to begin a series of night raids from England over Germany. The evening before, Fulton gave each of us a Rosary.

“We shall be in some tight situations, but then, if you agree, we'll say the Rosary. If you will promise to keep the Rosary with you always throughout your life and to say it, I can promise you that Our Lady will bring you all back safe to Canada.”

We answered, “Sure thing.” Little did we dream we would be in action for four years, many times in dreadful danger with fire all around us. At such times, Fulton's voice would ring through each plane, “Hail Mary...” How reverently and sincerely did we respond! How many hundreds of Rosaries we must have said.

After two years, it was noted that ours was the only squadron that had not lost a plane nor a single life. We said nothing, but we knew.

Finally, the terrible war was over. During those years, we lost all sense of excitement and adventure. All that concerned us was survival! We did survive, too. All returned to Canada in 1945, fully convinced that Our Lady had taken care of us.

So I never forget to keep my Rosary with me and say it every day although I am not a Catholic. When I change my trousers, the first thing I transfer, even before my wallet, is my rosary.