From Unborn to Pre-Born!

Ever had God plant a wild hair in your head and not be able to yank it out?  Yeah.  It's like THAT.

Because the annual March for Life normally occurs in January, there has been a plethora of online chatter about "the unborn," praying for the unborn, marching for the unborn, supporting the unborn, saving the unborn.

You know, honestly, I've never liked the sound of that:  the "unborn."  It always has sounded a little creepy to me, like some kind of unholy foreign creature or a zombie or something.  "The Unborn."  I can just hear the ominous swell of warning music in a "B" horror movie.  "The Unborn!"  (*shiver*)

Has anyone else ever thought that?

(....listening for revelatory yes's or crickets here....)

"Unborn" just sounds so...final.  Like it refers to a creature which has NEVER been born AND never will be born.  The creature *IS* an unborn.  Period.

Of course, I realize that "unborn" babies in utero simply are not born YET.  I realize that.  But, language matters and I wonder if we (including and perhaps especially those who are not already pro-life) have become too accustomed to hearing "the unborn," so much so that the preliminary condition of infants in the womb awaiting and preparing for their birth seems unimportant, unrecognizable, unreal.

 

Those aren't REAL babies.  They're unborn.  They're un-babies.

Mmmphf....

 

What about "the pre-born"?  What about referring to those who are preparing to be born -- actual, whole, beginner people! -- as "the pre-born"?  They already possess an inherent human dignity and simply are preparing for and awaiting their next stage in human development, being born.  They are pre-born, pre-birth, pre-natal, pre-arrival-party, already authentic human beings preparing for their grand entrance into the world beyond their mother's womb!

Why can't we call them the "pre-born?"

 

It sounds so much more like a "getting ready" or preparing stage of life, rather than the fixed and final one of those who won't be allowed to be born, the unborn.  To me, "pre-born" creates an infinitely more complete impression of a distinct individual, a human being who already has such uniquely human characteristics that s/he actively is preparing to show up here!  Being born is a given, because if one is "pre-born," then it implies that this is the time prior to when one *WILL* be born.

I don't know.  It's late.  I'm rambling here.  Clearly.  And yet....

I guess just wanted to share with you the fact that God put this nagging thought in my head about the importance of language, even and especially for the pre-born.  Maybe I'm not the first one to come up with this.  But, please know that I now will be referring to infants in the womb as "pre-born."  I hope you might consider doing so, too!

(...could've made a looooong story a lot shorter right there with just that, couldn't I have?)  ;- )

Thanks for listening and for letting me share the Tiny Little Crusade that God put inside my head!

Think, Not Pink

A wise friend just sent me this letter, and I simply cannot say it any better.  Thank you, Betsy!

Since it is October, be prepared to be inundated with pink everything, along with requests for your hard-earned dollars to go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, ostensibly to help prevent breast cancer.

It is a sign of the times that a foundation collects hundreds of millions of dollars to supposedly stop breast cancer, and then gives it to an organization like Planned Parenthood, which directly increases cases of breast cancer through abortion. Talk about feathering their own nest...at the cost of innocent babies' and women's lives.

I never buy anything with pink on it--not even sneakers.  Not yogurt, not M&M's, not Campbell's soup, NOTHING.  I refuse to participate in any way with an organization so closely linked to the taking of innocent human life.

If you aren't sure, please look at the following information about Komen from Georgia Right to Life:

Komen and Planned Parenthood: What's the Story?

Everyone would like to see breast cancer go away. No one is denying that a cure, just like for all the other cancers out there, would be a blessing.  But, giving to Komen is NOT the way to make that happen.

Let's remember October for whose month it REALLY is: Our Lady's!

Respect Life Sunday

“Defend the lowly and fatherless; render justice to the afflicted and needy.  Rescue the lowly and poor; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” (Psalm 82:3-4)

"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.  Before you were born, I dedicated you..." (Jeremiah 1:5)

Ladybug, Ladybug...!

My husband made an interesting observation today:

He remembered that, when my father died, I was so devastated that I made the comment, half-seriously, "Why is everyone acting like nothing happened!?  How is it that the world is still just.... moving forward, going on, going about its business as usual?"

We feel the same stupefied shock when we consider the ongoing holocaust that is abortion today.  Even in the light shed by  revealing new Planned Parenthood videos, why have we all momentarily gasped in horror, then shaken our heads sadly and trundled on about our lives, business as usual?

And why is the Church doing that?

Wait a minute.  Let's back up a bit.

Several years ago, my husband and I saw a sign at the annual March For Life in Washington, D.C.  (which is attended by hundreds of thousands of people annually and has been going on for forty-three years!), which read:

"Every abortion clinic should have a sign out front that reads:

'This Abortion Clinic Open

By Permission of the Local Christian Churches.' "

Don't get me wrong.  I wholeheartedly believe in the power of prayer.  There are many things which God alone can do.  But, He welcomes our supplication.  Countless hours of dedicated prayer by untold numbers of people (including our family) in front of their local abortion facilities (like this woman, who was arrested for it) or on the Mall in D.C. on an ice-cold January day, are invaluable.

They save lives.  Literally.

Prayer and fasting are the gateway to the heart and mind of God, Who alone can change the heart and mind of...anyone!

So, the Bible says, "Pray without ceasing," (I Thessalonians 5:17).

But....

The Bible also says, "...faith without works is dead," (James 2:26b).

So.

What works are we doing?
What works is the Church doing?

Really.

Remember the old nursery rhyme?

Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home.
Your house is on fire!  And your children are gone!
All except one and her name is Anne,
for she crept under the frying pan.

My husband noted that our moral house in America is on fire, good people.  And when your house is on fire, you don't stop to finish painting a room or sweep the floor or mow the lawn or put the dishes away.

When your house is on fire, you grab your kids, and you go.  You run.  You RUN out of that house!

The house of our human family in America is on fire today, and it is up to us to grab our children and run.  This includes the silent children waiting patiently to be born within the previously assumed safety of their mothers' wombs.

Everything else is secondary.

Everything.

For me.  For you.  And for the Church.

The Catholic Church today is the single most powerful, worldwide, religious institution.  The Church, this "Goliath for God," MUST do every effective, tangible, practical thing to put real pressure on the abortion industry, so that abortion's killing fields come to a screeching halt and are put out of business.  Today.

I'm not talking about just continuing the individual (priceless!) efforts of indomitable old ladies offering their daily Mass.  Nor of courageous reporters revealing the revolting reality behind the scenes of abortion practices.  Nor of non-profit organizations like the March For Life who spend every day of the year beating the pavement to save every single life they can.  Nor even of our Christian brothers and sisters in other denominations, who join the Catholic Church in this almighty fight.

All of these are important!  All of these are actions that are supplications to God to end abortion.

But, I'm talking about the hierarchy of the Church.  I'm talking about the strong arm, the muscle, the official power.  The leaders.  The deacons.  The priests.  The bishops.  The Vatican.  The pope.

The Holy Father, Pope Francis, is about to visit the United States for the first time.  Is this the welcome mat that the Catholic Church in America is going to lay out for him?  Miles of film footage showing the evils of abortion, which we continue to allow in our country under the guises of, "freedom," "choice," and the profit of, "line items"?

Is that it?

There must be something more we can do, something more the Church can do.

I know the Church has pro-life offices.  I know the Church has always, "condemned," abortion (the history of which viewpoint Father William Saunders articulates excellently here).

But, abortion is a devastating fire.  It is a conflagration from the evil one.  We are the ladybugs.  And the Church has the potential to provide the shelter of the frying pan.  We must fly away home and rescue the children, drop whatever else is occupying us, and get them safely under the protection of the frying pan.

And then we must pick up a fire extinguisher, aim it well, and smother the life-exterminating blaze of abortion until it ceases to exist.

But, what will our fire extinguisher be...?

Forget the spaghetti dinners and flower sales and church gift shop.  All of that helps, yes.  But, we still haven't won.

What can we do to halt abortion?  Now.
What can the Church do to halt abortion?  Now.

Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home.
Your house is on fire!  And your children are gone!

Our human home is burning to death.  Abortion exists because, as human beings, we allow it.  We turn our backs on women in unintended pregnancies and allow the murder of organisms which unarguably can only be humans in their earliest nascent state.

Until abortion is stopped, until we put out the fire of this scourge on human life, every ounce of energy, resources, and column inches belonging to us and to the Catholic Church in America should be put to use eradicating abortion.

Without LIFE first, nothing else matters.  And abortion is a deadly plague.

Are we so ineffectual?  Is the Church?  Is there nothing more we can do in this country to protect LIFE so that abortion is recognized for the horror that it is!?  What am I missing?  Why is abortion still legal?

The Pledge of Allegiance

Did you know that, when the Knights of Columbus recite The Pledge of Allegiance, they add a special intention?

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all -- born and unborn."

Scopes Monkey Trial

In light of the current focus on the indescribably, nauseatingly, vile content of videos taken at Planned Parenthood, revealing the dissection and selling of unborn infant body parts (sometimes while still alive) for profit under the guise of purported potentially life-saving medical research (which continues to have no basis in any actual success), I thought this quote from the famous Scopes Monkey Trial was eloquent in articulating the dangerous waters progressive science can place us in when we do not govern what we CAN do by what we SHOULD (or should NOT) do:

This is William Jennings Bryan's, the prosecution for the case, summation of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial (distributed to reporters but not read in court):

"Science is a magnificent force, but it is not a teacher of morals. It can perfect machinery, but it adds no moral restraints to protect society from the misuse of the machine. It can also build gigantic intellectual ships, but it constructs no moral rudders for the control of storm-tossed human vessel. It not only fails to supply the spiritual element needed but some of its unproven hypotheses rob the ship of its compass and thus endanger its cargo. In war, science has proven itself an evil genius; it has made war more terrible than it ever was before. Man used to be content to slaughter his fellowmen on a single plane, the earth's surface. Science has taught him to go down into the water and shoot up from below and to go up into the clouds and shoot down from above, thus making the battlefield three times as bloody as it was before; but science does not teach brotherly love. Science has made war so hellish that civilization was about to commit suicide; and now we are told that newly discovered instruments of destruction will make the cruelties of the late war seem trivial in comparison with the cruelties of wars that may come in the future. If civilization is to be saved from the wreckage threatened by intelligence not consecrated by love, it must be saved by the moral code of the meek and lowly Nazarene. His teachings, and His teachings alone, can solve the problems that vex the heart and perplex the world.^"

Jesus, I trust in You!

Lord, drop the scales from our eyes.  Help us to see the scourge of abortion for what it is -- the purposeful killing of defenseless infant humans where they should be the most safe, in their mother's womb.  Help us to reach out generously to women in crisis pregnancies and offer to help them in any way we can, so they may bring to fruition the precious new life YOU have given us all!

Amen.

Scientific Facts: When Does Human Life Begin?

40 Miles For Life - HE DID IT!

THANK YOU so very much to everyone who physically and spiritually was following Chris on this Feast of the Archangels in his 40 Miles For Life!

HE DID IT!

From 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Chris ran forty miles from the abortion clinic on Tollhouse Avenue in Frederick, to the Perpetual Adoration Chapel at St. Peter's in Libertytown, to the Grotto of Lourdes at MSM in Emmitsburg.  He made it throughout the day consuming only water and nutritional liquid supplements, without any solid food until he got home at 5:30 p.m.

WOW!!!

Along the way, people graciously called to update me with reports of, "He's healthy!" and "He looks fresh and great!", etc.  And our eldest son and I were privileged to be Chris's crew at a midday stop in Creagerstown.

THANK YOU to every single one of you!  We never could have done it without your gracious and generous support!  All in the quest to end abortion through prayer and fasting!  May God bless you and all our efforts for LIFE in the same measure as you have so kindly given of your time and talents today.

Thank you!

War on Women