Let’s see, adults who wish to remove the feeding and water tube to kill a disabled woman hold places of honor in our society and live as free people in no fear of the law while a child who tries to bring water to the dying and dehydrated Terri Schiavo is arrested. This seems like Bizarro World.
See the Photo (Yahoo! News)
WASHINGTON — The full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to quickly review a previous decision to not allow Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube to be reinserted.
Read more of this Breaking News (Foxnews)
It looks like things are not looking good judicially. It’s in God’s hands. Let’s keep praying and fighting the good fight politically. Terri can find no justice.
With the recent court decisions, Terri’s situation certainly looks grim. However, we should not put our trust in princes (or their appointees), but in God. I am going to offer up a day of fasting and prayer for Terri Schiavo today and I urge others to do the same. Time may be running out, but there is still hope.
Lord Have Mercy
Christ Have Mercy
Lord Have Mercy
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (Reuters) - Conservative Christian groups have
called for mass vigils outside the hospice caring for brain-damaged
Terri Schiavo but many of the few dozen who have shown up said they
were drawn for personal reasons unrelated to organized religion…
Continue reading Schiavo Protesters Not All Christian Conservatives (Reuters)
I’m glad to see some in the media recognize that this movement is made up of more than just Christians and conservatives, but includes compassionate people across the spectrum.
The media, whether out of malice, ignorance, or just plain incompetence (or perhaps all three), seems to be out of the loop on the whole Terri Schiavo case. It’s interesting how often the many uncomfortable and suspicious details of her case are completely ignored or downplayed by the media. Without reading the alternative news or the blogs, one could easily assume that Terri was practically in a coma or on a ventilator. One could also think that Michael Schiavo was unselfishly looking out for the best interests of his wife. I found an excellent article that explains alot about the Terri Schiavo case that hasn’t been reported in the national media. The article is old (January 2004), but it tells an important story, the story that you won’t see on CNN or hear about in the mainstream media. Please read:
Killing Terri Schiavo by Rev. Robert Johansen (Godspy Magazine)
My life has been quite hectic and chaotic lately, as many readers of this blog will know. Some major plans I made for the future seem to have been complicated to put it mildly. It’s times like these that we have to learn to truly trust God. I’m learning more and more what St. Paul meant when he said: we walk not by sight, but by faith. It is in this context that I made my pilgrimage to the Sorrowful Mother Shrine in Bellevue, Ohio yesterday. I needed a day to spend with God away from the stress of work and other things, a day to find clarity about my vocation.
March 21st may have been the second day of Spring, but I don’t think the news reached Northern Ohio. The day started and stayed cold, but we made the 2.5 hour drive to the largely outdoor shrine anyway. When we arrived, I was amazed at how rural the grounds were. I had previously blogged on small town Catholicism. This was my first experience with rural Catholicism. As a small town/rural boy, I appreciated seeing it.
We first went to the gift shop where we were taken care of by a wonderful lady who almost got choked up explaining what a joy it was to work at the shrine. After my trip, I can see why she feels that way. I bought several interesting things, including some wonderful new devotional booklets. One was a Precious Blood prayer book, filled with devotions I haven’t discovered until now (the shrine is run by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood).
After the gift shop, we went into the shrine church. Recently restored, it was beautiful. I said some prayers and started a novena to the Sorrowful Mother. I also "lit a votive candle." I put that in quotes because the church did not have real candles, but electric ones. I had heard of this before, but it was my first experience with this type of thing. Call me a young fogey or even a purist, but I still prefer real candles.
Next, we went to the outside grounds. It was almost like going on a hike since the shrine encompasses 120 acres, much of it wooded. As we walked along the paths we encountered many of the small tree shrines as well as some of the bigger monuments, including an eerily lifelike statue of St. Peregrine. The first major grotto we came upon was one dedicated to St. Gaspar, the founder of the Society of the Precious Blood. I asked him to pray for me and then we moved back on the actual path.
More to Come…
Photo on left of the St. Gaspar grotto; photo on right of Sorrowful Mother Statue. All photos taken by Jonathan Bennett.
I ordered a book last week called The Theology of the Passion of the Christ written by Monica Migliorino Miller. I first saw the Passion last Good Friday and hope to watch it again this Holy Week. This book is supposed to address the theology behind the movie and its symbolism. I’ll let you know what I think of the book.
On another note, tomorrow I’m going on another pilgrimage, this time to the Sorrowful Mother Shrine in Bellevue, Ohio. I really feel like I need to find a way to move forward in my life, mainly to discern what God wants me to do and how he wants me to accomplish it. This will be a time to pray, reflect, and discern. Please keep me (and David) in your prayers as we make this pilgrimage. I’ll have plenty of reflections and photos when I return.
| The Lord You scored 13% Cardinal, 56% Monk, 47% Lady, and 54% Knight! |
| You are of the intellectual breed and yet you are also very interested in war. You are of the aristocracy and head the cavalry a safe distance from the carnage of the front lines. You believe in defeating your enemy with not only might, but also wit.You scored high as both the Monk and the Knight. You can try again to get a more precise description of either the Monk or the Knight, or you can be happy that you’re an individual. |
 |
My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
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| Link: The Who Would You Be in 1400 AD Test written by KnightlyKnave on Ok CupidHat Tip: martha, martha |
The Senate is meeting at 5:00pm today to consider passage of Terri’s Law. Please keep this issue in your prayers, especially at 5:00. Here is a good one:
Heavenly Father, your cosmic gaze focused on dust and you fashioned in your image and likeness every man and women: give us, we beg you, a keen eye to recognize that image so that respect for all human life becomes our way of life.Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen. (Committee for Pro-Life Activities National Conference of Catholic Bishops).
Source for Senate information: Blogsforterri
Source for prayer: Prayers for Life
Robbie Low, a (soon to be former?) vicar in the Church of England has written an excellent article about the inherent schismatic nature of Protestantism and its lack of any system of authority. This is what essentially led me to Catholicism too, so naturally I find Fr. Low’s argument’s persuasive. My favorite section:
The translation and interpretation of Holy Scripture is the task of the
Church brought into being by the same Holy Spirit who inspired the
written Word. The protesters who broke with Rome cannot have foreseen
the fissiparous nature of their enterprise. In rejecting the authority
of the Pope the Western reformers did not abolish autocracy but rather
set in train a process the logical end of which is that every man is a
pope in his own parish or in his own front room. The ‘idolatry’ of Rome
was replaced by the idolatry of self, social group and nation in swift
order. Reformation hopes gave way to puritanism. Parts of Europe
descended into the fierce joylessness of Calvinism, others to the
excitements of Anabaptism, revivalists, iconoclasts, Pentecostalists
etc, each seizing upon an aspect of the faith and overemphasizing it to
the distortion of the whole. The upshot is hundreds of ‘churches’, most
of them with their own bizarre subdivisions (low, strict and
particular, Southern, open etc, etc). In addition, there are thousands
upon thousands of one-man band conventicles brought about by the
falling out of Brother Smith with Pastor Jones. Pastor Smith, as he has
now appointed himself, has the ‘real’ truth and hopes shortly to be
needing to rent a bigger Scout Hut than the gravely misled Pastor
Jones, his former guru. While both (and millions like them) claim, sola scriptura,
the authority of the Word, they are in fact claiming merely a personal
authority to interpret God’s Word with no reference to the historic and
living community of faith. It is little better than theological piracy
and insupportable vanity. It is the rejection, all too often, of the
teaching of the Church in favour of the cult of private opinion. In an
age which has so comprehensively rejected traditional forms of
authority and embraced the highest good as individual gratification, it
is scarcely surprising that disintegration is gathering pace.
According to one source, Robbie Low and his family are converting to Catholicism. Can anybody confirm this?
Read all of Divided We Fall (courtesy of Pontifications)
Read the article at its original location
Hat tip to Charles.
Today is the solemnity of St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus and the most chaste earthly spouse and protector of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Although he is largely absent from Scripture and devotion to him is less widespread than to the Mother of God, he played an important role in the life of our Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary. He is the patron of the Universal Church, the unborn, workers, the Croatian people, those having doubts, those fighting communism and social justice among many other things.
A Prayer to St. Joseph:
O blessed Joseph, faithful guardian of my Redeemer, Jesus Christ, protector
of thy chaste spouse, the virgin Mother of God, I choose thee this day to
be my special patron and advocate and I firmly resolve to honor thee all
the days of my life.
Therefore I humbly beseech thee to receive me as thy
client, to instruct me in every doubt, to comfort me in every affliction,
to obtain for me and for all the knowledge and love of the Heart of Jesus,
and finally to defend and protect me at the hour of my death.
Amen
Prayer from About.Com
Image from St. Charles Borromeo Church Image Gallery
My letter to President Bush:
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 17:57:12 -0800 (PST) From: "Jonathan Bennett" <[]@yahoo.com> Subject: Terri Schiavo To: president@whitehouse.gov Dear Mr. President, I am 26, a Catholic, an Ohioan, and pro-life. AlthoughI disagree with you on several issues, I voted for youbecause I knew that you would, at the very least, workto promote life while President. I pray for you andyour cabinet regularly. I and 100,000 or so other swing voters in Ohio gaveyou the election. As one of this small group ofvoters, I ask you to use some of your "politicalcapital" to please save Terri Schiavo. How could theleader of the free world fail in saving the life of adisabled woman? Mr. President, she has few friends. Ikindly ask you to be one. Sincerely,Jonathan Bennett
I notice how many people assume that those fighting for Terri are just right wingers or Catholics and Evangelicals (by the way, where are the mainline Protestant voices, anyone?). Aside from the many disablity activists who are fighting for her life (ignored often by the media), there is another person who breaks the stereotypical mold even more: the Jewish, liberal, atheist, Village Voice author, and pro-lifer Nat Hentoff. I don’t agree with all says, of course, but he has written some excellent stuff on Terri Schiavo. I recommend the following articles:
Was Terri Schiavo Beaten in 1990?
It’s Not Only About Terri Schiavo
The Culture of Death
A Woman’s Life Vs. An Inept Press
We need to pray hard. It looks like the State is going to kill Terri.
Tomorrow is the day Terri Schiavo is scheduled to be killed. Yes, Judge Greer has ordered her starved and dehydrated on March 18th. Terri Schiavo is the among the least of the world: defenseless and voiceless and at the total mercy of a wicked husband, a capricious judiciary, and an indifferent population. The words of Jesus immediately came to mind:
Then he will say to those at his left hand, `Depart from
me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his
angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, `Lord, when did we see thee hungry or
thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not
minister to thee?‘ Then he will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Matt. 25: 41-46, RSV, emphasis mine)
I urge everyone to pray hard and for Catholics to offer up your abstinence this Friday on behalf of Terri. For more about the urgency of the situation, please visit: Terri’s Fight: Important Bulletin.
I want to wish all my readers a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day!
Our Father,
you Sent St. Patrick
to preach your glory to the people of Ireland.
By the help of his prayers,
may all Christians proclaim your love to all men.
Grant this, through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Prayer from Liturgy of the Hours
Image from St. Charles Borromeo Church Image Gallery
