READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/december.asp?version=63&startmmdd=0101
December 9, 2010 (Mat 19:14) But Jesus said to them: Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come to me: for the kingdom of heaven is for such.
POPE BENEDICT XVI: "The human person is a good in himself and his integral development must always be sought. Love for all, moreover, if it is sincere, tends spontaneously to become preferential attention to the weakest and poorest. This explains the Church's concern for the unborn, the frailest, those most threatened by the selfishness of adults and the clouding of consciences. The Church continually reasserts what the Second Vatican Council declared against abortion and against every violation of unborn life: "from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care" (ibid., n. 51). Cultural trends exist that seek to anaesthetize consciences with spurious arguments."
FROM THE MAILBAG
VIA Jim McCrea: Dr. Jack Willke says that abortion is so unnatural that it will be gone in 50 years.
That makes sense. There is now an information wall concerning abortion. If mainstream newspapers and magazines started publishing articles that told the truth about how women are pressured and lied to to have abortions, what really happens in abortion mills, and what happens in the lives of women who have had abortions, abortion would quickly be made illegal due to overwhelming public pressure.
But that information wall cannot keep the truth locked in indefinitely. It will soon get out. News outlets such as LifeSite News are now getting the truth out to the public. As a critical mass of concerned pro-life people builds, pressure will be put on media outlets to start telling the truth, and this will in turn persuade lawmakers and judges to start ruling against abortion. This will bring more persuasion to bear on the situation as more and more commentary will be pro-life and more and more legal rulings and laws will be pro-life.
Soon it will be as indefensible to support legalized abortion as it does to support slavery (slavery was the blind spot in society 150 years ago). It will become a cultural construct that even though there may still be problems with pregnancy, no decent person would ever consider killing the unborn as a solution, just as now no decent person puts forth the idea that killing the poor is a solution to the problems of poverty.
THESUNTIMES EDITORIAL: It's never too late to say you're sorry
In September of 1900, when my great grandmother, Eliza Quillinan, was 38 years old, she made a mistake.
She was unmarried at that age and she still lived at home on the family homestead near Markdale. Her mistake was -- she allowed herself to be seduced.
Millions of women make this kind of mistake at one time or another. And no one ever knows. But this was one mistake that Eliza was never allowed to forget. Because she got pregnant.
Eliza had a daughter, out of wedlock, in June of 1901. Alone. In Toronto. Cut off forever from her former life and family. At the child's baptism, in Toronto, one of the most important family Sacraments in the Catholic Church, no family members were even present. Only the cleaning lady from the church stood up with her.
And the pressure of trying to support herself and her bastard child, all by herself, in the early 1900s, was so stressful, that Eliza had a stroke and died in 1911, at 48, when her daughter was only 10 years old.
But that was hardly the end of it.
Eliza had that one daughter. And that daughter had three daughters. And those three daughters had 14 kids between them. And those 14 kids had 25 children. And those 25 have already had 10 children of their own.
Now we'll probably never know the details of Eliza's little mistake. Who was it with? Was it her first time? Was she just curious? Willing? Forced? Unconscious?
It probably only lasted a few frantic minutes. Yet it ruined her entire life. It ruined her daughter's life. It caused no end of trouble with her family. And it not only changed things for Eliza, but it changed history and it altered the future forever.
Because, so far, that little mistake has created 53 new lives that never would have existed otherwise.
Eliza suffered for her mistake. She was totally forgotten. No one in the family knew where or when she died or where she was buried. And no one much cared. Even the Markdale Standard gave her the wrong surname in reporting her death, in 1911. And her name was never put on the family tombstone, although she was buried in the family plot for over 100 years.
When I started looking, I didn't even know her name. But with the kind help of George Black in Markdale, Marylou Roe in Waterloo, Father Les. Szczygiel, (pronounced just as it's spelled), at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Markdale; Stefanie Grubb in the parish office in Durham, and Joan O'Neill, a former resident of Glenelg, I finally confirmed Eliza's death date. And with that, I turned to Marg Meldrum, a professional researcher, (Marg@GenealogyResults.com), and finally got the full story of Eliza Quillinan.
And Eliza, let me be the very first in the family, in over 100 years, to say "Thank you." To praise you for all your sacrifice and suffering. To celebrate your mistake. To assure you that you did the right thing -- even though it cost you so dearly.
It was a beautiful thing -- as bringing any child to life is.
And I know, in your time, as in mine, a woman can always find a way to get rid of an inconvenient child. But you resisted that urge -- even though you knew it would destroy your life. And I thank you now for your courage and your sacrifice back then.
I thank you for my grandmother being here. For my mother and my aunts being here. For myself being here. And for my brother and all my sisters and cousins being here. And for my children and all of their children. For the 53 wonderful lives you have made possible already. And for the hundreds more that will follow.
You did the right thing, Eliza. Even though it hurt you so much.
So, rather than put up a new stone over your grave, I've asked that your name be put on the old family tombstone. To say we're sorry. To bring you back into the family with gratitude and with open arms.
Welcome home Eliza, at long last.
Fifty three of us owe you so much.
Ladder of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 27- "On holy stillness of body and soul"
3. A friend of stillness is a courageous and decisive thought which keeps constant vigil at the doors of the heart, and kills or repels the thoughts that come. He who practises silence with perception of heart will understand this last remark; but he who is yet a child is unaware and ignorant of it.Prayer request? Send an email to: PrayerRequest3@aol.com
This month's archive can be found at: http://www.catholicprophecy.info/news2.html.
