Catholics and Abortion

Sadly, Ireland has chosen to legalize abortion. Most people say this is a win for women's rights. However, it is actually killing millions of women every day. Maybe not fully grown women, but millions of future women. 

Women keep chanting, "My body, My Choice"... but it isn't their body that's being ripped apart. It isn't their body being killed. It isn't their choice being erased.

This is a side by side of a 4D ultrasound of a baby in the womb vs when the baby has been born. Do you notice much of a difference? Other than where the baby temporarily resides, what is the difference between the child in the womb and out of the womb? He still has the same nose, the same lips, the same eyes, the same chin, the same chubby arms, the same 10 fingers and 10 toes. The baby that is born is the same child inside the womb in every way.

This child, even in the womb, has it's own body, it's own heartbeat, it's own brain that is growing and learning, it's own completely unique, one of a kind genetic makeup. It is its own individual person. the child has its own identity completely separate from the mother's. It is not HER body... it is a separate life's body. That life has a spirit, that life has a choice... but can't speak for itself. The baby's only advocate wants her choice to supersede the choice of the most innocent.

It has been scientifically proven that a child can learn in utero. That's why doctors now tell you to play music for the unborn child, to talk to the child, it's why they believe a newborn who has never met their mother, calms down at her touch and her voice, because they learned who she is in utero and know her.

It's been scientifically proven that an unborn child (or fetus) can feel and react to physical stimulus, including when someone presses on the mother's belly... and by the time most babies in the womb are aborted, they already have the ability to feel pain. So as their limbs are being ripped away from their tiny bodies, they are feeling every second of it

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A child that is unborn would not be okay with dying. Their sole purpose is to survive, to grow, and to be born. Yet that right to choose what to do with THEIR body is taken away from them.

Gianna Jensen was aborted. In fact, she was a late term abortion. Her mother went to planned parenthood where they injected a solution into the womb. This solution is inhaled by the fetus, and after ingestion starts to burn the fetus from the inside out until death. in 24 hours, the mother will deliver a dead child. Everyone says, "it's okay cause it's not a life until it's outside of the womb, so if it dies in the womb, it's not murder."

Gianna Jensen was meant to die in a horrific way, in an excruciatingly painful way (Because, again... not only was it scientifically proven that fetuses much younger than she was at the time of her abortion, can feel pain... but it's scientifically proven that an infant feels greater pain than adults because their nerves are hypersensitive until a certain age after birth)... so for that fetus being injected with this solution, the pain must be indescribably bad. 

She was unborn... she was to die in her mother's womb... but miraculously she is still here to talk about how grateful she is for her life. She was adopted by loving parents and thanks God every day for allowing her to live. Not her mother... GOD. He pulled her through the attempted murder and allowed her to be born and adopted by a wonderful family who accepted her even though the attempted abortion left her with medical issues (The abortion caused her to have cerebral palsy). Today she still speaks at pro-life events. Her survival proves she was a life inside the womb. If she were not a life, she would have easily expired from the abortion.

the word "abort" means to bring to a premature end. You can only end something that has begun. So to abort a baby is to end a life that has begun. By the very definition of abortion, you have to acknowledge that it is a life you are ending.

Then there is the rape argument. "Why victimize the woman more by forcing her to have a child of a rapist?"

That argument is flawed.

1. statistics show that the vast majority of abortions are after the fact birth control, not rape or medical emergency. These statistics were before modern medical advancements. Thanks to modern medicine, pregnancies that were once life and death for a mother, can now be managed without abortion, and with the morning after pill being given after a rape to stop conception, the statistics today for rape/medical emergency has dropped even lower than before... meaning the main reason for an abortion is because two consenting sexual partners (whether adults or teens) could not control their urges and had an oops that an innocent life has to pay the price for.

There is a reason the bible warns against sexual promiscuity outside of marriage. St Paul even says if someone can not control their sexual desires, it is better for them to be married and indulge with their spouse, than to suffer the fires of hell for indulging in sexual immorality. The sin of abortion is another reason for not indulging our carnal desires outside of the bonds of marriage.

So the rape argument is moot as it is statistically the lowest cause of abortion. Today it is less than 1%.

2. A child is completely innocent, and half of the genetic code belongs to the mother. To kill a child for the vile sins of the rapist would be like: a mother of 4 driving drunk kills a state trooper in an accident... so they go to the children's school, take one out of class, and have the child executed because of the mother's crime.

Should an innocent child be put to death because of a wrong the mother did? So why should an innocent unborn child who did nothing wrong in the world except try to exist, be put to death? Especially when there are so many families that would want that child. 

Of course it is sad that there are "Catholics" and "Christians" who support "women's rights" to rob a future woman of her rights. I put the words Christian and Catholics in quotations because they are not truly Christian or Catholic since the bible is VERY clear about how God feels about life. Children are lives, even if they are unborn. God is clear about that in the bible. So if an unborn child is a life, killing that child is murder which is a mortal sin according to God's commandments. So abortion is abhorrent to God.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart" - Jeremiah 1:5

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." - Matthew 19:14

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. - Luke 1:41

This is why Catholics oppose abortion. They are life. Even in the womb, John the Baptist leapt at the presence of Mary and the fruit of her womb, Jesus.

God knew us before we were even conceived! Jesus, who started life as an unborn baby himself, states that heaven belongs to the children such as the ones he brought to himself. Elizabeth's unborn baby leaped in her womb with joy... for an unborn infant to leap in the womb at the presence of Mary and the fruit of her own womb, Jesus... that means Elizabeth's unborn child (John the Baptist), was alive and feeling emotion.

God is very clear that even an unborn life is still a life. And he knew our soul before it even was a spark in our parent's eye.

So if you are Christian, you must oppose abortion, or you are opposing God. Even if you never have an abortion yourself, to support the right is to condone the act, making you complicit in this grave sin as if you HAVE committed the act yourself.

Pray for life.

Pray for those who support abortion that their eyes may be opened before it's too late.

Pray for those who commit abortion that they may seek true redemption through the blood Christ shed on the cross at Calvary for all of us.

Pray for those who have the courage to give life a chance.

Pray for mothers.

Immaculate Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

 

The words "Lead us Not Into Temptation" From the Lord's prayer, presents trouble for Pope Francis. He states that the translation makes it sound as if God is the one leading us into temptation. I've said this prayer since I was knee high to a tadpole and I never looked at it this way. However, here are a few excerpts from the story according to World Catholic Report

Pope Francis said that “lead us not into temptation” is a poorly translated line of the Our Father.

“This is not a good translation,” the Pope said in the video, published Dec. 6. “I am the one who falls, it’s not (God) who pushes me toward temptation to see how I fall. A father doesn’t do this, a father helps us to get up right away.”

He noted that this line was recently re-translated in the French version of the prayer to read “do not let me fall into temptation.”

The Latin version of the prayer, the authoritative version in the Catholic Church, reads “ne nos inducas in tentationem.”

The Pope said that the one who leads people into temptation “is Satan; that is the work of Satan.” He said that the essence of that line in the prayer is like telling God: “when Satan leads me into temptation, please, give me your hand. Give me your hand."

It further states...

"According to the French episcopal conference, the decision to make the change was accepted by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in June 2013.


The new translation, released Dec. 3 to mark the first day of Advent and the beginning of the new liturgical year, now reads “ne nous laisse pas entrer en tentation,” meaning, “do not let us fall into temptation,” versus the former “ne nous soumets pas à la tentation,” or “lead us not into temptation.”

I take issue with this. I get what he's trying to say, but I think he's wrong. We are going by our Church's Mother tongue which use to be Latin before Vatican II decided every church had their own tongue which was to be spoken in their own language and we no longer focused on the teaching of Latin.

The translations of the Lord's Prayer were translated from Greek (which was translated from Christ's language of Aramaic) to Latin. 
Some say the translation is faulty and the Greek translation (which is "And let us not be led into temptation" should be the replacement.

I respectfully disagree that it was a misleading translation. Great care was taken with The translation process. et ne nos inducas in tentationem (Lead us not into temptation) is a literal translation of the Greek version, given to us by St. Jerome. (click the name to learn more about this Saint)

To understand the translation, let us understand St. Jerome. He was highly intelligent, a historian, and a trilinguistic. He was a holy man and the father of the standard Latin translation of the bible that has held for 1600 years. He, in fact, is the patron saint of archeologists, bible scholars, librarians and translators. He studied himself under the renowned theologian, St. Gregory. St. Jerome could understand Greek, Hebrew and Latin. He could also read Aramaic, but could not speak it well. 

There were early translations from Greek to Latin, before St. Jerome, but they missed the mark. Since Latin was becoming far more widely spoken and understood than Greek, they needed a proper, and accurate translation, and that is when St. Jerome came into the picture. He also took it upon himself to translate the old Testament from Hebrew into Latin.

St Jerome is credited with RESTORING the New Testament to it's original Greek state in his Latin Translation from the Old Latin translations which were deemed inadequate. In fact, many have stated you can see the Greek influences in the Latin Vulgate.

So the actual translation is not misleading or faulty. The accepted Latin translation is as close as literal as the language can get. St. Jerome worked on the thought of, "not word for word, but sense for sense". This is now called the Dynamic equivalent. The DE is used when the readability of the translation is more important than the preservation of the original grammatical structure. Meaning, the words may not translate exactly grammatically, but the spirit is the same. So "Lead us not into temptation" is the same as "let us not be led into temptation".

I never grew up thinking God led me to sin. But I understood there'd be trials, tribulations and tests (which would include temptations from the evil one). We were taught to understand that we are praying for deliverance from those tribulations and tests.

We must also consider that languages evolve and temptation may have had a different meaning that it does now, or (more likely) may have had more than one meaning. Most Apologists believe that temptation meant "Test" or tribulation in this sense. Thus making it "please do not put us to the test, instead deliver us from evil."

Just like Adam and Eve, God sometimes puts our faith and obedience to the test, and the evil one takes advantage. So the translation in Greek (let us not be led) and Latin (Lead us not into) are both valid in this sense when you understand the meaning behind it.

A lot of people accuse this of being an English translation problem since many languages use a form of "Let us not be led." That is not true.

The 1600 year old Lord's Prayer in the St. Jerome Latin is the first known use of the phrase "Lead us not", and all Roman Catholic churches used it, all across the world.

That is until Vatican II when the masses began to be said in the tongue of whatever country. Even then, many used a translation of the Latin prayer in their own language until modern times. Like the French who only this month changed the words from "lead us not" to "let us not be led".

So it is not an "English" problem... it is a lack of proper theological education problem.

Whichever the Pope chooses, I will continue to pray it as it's always been prayed, only I prefer to pray it in Latin. There used to be a time when every Catholic church in every country across the world spoke one language in Mass, Latin. Prayed as one unit, spoke with one voice. All around the world we prayed the same words, together.

Now we speak in thousands of different languages, some of whom do their own translations. It is no longer a single unified Church in Christ.

I don't feel we need a better translation, we need better teachers to explain these questions. We should also return to a unified, one Church way again, where we are all speaking the same language with the same translation and interpretations, in one voice.

I will always prefer the Traditional Latin Mass for this reason.

We need to stop dumbing down our religion and smartening up the Faithful. Instead of watering things down so people don't have to actually LEARN something, make them educate, make them get involved. TEACH them.

If Catholicism was being properly taught to our children, not only at Catholic schools or CCD, but at home... this wouldn't be an issue now.

When I taught CCD, the kids told me they weren't even going to church. The parents were using CCD as daycare. Other than that, they never went to church, never talked about God at home. The parents felt it was our responsibility to impart thousands of years of theology on kids 1x a week for a few months a year. Parents hold responsibility for their child's eternal soul and it's just not being done and now we have this. Changing prayers because the Pope can't answer the simple question as to "why it is this way". instead of teaching, change it... right? (sarcasm)

I again blame Vatican II for trying to water the religion down. When we lose our traditions, when we move to the modern, we put our own conveniences before God, and this is what you get. That's a blog for another time however.

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For more information on the Latin Bible and St Jerome:

Further Reading:

St Jerome and the Latin Bible

Et Ne Nos Inducas in Tentationem

St Jerome the Bible Translator

The Vulgate

Biography of St. Jerome

Protestant who kind of gets it.

Here is a protestant who actually gets it.

She's not 100% there yet, but if we can just educate her a little further, I can see hope for a conversion because she is almost there.

But she still has many things wrong.

For example: she does not believe in the Catholic stance on birth control because she plans to be on birth control.

For what reason? medical, the desire to not have children in marriage, or the desire to have sex outside of a Godly union so it does not lead to children.

It is not the Catholic faith that is clear on promiscuity, it's the bible. If you plan on fulfilling sexual desires before marriage and using birth control to prevent pregnancy, then you are going against the BIBLE... not the Catholic faith.

For evidence, look no further than in New Testament... letters from Apostle Paul. (Although you can find it in many other places in various ways in both the old and new testaments.)

In the letters from St Paul to the Corinthians, he states: "For "the two" it says, "will become one flesh". But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body. Do you not know your body is a temple of the holy spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body."

He goes on to say, "Because of cases of immorality, every man should have his own wife and every woman her own husband. The husband should fulfill his duty toward his wife, and likewise a wife toward her husband."

he continues: "To the unmarried and to the widows I say: It is a good thing for them to remain as they are (IE abstinent), as I do, but if they can not exercise self-control, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to be on fire."

In other words, sex outside of marriage is a mortal sin, and if you can not resist the urge to have sex, then you should get married since it is better to fulfill your urges with your spouse, than to commit a sinful act that can lead you to fall from grace.

Many religions including Catholicism, for this reason, look at premarital sex the same way as adultery. If you are not married and have sex with someone who is not your spouse, then you are committing adultery on your future spouse, because you are depriving them of your fidelity for your own selfish gratification.

Paul mentions sexual immorality many times in his letters. (Hebrews, Thessalonians, Colossians, etc) That is how important he found the matter of abstinence, fidelity and the holy union of a man and woman becoming one.

Not to mention, birth control is not infallible. Many children have been born to those who thought they were protected. Either by human error or some mishap with the birth control, they welcomed a child into a situation that is outside of the family structure God intended. It is also not infallible when it comes to protecting against sexually transmitted diseases. Many who have used birth control were surprised to find they still ended up with an STD. Again, either from human error or something faulty with the "protection" itself. Birth control is not infallible. It is still a risk, even if that risk is lessened. And it leads us to feel free to indulge in sinful behavior because we feel 'safe'.

Now, there are those who have used birth control for health reasons. One is a treatment of diseases such as adenomyosis and endometriosis, Something that has nothing to do with sex. These are diseases that can lead to cancer, iron deficiencies, anemia... It has nothing to do with keeping yourself from fulfilling God's plan of joining together with your spouse as one flesh and being fruitful and multiplying. So the church does not teach that you can not use birth control for health purposes.

But if you are using birth control to stop yourself from having a child with your husband, or to not get pregnant so you can have sex without the benefit of marriage, then you are going against the BIBLE, not Catholic teachings.

Sex and what God intended for it, is in the bible. However you want to spin it, is between you and God. The Catholic church merely follows biblical teaching on the subject.

Birth control to stop yourself from having a child so you can enjoy sex without risk is about self gratification, and thus our mind is on our own pleasures and not God.

There are other things she said that didn't make sense. Maybe I misunderstood her, or she misspoke or, I'm not sure, but she still has a lot of research to do.

While I don't agree with everything she said as she still seems to have a few misconceptions about what's Catholic vs what's biblical... I give her much credit for doing her research with an open heart and open mind.

God Bless this girl. I will pray for her and her continued growth as a child of God. I hope if she ever finds her way to this blog, she'll find more truths about the Catholic faith. One day we'll tackle the somewhat complicated Papal theory.

Amen.

Powerful statement

painting by Akiane Kramarik

This is a very wonderful discussion the deacon of my church wrote about the message of the readings and Gospel for 7/2/17 (the 13th Sunday of Ordinary time)

Jesus said to his Apostles

"Whoever Loves Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me."

Those are very powerful words. Powerful words indeed. And difficult words too. Jesus is telling us that true Christianity comes at a cost.

Here's a cute story of two brothers, ages 9 and 5. They were arguing over who would get the last chocolate chip cookie. Their mother said to the boys not to fight. She told her sons, "Think of what Jesus would do. He would tell his brother, "here brother, you take the cookie". The nine year old thought for a moment then said to his 5 year old brother: "Mikey, you be Jesus".

To be a true Christian means suffering is part and parcel to our lives, but no one really likes the idea of suffering, do we? Yet pain, sorrow and suffering are a part of who we are and part of our human existence. Think of it. Headaches, muscle aches and pains, worries, cares, the death of a loved one, stress, misery, trouble with our marriages, jobs, daily living, so on. All of these things point to the fact that we do have pain and suffering in our daily lives. We'd like to be free of them, but the fact is we can not, no matter how hard we wish or how hard we try. In the end, following Jesus is going to cost us something.

We've all heard the saying, "You get what you pay for". Well then, beware of cheap religions or any religion that comes across as soft and easy and accepting of everything. Beware religion where the cost of following Jesus Christ is never mentioned and where our consciences is never challenged or disturbed. Also be wary when we begin to think that living for Jesus Christ is SUPPOSE to be easy.

Cheap religion will only wrap us in tales of God's love. It will never tell us the truth. The Truth is that Jesus Christ DIED for us. Think of that. Jesus Christ died on a cross for you and me, and the whole human race. He suffered a painful, humiliating death. he willingly gave his life for us and he calls us to be willing to give something of ourselves in return.

There are too many people who only know one side of the story. The story of God's love. Learning and living in God's love is important, but there is much more to the story! that is the point of today's Gospel.

Jesus tells his Apostles and those who succeed them, that they must be prepared to undergo great sacrifices, even death itself, if called to do so. Even though they had only a very vague idea of what he meant, when the time came, they remembered his words and gladly suffered imprisonment, hardships, and finally Martyrdom for Jesus. This shows how the resurrection of Jesus, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on them, changed them from worldly weaklings to fearless heroes.

They had become convinced that Jesus was the Son of God who had come to Earth to bring all men to heaven. They came to realize how transitory and unimportant the few years of earthly life were, when compared with the eternal life to follow. It was not only the apostles who gave their lives gladly for Jesus. There are thousands of martyrs who, during the first three centuries of the church, not only accepted, but welcomed death for Christ's sake, because they were convinced it was the door to eternal life, the only life that mattered.

Down through the centuries, the followers of Jesus have been persecuted because of their belief in him, and many of us can be proud that we have among our ancestors, men and women who died for their faith. Today, too, there are still those who are suffering a lingering martyrdom, because they obey God rather than man.

All of us, at one point or another, or in one way or another, have had to bear crosses in life. By bearing our crosses, we can become more like Jesus. Why do some of us come out of our trials more miserable than before? And why do some of us become more Christ like? Well, it may be that the answer has to do with how we see Jesus and follow him.

Remember our Lord's words in today's first reading. he who will give hospitality and help to a prophet will have the reward of the prophet. He who helps those who are preaching and teaching the message of salvation, the good news of Jesus, at home and abroad, will himself share in that reward of these preachers and teachers.

When we get to heaven, one of the many pleasant surprises awaiting us will be the gratitude we will receive from the saints we've helped send to heaven, people we never knew or perhaps thought about. We helped those who thought about them and worked hard for their salvation, and thus we share in their rewards.

Remember this promise, even a cup of cold water will not go unrewarded, every little helping hand we give to bring our fellowmen to heaven will help us too, toward the same goal. Heaven is our real goal in life. It alone will satisfy all our desires and it alone will last forever.

Are we truly followers of him or are we only admirers? That is an important question we need to ask ourselves. Are we followers or admirers? If we are only admirers, then we will tend to see our faith and belief in Jesus as a crutch or a Band-Aid. If that happens, when trials and sufferings and sorrows come, we'll become bitter and hopeless people. Especially when things don't go the way we want them to go.

If on the other hand, we are true followers of Jesus we will realize that all of our trials and tribulations, no matter how awful they are, can and will bring us closer to God. Remember that we are called to learn about God. This doesn't mean that we figure out the Trinity or know word for word what the pope or Vatican has said or that we can read the new testament in original Greek. no we are called to learn about Jesus from our every day experiences and the joys and happiness of life, the struggles and pains, in our strengths and weaknesses of life too. We need to learn about God from Christ like people, people who pick up their crosses everyday and do their best to follow Jesus.

All of us can be Jesus to someone, someone who will remember what Jesus is like because they remember what we are like. They will know that we are true followers of Jesus, even in the midst of bearing our crosses. True followers and not just admirers only.

But we must also be willing to put away our self-centeredness. If we do this and realize this, we'll gain a deeper appreciation of what pain and suffering can bring to our lives.

Jesus says, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake, will find it." Let us lose ourselves then in Jesus, and lose ourselves in all that life gives us, in joy and sorrow, in happiness and pain, in all things good and bad, so that one day, we can find life eternal in Him.

Readings and Gospel for this statement:

2 kings 4:8-17

Romans 6:1-11

Matthew 10:37-42

Today, so many religions are all about acceptance, tolerance, inclusivity. They talk about how God loves everyone and accepts everyone, and who are we to judge anyone? That's for God alone.

They don't teach about hell. Hell's become either a non existent place made up to frighten children or a place that is merely a separation from God. (despite the biblical mentions of fire and brimstone and suffering.)

God, in many newer Christian religions, has become a magic fairy godmother and all we have to do is love, accept, tolerate, and not judge. Suffering isn't part of the deal. Avoiding sin isn't part of the deal. sacrifice isn't part of the deal.

They are leading people astray by reinterpreting the harsh language of the bible and making it about love and peace and equality.

They are missing the point. The saints suffered, Christ suffered, and so we too must suffer in this world, and offer our sufferings to Christ, so that we can gain eternal peace and joy with Christ and all the saints who went before us.