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| SFX for Life | The Catholic Community of St. Francis Xavier, Hunt Valley, Maryland |
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Maryland Catholic Conference - An Important Catholic Resource
The Maryland Catholic Conference (MCC) is an education and advocacy group that focuses on issues critical to the Catholic faith. MCC's focus is two fold: to represent the public policy positions of the Church before the Maryland General Assembly, the U.S. Congress, and other sectors of the public square, and to engage Maryland Catholics in advancing those positions.
MCC's website is replete with information on political contacts and issues as well as the latest on legislative action affecting Life and Human Resource issues.
Priests For Life - Important Leadership On Life Issues
From the heart of the Church, it is a movement of priests seeking to help the rest of the Church to use her full strength against the most devastating attacks on human life in our day. Priests for Life embraces the consistent ethic of life as it is explained in the Bishop's Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities: A Reaffirmation (1985).
Priests for Life seeks to link up priests across the country who are actively involved in the pro-life movement, and help them work effectively in union with their local bishop and diocesan programs.
- We provide training seminars and individual assistance to priests to help them preach more effectively against abortion and euthanasia.
- We distribute the Priests for Life newsletter, a practical aid for preaching and pro-life activity, to over 45,000 priests in the U.S., free of charge.
- We produce video and audio tapes, bulletin inserts, homily materials as well as other pro-life resources for clergy and laity.
- We provide lay pro-life groups with an effective link to the clergy.
- We link pro-life groups and individuals on the Internet by means of the Priests for Life web site.
- We syndicate Fr. Pavone's bi-weekly columns to diocesan newspapers across the country.
- We vigorously proclaim the Gospel of Life in interviews with the national press. Fr. Pavone is frequently quoted in newspapers, radio, and television.
- We have staff ready 24 hours a day to assist people to find alternatives to abortion.
- We offer healing and counseling to anyone who has been involved in an abortion.
Gabriel Network - Providing Assistance To Women And Families Facing Crisis Pregnancies
The Gabriel Network is a grassroots, faith-based nonprofit support network that provides practical, emotional and spiritual assistance to women and families facing crisis pregnancies, in a spirit of Christian solidarity.
They are a network of churches, individuals, businesses, agencies, donors, organizations, and professional personnel inspired by Christ to realize a culture of life through loving service to the women and families in our communities challenged with an unexpected pregnancy.
They operate in Washington DC and much of Maryland, specifically Montgomery, Prince George’s, Howard, Carroll, Charles, Calvert, Frederick, Harford, Baltimore City and Baltimore Counties.
http://www.gabrielnetwork.org/
Project Rachel - Healing the Wounds of Abortion
"Project Rachel reaches out to all women and men hurting emotionally and spiritually after involvement with abortion. This ministry helps heal your wounded relationships with yourself, your child and God. Extending God's compassion, unconditional love, and forgiveness, Project Rachel offers hope and peace."
Project Rachel offers Rachel's Vineyard weekend retreats which offer a beautiful opportunity for healing to any woman or man who has struggled with the emotional or spiritual pain of an abortion.
http://www.project-rachel.net/index.cfm
Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network
The Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network is a nonprofit group dedicated to ensuring the rights of disabled, elderly and vulnerable citizens against care rationing, euthanasia and medical killing. Incorporated in 2001 to fight for the life of Terri Schindler Schiavo, the clear focus now and in the future is to help others avoid future tragedies that reflect what Terri endured.
Prolife Across America - The Billboard People
Since 1989 PROLIFE Across AMERICA's Media Mission is to reach out through Billboard, TV, radio and newspaper ads to people who may not be reached in any other way. Our ads create an "Atmosphere of Life" in a "culture of death."
Totally educational, (non-profit and non-political), PROLIFE Across AMERICA is committed to bringing positive, persuasive messages offering information and alternatives - including adoption - and post abortion assistance to those in need. All ads feature our 800# Hotline for Help.
http://www.prolifeacrossamerica.org/
Theology of the Body - Profound Wisdom in an Age that Desperately Needs It
The 'Theology of the Body' is Pope John Paul II's integrated vision of the human person - body, soul, and spirit. As he explains, the physical human body has a specific meaning and is capable of revealing answers regarding fundamental questions about us and our lives:
- Is there a real purpose to life and if so, what is it?
- Why were we created male and female? Does it really matter if we are one sex or another?
- Why were man and woman called to communion from the beginning? What does the marital union of a man and woman say to us about God and his plan for our lives?
- What is the purpose of the married and celibate vocations?
- What exactly is "Love"?
- Is it truly possible to be pure of heart?
http://www.theologyofthebody.net/
Rock for Life - A Project of American Life League
Rock for Life is committed to offering the truth about abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia to America's youth through music and ministry.
Young people are being deceived and manipulated by the music industry! Many of today's popular artists speak out for abortion rights and raise money for pro-abortion causes. They are feeding our youth with the lie that abortion is not only an answer to their problems, but a right they must fight to protect.
To counter this assault on young people, Rock For Life works to bring together bands who stand for the truth - that life is sacred from fertilization until natural death - with no exceptions, no compromise, and no apologies. Rock for Life is dedicated to this fight until abortion is abolished and a respect for the gift of life is restored.
Rock for Life exists to offer you a voice, encouraging you to stand up among your peers and fight against the destruction of your generation.
National Pro-Life Radio
National Pro-Life Radio is an exciting new broadcast platform spotlighting everything that is taking place in the global movement to restore human dignity and respect for every human being on the planet. Programming at NPLR includes savvy talk hosts, insightful opinion leaders, comprehensive news coverage, information and education programs.
Our hosts include award winning celebrities, civil rights leaders, physicians, award winning performers from film, stage and television, community activists, journalists and reporters, singers and dancers, and of course, the requisite members of the clergy.
If you're used to rag-tag, red faced, artery-bulging, dower, frumpy dressed, angry, frustrated anti's, then you're in for a major culture shock at NPLR. You probably won't agree with everything you hear (and see) on NPLR - and we invite your opinion – in fact, we long for it (even if it hurts!) – but you won't go away without your own opinion about what it is to be "pro-life".
If you care anything about individual human freedom, conscience, justice, dignity, about life itself - your and everybody else's – then you can't afford to pass up NPLR.
NPLR.net...All Pro-Life, All the time!
http://www.nationalproliferadio.net/default.asp
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Nine Hour Novena
This novena is to be said at the same time every hour for nine consecutive hours in one day.
This is a good novena for urgent requests that cannot wait nine days to be prayed. You pray it every hour for nine hours at the same time. For example, if you begin praying at 12:00, your next prayer is at 1:00, then 2:00, until your ninth prayer is at 9:00.
O Jesus, Who has said,
ask and you shall receive,
seek and you shall find,
knock and it shall be opened to you,
through the intercession of Mary,
Your Most Holy Mother, I knock,
I seek, I ask that my prayer be granted.
(Make your request)
O Jesus, Who has said,
all that you ask of the Father in My Name,
He will grant you through the intercession of Mary.
Your Most Holy Mother.
I humbly and urgently ask Your Father
in Your Name that my prayer be granted.
(Make your request)
O Jesus, Who has said,
"Heaven and earth shall pass away
but My word shall not pass",
through the intercession of Mary,
Your Most Holy Mother,
I feel confident that my prayer will be granted.
(Make your request)
Pro-Life Prayer
Almighty God,
We pause here to remember the uncounted victims of a misguided society: women, confused and frightened, who were led to believe problems would be solved by terminating their pregnancies; unborn children who died as a result; couples whose wonderful potential to foster new life has been stifled. Enlighten those who pervert the healing arts by turning against life, that they might see the destruction they have wrought. Dispel the nihilism that reduces unborn children to mere abstractions. Lead our citizens, courts and governments to understand that everyone has a right to live, regardless of age, ability, health or social circumstance.
Bless our youngsters, that they might appreciate their bodies, value chastity and understand the true purpose of sexuality.
Allay the fears of new parents. Encourage them, that they might treasure the lives they've brought into the world, trust in your providence and embrace the call to parenthood. May they understand that children are unrepeatable gifts, no matter the circumstances of their conception.
Grant that society will once again respect marriage as the insoluble union which brings forth the family and recognize the family as the very foundation upon which society itself rests. Dispel the selfishness that regards fertility as a malady and pregnancy as a disease, that couples might cherish procreation as a blessing and bring ever more life into the world.
Console those parents who once chose abortion and now regret their decision; may their grief turn to action and their suffering to resolve in testament to the Truth.
Strengthen with love all who seek You, that we might embrace our calling to be light amid the darkness and, so, transform America, that she finally might become a nation under You, oh Lord, with liberty and justice for all.
Saint Gianna, who gave up her life that her unborn daughter might live, pray for us! Saint Maximilian, martyr of an earlier holocaust, pray for us!
Amen.
John Francis Borra, sfo
PRAYER FOR GOVERNMENT
The following prayer was composed by John Carroll, Archbishop of Baltimore, in 1791. He was the first bishop appointed for the United States in 1789 by Pope Pius VI. He was made the first archbishop when his see of Baltimore was elevated to the status of an archdiocese.John was a cousin of Charles Carroll of Maryland, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Americans among the readership might print it and bring it to your parish priests and ask them to use it after Mass, perhaps on Inauguration Day.
This needs no translation for Catholics who love their country!
We pray, Thee O Almighty and Eternal God! Who through Jesus Christ hast revealed Thy glory to all nations, to preserve the works of Thy mercy, that Thy Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of Thy Name.
We pray Thee, who alone art good and holy, to endow with heavenly knowledge, sincere zeal, and sanctity of life, our chief bishop, Pope N., the Vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the government of his Church; our own bishop, N., all other bishops, prelates, and pastors of the Church; and especially those who are appointed to exercise amongst us the functions of the holy ministry, and conduct Thy people into the ways of salvation.
We pray Thee O God of might, wisdom, and justice! Through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with Thy Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality.
Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty.
We pray for his excellency, the governor of this state , for the members of the assembly, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they may be enabled, by Thy powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability.
We recommend likewise, to Thy unbounded mercy, all our brethren and fellow citizens throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world cannot give; and after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal.
Finally, we pray to Thee, O Lord of mercy, to remember the souls of Thy servants departed who are gone before us with the sign of faith and repose in the sleep of peace; the souls of our parents, relatives, and friends; of those who, when living, were members of this congregation, and particularly of such as are lately deceased; of all benefactors who, by their donations or legacies to this Church, witnessed their zeal for the decency of divine worship and proved their claim to our grateful and charitable remembrance.
To these, O Lord, and to all that rest in Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, a place of refreshment, light, and everlasting peace, through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior.
Amen.
The Prayer of Repentance
This is the abridged text of the original prayer delivered January 23, 1996 by Pastor Joe Wright to the Kansas House of Representatives in Topeka.For the full original text, click here.
Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance.
We know your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that's exactly what we've done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.
We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your Word and called it moral pluralism.
We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem.
We have abused power and called it political savvy.
We have coveted our neighbors' possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us O God and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
I ask it in the name of your son, the living savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Prayer For Wise Speech Seen In An Office Cubicle
This somewhat whimsical prayer was seen in an office cubicle."A man who lacks judgment derides his neighbor, but a man of understanding holds his tongue" (Pr. 11:12).
Heavenly Father, put your arm around my shoulders -
and you hand over my mouth!
Amen.
God's Trust
I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.
Love
Intense love does not measure, it just gives.Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor... Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.
The success of love is in the loving - it is not in the result of loving. Of course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what we have done.
Nobody
One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.
Paradox
I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.
Poverty
It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.
We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.
Words
Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.
Work
There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in - that we do it to God, to Christ, and that's why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.
violence
"If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people to not kill each other? Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion."
The Beautiful Hands of a Priest
We need them in life's early morning;
we need them again at its close;
We feel their warm clasp of true friendship;
we seek them when tasting life's woes.
At the altar each day we behold them,
and the hands of a king on his throne
are not equal to them in their greatness;
their dignity stands all alone.
And when we are tempted and wander to
pathways of shame and of sin,
It's the hand of a priest that will absolve us-
not once, but again and again.
Other hands may prepare a feast, but
the hand that will bless and unite us
is the beautiful hand of a priest.
God bless them and keep them all holy for
the Host which their fingers caress;
When can a poor sinner do better than to
ask Him to guide thee and bless?
When the hour of death comes upon us,
may our courage and strength be increased,
By seeing raised over us in blessing the
beautiful hands of a priest!
-Author unknown
From an old prayer card
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap
We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.
Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman
“Catholic” is a word that has real meaning. We don't control or invent that meaning as individuals. We inherit it from the Gospel and the experience of the Church over the centuries. We can choose to be something else, but if we choose to call ourselves Catholic, then that word has consequences for what we believe and how we act. We can't truthfully claim to be Catholic and then act like we're not.
~Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap
The problem in our life is not the availability of truth, it is the hypocrisy of our search.
(from a talk by Ravi Zacharias)
If you're Catholic and you disagree with your Church, what do you do? You change your mind.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap
Christian Love is Not Tolerance. Christian love bears evil, but it does not tolerate it. It does penance for the sins of others, but it is not broadminded about sin. The cry for tolerance never induces it to quench its hatred of the evil philosophies that have entered into contest with the Truth. It forgives the sinner, and it hates the sin; it is unmerciful to the error in his mind. The sinner it will always take back into the bosom of the Mystical Body; but his lie will never be taken into the treasury of His Wisdom. Real love involves real hatred: whoever has lost the power of moral indignation and the urge to drive the buyers and sellers from the temples has also lost a living, fervent love of Truth. Charity, then, is not a mild philosophy of "live and let live"; it is not a species of sloppy sentiment. Charity is the infusion of the Spirit of God, which makes us love the beautiful and hate the morally ugly.
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
We do not need a voice that is right when everyone else is right. We need a voice that is right when everyone else is wrong.
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
Modern man in his technology has something that unites him with magic, while separating him from the wisdom of the ages.
- C.S. Lewis
…and the truth is passed on by the small fervent band of the few. Not by the many but by dauntless, resolute, dedicated few.
- John Henry Cardinal Newman
Only where God is seen does life truly begin.
Pope Benedict XVI
Our weapons are not guns or hatred or religious prejudice -- but courage, honesty, charity, clarity and truth rooted in the person of Jesus Christ. which inevitably means rooted in the Cross He carried for us.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap
We know that we’ve been given the truth of the Gospel through no merit of our own. We need to proclaim it humbly and confidently even when other people object -- and even if they’re offended. The laity are Christ’s primary missionaries to the world, and we [priests] have to form them much more deeply for the post-modern world in which they live.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap
The lay vocation is not about being a lector, altar server, extraordinary minister of Holy Communion or a member of the parish council, a lay ecclesial minister – although all of these things are important and should be enthusiastically welcomed. The vocation of the Catholic laity -- the Church at its best -- is to penetrate all the various levels of society and convert the culture for Jesus Christ.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap
The media have no idea what a real Catholic is. If they did, they would scream for his martyrdom, they would scream for his skin.
H.E. Bishop Williamson, 2005
A priest-friend of mine, who had formerly been a Protestant minister, said that the difference between a dissenting Catholic and a Protestant is that the Protestant has integrity.
Bishop Fabian Bruskevitz
The basic difference between a Catholic and a Protestant is with Protestants they lose their faith and then their morals – with Catholics it’s the other way around.
Msgr. Ronald Knox
Immorality is un-American and a threat to national security.
Fr. Corapi
If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
C. S. Lewis
That's one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It's a religion you couldn't have guessed."
C.S. Lewis, The Case for Christianity
All that we call human history--money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery [is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.
C. S. Lewis
I am a converted pagan living among apostate puritans.
C.S. Lewis
We don’t realize what we’re doing because we don’t realize what we’re undoing.
G. K. Chesterton
The Catholic Church is the only thing that saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age.
G.K. Chesterton
It is an old story that, while we may need somebody like Dominic to convert the heathen to Christianity, we are in even greater need of somebody like Francis, to convert the Christians to Christianity.
G.K. Chesterton
For the convert’s sake, it should also be remembered that one foolish word from inside does more harm than a hundred thousand foolish words from outside…There is many a convert who has reached a stage at which no word from any Protestant or pagan could any longer hold him back. Only the word of a Catholic can keep him from Catholicism.
G.K. Chesterton
The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.
G.K. Chesterton
For the modern world will accept no dogmas upon any authority; but it will accept any dogmas on no authority. Say that a thing is so, according to the Pope or the Bible, and it will be dismissed as a superstition without examination. But preface your remark merely with ‘they say’ or ‘don’t you know that?’ or try (and fail) to remember the name of some professor mentioned in some newspaper; and the keen rationalism of the modern mind will accept every word you say.
G.K. Chesterton
We do not really want a religion that is right where we are right. What we want is a religion that is right where we are wrong.
G.K. Chesterton
Heresy is truth gone mad.
G.K. Chesterton
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.
G.K. Chesterton, in What's Wrong With the World
A man was sleeping one night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light, and God appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to Push against the rock with all his might...
So, this the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sunup to sundown, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might! Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, Feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain. Since the man was showing discouragement, the Adversary (Satan) decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the weary mind: (He will do it every time)!
'You have been pushing against that rock for a long time and it hasn't moved.' Thus, he gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man. Satan said, 'Why kill yourself over this? Just put in your time, giving just the minimum effort; and that will be good enough.'
That's what the weary man planned to do, but decided to make it a matter of Prayer and to take his troubled thoughts to The Lord. 'Lord,' he said, 'I have labored long and hard in Your Service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?'
The Lord responded compassionately, 'My child, when I asked you to serve Me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all of your strength, which you have done . Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed.
But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back shiny and brown; your hands are callused from constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much, and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. True, you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be Obedient and to push and to exercise your Faith and trust in My Wisdom. That you have done. Now I, my friend, will move the rock.'
At times, when we hear a word from God, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He Wants, when actually what God wants is just simple obedience and faith in Him.
By all means, exercise the Faith that moves mountains, but know that It is still God Who moves The Mountains.
When everything seems to go wrong - Just P.U.S.H.
When the job gets you down - Just P.U.S.H.
When people don't do as you think they should - Just P.U.S.H.
When your money is 'gone' and the bills are due - Just P.U.S.H.
When people just don't understand you - Just P.U.S.H.
P = Pray
U = Until
S = Something
H = Happens
-From an Email
We’ve committed ourselves to a God who doesn’t really care how bad we think things are.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap