The Unprofitable Servant: A Choice That Ends in Death is No Choice at All

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

A Choice That Ends in Death is No Choice at All

I have no politician to blame for a decision I made. For all I know, none of the politicians who advocate for abortion rights were ever personally involved like I was. I pray for the soul of the doctor as well as for that of the person who accompanied me to his office. I pray that God holds me alone accountable for the decision that I alone made.

Sometimes, I wonder if things would have been different if just one person within my inner circle said, "Wait, it's not the end of the world. Let's talk about this and how you can make it work."

That didn't happen, but again, I hold only myself responsible for this. There would be something wrong with me if I didn't give some thought to how things might have been and what I can do to support any young woman who finds herself in the same situation.

The act that resulted in the child who is no more was coerced and but I can't say it wasn't consensual. To insist otherwise would be delusional and a gross disrespect for women who conceive children as a result of rape. But after that encounter, I resolved to end that relationship once and for all. And then the unthinkable happened, through no fault of the innocent growing within.

One day, as the Examination of Conscience in the GIRM reminds me, I will have to answer to God for my actions. I will also have to answer to Him for any way in which I have lead another to commit grave sin. If God judged me the way I have judged others throughout the course of my life, I wouldn't have a prayer. It's a good thing for me that His Mercy is unfathomable.

I have come to love the group Feminists for Life. I learned of them many years ago when I was still on the wrong side of the issue and one of their members politely engaged me in a debate. I like to think that woman planted a seed that has now borne fruit. Every day leading up the 40th anniversary of Roe v Wade, FFL has posted a different example of a woman who said yes to life and shut out the voices in society who insist that slavery to sin is freedom of choice. So it is not just the Catholic church and other religious institutions who fight to counter the culture of death. Even people with no faith at all know there is something dead wrong about abortion.

On Friday, those who are able will take part in the March for Life. Sometime later, the other side will also march. That shows you how twisted our world has become. Otherwise-intelligent women will organize in support of a barbarian practice that is America's holocaust. Is it this to which we have allowed ourselves to be reduced, pagans rejoicing about a pagan practice?

Hey, look at us. We were blessed to be born female, as God made us, with the capacity to carry new life. Now look at us. We treat this blessing as a curse to be cut out like a malignancy.

And we wonder why the world spins out of control. One soul at a time, we can change what the law to date has not. Just like my friend from Feminists for Life.

8 comments:

KellyJanuary 22, 2013 at 8:19 PM
Beautifully said. Amen. Truth is Truth, it can be seen and acknowledged by anyone wiling to see it.
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CarolineJanuary 23, 2013 at 6:33 PM
Joyce, Thank goodness we don't stand on our own merits, and can rejoice that we are covered by the mercy He won for us.. Can we understand such forgiveness? I know I can't..but thank goodness it's ours.
Thank you for sharing your journey to truth. Your testimony is a powerful witness for such a time as this.
Blessings always and +

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PatriciaJanuary 23, 2013 at 7:00 PM
Joyce, I'm so glad you were open-minded enough to consider other possibilities. I've run into some dialogues on Facebook where the pro-abortion side simply won't even accept things like the fact that thousands of third trimester abortions are done each year. I know it's important to be respectful and remain calm, but it's so frustrating.

What do you think finally changed your mind...if you are willing to share?

Thanks for mentioning Feminists for Life. I'm going to check them out.

And Joyce, we are all sinners, but isn't it wonderful what Jesus told St. Margaret Mary when her confessor, who didn't believe in the apparitions, told her to ask Our Lord to prove it was He appearing: Ask Jesus to tell you the last mortal sin I committed. And Jesus answered, "I don't remember."

I too cling to the Divine Mercy, in it is all my hope...

Keep banging out these pro-life posts. Awesome stuff!
PS Who is Rachel Maddow?
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TLWJanuary 23, 2013 at 7:18 PM
Patricia, I will share my secret with you: although I kibitz with friends, etc on Facebook, my primary motive in keeping a page there is to try to slowly win over the heathens among my family and friends. I know they won't pay attention to anything I post from the Catholic church, so I post pro-life information and revelations from Feminists for Life. I never realized how far back in history the pro-life movement extends. Many of the women who fought for our right to vote - suffragettes - also stood up for the right of the unborn to live.

I have heard that story about St Margaret and her confessor and I love it - I would love to hear the inflection In Jesus' voice when He said: "I don't recall".

Rachel Maddow is a very intelligent and well-educated liberal woman who was given a nightly show on MSNBC. She's also a lesbian so the likelihood she'd ever find herself pregnant via the way God intended is improbable to impossible. I can hardly stand her but I do watch on occasion just to keep track and also to have some idea of how badly our prayers are needed. Somewhere in that liberal lesbian front she puts up is a little girl who was baptized and brought up Catholic. As hardened and hateful towards faithful Catholics and Christians as she seems to be, nothing is impossible for God.

Thank you for your kind words.
Love you,
Joyce
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MannyJanuary 23, 2013 at 8:45 PM
The prodigal son--daughter in this case--is always welcomed back. God forgives the repentant, and you will be re-united with that child someday. I never had the circumstance come upon me, but in my youth I would have pushed for the same decision. There but by the grace of God go I. We have all been destroyed in one way or another by that seventies culture, by the sexual revolution of the sixties. Try to be at peace.
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Mary, Queen of Peace

Ever glorious and blessed Mary, Queen of Virgins, Mother of Mercy, hope and comfort of dejected and desolate souls, through that sword of sorrow which pierced thy tender heart whilst thine only Son, Christ Jesus, our Lord, suffered death and ignominy on the cross; through that filial tenderness and pure love He had for thee, grieving in thy grief, whilst from His cross He recommended thee to the care and protection of His beloved disciple, St. John, take pity, I beseech thee, on my poverty and necessities; have compassion on my anxieties and cares; assist and comfort me in all my infirmities and miseries, of every kind whatsoever. Thou art the Mother of Mercies, the sweet comforter and only refuge of the needy and the orphan, of the desolate and afflicted. Cast, therefore, an eye of pity on a miserable, forlorn child of Eve, and hear my prayer; for since, in just punishment of my sins, I find myself encompassed by a multitude of evils, and oppressed with much anguish of spirit, wither can I fly for more secure shelter, O amiable Mother of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, than under the wings of thy maternal protection? Attend, therefore, I beseech thee, with an ear of pity and compassion, to my humble and earnest request. I ask it, through the bowels of mercy of thy dear Son; Through that love and condescension wherewith He embraced our nature, when, in compliance with the divine Will, thou gavest thy consent, and whom, after the expiration of nine months thou didst bring forth from the chaste enclosure of thy womb, to visit the world, and bless it with His presence. I ask it, through that anguish of mind wherewith thy beloved Son, our dear Saviour, was overwhelmed on the Mount of Olives, when He besought His eternal Father to remove from Him, if possible, the bitter chalice of His future passion. I ask it, through the threefold repetition of His prayers in the garden, whence afterwards, with dolorous steps and mournful tears, thou didst accompany Him to the doleful theatre of His death and sufferings. I ask it, through the welts and bruises of His virginal flesh, occasioned by the cords and whips wherewith He was bound and scourged, when stripped of His seamless garment, for which His executioners afterwards cast lots. I ask it, through the scoffs and ignominies by which He was insulted; the false accusations and unjust sentence by which He was condemned to death, and which He bore with heavenly patience. I ask it, through His bitter tears and bloody sweat; His silence and resignation; His sadness and grief of heart. I ask it, through the blood which trickled from His royal and Sacred Head, when struck with the sceptre of a reed and pierced with His crown of thorns. I ask it, through the excruciating torments He suffered, when His hands and feet were fastened with gross nails to the tree of the cross. I ask it, through His vehement thirst, and bitter potion of vinegar and gall. I ask it, through His dereliction on the cross when He exclaimed, "My God! my God! why hast Thou forsaken me?" I ask it, through His mercy extended to the good thief, and through His recommending His precious soul and spirit into the hands of His eternal Father before He expired, saying, "It is consummated." I ask it, through the blood mixed with water, which issued from His Sacred Side when pierced with a lance, and whence a flood of grace and mercy has flowed to us. I ask it, through His immaculate life, bitter passion and ignominious death on the cross, at which nature itself was thrown into convulsions, by the bursting of rocks, rending of the veil of the Temple, the earthquake, and the darkness of the sun and moon. I ask it, through His descent into hell, where He confronted the Saints of the old law with His presence, and led the captivity captive. I ask it, through His glorious victory over death, when He arose again to life on the third day, and through the joy which His appearance for forty days after gave thee, His blessed Mother, His Apostles, and the rest of His Disciples; when in thine and their presence He miraculously ascended into heaven. I ask it, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, infused into the hearts of His Disciples, when He descended upon them in the form of fiery tongues, and by which they were inspired with zeal in the conversion of the world, when they went to preach the gospel. I ask it, through the awful appearance of thy Son, at the last dreadful day, when He shall come to judge the living and the dead, and the world, by fire. I ask it, through the compassion He bore thee in His life, and the unspeakable joy thou didst feel at thine assumption into heaven, where thou art eternally absorbed in the sweet contemplation of His divine perfections. O glorious and ever blessed Virgin! comfort the heart of thy supplicant, by obtaining for me, (Mention your prayer intention here...) And as I am persuaded my Divine Saviour doth honour thee as His beloved Mother, to whom He refuses nothing, because thou asketh nothing contrary to His honour, so let me speedily experience the efficacy of thy powerful intercession, according to the tenderness of thy maternal affection, and His filial loving heart, who mercifully granteth the requests and complieth with the desires of those that love and fear Him. Wherefore, O most blessed Virgin, beside the object of my present petition, and whatever else I may stand in need of, obtain for me also of thy dear Son, our Lord and our God, a lively faith, firm hope, perfect charity, true contrition of heart, unfeigned tears of compunction, sincere confession, condign satisfaction, abstinence from sin, love of God and my neighbour, contempt of the world, patience to suffer affronts and ignominies, nay, even, if necessary, an opprobrious death itself, for love of thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Obtain likewise for me, O sacred Mother of God, perseverance in good works, performance of good resolutions, mortification of self-will, a pious conversation through life, and, at my last moments, strong and sincere repentance, accompanied by such a lively and attentive presence of mind, as may enable me to receive the last Sacrament of the Church worthily, and die in thy friendship and favour. Lastly, obtain through thy Son, I beseech thee, for the souls of my parents, brethren, relatives and benefactors, both living and dead, life everlasting, from the only Giver of every good and perfect gift, the Lord God Almighty, to Whom be all power now and forever. Amen.

Prayer of St. Bonaventure

Pierce, O most sweet Lord Jesus, my inmost soul with the most joyous and healthful wound of Thy love, and with true, calm and most holy apostolic charity, that my soul may ever languish and melt with entire love and longing for Thee, may yearn for Thee and for thy courts, may long to be dissolved and to be with Thee.
Grant that my soul may hunger after Thee, the Bread of Angels, the refreshment of holy souls, our daily and super substantial bread, having all sweetness and savor and every delightful taste.
May my heart ever hunger after and feed upon Thee, Whom the angels desire to look upon, and may my inmost soul be filled with the sweetness of Thy savor; may it ever thirst for Thee, the fountain of life, the fountain of wisdom and knowledge, the fountain of eternal light, the torrent of pleasure, the fullness of the house of God;
may it ever compass Thee, seek Thee, find Thee, run to Thee, come up to Thee, meditate on Thee, speak of Thee, and do all for the praise and glory of Thy name, with humility and discretion, with love and delight, with ease and affection, with perseverance to the end; and be Thou alone ever my hope, my entire confidence, my riches, my delight, my pleasure, my joy, my rest and tranquility, my peace, my sweetness, my food, my refreshment, my refuge, my help, my wisdom, my portion, my possession, my treasure; in Whom may my mind and my heart be ever fixed and firm and rooted immovably. Amen.

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God Bless You!

The Unprofitable Servant

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

A Choice That Ends in Death is No Choice at All

8 comments:

Mary, Queen of Peace

St Michael the Archangel

St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

St. Teresa Benedicta of The Cross