March For Life 2013 in Washington USA - 40th Anniversary Edition

A Nation Rises - March for Life

During this sad 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, let us stand up for life.  Be pro-life/anti abortion for if we save just one life it is worth all we can give.

The New Year Message...

With the New Year now upon us.  May we approach this year with a deeper hope in Christ and trust in His love and peace. The Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI sent a very special message of peace to the world.  may we all strive to live this peace in our hearts, in our homes, in our communities and in the world.

For sacred Scripture, contemplating the face of God is the greatest happiness: “You gladden him with the joy of your face” (Ps 21:7). From the contemplation of the face of God are born joy, security and peace. But what does it mean concretely to contemplate the face of the Lord, as understood in the New Testament? It means knowing him directly, in so far as is possible in this life, through Jesus Christ in whom he is revealed. To rejoice in the splendour of God’s face means penetrating the mystery of his Name made known to us in Jesus, understanding something of his interior life and of his will, so that we can live according to his plan of love for humanity. In the second reading, taken from the Letter to the Galatians (4:4-7), Saint Paul says as much as he describes the Spirit who, in our inmost hearts, cries: “Abba! Father!” It is the cry that rises from the contemplation of the true face of God, from the revelation of the mystery of his Name. Jesus declares, “I have manifested thy name to men” (Jn 17:6). God’s Son made man has let us know the Father, he has let us know the hidden face of the Father through his visible human face; by the gift of the Holy Spirit poured into our hearts, he has led us to understand that, in him, we too are children of God, as Saint Paul says in the passage we have just heard: “The proof that you are sons is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, ‘Abba, Father’” (Gal 4:6).

Here, dear brothers and sisters, is the foundation of our peace: the certainty of contemplating in Jesus Christ the splendour of the face of God the Father, of being sons in the Son, and thus of having, on life’s journey, the same security that a child feels in the arms of a loving and all-powerful Father. The splendour of the face of God, shining upon us and granting us peace, is the manifestation of his fatherhood: the Lord turns his face to us, he reveals himself as our Father and grants us peace. Here is the principle of that profound peace – “peace with God” – which is firmly linked to faith and grace, as Saint Paul tells the Christians of Rome (cf. Rom 5:2). Nothing can take this peace from believers, not even the difficulties and sufferings of life. Indeed, sufferings, trials and darkness do not undermine but build up our hope, a hope which does not deceive because “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us” (5:5). 

May the Lord grant you His peace, now and always.

Joe and I made our vows...

December 28th the feast, of the Holy Innocents and four days prior to our 24th Wedding Anniversary, Joe and I took vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and free service to the poorest of the poor when we took our vows as Lay Missionaries of Charity.  We have become involved in the small community of the Missionaries of Charity in Richmond.  There, we have helped with Catechesis, service to the Elderly care homes, and service to the poor.  We have started formation with the Lay Missionaries of Charity and very much enjoy and appreciate the charism of the Missionaries of Charity and Blessed Mother Teresa.  We feel so blessed to be able to become involved in the LMC's and thank God for His beautiful providential hand in leading us to serve Him in Richmond.

 

 This picture was taken after our vows, and prior to the transfer of Sr. Ronald MC who left  Richmond for Spokane and Sr. John Magdalene MC who left for Los Angeles at the end of December.  They will be very much missed.  In the photograph are two newly professed sisters who will be staying in Richmond for a few months.

Joe and I both received a beautiful, handmade card from the Missionaries of Charity sisters who  wrote a touching and moving quote from Blessed Mother Teresa:

"Just as Jesus allows Himself to be broken, to be given to us as food, we must break, we must share with each other, with our own people first in our house, in our communities, for love begins at home. Every communion fills us with Jesus and we must with our Lady, go in haste to Him to others."

In this year of faith, I hope and pray that I may be worthy and able to serve Him ever more deeply in the poorest of the poor.  May God Bless you!