Happy Easter!

We may have lost a battle over the health care reform bill to the culture of death, but Jesus our Lord has conquered death itself! May the joy of the Resurrection fill our hearts in this holy season.

Please join me in an Easter prayer for life, from PrayerCampaign.org:
(Click here for Spanish)

Lord Jesus Christ,
You are the Author of Life,
Who died and now lives forevermore.

May we who work and pray
That children in the womb may be protected
Always draw strength, confidence, and joy
From Your victory over death,

For you are Lord forever and ever. Amen.

A blessed Easter season to you and your loved ones!
Alleluia! He is risen!

Mar 25 - Solemnity of the Annunciation

Today the Church celebrates the announcement (or "Annunciation") of God's message to Mary by the archangel Gabriel. On this day, we remember that Almighty God sent His angel to Mary to ask for her consent to His plan, and we rejoice at her whole-hearted "Yes!"

Did you know that the old name for the Solemnity of the Annunciation was the Solemnity of the Incarnation? Many people mistakenly assume that Christmas is the feast of the Incarnation when, in reality, that is the date of Christ's birth. His incarnation, the moment when he took on human flesh, occurred some nine months earlier in Mary's womb, as soon as she said "Yes" to God's request. Just a couple of weeks later, her kinswoman Elizabeth recognizes Mary as "the mother of my Lord," the Lord whom she carries incarnate in her womb. In recognition of the awesome event when the Word was made Flesh, we genuflect during the Creed at Mass on this day.

Suggestions for celebrating the Annunciation:
* Read the story of the Incarnation from Luke 1:26-38.
* Use a famous painting of the Annunciation to discuss the gospel story.
* Study it as a work of art (parent resource here).
* Pray the Angelus.
* Begin the 9-month novena of the Incarnation.

The Biology of Prenatal Development: Must Viewing

National Geographic is offering a new DVD: The Biology of Prenatal Development. Dave Andrusko reviewed it yesterday in his "News and Views" column for NRLC, here.

The video, produced by The Endowment for Human Development, combines imagery of the unborn child within the womb using multiple imaging technologies with information from the medical literature. You can read Dave's review of it at the above link. It sounds like an excellent resource for introducing and studying prenatal development. I plan to order one for use in high school.

Another he-double-hockeysticks-freezes-over moment

Last week, Erin Manning wrote He** freezes over: It has finally happened: Maureen Dowd has written a column that I actually sorta almost completely like.

Well, now it's happened to me: Jack Cafferty of CNN says something I agree with completely!



"President Obama hasn't even made a token effort to keep his campaign promises of openness and transparency in Government, it was all just another lie that was told in order to get elected"

Check out the video, especially the last part.

Huron Carol

The "Huron Carol" is a Christmas hymn written in 1643 by St. Jean de Brébeuf, the "Apostle of the Hurons" who was later martyred by the Iroquois.

Brébeuf wrote the lyrics in the native language of the Huron/Wendat people; the song's original Huron title is "Jesous Ahatonhia" ("Jesus, he is born"). This version is performed by Heather Dale, and sung in Wendat (Huron), French and English.



H/t: Diane

Update: Find the words in Huron/Wendat, French, and a couple of different English versions here.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Novena, Dec 4-12

Novena Prayer for Life to Our Lady of Guadalupe
(Spanish version -- En Español)

Oh Mary, Mother of Jesus and Mother of Life,
We honor you as Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Thank you for pointing us to Jesus your Son,
The only Savior and hope of the world.

Renew our hope in him,
That we all may have the courage to say Yes to life,
And to defend those children in danger of abortion.

Give us your compassion
To reach out to those tempted to abort,
And to those suffering from a past abortion.

Lead us to the day when abortion
Will be a sad, past chapter in our history.

Keep us close to Jesus, the Life of the World,
Who is Lord forever and ever. Amen.

Source: Priests for Life

UN Rally for the Unborn Child...you can help

October 27, 2009

Dear Friend of the Unborn Child,

As I write this the UN Petition for the Unborn Child is up over 572,000 names with 87,000 new names in the last three weeks!

We intend to raise one million signatures by December 1 and present them to the UN a few days after that.

As you know the UN is the font of a great deal of anti-life propaganda. UN agencies and UN-related groups are at the forefront of making abortion a universally recognized human right. That's right, UN radicals want to make killing babies in the womb a human right. Can there be anything more wrong, more evil that that?

The UN pro-life movement has banded together to fight this movement. UN pro-lifers are at the forefront of fighting this hideous movement of killing babies. The UN pro-life movement is outspent ten million to one and out-manned one thousand to one.

We need your help right now.

We have launched a petition in defense of the unborn child and the family. The petition is based on the very good language of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which recognizes the "right to life."

This petition will be presented to the UN in December at which time we want to present one million names. We are more than half way there but we need a huge effort on your part to get us all the way there.

Would you please forward this note to all of your friends and family, to everyone in your address book?

Ask everyone to go HERE, click on your language (the petition has been translated into 18
languages!), sign the petition and send this note to all of THEIR friends!

We can make a huge splash at UN headquarters in December and let them know that the world is really pro-life, that the world really supports the unborn child, and believes that abortion is a great moral evil, the great moral evil of our time.

So, if you have not signed the petition, go HERE and sign it. And then send this note to everyone you know.

If you have already signed it, forward this note to all of your friends and family. One million names can make a difference in our UN fight for the unborn child and the family.

Yours sincerely,
Austin Ruse
President
C-FAM
www.c-fam.org
Petition Organizer