There are not over a 100 people in the U.S. that hate the Catholic Church, there are millions however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church, which is, of course, quite a different thing.- Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Monday, November 29, 2010

Oh, no, the butterflies are back.

Continuing the metaphor of lots of random topics without much connection other than I've run across them and need to release thoughts somewhere (they each should properly be their own posts):
So, I'm currently an irresponsible student for writing on here now, but a lot of things currently in my head would like to be said (ooh, that rhymes). This will try to be in chronological order... emphasis on try...

Ok, reverse chronological order is easier to remember.
1. An amazing chastity website that I would like to share: onemoresoul.com
In it is the quote "Mary wasn't 'full of grace' because she was beautiful. She was beautiful because she was 'full of grace'.

2. "It's becoming more clear to the American public that one of the greatest threats to the supposed "right" to abortion is science." I don't know if it's becoming "more clear to the American public" but I don't want a doctor who denies science to prescribe medicine for me. But it is so true that there is NO scientific support for abortion. There is a hard truth about abortion...that it is unethical on the level of murder... that it is hard to say because so many women who have had abortions (and men who have been brainwashed into thinking it's good for a woman to have an abortion, and sexist to argue otherwise) are defensive to the point of insanity.

3. Happy New Year!!! As we hear about the calendar new year, the Jewish new year, the Chinese new year... don't forget that the Catholic Church has a new year too! November, from All Saint's day to Christ the King is the theme of death and the end times, placed strategically at the end of the Church's year. But we are now in the new year, looking ahead to the beginning of our savior: Jesus's birth. Thoughts from the readings: Advent is a time of quieting...not a time of busyness as the culture makes it. "He shall judge between the nations, and impose terms on many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again." (Isaiah 2:1-5) Advent is a time for thinking about the future... what are we working towards? Are we practicing spiritual procrastination? Not to say "remember how many minutes are left in your life" but "remember that at the end of your life, heaven wants you." Also "Throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day,not in orgies and drunkenness,not in promiscuity and lust,not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh." (Romans 13: 11-14). Our culture struggles with all of these "desires of the flesh." Lastly, I don't know how many Protestants would believe that Catholics accept this passage from the Bible: "Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left." This is pretty much the entire basis for the idea of "the rapture." For Catholics, having good Christians not go through hard times doesn't make much sense...Yes, Catholics believe that "one will be taken, and one will be left" but in a totally different context. At the end of time, all the dead will rise, and Jesus will judge, separating the sheep from the goats. And those that are "left behind" go to hell. Not really romantic enough to write a book series about, really.  

4. Please, please pray with me. http://www.birthornot.com/ When I came across this website, the voting was still going on and even now the votes for this lady to have an abortion are more than double the votes for her to not. Abortion allowing (which is more accurate than "pro-choice" and I would guess is more accepting by them than the accurate "pro-abortion") groups and news media have insensitively called this website a hoax, but I think that claim is best responded to here. My one other comment is in response to the lady saying: "I’m the one that lost my job because of the media attention that this website has received and yet my opinions and statements seem to be discounted in favor of my husband’s. Since I’m the one carrying the baby it seems to me that this is a terrible oversight on the part of responsible media professionals... But when it comes to abortion I am the one that wears the pants in the decision because in the end it would be me going through the procedure.  Even though my husband’s opinion and beliefs matter to me, I, as the one carrying the baby have the final say about my body and our unborn child." First, the "responsible media professionals" don't want anyone coming out in public and saying "I'm proud that I could've had an abortion, and didn't." Second, it splits marriage. If the child is born, he or she will be raised by two parents and decisions about school, food, and activities will be made by two parents. Why is the prevailing view that it is the "woman's choice?" Why does this lady feel she has the final say about their child? Her husband gave just as much DNA to the child as she did. It promotes a mentality of single-motherhood and pushes the decision on a woman when it is not hers alone to make. Whose child is it? The mother's, of course. But the father's and God's as well, and it does the father and God (and the child) a disservice to forget that.

5. Oh, it is a dangerous thing for two people I barely know and have to sit with for hours to start discussing politics. I don't know how my boyfriend can sit and just let people believe wrong things! And I wish I didn't have such a desire to correct people. Especially in person, when I can't think straight due to my heart running at 100 miles an hour. This is why I like facebook and blogs. I can somewhat control what I say. It doesn't help that my boyfriend's friend was talking a mile a minute bashing another friend's girlfriend about her republican/conservative beliefs. What first got on my nerves was his "What else do you believe so that I can explain to you that it is wrong." I got pulled into discussing abortion, which ended with him saying stuff like "I'm not pro-abortion, I'm pro-choice... Abortions only ever happen in cases of rape..." and going off into talking about societies in Africa where it's ethical to kill people "for the good of society" and how ethics and religion are unrelated (that got my boyfriend to speak up, interestingly) and that ethics can differ. Do you ever mentally continue conversations in your head? I've been continuing this conversation in my head ever since. That is why I started a blog.

6. Just what I didn't need to shake my world after the tragedy (reverse chronological order, so it will be #7). I have benefited from abortion. Chances are you have too, if you have been born since about the 70s... or earlier... and have had the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine. Or the chicken pox vaccine. To have lived my life just accepting vaccines as useful, I am sickened of the process that "babies die so that other babies might live." It has got to be the second biggest human rights violation in America, after abortion itself. It is probably the most widespread violation, as it is a requirement for all children in order to be enrolled in school. I first heard about this on EWTN, but it was so outrageous I've been looking it up since. (I leave aside the issue of whether or not the vaccines are effective or harmful... I find it outrageous that we all hold in ourselves cells and DNA that rightfully belongs to and should be used by someone else, not me.)
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/medical_ethics/me0044.html
 This one is what convinced me:
http://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/m/mmr_ii/mmr_ii_pi.pdf
Is it horrible that human tissue is under "animal tissue?"
http://www.informedchoice.info/cocktail.html
This informed me of the ethical, "one baby dies for another" issue.
http://www.vaccineriskawareness.com/Vaccination-And-Abortion
And, from the source of all knowledge:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vaccine_ingredients

7. This tragedy hit our school and it caused everyone, even me and my friends who didn't know who died, to stop and think and pray. I know for Catholics, we have some small hope, but for these students, we just don't know the state of their soul, and that is part of the pain. We had several memorial Masses for them. Wonderfully, our school's usual apathy was put aside and many people wore black and came to the candlelight vigil. Our hearts went out to the mother who lost two sons and a probable future daughter-in-law in the crash. And Thanksgiving and Christmas were coming, too. Our Catholic Campus minister and priest on campus said one of the most comforting things, which I haven't heard better expressed: "Many people say 'How could God allow such tragedy', but it was God's heart that was the first to break when the tragedy happened. God doesn't want our society to contain death." But my biggest struggle was with how to pray for people who you don't know the religion of. People I don't know whether to offer Masses for, or pray generally for them... or pray for people in Purgatory... I just don't know.

8. What I first wanted to post on here, a long, long time ago, but seems hardly worth the effort now, is my response to our school's production of "The Drowsy Chaperone." As always, I think our students perform very well. My complaints are against the material of the play itself which had a narrator who, to put it bluntly, was a very unloving (to the point of mocking love as 'resulting in divorce lawyers') human being. 

As an end note (as I have to go to class now), go on http://minorcan.blogspot.com/ and tell HurricaneTeen to change name to HurricaneHam in honor of his Ham radio interests.