Showing posts with label Culture of Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Culture of Life. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Littlest Flowers of God

The poem is a mere six lines long. At a glance, it seems like a silly little thing. A poem that might be as easily overlooked as the little flower that inspired the poem.

Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower-but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.

It's Tennyson at is his finest. At least that's what I think. Scholars might not agree. But I believe the poem expresses an important truth - several truths really. There is a God. He created all that we see, and all that we cannot see. We are seeking and sometimes finding.

But it is in the tiniest of life that we see the Hand of God most clearly - if we are willing to look closely. Consider the baby in the womb. This child is a clue. That God exists. That He creates. That there is great wonder and mystery in all life, because all life is God-breathed.

But if we "pluck" that life "out of the crannies" and toss it into a trash can, we will not see. We will not understand. We will not have the epiphany that the poet has had. We will never know the truth of "God and Man" and we might even continue to think that the whole question is "above our pay grade" when really, even poets like Tennyson know that it isn't above their pay grade to ponder the Hand of God in the creation of even a little flower. It is, perhaps, the most important question we ask ourselves. Who made me? When does life begin? Where does it come from? These are the questions we must ask. These are the questions that God will answer. If we really take a close look at that little life.

St. Therese, Little Flower of God, pray for us - and for the most vulnerable among us.
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Saturday, January 17, 2009

Our Letters Matter!

Please consider sending the following letter to President Obama. You may amend it as you see fit. Please PRINT and MAIL this letter with your signature between January 17 and January 18!
Thank you for helping to fight for a better America!
President Barack H. Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama:
I am writing to ask you and members of Congress not to approve the bill S.1173 Freedom of Choice Act. My opposition to this bill is based on the following points:
• In Sec. 2. Findings, the bill informs its readers that before Roe v. Wade thousands of women died annually in the United States from illegal abortions. This claim wildly exaggerates the facts, which may easily be found online;
•The bill seems to call for taxpayer support of abortion;
•The bill disallows or outlaws the rights of parents in terms of notification and consent regarding abortions for underage teenagers;
•Sec. 4. Interference with Reproductive Health Prohibited states that "a government may not deny or interfere with a woman's right to choose," a position which denies the regulatory rights of a state in our federal system;
•Sec. 4 also allows the termination of a pregnancy after "viability where termination is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman." This point clearly reestablishes the practice of partial-birth abortions;
•FOCA will require hospitals, including those founded and funded by organizations opposed to abortions, to practice abortion;
•FOCA eliminates strict regulation of abortion clinics and may subject women to abortion by non-physicians.With all due respect, I ask you to keep this bill from becoming law.
Sincerely,

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