Mourning today; hope for tomorrow
Today is a day of mourning for all loving people across the United States of America. 37 years and over 50 million lives have been snuffed out in the womb, and that doesn’t even include contraception-induced early abortions.
Pray the Rosary today that God will end this scourge. National opinion on the abortion issue seems to be trending in the right direction, and even the Democrats, with full control of our government, has thus far been mostly thwarted in their attempts to expand access to abortion. I attribute this to the 130,000+ Rosaries that have been pledged here, and the many millions of Rosaries that have surely been said throughout our land for pro-life intentions in the last 15 months or so.
It is unclear how Roe v. Wade will be overturned at this point, but with God and with unceasing prayer, all things are possible. Please recruit others to join the Rosaries for Life cause, and watch for exciting news over the next few months about the expansion of our apostolate.
Crunch Time to defeat Obamacare
Well, the latest is that the Senate version of Obamacare will be voted on this week or next by both the Senate and the House. If this is true, then the pro-life victory in the House which prohibited abortion coverage has been wiped out, and the version that will come to a final vote DOES contain coverage for abortion. Don’t be confused by claims that the bill is abortion-neutral or does not contain funding of abortion. The Senate bill, as currently stands, definitely DOES allow for abortions to be covered in the health care plan, and the most likely scenario is that the House will simply be voting on the Senate version without any chance to reinsert the pro-life Stupak amendment.
Public opinion is against this bill because of abortion, as well as other reasons. NOW is the time to make your voice heard to your Senators and Congressmen. For those of you that have Senators or Congressmen that will not be convinced by arguments about abortion (such as is the case with the Senators here in Minnesota), try using other reasons to make the case, such as the angle that the health care bill is a major expense at a time when our country can’t afford another money pit.
The best chance to defeat the bill is still in the House, so focus on your Congressmen, especially those of you who live in districts with more moderate Democrats who voted for the original Stupak amendment. Move your cursor over the Contact header on the main Rosaries for Life site to contact your Senators and Congressmen!
Don’t forget to fast and pray the Rosary for our nation in this critical time! If you have not already pledged your prayers, please do so!
Update: At US News and World Report, there is this informative report about the current abortion related issues in the health care bill.
Marian appearances at Akita
I haven’t posted for a while, because I didn’t want to detract from the importance of the health care post immediately below. PLEASE make sure to contact your representative to vote NO on the health care bill, especially if you live in the district of a moderate Democrat. Moderate Democrats will be the ones to determine the fate of the bill. The vote is scheduled to take place tomorrow.
Now on to the subject at hand… A little known apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was approved both by the local bishop and by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (then headed by Cardinal Ratzinger), took place in Akita, Japan in 1973. 1973, of course, was the year in which abortion was legalized in the United States, and also a time when abortion laws were liberalizing around the world.
A statue of Mary wept 101 times there, and Sister Agnes Sasagawa received some very serious messages. It is quite enlightening, as we consider the dangers of our times, that such frightening messages were approved by the Vatican. Please read this approved message (which occurred on October 13th, also the date of the last apparition at Fatima) and let it inspire you to greater prayer for our country, for the unborn and other lives at risk, and for the whole world:
If men do not repent and better themselves, the
Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will
be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never
seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great
part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither
priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so
desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will
remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son.
Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray
for the Pope, the bishops and priests.The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in
such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops
against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and
opposed by their confreres…churches and altars sacked; the
Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon
will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service
of the Lord.The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated
to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of
my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be
no longer pardon for them.Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still
to save you from the calamites which approach. Those who place
their confidence in me will be saved.
Help Belmont Abbey!
If you haven’t heard, the EEOC has found Belmont Abbey College, a small Catholic school near Charlotte, NC, in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws because its health plan does not pay for oral contraception. They are discriminating against women, according to the EEOC, since only women take birth control pills.
No, that’s not a joke, though it seems like one. Everyone needs to step up and help Belmont Abbey as much as possible. If we don’t, this sort of bullying totalitarian nonsense will spread, and our religious freedoms will be lost. Protest to the EEOC, and stand ready to help Belmont Abbey if and when this goes to the courts.
Troop Update - July 7th
The word about Rosaries for Life continues to get out there, slowly but surely, and I want to thank those of you who have pledged, and especially those of you who have gone beyond pledging to spreading the word about Rosaries for Life.
We really all need to be doing this….not necessarily talking about Rosaries for Life (though that would be greatly appreciated), but emphasizing the importance, indeed the foundational nature, of prayer. Our pro-life efforts, our Catholic evangelization, our very efforts to raise our families will go nowhere fast (and probably will go backwards) without a foundation of prayer!
Americans are, in general, not a very prayerful people. This needs to be changed, NOW, as signs of general societal breakdown are on the increase. One can’t spend much time learning about the types of activities which are common in today’s youth culture without wondering how much time we have left as a nation.
Still, our nation was founded on basic Christian principles, and God has been merciful to us. Time has not yet run out, so let us take advantage of God’s mercy while we still can. “Now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor 6:2)
Though the blog has been silent lately (mea culpa), our plans have still been percolating. In the near future, I’ll be writing about Pres. Obama’s “Common Ground Initiative” and towards the end of July, we’ll be bringing the Rosaries for Life message to EWTN, and sharing our mission with Archbishop Burke if at all possible.
Archbishop Burke endorses Rosaries for Life (sort of)
One of our heroes, Archbishop Raymond Burke, the highest judicial official in the Catholic Church other than the Pope himself, gave a talk today at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.
I strongly encourage everyone to read the entire talk, he hit upon the Notre Dame Scandal and much else, but he spoke these words, which one might have thought were addressed directly to Rosaries For Life:
Remember, too, how Pope Saint Pius V, in 1571, called upon the whole Church to pray, especially through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when the Christian world was under attack by the Turks. After the victory of the Battle of Lepanto, on October 7, 1571, he established October 7th as an annual feast in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary and introduced the title of Mary Help of Christians into the Litany of Loreto. In the present crisis, praying daily the Rosary for our nation and invoking daily the intercession of Mary Help of Christians will be powerful forces for the victory of life and love….
All Catholics throughout the nation should take part in Eucharistic adoration and in the praying of the Rosary for the restoration of the respect for human life and for the safeguarding of the integrity of the family. In our prayers, we should seek, above all, the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, under her title of the Immaculate Conception. Mary Immaculate is the patroness of our nation. In a most wonderful way, she appeared, on our continent, in what is present-day Mexico City, in 1531, as the Immaculate Mother of God, in order to manifest the all-merciful love of God toward His children of America. Through her example and intercession, the Native Americans and Europeans, who were on the brink of a most deadly conflict, were brought together to form one people under her maternal care, and the widespread practice of human sacrifice among the native people was brought to an end. In our time, in many parishes and dioceses there are campaigns of prayer for our nation and her leaders. May these powerful spiritual works continue and prosper, so that, through prayer and fasting, the grave evils of contraception, procured abortion, euthanasia, the experimentation on embryonic human life, and so-called same-sex marriage may be overcome in our nation.
New bloggers & credit where credit is due
This blog will be adding some “young blood” over the next few weeks. There are a lot of young people who love the Church and are going to make a big difference in our world in the future.
Introducing you to a few of them via their thoughts on this blog will hopefully be an inspiration to us all!
Also, I wanted to express my sincere gratitude to Connie Barton with nockpoint.com for the beautiful work she has done on this site! If you need any work done on your website, I give her my highest recommendation.
Welcome, Prayer Warriors!
The mission of this site is to fulfill the words of the Servant of God Pope John Paul II, “”A great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world. Through special initiatives and in daily prayer, may an impassioned plea rise to God, the Creator and lover of life…”
We aim to provide a headquarters and rallying point for that army of prayer! The recent election of Pres. Obama signalled the possible loss of all that we’ve achieved through political means over the last 30+ years. If anything good can come from this, it’s the wake up call that all of our good actions will come to naught if PRAYER is not first. Towards that goal, we ask everyone reading this to forward this site to as many people of good will as possible, AND to print out pledge forms and post them in adoration chapels, church vestibules, etc. We ask that if you do print out pledge forms, please input the pledges of those who sign up into the website.
Here are some ways you can pledge:
– Become an American Sentinel and pledge daily prayers for life intentions for the next 4 years! You may pray the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, or other prayers of your choosing.
– Join our 72 day rosary novena! The Fatima Life Novena begins May 13th, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, and ends July 23rd.
– If you can’t do either of the above, pledge as many prayers as you can.
We’ve got a lot of great features on our site.
– Check out the beautiful online aid to help you pray the rosary, leading you through the prayers with accompanying Scripture verses.
– Read how the power of the rosary has changed the course of history in the past.
– Submit your own answered prayer stories to us, for inclusion on the site
– See the pledge map to see if your state is holding up its end of the bargain!
– View upcoming pro-life/Catholic events
– View the latest pro-life news and get help contacting your elected representatives.
– Surf the web to the greatest Catholic websites. A lot of effort went into researching and sharing with you the best Catholic links.
– As you view the site over the course of time, you’ll see many different pro-life quotes towards the top of the site, as well as daily pro-life prayers, which go along with the liturgical year and the calendar of saints.
– Check out this blog regularly for pro-life/Catholic commentary by a growing list of contributors.
