Haunted--Powerful Post at The Raving Theist

"The two carefree young women in the bar were roommates. One of them was pregnant. The condition was temporary. In a few days her late-summer drinking companion would drive her to a clinic for an abortion, just as she had driven so many other friends to “get theirs.” That appointment made way for a relaxing evening, for the aversion the pregnant woman briefly felt towards alcohol was relieved by a sensible reminder.

“You are going to kill it anyway.”

Her friend was indifferent to who heard this remark (and many did) because the observation was so ordinary. It was like explaining why it didn’t matter if paint splattered on a pair of worn, soon-to-be discarded shoes. After another round of drinks and cheerful conversation, the comment would be forgotten.

It would also be remembered, some 18 years later."

The post goes on to relate how, 18 years later, the friend Jean found Carla on Facebook, and wrote to her, expressing her sorrow and regret at what she had done in helping her friend to procure an abortion. The letter is published here to0, as well as the comments of Carla and others. What was most "haunting" to me, was the fact that there were commenters to the post who brought out how they had "been Jean" in another woman's life, and their regret. I narrowly escaped being "Jean" to another young woman, I now realize by God's intervening grace, for which I am forever thankful.

Everywhere I look now, I am seeing evidence of how our culture covers up the truth, promoting the lie that abortion is "no big deal". Women and men are truly haunted by this. It changes lives, mangles something in our souls. Truly God's law is written on our hearts and we know, in ways we may not be able to express at the time, that what we do here is deeply wrong.

But the more we look at this, talk about it and bring it out to the light, the more we can be healed, in God's Light, in God's Mercy.

US Orthodox Rabbi Leader Supports Papa Benny in a Lifesite News Article!

Deo Gracias!

This is so beautiful a gesture, one can feel great gratitude to Rabbi Yehuda Levin for his openness to the workings of the Spirit of The Lord.

from the article:

Left Wing of the Catholic Church Destroying the Faith Says Orthodox Rabbi

By Hilary White, Rome correspondent

ROME, February 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The dissident, leftist movement in the Catholic Church over the last forty years has severely undermined the teaching of the Catholic Church on the moral teachings on life and family, a prominent US Orthodox rabbi told LifeSiteNews.com. Rabbi Yehuda Levin, the head of a group of 800 Orthodox rabbis in the US and Canada, also dismissed the accusations that the Holy See had not sufficiently distanced itself from the comments made by Bishop Richard Williamson of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) on the Holocaust.

Please read the entire article here

Or better yet, read Fr. Z's complete annotated version

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7 Quick Takes Friday

1-- The thing I am really liking about Vicodin right now--I know, but really--is the way that it is enabling me to function without having to try to disregard the feeling that my dentist has plowed a deep furrow in my jaw. Having tried aspirin, Rapid Release Tylenol and Motrin to no avail, I was so relieved to be able to have this called in to the neighborhood Pharmacy. Dilemma-I return to work in the morning, and I know I can't drive with this. So I will be offering up, big time

2-- I am learning to appreciate rural northern Indiana. I am a country girl by nature anyway, but not a northern, cool weather type. Still, there is a crispness in the air here, and...all these little lakes. My current favorite little lake name is Pretty Lake. Yep,...Pretty Lake.

3--Another new pastime is trading lolspeak messages with my daughter via Stumbleupon's send to feature. It's silly, but it connects us, and I love that. Plus, there are all those cute kittehs.

4--It has been so long since I have had to look for a place to live, and now I am looking for a little apartment or trailer or some such. Having been assigned a store in northern Indiana, and not having plans to move the family up here from southern Indiana, puts me in a growing new class of "commuters". We stay on the road all week and just go home on the weekend, or every other weekend, if the distance is far. Heck, my boss flies home from here to the Pittsburgh area every week. How is that for commuting?
I want a lot for a little money, and the surprising thing is that I think it can be had up here, at least if I could just find it. Another aspect of small town life is that advertising and rentals don't work the same as in the big city--less available media, for one thing. Plus more people know each other, and the market is smaller. So, more word of mouth, and I am out of that loop, except for what my associates can turn me on to.
The downside for me, right now, is that I really need to find something this week, as my two paid weeks in the motel are up. Tossed in to the mix is the fact that my company wants me to fly out to their G.O. next week for a seminar. so when I come back I will either be paying weekly motel rates out of my own pocket, which I don't want to do, or I will have found a place this week, to avoid that. My best option so far, which I like except for this one thing---only a shower, no bath(!!!)--is a little one bedroom apartment in North Judson. I sense another opportunity to practice self-renunciation is in the offing.
Divine Providence looks out for me in all things.

5-- Really in all things. I have told people before that I have a deal with Saint Francis. I don't know if you could call it a deal, but I have asked the serious intercession of St. Francis that I don't hit any animals while driving. I just grieve over this. And its been years now, probably because St. Francis is a powerful intercessor with God and he really gets along with all of God's creatures and loves them. Last night he saved me from a deer collision, and the deer from a car collision. I didn't even see the beautiful doe coming, but suddenly there she was--and she turned in a split second on a hoof and bounded back the other way.
surely less than a second to spare. Thanks be to God! and thank you St. Francis--I love you, too!

6-- Most late nights, Fr. Z's Radio Sabina keeps me company. Right now I am listening to some lovely chant. Thanks Father Z, for all you do for us! Even get a bit of society here, as I love participating in his chat at the same address, when he opens it.
Oh, just now started playing "Ubi Caritas"which is a great favorite of mine.

7-- And I have just started Twittering and adding to my Facebook page. I think all of this being away from my family and my familiar life is prompting an urge to reach out? Don't know, but it is all a very interesting experiment. And I love my new laptop.

7 Quick Takes Friday is hosted by Jennifer at Conversion Diary so go check out her quick takes!

Brave New World

Here is a must read post at Patrick Madrid's blog.  For those still laboring under the delusion that the world is in a population crisis.  It is, but not of the sort you might imagine.  If you are over fifty, you might feel a tad uneasy.  You'd be right to.

From the post:

"...like
it or not, and there's every reason to believe we won't like it —
renegotiating the established social contract in response to global
aging will soon dominate and daunt the public policy agendas of all the
developed countries” (p. 5).

What
Peterson means by “renegotiate the established social contract” is: You
retired people, as well as all you who expect to retire in the next
decade or two, don't expect that you'll be taken care of by the rest of
us the way you now are or expect to be taken care of. Safety nets like
Social Security and Medicare may have to be drastically downsized or
even, if the economy deteriorates badly enough, eliminated. In other
words, we may not be able to continue paying for the "burdensome
expenses" old people impose on an ever-shrinking younger workforce
(Thanks, contracepting couples! Thanks, abortion industry!). And what
happens then? 

I've
been saying for years now what is being reported yet again in this
article. What is now known as the “right to die movement” is steadily
morphing into what will soon become the “obligation to
die movement.” Watch and see. It's happening right now, before our
eyes, though just imperceptibly enough not to raise any significant
alarm. When it does finally come out into the open, many people will be
so desensitized to this looming new evil that those promoting it will
have little difficulty imposing it on our ever more effete population. 

The
politics of “young versus old” is rising, slowly but surely, and we
will live to see its pernicious effects. Soon enough we will begin to
see how the demographic winter results in an intergenerational
struggle. The younger people, who have lived their entire lives
learning from the media and our culture as a whole that other people
are only useful or valuable insofar as they do one or more of a few
things: give sexual pleasure, provide entertainment, make money, or
produce some kind of product or service."

What comes next?  something wicked, I should think.