Guadalupe

New Year, New Strength

2009-01-02T02:03:00.004-06:00

Lately I have had struggles and trials with my faith, but today (yesterday I suppose, now looking at the hour) I went to Mass and I realized something. High points and low points, I will always stay with the church. I felt that God was with me today, and that I do have more work to do and I must be a good student and a good steward and most of all lead with example.

I hope that I can fulfil the role and be the best I was made to be. I'm a lover, not a fighter, but sometimes I know I must stand up for what is right. For the most part, I know I do my best work just being me. Being me is being a person who likes all people from all walks of life and histories. The thing that I ask of my friends is that they have good futures.

Not all my friends are Christians, not all have any religion that they follow at all. While it is important, I don't think it's the only thing that can define a person as being good or bad. God will find people as He will as they will find Him when they yearn with desire.

My job, live by example.

I know that He will lead me along the path to do his work, and I know I will never leave Him. His comfort at Mass today has reinforced that assurance.

Happy and blessed 2009!

Of China's Policies and Feminists

2008-12-21T09:47:00.003-06:00

Reading my latest issue of Celebrate Life, I found an article that spoke of a tragedy for China. There was an earthquake and there was an estimated 7,000 school classrooms and a large percentage of school children were killed. This meant many parents had no child from that kind of aftermath.

We have all heard of China's one child policy, in this article that issue was addressed. The couples who lost children that day have been allowed by their government to try to conceive another child so they would not have to remain childless.

This article spurred a thought process in me. Here in America, where we all have a right to so many freedoms, there are many that balk and cry out at the suggestion of abortion becoming illegal again. How would these same people feel in a country like China, where the government forces you to have no more than one child?

I feel that this is a darker law than a law to abolish abortion. Ideally, I would love to see some strong feminists go to China to work with them on the strict oppression of reproductive rights.

There have been two other problems seen with Great China's Population control; one is the population age proportions between the elderly, working class and youth. It is estimated that if the trend continues, by 2050, the 60+ generation in China will make up an alarming 31% of the population while Chinese people aged 15-24 will only be about 11% of the whole population. The other problem with the one child policy is the growing sex imbalance.

The importance in my thinking lies in this: Due to couples only being allowed one child, they are handpicking only male children to birth and keep.

The female children of China, if they do not get aborted, many go to orphanages or put up for adoption overseas. Because of these happenings, the gender ratio are becoming dangerously unbalanced. Since China's one child law has been in effect for decades (its been in effect since 1979) there are "bachelor colonies" being seen develop. They have not enough women for the men these days, it almost seems to be something out of a science fiction novel.

With the numbers as they stand now, is has been predicted that 30-60 million Chinese men will not be able to have a Chinese wife. Already, there has been the occurrences of kidnappings and selling of women. Families who don't want to kill their female children have been known to sell the girls, as there are people who will buy these daughters of China to have future wives for their sons. The number of those kidnapped each year run into the tens of thousands and in accordance to Chinese government parents are forbidden to search for or even put up missing child signs.

Why the "weeding out" of their female children do you ask? It's a combination of the one child law and tradition. Tradition holds that it is the male children that hold value to the parents, as they are the ones who will take care of them when they are old. Female offspring are not as valuable to the parents because they join their husbands in caring for his parents.

Equal rights for humanity? Not so much in China. This is why I would greatly desire some strong feminists to meddle in such affairs. It seems they feel there are still battles in America to be fought for equalities and rights; there may be, but I think that there are bigger problems on a global level that may need to be scrutinized.

The Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe

2008-12-12T05:07:00.000-06:00

Since our blogspot is named after Our Lady of Guadalupe, I only think it's appropriate to write a post about her on her feast day. There are many interesting things about Our Lady, about Juan Diego and how she appeared to aide in changing the hearts of people in a culture of death, I would like to go into the symbolism that is embedded in the image on the 500 year old tilma.

The tilma has been studied for many years as it is unlike anything seen in history. Replicas have been made of this beautiful image on the same material, a poor quality cactus-cloth. This 'cloth' only lasts 15-20 years before it disintegrates, but here it is, centuries later still remaining in our midst.

The image of Our Lady is said to not be formed with any brush strokes, which is unheard of for any artwork dating back this far. This was verified when the icon underwent inspection under infrared lights. There have been studies on the pigment samples, they are not from any known mineral, vegetable or animal source. The face, hands and mantle were all 'painted' in one step and no corrections have been made.

The there are many symbols in the icon that have significance. There are several items on our lady that reference to her royalty; the blue mantle, her fur cuffs, she has the sunflower on her pregnant belly which is the symbol for the Aztec sun god (Jesus, the Son of God is in her womb). Our Lady herself has skin tones not exclusive to any race, the color of her skin is like that of the intermarriage of the Spaniards with the Indians of the Americas, which speaks to us that we are but all one people in the eyes of God.

The relevance of the heavens in this icon is made apparent from the Virgin's appearance of standing before a brilliant light. The Indians of that time worshipped the sun god, and gave up human sacrifice to appease him. Her being shown clothed in the sun shows the people that her God is more powerful than what they have believed in, worshiped and sacrificed to. The mantle she wears is also covered in stars from the night sky, in the constellation pattern sky from the night of December 12th, 1531. With a people who believe in the stars and live by the stars, to see her clothed in the stars they live by illustrated to them how her God is more powerful than the stars could ever be. Her head is bowed in reverence to show that it is not her that is so powerful, but that there is one above her who is Almighty, that she is only a servant and she is not a god or goddess.

More significance of the many other symbols are talked about here, but one of the more incredible things said of Our Lady of Guadalupe is the image of her eyes. Her right eye is the eye that can be more clearly seen into, and photographers and opthamologists have reported seeing images in her eyes. The image is more of a reflection really, which is tripled in what is called the Purkinje effect. The image of the Virgin's eye was increased to 2,500 times and the image that is captured is said to be the people the tilma was first revealed to, the skeptics.

I find this miracle of Our Lady to be one of the most beautiful and intriguing of all the apparitions of Our Lady, the message that she brought is to live as He wants us to live with no more human lives sacrificed in the eyes of God. She came to a culture of death to ask us to serve the Lord and live in His ways. I hope that we can all come to hear the call and listen.

Immaculate Conception

2008-12-08T06:12:00.005-06:00

Today is the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary! We celebrate that Mary, the mother of Christ, was conceived without the stain of original sin. Read more about it here. What a special day!

Well said

2008-12-07T19:59:00.002-06:00

"The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the Divinity itself and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power."

-Alexander Hamilton

World AIDS Day

2008-12-07T19:56:00.001-06:00

Last monday was World AIDS Day. One of our city's drop-in centers was full to the brim with events to educate youth about this terrible disease. A concerned coworker commented that this disease is THE killer of the African American population.

I'm going to let the numbers speak for themselves:

8,858 Number of African American AIDS deaths in the United States, 1999
Table 1. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 07/17/02

321,447 Number of African American Abortion deaths in the United States 1999
Journal of the National Medical Association 02/01/03

AIDS is a true travesty. But abortion kills even more people of color in our country than AIDS. There is not a World Abortion Day.

I pray that our newly elected president will act the opposite of the Planned Parenthood eugenicists before him in the true interest of the African American population.

Sometimes I Feel Like a Misfit

2008-12-07T02:16:00.005-06:00

Lately, I've noticed something about myself. I am a very unique person, as cliche as that sounds. I feel like I am just a little too wild for many conservative groups, while at the same time, too stuffy for the liberal groups. All in all, I have friends on both sides, but obviously I tend to agree with conservatives with my values and beliefs.

My hope is to somehow use my split personality to help bridge the gap between the groups, an advocate if you will. It's a great struggle sometimes, being caught between two worlds. For example, last night on Facebook I joined a group "Defund Planned Parenthood" and one of my Facebook friends commented, 'Anne you're a dear but I think these people you've joined may be crazy.'

I really am not entirely sure what to say to that in all honesty, as I don't know this person all that well and I want them to have an open heart and mind on the subject, and I don't think the interwebs is the best place to have a debate. Especially with someone that you don't know that well.

It disheartens me to feel this way, to feel like I need to think about my response and maybe even sugar coat it a little bit when all I want to do is just say it like it is. Why is it the people who claim to be so open minded are only open minded in liberal views and values? They seem to not even want to try to wrap their head around conservative ideas. I find this unfortunate as it seems that they ask us to be open to their lifestyles and values.

The way that person stated that to me, I feel like because they have gotten to talk to me on a personal level, that they have drawn the conclusion that I am an awesome person in their mind, but my other friends, who share the same values as me, automatically get the label as 'crazy'.
It actually makes me sad inside, the lack of charity and goodwill conservatives all too often get shown. I feel the media has had a hand in much of this, as there are very few things that support conservativeness.

I hope that someday, communication will open between the 'sides,' and we all can be more open to life, to help build a healthy society that really does celebrate and support diversity, that we value all people; the unborn, the elderly, the autistic, the physically and mentally handicapped, all of us.

What EXACTLY is conception?

2008-12-01T19:58:00.004-06:00

The Medline Plus Dictionary has an ambiguous and contradictory definition of conception:

"the process of becoming pregnant involving fertilization or implantation or both"

I thought that in the year 2008 we clearly understood that fertilization and implantation are two distinct, separate events! Fertilization occurs when the sperm and ovum unite and implantation occurs several days later after the zygote has divided into a hollow ball of cells called a blastocyst and implants on the uterine wall. So which is it? Does conception start at fertilization or implantation? Apparently the definition got altered from conception=fertilization to conception=implantation by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Food and Drug Administration in the early 1960s. Check out the links below for more information on the changing definition of conception and its implications.

Why the ambiguity? According to Albert Rosenfeld, the mixed definition had everything to do with the rise of contraception use.

"Because these substances do not prevent the sperm from penetrating and fertilizing the ovum -the classic definition of conception - they are not strictly contraceptives. What they do is prevent the newly fertilized egg from implanting itself in the uterus. Since the interference occurs after conception, some hold that such practice constitutes abortion. A way around this impasse has been suggested by Dr. A.S. Parkes of Cambridge: Equate conception with the time of implantation rather than the time of fertilization - a difference of only a few days."

Brilliant! Change the meaning of conception and suddenly all forms of birth control that act up to implantation are known to the general public as being benign "medicine." IUDS, the pill, the morning after pill, and Norplant are now in full use without thought of their real effects.

Guided by my beautiful Catholic faith, I am fully against the use of any artificial contraceptives, because of their biological and spiritual effects. Not only do they have the ability to kill a unique, unrepeatable life after it has been conceived, but they keep us closed to the life-giving power of God. They cheapen sex and reduce our committed relationships to matters of convenience and pleasure.

For more information...
The Beginning of Life and The Establishment of the Continuum
American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology Changes Definition
Contraception Deception: The Abortion Rights Movement Plays Word Games to Hide Abortion
Informed Consent and the redefining of conception: a decision ill conceived?

I invite your comments. Why is birth control so widely accepted today? What do you think about the changing meaning of conception? Is it a political ploy or a scientific advancement?

Virtual Chats and Intensities

2008-12-01T19:44:00.004-06:00

Just about a week ago, I was on Facebook chat and talking to an old high school classmate of mine. He is studying in the medical field and had mentioned how he had really liked being in the delivery area for part of his on-site studies. I asked him what he could tell me about the early life stage facts. Regrettably as a result, I did not really get any more facts that I didn't already know, but we did engage in an hour and a half online discussion about the pro-life cause. It got intense at times but overall, I believe that it was a really good discussion.

The first thing I gleaned from the conversation is that he is like the majority of Americans and is hesitant to give 'embryos' rights before they are viable and can survive outside the care of the mother's womb. He stated that he believes that you can't give the babies rights before 24 weeks of gestation because they are actually 'parasites' in the woman's body. How can you justify granting or not granting rights to someone based on their dependency on another to ensure their survival? I then asked him if infants or toddlers could be considered 'parasites' too, as they also depend on others for their survival and well being. (I suppose in that mindset, you could also justify not giving rights to life to mentally or physically handicapped people. After all, don't they need case workers to help them along in life, in addition to the care from family members?)

Really, where do people who are not pro-life draw the line? It worries me that they all unite under the banner of being pro-choice, but cannot unite when 'life' begins. Pro-life folks, at least the ones I have personally met, seem to all be agreeing on one answer. For us, we see life beginning at the moment of conception, when a brand new, individual set of DNA is formed from the chromosomes of the mother and the father. I find this observation very interesting to me, and I think I definitely need to keep looking for the answer to that question of: when does life begin?

I will never reveal anyone's real name unless they have asked me to do so, as I respect their privacy, just for future reference.

Not a Creature was Stirring, Not Even a Mouse

2008-11-30T22:37:00.003-06:00

This post was originally composed before Thanksgiving, but I had no internet access. Sorry for the delay.

Okay, so this isn't Christmas Eve, but I am sitting at my parents house the night before Thanksgiving with the laptop I just got handed down from my brother. I just got back from a buddy's house so I am not quite relaxed enough to sleep, so why not write?

I suppose I could watch a movie or read a book and maybe I will, but for now I choose to write these words for you. Sorry for the wordy intro. :)

I am a big fan of bumper stickers and buttons with catchy sayings. Sometimes the stickers or buttons read something that can hit a nerve for me, and lately I feel like being a devil's advocate and having some things out there to get my little messages out. The saying goes, "Say it quicker, use a sticker."

I like the ones that are pro- something rather than anti- something, because well let's face it, wouldn't anyone rather be for something instead of against something?

My favorite button that I have seen that really hits hime with the nerd in me simply reads "< / abortion >"

Now that seems to be negative, asking to end something, but I think that it puts in out there in a non-offensive manner.

A Wanted Child

2008-11-30T19:36:00.009-06:00

This weekend I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by wonderful people. With 7 children under the age of five, it was also full of toys, laughter, scolding, and loud shrieking cries. As annoyed as I was at times when one of the youngsters was screaming at the top of his lungs, I was constantly amazed at what young children can learn. All of the children over 1 year old at the family gathering knew how to say "please" and "thank you." They all smiled and clapped their hands with joy when their mommies and daddies made funny faces at them. Children are such treasures, and I loved every minute of my time with them!

I was reminded of other times working with kids in my teaching career. I am constantly blessed with great students, and sometimes I don't realize my blessings until much later. During my first year of teaching, I had one particular high school boy who I will call Jack that definitely got on my nerves more than any other student has since. He constantly came late and heckled the other students and I during class. One day, Jack told me the rudest thing I have ever been told. In the middle of a biology class discussing the actions of meiosis, he burst out in anger towards me and said, "If I ever got a girl like you pregnant, I'd make you have an abortion."

I was really hurt. How could this kid say that to me? After a discussion with a friendly coworker, I learned that Jack was a "rape baby"--a baby born due to a rape and later neglected by his own parents.

Many people in the pro-abortion movement would say that Jack should have never been born. He may be an occasionally malicious child, but does that make his life have any less value than yours or mine? I don't think so. Jack may be difficult, but he is still God's child. Jack's life is valuable and unrepeatable.

That is why I will proudly bear my pins from the American Life League:

No Apologies
No Compromise
No Exceptions

An Oil Painting

2008-11-29T22:44:00.002-06:00

About Me: Anne Elizabeth

2008-11-21T01:01:00.008-06:00

Hi, this is me.
I am starting this blog with a really good friend of mine to get the message out on the life issue.

This is a little bit about my story:

I am who I am today because of my family and how I was raised. I am the youngest of six, grew up working on a farm, aunt to more than most people could imagine being an aunt to, Godmother to four beautiful children and am a nonconvertible cradle Catholic. How boring. I know. However, through much discernment and time and walking through life I now understand why my parents had strong convictions and I also follow the same path to be pro-life and pro-family.

I used to think, "Well, maybe there are exceptions," but the more I learn and the more I expose myself to the arguments I discover that they are immoral. I know that there is not enough educations on the basics of life, and there has not been near enough study and it seems that the respect for life issue reflects into so many realms that is it scary. It is a total domino effect, even if people can't see the repercussions and make the correlations. Or even worse still, wont.

The way I see it, abortion effects us all, deeply, whether we realize it or not. Sadly it's become such a "hush-hush" subject that we don't like to talk about it because "no one really likes abortion and no one really wants to do it." We need to talk about it more, it is effecting our everyday lives now that the generation where it first became legal in the United States is a productive adult group of society. Children are the future and we are killing it. The city I am in now is feeling the effects. One of the 3 big schools is not getting enough support to stay open. Guess how schools function? Student admittance and tax payer funding. Tax payers are people, many don't exist today. An estimated 50,000,000 Americans don't exist today because of abortion. The way I see it, these people could have helped the economy. This is just a sample of why I feel how I feel.

I may seem opinionated and strong, but these are qualities I have developed to an adverse reaction to the media and society I am constantly being exposed to.

I apologize in advance if I seem too grizzly, but on the other hand I don't apologize for speaking my mind and striving to defend the voiceless, the ones who have been stripped of the right for any label of humanity.

Thank you, I humbly part my first post with this beautiful triad of quotes from Mother Teresa;

I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness.
If we want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.
One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.

A Humble Beginning

2008-11-20T22:52:00.005-06:00

"Be sure you put your feet in the right place; then stand firm."

-Abraham Lincoln

My journey of finding the right place has been one of many small steps. I haven't always been a pro-lifer. I started out like many people, apathetic and uncertain about the dignity of the unborn. With the help of my loving God, I've learned the truth: All human life has inherent worth at all stages of its existence. The act of directly and deliberately killing innocent life is an intrinsic evil.

This issue didn't start to hit home for me until I went to work in some of our nation's under- performing schools. I met kids that "weren't wanted" by their parents. My heart was awakened with the knowledge of the invaluable worth of every last one of them, even if their earthly parents didn't understand this gift. I met kids who were having kids of their own. I saw profiles of courage when I saw people graciously giving birth and having faith that they would be provided for. I saw the beautiful ties of families who lovingly accepted children.

I've also seen the dirty. I've witnessed the Planned Parenthood programs that infuse our public schools every day without parental consent. I've listened to people call children "parasites." I've witnessed a President-elect speak out against the medical protection of babies born alive during an abortion. I've experienced the shunning of friends who thought I was someone else.

To me, this issue is raw and real every day of my life in my work with at-risk youth. In this blog, I plan to share my experiences and give a voice to the unborn in our world who are loved by our God. I also pray that a dialog can occur to discuss abortion and the dignity of life. I pray that the women of our nation will be called to a new kind of feminism, one that upholds the dignity of life and doesn't try to overshadow it with the cold death of abortion on demand.

alpha- Small Beginings

2008-11-14T23:12:00.000-06:00