Thanks be to God for our holy bishops

Bishop Alexander Sample

I've been pretty busy lately trying to finish up my studies and teaching part-time at my children's school. In the midst of working on my exams, I took a break to check my Facebook and came across this article on LifeSite News... Contraception a ‘clear factor’ in decline of church numbers: Michigan bishop.

I just love it when bishops come out and say what so many of us in the pews have been observing for years. It is so wonderful to know that the shepherds are seeing clearly the wolves who are threatening to devour us.

This gives me great hope for the Church of the future.

Oh, and by the way, I am LOVING the new English translation of the liturgy. It is so beautiful and prayerful. I feel like I am encountering Christ for the first time every time I go to Mass...another reason to be grateful for the wise leadership in the Church!

Nature in revolt

One of my younger friends on Facebook just posted this article from the National Catholic Register. It is an eye-opening piece about how the chemicals and synthetic hormones in birth control pills are mutating fish. The article focuses on the hypocrisy of environmentalists to ignore such a prevalent and well-documented problem. Scientific findings have been available since 2005.

What confounds me even more than the inconsistency of the environmentalists is the failure of the average woman to make the connection between mutations in fish and mutations, say, in breast tissue. Some of these women, mind you, shun artificial sweetners, drink bottled water, go gluten free, eat organic fruits and vegetables, buy cage-free, grain-fed, hormone-free meat, and take their birth control pills religiously. When I see women coming together dressed in pink, raising money for the fight against breast cancer, I wonder how many of those same women would be so adamant in their protest against the harmful chemicals that continue to be pushed onto us by the mainstream medical establishment.

The ripple effects of contraception and its moral and social evils are so widespread. We should not be suprised that the physical mutations are showing up in our natural habitats. Nature has a way of being able to only take so much. When people speak about nature, there is often a disconnect with the Creator of nature. God is the author of all life, so when it becomes apparent that nature is becoming disfigured by harmful chemicals that are intended for the prevention and the destruction of His gift of life, we have to realize that God is allowing nature to revolt against the sin that has imposed itself. The fish are yet another warning, a wake-up call, a physical manifestation of the mutated contraceptive culture.

The blessing of God's law

My husband and I had the rare gift of being born in the seventies to parents who did not believe in using birth control. Both sets of parents were Catholic at a time when even some priests were confused about the Church’s teaching on contraception. Even though each set of parents lived in different countries to begin with, they were able to hold to the universal truth that love desires manifestation. Being open to God’s gift of fertility in their lives, my husband’s family had four boys, and my parents had four girls. It wasn’t until high school that I realized not only that my parents practiced Natural Family Planning, but that they seemed to be rare in their grasp of Catholic Church teaching.

This is why contraception and sterilization have not been issues of discussion in our marriage except in the context of rejoicing over the Church’s wisdom in condemning these acts as contrary to nature. God has given us five beautiful children who are wonderful in every way, not designed by us but given to us by a loving Father. It makes me think that we are too narrow in our intentions when we pray. We pray for this thing or that thing that we think we can absolutely not live without. God is smiling all the while, knowing that He has greater joy planned for us than we could ever imagine.

Contraception and sterilization close us off from receiving God’s abundant graces, spiritually and physically. Without God’s grace we are sad, hollow shells who wander about aimlessly. When we allow ourselves to be open to what God wants, we are whole human beings, living according to the purpose of our existence. It is only in this wholeness that we ever truly can be happy.

The reason that I bring up this topic on this day is because of an article I read about how the European population is in danger of being overtaken by Muslims not by force but by births (not news, really). Europe has ceased to live according to its Christian heritage, and now they are reaping the bitter fruits of impending submission to an anti-Christian force. All of us are in danger of the same fate if we do not allow God to fill us with His love.

“Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods which you have not known” Num. 11:26-28.