A Gift For Mother's Day: Blessing of a Child in the Womb Published

USCCB releases prayer ahead of Mother's Day


"Following Vatican approval, the 'Rite for the Blessing of a Child in the Womb' is now available for use by dioceses in the United States. The text of the blessing is posted online and is being published as a booklet addendum to the Book of Blessings/Bendicional," a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops May 8 press release stated. "The blessing will be included in future editions of those liturgical volumes."

“We hope the use of this blessing will provide not only support and God’s blessing for expectant parents and their child in the womb, but also another effective witness to the sanctity of human life from the first moment of conception,” said Archbishop Gregory Aymond, chairman of the Committee on Divine Worship of the USCCB.

The blessing can begiven at Mass and outside of Mass.

"The blessing originated at the request of then-Bishop Joseph Kurtz of Knoxville, Tenn. (now archbishop of Louisville, Ky.), to the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities," the USCCB stated. "The committee prepared and submitted a text to the USCCB's Divine Worship Committee in March of 2008. It was approved by the U.S. bishops in November 2008, and then sent to Rome for editing and final approval."

Excerpt from the Prayer of Blessing:
God, author of all life,
bless, we pray, this unborn child;
give constant protection
and grant a healthy birth
that is the sign of our rebirth one day
into the eternal rejoicing of heaven.

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Winning the good fight over porn addiction

From Blessed is the Kingdom by Devin Rose

I hate the word pornography. It’s vile. Everything associated with it is vile. Sometimes at work I hear my colleagues (who are predominantly male) joke around about “porn” or “porn stars,” quips which always draw knowing laughs…except from me. Laughing about pornography is like laughing about heroin. There’s nothing funny about something that enslaves people to sin and causes pain to them and their loved ones.



The Cord of St. Joseph

But I am here to tell you something wonderful today: you can overcome addiction to pornography. I can honestly tell you this because I have done so, and I was once as addicted as any man.

Before I share more with you, I should qualify what I just said by adding that I still face temptations to lust on a regular basis. It’s just that now I have the virtue to overcome the temptation and choose chastity over lust. But I am conscious of my own weakness and know that if I toy with temptation, it could overcome me again and cause me to fall to sin, so I am always vigilant. Some saints in the Church were given special graces by God to not even be tempted to lust–St. Joseph and St. Thomas come to mind–but most of us have not been given such extraordinary measures and must be prepared daily to face temptation.

There was no one day when I realized I had overcome habitual lust and sexual addiction. It doesn’t work that way. Instead, I kept fighting the battle, availing myself of everything I could to help me live chastely: I put pictures of Our Lady around my computer, went to daily Mass and adoration whenever I could, studied the Theology of the Body, did accountability groups with close friends of mine, wore the Cord of St. Joseph, prayed novenas to St. Maria Goretti and St. Therese, and went to Confession after I fell to temptation.

Some people say this or that measure “doesn’t work,” but different things work for different people. I say, take the shotgun approach: use everything you can and find what works best for you. Don’t be afraid to try something that could help.

One verse that gave me great encouragement during my struggle to overcome pornography addiction was 1 Cor. 10:13: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

How reassuring to know that, even when temptation felt beyond my power to overcome, God promises to give the grace to overcome it. I only have to accept that grace.

It took me years of praying, attending Mass, and receiving the sacraments to overcome my addiction. The fact is that lustful vice was deeply ingrained, an evil habit that had worn itself into my heart like a rut in the road. I had to work and pray hard on the opposite virtue of chastity to form a good habit in myself, one that would make it possible for me to avoid falling into the rut of vice again. Though it took a long time, that eventually happened, by the grace of God, and the feeling of being free from the slavery to sin was indescribable. No longer was I controlled by twisted desires, but instead I was under the aegis of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of power, of love, and of self-mastery.

For those of you who are still struggling with this sin, know that I sympathize. I know how hopeless it can feel, like you will never overcome it. But you can. Because God is faithful. The one critical component to victory is simply to not give up, no matter how many times you fall. Ask God for forgiveness, and try again. And again, and again, as long as it takes. Even when you “know” that you will fall again, get up and do your best, with His help. He knows us, knows our weakness, and also knows that through this fight, we will become the manly saints that He created us to be.

Please feel free to share anything that has helped you in growing in purity and avoiding lust.

Devin Rose inspires me with his courage to speak about this often taboo topic. He reminds me that one of the best ways of dealing with sin and temptation is to shine God’s healing light upon them. I am thankful that he agreed to contribute this guest post to Blessed Is The Kingdom. You can read more of his writing at his blog St. Joseph’s Vanguard. His recent book, If Protestantism Is True is available at amazon.com.

Pujols Left The Baseball's Greatest Fans For This?

From over at Cardsdiaspora. I am one of those odd people who like the Angels and the Cardinals


Albert Pujols was the topic de jour on ESPN last week when the World Wide Leader wasn’t pumping its NBA playoff schedule. His season will continue to be a national story all season long as it either continues to devolve into his worst ever or resurrects itself into something that approaches being worth 24 million dollars.

Last Friday Mr. Pujols was 0-4 and after his last at bat he was booed by several thousand Angels fans in attendance witnessing his startling fall from super-duper stardom in person.

This set into motion a chain of events: a racking of the brain by Cardinal fans to recall a time where Pujols was booed in St. Louis, a ‘mental health day’ for Pujols on Saturday where he didn’t play and eventually his first home run as an Angel on Sunday.

Pujols refused a curtain call. Publically because he wanted to concerntrate on the game. Privately because he knew it was mocking him and his season thus far.

No one can speak for Pujols and tell us for sure he regrets his move, but I think it’s fair to say that he’s experiencing the difference between St. Louis and Los Angeles.

To wit: Cheryl Marie McCarter Trotter, 61, of Hannibal Mo.

Ms. McCarter passed away the same day that Pujols was riding the pine for the Angels. And in her obituary published yesterday her interests not only named the St. Louis Cardinals as one of her passions, but it also singled out Yadier Molina by name as her favorite player.

Perhaps in her last days she took some solace in the fact that Molina had recently re-upped with the Cardinals?

Ms. McCarter's last remembrance in the paper, though, is a very recent and not so uncommon occurrence in St. Louis. Generations of Cardinal fans grow up and move on from this life with a passion for baseball.

In fact, the best part about being a Cardinal fan, without question, is that you can have a conversation with a 10 year old or a 90 year old about the Cardinals that isn’t just superfluous pleasantries… it’s an actual meaningful conversation with points and counter points.

It’s the connective tissue that binds a city.

Mr. Pujols is now in the midst of his choice to extract himself from this phenomena. And while the passion is sometimes an inconvenience for Cardinal greats, the benefits far outweigh the detriments.

I have no doubt that sometime in the next 25 years Albert will come back to St. Louis and he’ll be treated with a respect and admiration that he doesn’t probably deserve from Cardinal fans. He’ll most likely have his number retired and the remembrances of his Cardinal days restored to Busch Stadium. If I had a dollar to bet, he’d probably say something about being happy to be back with the best fans in baseball.

You know what, he’s probably right.

He’s now experiencing life in real life. And that’s not as pleasant as the insular world we provide for the basballing men of St. Louis. There’s a huge difference in being in the obit and writing your own.

Cartoonist raises the ire of Big Blue Nation

Courtesy of Joel Pett of The Lexington Herald-Leader

Joel Pett’s cartoon in The Lexington Herald-Leader angered Kentucky fans.
To Joel Pett, the longtime editorial cartoonist at The Lexington Herald-Leader, the tempest currently roiling among Kentucky fans over his cartoon lampooning Coach John Calipari’s trophy case, is both expected and slightly depressing.

“You can draw all the cartoons you want about things like the global plight of women and it’s this kind of thing that gets people going,” Pett said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

To the Kentucky faithful, Pett is raining on their championship parade by criticizing Calipari. They would prefer to revel in the school’s first men’s basketball championship in 14 years — two lifetimes in Kentucky basketball years — rather than dwell on Calipari’s questionable ethical past, including the two vacated Final Four appearances by Calipari-coached teams at Massachusetts and Memphis that Pett references in his cartoon.

But despite all the howling, Pett believes many people in Lexington agree with him that money long ago eclipsed college sports’ integrity. He thinks that’s behind Kentucky’s proposal to play Indiana on neutral courts and no longer on campus, which Indiana turned down. Pett, an Indiana alum, said he believes playing on a neutral court would sap games of all the atmosphere that made the rivalry great.

“There will be backlash,” Pett said, adding that only one of his voice mails so far has been threatening. “But there are a lot of people who understand the point is that the program is bigger than the university, which we’ve known for a long time.”

Even if more of his feedback contains threats, Pett has a hard time getting worked up about it. He just returned from a meeting in Washington, D.C. of the Cartoonists’ Rights Network, which seeks to protect the rights of editorial cartoonists around the world threatened and intimidated for their work. Last year, Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat was severely beaten by Syrian forces attempting to quash dissent against the country’s president, Bashar Al-Assad.

The Cartoonists’ Rights Network votes every year on a Courage in Cartooning Award. Pett said there are far too many candidates like Ferzat.

“It takes courage not just to write and draw these cartoons, but to publish them,” Pett said. “In that context, this is just a silly, small-minded, quote-unquote controversy.”

“There will be backlash,” Pett said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “Only about half the people who say they’re going to cancel their subscription do and the ones that do will pick it back up again when basketball season starts

Serenity...

Forgiving others is a gift to yourself,
given not because the other deserves pardon,
but because you deserve the serenity and joy
that comes from releasing resentment and anger,
and from embracing universal forgiveness.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You Know You've Turned Into A Mom When...

~ You automatically double-knot everything you tie.

~ You find yourself humming the Wiggles song as you do the dishes.

~ You hear a baby cry in the grocery store, and you start to gently sway back and forth, back and forth. However, your children are at school!

~ You actually start to like the smell of strained carrots mixed with applesauce.

~ You weep through the scene in Dumbo when his mom is taken away, not to mention what Bambi does to you.

~ You get soooo into crafts you contemplate writing a book called "101 Fun Crafts To Do with Dryer Lint and Eggshells."

~ You spend a half hour searching for your sunglasses only to have your teenager say, "Mom, why don't you wear the ones you pushed up on your head?"

~ You are out for a nice romantic meal with your husband, enjoying some real adult conversation, when suddenly you realize that you've reached over and started to cut up his steak.

today'sTHOT============================

Mothers are guinea pigs in a scientific experiment to prove that sleep is unnecessary for human existence.

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Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary