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In my last year of college, I found myself unwed and pregnant with this gal.
I was terrified. My morning sickness was so bad, I couldn’t go to classes most mornings and so I was falling behind. I was supposed to go to field training that coming summer for Air Force ROTC, which would be impossible to do seeing as my due date was in June. I had no money saved, college was paid for all by me and my job paid just enough to get me by. I was worried what people would think of me. All the emotions were there.
Now, I had been told in my Women Studies class in college that women were a force to be reckoned with. We could do ANYTHING! Be ANYTHING! We are stronger than men!
It was all girl-power to a nauseating level.
But, strangely enough, the day I went to the on-campus clinic to get a verified pregnancy test, the first thing the nurse suggested to me was an abortion. “It would be too hard,” she said, “to get a career going and finish school with a baby.”
But, wait. I thought women could do it all? Yet, here I was being told I couldn’t handle it.
Now, a lot of people pat me on the head and say, “That’s nice that this was what worked for you. You had an easier life and didn’t have the hardships of some women.”
But, I didn’t choose an abortion because my life had less hardships. I didn’t because I’d always known it was wrong. Period.
I don’t have a right to choose to end innocent life. Nobody does.
Turns out, I didn’t get to enter the military and then go on to try for the FBI. I didn’t get stellar grades my last year of college and so I wasn’t decorated with honors. My life plans dramatically changed.
But, I got this gal, my oldest baby, and she is worth more than any job, honors, or career I could have had. I have her to love and no earthly thing could be better than that and lives are blessed by her.
Today, Catholic Pilgrims, we pray for the legal protection of the unborn. May we always be people that recognize the dignity and worth of all persons from conception to the grave. And may we always strive to protect the most vulnerable, because that’s what good people do.
Live the Faith boldly and travel well.
When I say Alabama, you may say: Football (SEC 👎) Bible Belt Forrest Gump Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" (There you go, it's in your head now. You're welcome.) What you won't probably think about is Catholicism. I know I sure didn't think that when my family was stationed there for 10 months a few years back. But, if I learned anything living in Turkey, sometimes when you are outnumbered, your faith gets stronger. Catholics in Alabama are some devoted folks. Our small-town chapel this week is Sacred Heart Church in Clear Point, Alabama. It sits right on Mobile Bay and is a popular venue for weddings because of its charm and quaintness. It's, also, packed during the busy season, so get there early all you late-coming Catholics. Yes, I'm looking at all of you. It's not far from Mobile, which is a city my family thoroughly enjoyed visiting when we lived in Montgomery. Side note: You Gulf people have some strange food habits. This Kansanite (my word for a person from Kansas) wasn't too keen on ripping the heads off of the river bugs, sorry, crawfish. I know you love to suck the brains out after decapitation, but I'm gonna have to stick with the cows, chickens and pigs. lol. 😉 However, if you are ever sticking your feet in the Gulf Shores in Alabama, check out the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile. But, also, take some time to visit Sacred Heart Church and be thankful to the French that got our Catholic Faith kick-started off in Alabama all the way back in 1703. Merci! Live the Faith boldly and travel well, Catholic Pilgrims.
Continue ReadingEarly on in my marriage, when I still had major anger issues, my husband would kindly ask me to work on my anger. Of course, I would become super angry and get defensive and yell, "This is just who I am, okay!" It was so selfish of me to not want to work on myself. I wanted to believe that my faults and failings were just something that happened to me. I couldn't help it, you see? Sure, there were reasons that led to me having a deep-seated anger within me, but it was always my choice to allow it to take over or not. I just didn't want to admit that. Instead, I wanted to believe that God had just made me this way--angry, selfish, and impatient. In effect, I was telling my husband, "Welp, sorry pal, you get what you get." These are the lies we tell ourselves to protect our egos. We want to believe that everything is out of our control because then we don't have to take responsibility and ...AND...we don't have to put in effort to work on ourselves. God did not make us to be filled with vices, bad habits and sinful behaviors. The potential we have in God's plan for our soul is beyond our imagination. With His grace we can become who He created us to be. Lent is the perfect time to finally be honest with ourselves. We are angry, jealous, lazy, irritable, rude, ungrateful, prideful, impatient, distracted, etc, because we allow ourselves to be. Not because we were made that way and not because we have no control. At some point, for love of my husband, I realized that I was a horrible wife for telling him that I wasn't going to change for the better. I got honest with myself and asked for God's help. I'm not that same person anymore. Resorting to anger was a habit of mine, so I will tend towards it when upset, but I do realize now that I have the ability to control it with prayer and awareness. It is something that I will always have to work on, but it is easier now to work on it. Excuses never allow us to grow, Catholic Pilgrims. Be brave enough to face yourself. Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Monday.
Continue ReadingWhat has Satan used to tempt you away from God? We know from today's reading from Matthew that Satan tries to use pleasures, presumption, and power to tempt Jesus away from the Father. The three P's, if you will. We all know that worldly pleasures definitely tempt people away, by making them think that they can find ultimate happiness in them. We know that people are tempted away from God by just presuming that God will save them in the end. This creates an apathy in their souls, because why do you need to try if no matter what you are saved? For sure we know that power tempts people away from God. Getting drunk on our own power and believing that we are gods is, well, something Satan knows well. I wasn't, though, tempted away by any of those things initially. I was tempted away by Satan telling me that God didn't really care about me. "If God really loved you, He'd never have let bad things happen to you." In an instant, I believed that lie, because, I thought, who needs God when He just leaves you to be hurt? With that poison in my heart, I walked away. In that walking away, I went to the three P's. I tried to find happiness in my life apart from God in pleasures. That didn't work. I wrongly presumed that just because I still believed in God, He'd eventually save me in the end. So, it didn't matter how I lived. Such ungrateful arrogance. And, I believed I had the power to heal myself and live my life my way. That didn't work either. Satan doesn't always tempt us by offering to add something to our lives. Sometimes, he makes us doubt that God even cares. That's what he did to me. Through all temptations, we must hold fast to our worship of the One True God and of Him alone. There is nothing that Satan could tempt you with that is better than staying close to God, Catholic Pilgrims--nothing at all. Have a blessed First Sunday of Lent.
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