Our family has taken part in the vigil called for in front of a nearby Planned Parenthood abortion facility.   With our six kids, we stand outside to peacefully (OK, so how peaceful can it really  be chasing around a three-year-old?) pray for an end to abortion, help for mothers seeking abortions, healing for mothers and fathers who have already had or assisted abortions, and a change of heart for those who agree with abortion. 

What is needed for a change of heart?  A change of heart is a change that takes place because of love, not fear.  I wouldn’t consider the saving of Niniveh a change of heart, but rather a change that was fear-based.  Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ feet and Zaccheus’ invitation were responses due to a real change of heart.  It was Pharoh’s hard and unchangeing heart which brought plague and death to his country.  There is a real battle going on out there.  While we stood in prayer, the friends of Planned Parenthood came out to counter-demonstrate in a sort of pary atmosphere with signs saying “Honk if you love Planned Parenthood” or “Planned Parenthood Saves Lives”  (you mean “says lies,” right?).  There is a battle for hard hearts.  The only hope is Jesus himself.  Jesus’ mercy.  Jesus’ suffering.  Jesus’ most humble love (pray for Divine Mercy ).

I am sorry that perhaps the Church has not always portrayed such love, suffering and mercy, but it is the truth she defends; it is the hard hearts that refuse to see how she is faithful to that very Jesus on the crucifix.  Has this bride of Christ become too pampered and not gritty enough in this country?  It is certainly not so in other countries where persecutions are on the rise. 

Please pray for Spain and our Latin American neighbors to the south.  See here what change of heart is needed for women who think that they must grasp at “freedom” by asserting their rights.  Such grasping (cf. Phil. 2:6)would not be necessary if there were real men who would die for their brides (cf. Ephesians 5). 

Pray for good and holy men.  Pray for good and holy women who would trust and receive them with hearts of flesh.

I am still here.  Here’s what I do in love:

Love God: I spend an hour in the morning reading Sacred Scripture (1 Corinthians) and praying.

Love Husband: he likes the house tidy, so I’m doing my best at that to keep his stress down as he heads in to the school year and coaching season.

Love Children: getting them ready for the start of school

Love Master:  working on stuff for parish job

Love self: make a little time to post something here.

That’s all for now (even though I’ve been thinking about a lot of cool stuff that I just don’t have time to blog about like education, politics, Palin).  It’s all for love.

Two weeks ago Pat and I celebrated our 16th anniversary.  I just noticed an allusion to our vows in my post, Happy Anniversary, Baby from that day.  In honor of the sacramentality of our marriage, we often repeat our vows to eachother.  I found myself repeating my vows to someone else to whom I pledge my life.  Am I being unfaithful?  No!  By all means am I being faithful. 

During a profound adoration experience at a youth conference with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, I repeated my vows to him.  Is this too personal to share?  This is what I said: “I, Alisa Angela, take you, my Lord Jesus Christ, to be my Lord and Savior.   I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.” 

What could be more personal relationship than that of a spouse?  I shared this profession of fidelity to Jesus with Pat who thought it was pretty cool.  Although I said these vows to Jesus, it was he [Jesus] who professed his love for me first when he became my Good Shepherd laying his life down for little lost me.  Now that’s true love!  …and so is the sacrificial love of my sweet husband.  I have much to learn from the men in my life about true, sacrificial love, but I’m trying to do more and more unselfish acts every day to become more like the one who loves me.

Today is the 16th anniversary of my marriage to Pat and the 40th anniversary of the publication of Humanae Vitae.  I just realized we share the same anniversary!  What a wonderful gift of truth Paul VI gave us through this encyclical in 1968, especially to those of us who are married.  Here’s a quote and a great reflection for us as we recall the true meaning of marriage:

[Married] love is above all fully human, a compound of sense and spirit. It is not, then, merely a question of natural instinct or emotional drive. It is also, and above all, an act of the free will, whose trust is such that it is meant not only to survive the joys and sorrows of daily life, but also to grow, so that husband and wife become in a way one heart and one soul, and together attain their human fulfillment.

It is a love which is total—that very special form of personal friendship in which husband and wife generously share everything, allowing no unreasonable exceptions and not thinking solely of their own convenience. Whoever really loves his partner loves not only for what he receives, but loves that partner for the partner’s own sake, content to be able to enrich the other with the gift of himself.

Married love is also faithful and exclusive of all other, and this until death. This is how husband and wife understood it on the day on which, fully aware of what they were doing, they freely vowed themselves to one another in marriage. Though this fidelity of husband and wife sometimes presents difficulties, no one has the right to assert that it is impossible; it is, on the contrary, always honorable and meritorious. The example of countless married couples proves not only that fidelity is in accord with the nature of marriage, but also that it is the source of profound and enduring happiness.

–Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI, July 25, 1968

Pat, thank you for being my friend, my happiness, my husband.  I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.  I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.

You gotta hear this address from Christopher West called “God, Sex and the Meaning of Life: An Introduction to Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.”  Listen to it from your computer or download it to hear it on a device.  If you are a parent, please hear this before your kids and tell me if it’s something you would share with your kids, if you’re a teen, tell me what you think.

If you like what you hear with Christopher West, he has a series of articles on Humanae Vitae upon it’s 40th anniversary since publication in 1968.  The first article is entitled, “Contraception and Cultural Chaos” that explains the connection between contraception and abortion, divorce and homosexuality.  Here’s a snip:

When Margaret Sanger and her followers started pushing contraception in the early 1900’s, wise men and women – and certainly not just Catholics – predicted that severing sex from procreation would eventually lead to sexual and societal chaos. Today’s culture of adultery, divorce, premarital sex, STD’s, out-of-wedlock births, abortion, fatherless children, homosexuality, poverty, crime, drugs, and violence was all foreseen.
What’s the connection with contraception? While today’s societal chaos is certainly complex, the following demonstrates the “inner logic” of contraception’s contribution. People are often tempted to do things they shouldn’t do. Deterrents within nature itself and within society help to curb these temptations and maintain order.

See for yourself, it is amazing because it is true.  Also, see this illustration from One More Soul: