Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation is cutting its ties with Planned Parenthood ostensibly due to the investigations and financial inquiries into PP.

Many of us have struggled over the years, our consciences not permitting us to give to the many races and events that friends have run because of these ties since the money that Komen donates to Planned Parenthood frees up more funds for PP’s other works. This is a great step towards focusing on saving women’s lives.

(I don’t believe that Komen has changed their stance on embryonic stem cell research, though would love to know if anyone knows anything about this.)

Our pastor gave a powerful homily at Mass this morning, and continued his thoughts in the weekly bulletin – I thought that I would share some excerpts here, in the hopes that we might all prayerfully consider how we can respond courageously to the situation described below. Blessings to you this Monday morning!

Dear friends in Christ:

A week ago last Friday, January 20, two days before the 39th anniversary of the tragic Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade which has resulted in more than 50 million preventable deaths in the U.S., the Obama Administration took another step to diminish religious freedom and force Americans to violate their consciences. Against a huge outcry, the Obama Administration’s Health and Human Services Department has upheld its earlier decision to force all employers to pay for and provide sterilization, abortifacents (abortion producing drugs) and contraceptives in their health insurance coverage with only the most narrow exemption clause. This decision is being denounced and condemned by our own archbishop, the entirety of the Catholic bishops in the United States, religious leaders of other faiths, a growing number of democratic supporters of the president and many others who cherish the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence (you may read the bishops’ statement at www.usccb.org).

…In speaking to a group of American bishops on January 18, two days before the Obama Administration’s latest assault on the freedom and rights of Americans, Pope Benedict XVI said:

“At the heart of every culture, whether perceived or not, is a consensus about the nature of reality and the moral good and thus about the conditions for human flourishing. In America, that consensus enshrined in your nation’s founding documents, was grounded in a worldview shaped not only by faith but a commitment to certain ethical principals deriving from nature and nature’s God. Today that consensus has eroded significantly in the face of powerful new cultural currents which are not only directly opposed to core moral teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but increasingly hostile to Christianity as such.”

…Some may ask, “what is the big deal?” The big deal is this – when foundational principles are assaulted and eroded, sooner or later the house comes tumbling down. Our country has survived, grown and flourished because these principles have been honored, defended and respected. America’s greatness has been in the liberty and the rights that her citizens have enjoyed…

Since there is a noticeable dearth of October baseball posts from MaryAlice and Red this year and we all miss Mr. MA’s poetry, I will fill in the void before it’s too late.

I grew up in St. Louis, my husband was born in Dallas. Our family has an AL and an NL team that we root for…the Rangers and the Cardinals. So this World Series  is epic…determining bragging rights for all future family Thanksgivings, Christmases, etc. for possibly the rest of our lives. There is a lot riding on it!

I admit I am exhausted. We have been staying up until all hours of the night for the last few weeks (can you say extra innings?), living and dying on each pitch.

Our homeschool days begin by watching the highlights of the previous night’s game.

My husband may even be more moody than me, his pregnant wife, depending on what the preceding 24 hours have wrought.

My children now know more baseball stats than addition tables, more about pitching rotations than the chronology of ancient Egypt (ahem, which is actually on the syllabus).

I have lost track of all the bets between our two families.

My 4 year old woke up yelling for me in the middle of the night yesterday. I ran in thinking that he was having a nightmare and he was choking back tears as he said that he forgot to watch the World Series highlights from the night before.  I told him to go back to bed.

Both sets of grandparents are trying to outdo each other in buying the childrens’ loyalty to their teams. We have stuffed Fredbirds, Rangers bats, and more t-shirts and hats that I can keep track of.

So, one day very soon, this epic battle will be decided, my husband will hopefully return to the real world, my children to normal schooling and I will get a decent night’s sleep again.

And one side of the family will have the final word on baseball for ever after.

But until then, it is game on. And it is crazy fun. I have both my Cardinals and Rangers shirts at the ready. May the better team prevail!!

Pope Benedict XVI praying at Ground Zero on April 20th, 2008

The priest this morning gave a beautiful homily in honor of the memorial of September 11th, 2001. Amongst other things, he directed us to the question of why we aim to seek God in all circumstances, and how we can do this. He recalled the days surrounding 9/11/01 – the images of mothers running with their children, firemen covered in ashes from head to foot, the towers crumbling to the ground before our eyes. He reminded us of the bravery and courage of so many Americans on that day, of the tragedy and suffering, the lives lost and the countless others affected by their loss, and of the remarkable determination and strength shown by rescue workers.

Our priest concluded by saying that those who were most successful at seeking, and finding, God amidst the extraordinary tragedy of 9/11 were those who also aimed to seek, and find, God in the ordinary circumstances of everyday life. And so must we, too, aim to seek, and find, God in the circumstances of our everyday lives, so that we may also see Him working in the extraordinary times of joy and tragedy in our lives. Each day, ordinary people commit small acts of courage and heroism, and these are just as significant as the extraordinary ones. Indeed, as parents we can do this each day as we strive for peace in our families, as we do our best to rise above our own inclinations in order to do God’s work, and as we persevere in showing charity towards our spouse and children. I have often been encouraged by the acts of heroism that I observe in the lives of other wives and mothers, just as I have been encouraged and inspired by the remarkable courage shown by the heroes of September 11th, 2001.

May God bless and guide America, now and always. And to those who lost loved ones on 9/11, my prayers are with you and your family.