Looks like they are going to try to extubate her today. Please *pray* that it goes well and that they don’t have to give her a tracheotomy. Thanks, troops! Update: It failed. They are going to trach her. Damn. Please pray for her sister Sheila and family, who are discouraged. Read more

A reader writes: I have a small prayer request: My husband is on the verge of either quitting his job or resigning; I’m not working, and I don’t want to lose our house. He called me up and told me a new guy in his department made him so stressed out that he became physically ill. I want to stay here for my children’s sake and stability. I’m at a loss right now… Father, hear our prayer that this family’s... Read more

Promise to live in a mobile home. A lot of bishops could probably stand to do it too. Read more

and is summarily punished. He forgot to say that we are just as much in danger from Nebraska Missionary Alliance, Episcopal Women for Lesbian Rights, and Parvuli Dei Boy Scout Conference terrorists as we are from Islamic terrorists. Nobody should ever object when they single out four foot nuthin’ Korean nuns in full habit for a special patdown because she’s *just* as likely to want to blow up a plane as some guy named Mohammed from Pakistan with an odd... Read more

Gay marriage is ultimately about creating a legal basis for punishing wrongthink. There’s no agree to disagree here. There’s no, “Well, I can see that this is your private belief and you mean well.” This guy’s out for blood. Confess and believe that gay marriage is a positive good that is not contrary to natural law or you are the enemy and the day will come when you will pay. And he ain’t alone. Read more

Thomas Storck thinks outside the boxes. Now, given all this, are our present political terms and usage dangerous to Catholic political activity? As I said, if a Catholic looks at or takes part in political activity, at least in the U.S. and most English-speaking countries, he will find all political activity organized around a right/left Lockean perspective. People think of themselves as liberal, moderate, or conservative; they form alliances and appeal to voters based on such perceptions; political commentators present... Read more

A pregnant woman in south China was detained, beaten and forced to have an abortion just a month before her due date because the baby would have violated the country’s one-child limit, her husband said Thursday. Construction worker Luo Yanquan said his wife was taken kicking and screaming from their home by more than a dozen people on Oct. 10 and detained in a clinic for three days by family planning officials, then taken to a hospital and injected with... Read more

We are all familiar with this story out of ancient Christian antiquity (from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas): III. 1 Now Jesus made of that clay twelve sparrows: and it was the Sabbath day. And a child ran and told Joseph, saying: Behold, thy child playeth about the brook, and hath made sparrows of the clay, which is not lawful. 2 And he when he heard it went and said to the child: Wherefore doest thou so and profaneth the... Read more

A reader writes: Got an email from a friend who’s been trying to conceive for years. Apparently at the ultrasound today the baby measured two weeks behind where it should be, and had a heartbeat of about 80 (which may have been mom’s) instead of 150ish. She asks for prayers for her and her husband, and for the baby if it is still alive. Father, hear our prayer for this child and for all who love her through Jesus Christ!... Read more

HT: Mary’s Aggies Read more