Our Local Hero: Brian Barr

Watch this powerful testimony from a daddy, deeply convicted to prayer and action to help end abortion.

You'll be moved to learn from whom he heard this call to action..

Thank you, Brian, for your tireless efforts on behalf of the unborn.

Thank you for calling us in the Body of Christ to defend our weakest, silent members.

Thank you for your courage in standing up and speaking out, despite the attacks and persecution you face.

You are a true hero!

Harvesting Creation

How did our gardens grow?

Some great, some not so great.

But the real pleasure in growing a garden around here 

comes not from enjoying fresh food, 

rather 

from making weapons.

Peter enjoys his freshly picked corn on the cob with butter.

Our onion harvest.  Can you see the onions?

Pumpkins showed promise with bountiful flowers, but didn't produce. 

Joseph as secret under-cover corn harvester.

Peter harvests the corn.

Carrot collection & backyard corn with stunted pumpkin flower.

Forget about the veggies for eating, 

let's talk about the stalks for gun making!

Just add electrical tape, and a bit of imagination, 

and the corn stalks are transformed into weapons!

Did you know apples make fine weapons/toys, too?

The ones that aren't fit for eating are launched in distance throwing competitions. 

The rest will soon be processed into homemade applesauce and pie.

YUM!

What's in a Godparent? {Flashback Friday}

Our Godson, Niko, celebrated his 17th birthday yesterday.

(Mike, MacKenzie, Jacob, Zac, Brendan, Peter, Joseph and Niko, April 2008)

Our Goddaughter, MacKenzie, received her First Holy Communion April 20, '08, (our wedding anniversary!)

at St. Charles Borromeo, Tacoma;

together with her twin brother, Brendan.

Tim and I with our Goddaughter, Hope, baptized May 10, 2009.

(photo by Renee)

What's in a Godparent?
Not long ago, I overheard a conversation that went something like this:
"(Name and name) are going to be (child's) Godparents."
"Oh, that's great!  When is (child) being baptized?"
"(Child's) not being baptized, (name and name) are just going to be the Godparents in the general sense."
Huh?

The role of a Godparent is very specific, and Godparents take on some pretty big responsibilities in the promises they make before God and His Church at the baptism.
At baptism we are born again in Christ, set free from original sin.  We are given the gift of salvation! Redeemed with sanctifying grace!

But we can lose that precious gift, for we are also given the gift of free will ~ and we can choose to follow Christ or to turn away from Him.

Godparents promise to help guide the baptized in the Christian life, to help the baptized grow in virtue and grace.  Parents are the primary teachers of the faith, but should the parents turn away from the Church, and away from God, the Godparent's role as teacher in faith would become primary.  That's a pretty big responsibility, with even bigger implications.

As Godparents, the greatest gifts we can give our Godchildren is the example or witness of our living faith, our constant prayers for their spiritual growth, and our continued efforts to build them up in Christ.

This week I have witnessed Anna's(+)  Godparents, Rebecca and Nick, humbly walk along with Anna's parents through the suffering and sorrow of her tragic death ~ into the celebration of Anna's life at her funeral today.  Rebecca said, "I always prayed that she would become a saint, I just didn't expect it would be this soon."

Rebecca and Nick serve as a great reminder for all of us who have taken on the role and responsibility of being a Godparent (and certainly for all Christian parents).  Let us recommit ourselves to leading our Godchildren (and children) along the road to sainthood, to heaven.  Let our prayers for them never cease.  Let our example be one that brings the Gospel to life.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Dear Anna Marie, pray for us!

Defending the Unborn

(Thanks, Mark K., from WWU, for sending us the above photo.)

In honor of my mom (Happy Birthday!) and my dad, who gave me life, baptism,

 and taught me to defend and respect all human life. 

It's what we do:

Praying, protesting, verbalizing for an end to abortion.

Our city is in the middle of a 40Days4Life campaign, and we've taken to the streets 

along with a group of local prayer warriors.

We pray and protest outside the local abortion facility, hoping to change hearts and turn minds toward respecting all life from natural conception to natural death.

It's not easy.

There are many who hurl insults, many who mock us, some who use obscene gestures.

Our children, holding signs which read, "Pray for an End to Abortion,"

are screamed at by women who hang out of their car window yelling, "I love abortions!"  

So sad.  We pray for them.  

They truly 'know not what they do,' Lord.

Despite the attacks and the insults, we continue to take our place on the sidewalk to be 

the voice and the defenders for the unborn.  

It's what we do.  It's what we have to do.

No, I don't force my children to participate in anti-abortion efforts, they are there of their own free will.

Our children know abortion is wrong.

It's written on their hearts.

They need no convincing~ and they willingly step up to take their place in the defense of life efforts.

We understand that converting those who support abortion is beyond our ability, really.

We rely on God's grace to change those who are open to His message of love and willing to examine the truth about abortion rather than accepting the lies offered by our culture of convenience.

Hopefully we can be messengers of His grace, and plant His seeds of truth.

God sent a very special messenger to convert one hardened abortionist in Serbia.

St. Thomas Aquinas delivered God's truth to Stojan Adasevic, who not only repented but became a national pro-life leader:

Stojan Adasevic is a Serbian doctor who has performed, over a period of twenty-six years, an estimated 48,000 abortions, sometimes as many as thirty-five in a single day. According to Adasevic's written testimony, he "dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear." At this point in the dream, a man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence. This dream was repeated night after night, and caused Adasvic to wake up each night in a cold sweat. One night, he asked this strange man dressed in what Catholics would recognize as a Dominican habit, to identify himself. "My name is Thomas Aquinas," came the cryptic response. Naturally, since Adasevic's entire education was in communist schools, he had never heard of him. Moreover, the medical textbooks of the Communist regime maintained that abortion is merely the removal of a "blob of tissue". Although ultrasound images of the fetus arrived in the 80s, they had not changed Adasevic's mind about the reality of the unborn. 

Then it was Thomas's turn to ask a question of his own: "Why don't you ask me who these children are?" Aquinas quickly answered his own query: "They are the ones you killed with your abortions." Adasevic awoke in amazement and vowed not to perform any more abortions. 

When Adasevic informed his hospital that he would no longer do abortions, reprisals came swiftly and were quite severe. The hospital cut his salary in half, fired his daughter from her post, and took steps to prevent his son from entering the university.

After years of pressure and frustration that brought him to the brink of despair, he had another dream in which St. Thomas appeared to him. "You are my good friend, keep going," said the Angelic Doctor. And, indeed, Adasevic has kept going. In addition to studying the works of Aquinas and returning to the Orthodox faith of his childhood, he has become Serbia's most important and effective pro-life leader. Among his accomplishments is getting Dr. Bernard Nathanson's film, "The Silent Scream," aired on Yugoslav television.

From: The Manliness of St. Thomas Aquinas 

by DONALD DEMARCO

Anna Marie

Anna Marie Brulotte

April 17, 2008 - September 30, 2010

(photo from Anna's obituary announcement)

Please remember Anna's parents, siblings,

family, friends, Godparents, 

and everyone involved in 

or effected by her sudden death in your prayers.

Please join us in prayer:

Some of us will begin a novena (9 days' prayer) today

asking St. Therese of the Child Jesus to intercede.

Specifically, we lift up Anna's parents Melissa & Rob and their marriage in this time of great suffering.

We ask God's consolation for Anna's family and all involved.

We humbly ask God to heal their memories.

And for the conversion of many souls, may they be brought to Christ!

Freedom to Love

Professed Religious Sister, Ordained Priest, Married (pregnant) Couple:

All are living the call God placed within their hearts, for His glory.

Tim and I (with friends Tim & Nicole, seen above) attended a conference in Vancouver today, 

hosted by Couples for Christ BC.

Christopher West gave a series of talks on "Applying the Theology of the Body to Life & Relationships."

We left with much to ponder, and so very grateful for the 

solid Catholic teaching on human sexuality and relationships.  

A few key ideas we took away from today's talks:

• The teachings of the Church are not imposed upon us, they actually well up from within us.  
• The truth about our selves, about our bodies, is written in our hearts by our Creator!
• Modern dating is not preparation for marriage~ it's preparation for divorce.
• Christ's love for us is free, total, faithful and fruitful~ our married love should also be free, total, faithful and fruitful.
• Fertility is an ultimate gift from God to humanity; the enemy hates our fertility (as fertility reveals the gift of God in us). 
• God respects our freedom to choose Him or to reject Him.
• The gift of salvation, Jesus, comes to us through a woman, a mother.
• A husband's love for his wife should mirror Christ's love for His Church.
• Consecrated and celibate people are signs or reminders for us that the banquet of heaven is real!  "For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage" (Mt 22:30)

In Memory of Anna

Dear Anna,

Your time here with us was so brief~

but just long enough

in God's time.

Our Lord sent His angels

to carry you home to Heaven yesterday

as you skipped along holding mommy's hand.

Pray for her now, and for your daddy

and your brother and sister~

for your Godparents, priests, family and friends...

Pray also for the drivers, officers and responders.

For your prayers are perfect~

baptized child of Jesus!

You will be missed,

but we praise God 

with you, Anna, 

for His plan

~unknown to us~

is perfect in every way.

Anna's story here.

Saint Therese, 

Little Flower of Jesus

Pray for us.