49,551,703 Total Abortions since 1973

Today is the 36th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision which, along with Doe v. Bolton, legalized abortion on demand across the United States. My wife reflects on the meaning of the day:

Every week, a collection of young people move through my classroom. Every year is different. Every class is different. Every period is different.

I play a sort of game with myself every year. It's more of a challenge, really. I challenge myself to learn one unique (and positive) thing about each student. It does not matter what, exactly. Some of these positive traits are easy to see. Some are bizarre. Doing this helps me to appreciate my students a little better, and reminds me to treat them with care and respect to the best of my ability. I also find that in those moments when they drive me nuts it helps me to be a little more fair.

What is interesting is what happens when someone is absent. The empty desk changes the room somehow. There is a piece missing. There is a gap where a vibrant (or at least quietly scintillating) personality usually sits. Even when one of my quieter pupils is missing, the difference is noticeable. The classroom feels incomplete somehow.

There are nearly 50 million empty desks out there right now in our schools, in our workplaces. How many gaps are there in our world that someone should have filled? How many of those singles on e-harmony are looking for a soul-mate who never given a chance at life? How many of our friends, siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews have been lost to abortion?

"Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?"

The Word of God

... in the Mission and Life of the Church.

A new website resource produced by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, named after (and in response to) the recent Synod in Rome on the Word of God.

There are some recordings of Cardinal DiNardo's talks regarding the church fathers as well as St. Augustine of Hippo in the "Church Fathers" section, but I have no idea right now if there will be more.

Pope Sends Telegram to 44TH US President

Courtesy of Vatican Radio:

On the occasion of your inauguration as the forty-fourth President of the United States of America I offer cordial good wishes, together with the assurance of my prayers that almighty God will grant you unfailing wisdom and strength in the exercise of your high responsibilities. Under your leadership may the American people continue to find in their religious and political heritage the spiritual values and ethical principles needed to cooperate in the building of a truly just and free society, marked by respect for the dignity, equality and rights of each of its members, especially the poor, the outcast and those who have no voice. At a time when so many of our brothers and sisters throughout the world yearn for liberation from the scourge of poverty, hunger and violence I pray that you will be confirmed in your resolve to promote understanding , cooperation and peace among the nations, so that all may share in the banquet of life which God wills to set for the whole human family (cf. Isaiah 25:6-7). Upon you and your family, and upon all the American people, I willingly invoke the Lord’s blessings of joy and peace.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

Now that's a preacher...

From Wise Blood, by Flannery O'Connor (Ch. 1):

He was going to be a preacher like his grandfather... His grandfather had traveled three counties in a Ford automobile. Every fourth Saturday he had driven into Eastrod as if he were just in time to save them all from Hell, and he was shouting before he had the car door open. People gathered around his Ford because he seemed to dare them to. He would climb up on the nose of it and preach from there and sometimes he would climb onto the top of it and shout down at them. They were like stones! he would shout. But Jesus had died to redeem them! Jesus was so soul-hungry that He had died, one death for all, but He would have died every soul's death for one! Did they understand that?

Sorry... I just found that to be a hilarious visualization. I'm reading some of Flannery O'Connor's better known works in order to lead a discussion evening for the Catholic reading group I am involved with.

A Morning in Walsingham

We worshiped this morning at Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Church (Anglican Use) in Houston after I picked up Christina from the Shakespeare colloquium she was attending this weekend. Boy, I miss that place (but I sure do love our parish in Sugar Land!). We also met their new pastor, Fr. James Ramsey.