Catholic Infertility Conference

STRUGGLING WITH INFERTILITY?

As Church we offer

the Warmth of the Heart

And Light of the Gospel

JOIN US FOR PRAYER, SUPPORT,

AND

INFORMATION ON FERTILITY TREATMENTS

AS WELL AS THE LOVING

OPTION OF ADOPTION

Saturday, February 27, 2010

9:00 am to 2:30 pm

Cost: $10 per person includes lunch

Transfiguration Center for Spiritual Renewal

3505 Calulmet Rd. Ludlow Falls

937-698-7180

—for directions: www.transfigurationcenter.com

PRESENTERS:

Two representatives of NaProTECHNOLOGY:

Dr. Jason Mattingly, MD, CFCMC

and

Sylvia Corson, RN.CFCP

Spiritual component - Deacon John Corson,

Lunch... personal stories of infertility.

Panel on Adoption as an Option

To register please call

Jean Borgert

at the Northern Area Family Life Office

937-492-4449

or

email: jborgert@catholiccincinnati.org

St. Jerome Emiliani

was declared the patron of orphans and abandoned children in1928 by Pope Pius XI. He cared for the sick, and housed orphans in his own home. Let us ask St. Jerome's intercession today for those who care for orphans and are hoping to adopt.

May St. Jerome Emiliani touch your heart as he has touched mine today. God bless you all!

Reading from St. Jerome Emiliani

I urge you to persevere in your love for Christ and your faithful observance of the law of Christ.

Our Goal is God, the source of all good. As we say in our prayer, we are to place our trust in God and in no one else. In his kindness, our Lord wished to strengthen your faith, for without it, as the evangelist points out, Christ could not have performed many of his miracles. He also wished to listen to your prayer, and so he ordained that you experience poverty, distress, abandonment, weariness and scorn.

God alone knows the reasons for all this, yet we can recognize three causes. In the first place, our blessed Lord is tell young that he desires to include you among his beloved sons, provided that you remain steadfast in his ways, for this is the way he treats his friends and makes them holy.

The second reason is that he is asking you to grow continuously in your confidence in him alone and not in others.

Now there is a third reason. God wishes to test you like gold in the furnace. The dross is consumed by the fire, but the pure gold remains and its value increases. It is in this manner than God acts with his good servant, who puts his hope in him and remains unshaken in times of distress. God raises him up and, in return for the things he has left out of love for God, he repays him a hundredfold in this life and with eternal life hereafter.

If then you remain constant in faith in the face of trial, the Lord will give you peace and rest for a time in this world, and for ever in the next.

from a letter to his brothers by Saint Jerome Emiliani

Stillness of a winter wonderland...

Some of us in America have been hit with a winter wonderland, the stillness after a blizzard brings one to a place of reflection. It causes one to reflect on the beauty of God's creation and reflect on the hidden life that Our Lord is calling us to as we journey toward him. Our Father in Heaven tries to teach you and I so much through the beauty of his creation; let us never forget the gifts he is sending us today and how wonderfully He loves us!

The Presentation of the Lord

Listen to this song by

Michael Card

"Now that I've held Him in my arms"

The Blessing of Saint Colette

We would like to share the sisters letter to you all that are seeking prayer and intercession.

Please know that what ever the struggles you have had God is still in charge and there are miracles beyond our understanding that He is waiting to send... TRUST in HIM.

The Blessing of Saint Colette

Posted: Sunday, January 31, 2010 10:03 pm

Pregnant mothers and would-be parents will be flocking to the Ty Mam Duw Poor Clare Colettines in North Wales this Saturday for a special Mass and Blessing in honour of their founder.

St Colette was a 15th century contemplative nun who is specially remembered as a patron of the unborn, of expectant mothers and couples who long to conceive a child.

Whilst she was still at Besançon, the father of a dead child brought it to Colette and begged her to restore it to life. She took off her veil, wrapped the baby in it and sent the man back to the priest who had refused to baptize it earlier. The infant had revived.

For centuries in France and Belgium, children and expectant mothers were blessed at the Colettine houses on her feast day. The Colettines of Ty Mam Duw revived the custom in the millennium.

Sr Maria explained: "Over the ten years, hundreds of babies have been conceived and born as a result of this blessing - and our sisters also remember the unborn daily. Apart from the Saturday nearest the saint's feastday, people do in fact, come here all round the year. A few days ago a lady of forty who had just conceived for the first time came to ask for prayers and to be blest with the veil.

She said: "The funniest story still remains 'Tassie' in the USA. She and husband were planning to have a baby by invitro and after the failure of the third attempt she sent us an email saying our prayers were no good, that they were broke and they thought they'd keep a dog instead(!). We persevered and 18 months later we contacted them to see how life was going. We got a short and somewhat embarrassed answer. They were rather busy - ­ a few months earlier they had had triplets by natural means. We never heard from them again!"

The 'veil' used in the Blessing, is two threads of Colette's mantle, mounted under glass amidst embroidery on a Poor Clare veil like that which the sisters ordinarily wear.

Ladies are blessed with it placed over the head and gentlemen and children over the shoulders, after the homily at Mass.

The Blessing takes place at 3.30pm at Ty Mam Duw Poor Clare Colettines, Upper Aston Hall Lane Hawarden, North Wales.

Those who cannot come but would like to be remembered in prayer,

please email: community@poorclarestmd.org

or

call: ++44 (0)1244 531029.

For more information see: www.poorclarestmd.org

Our Lady of La Altagracia

Novena in Honor of Our Lady of Altagracia

Preparatory Prayer

O Dear Mother, Most Sweet Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness! Look at us here, prostrated in your presence wishing to offer you this novena in testimony of our love, and in thanksgiving for the innumerable favors we have received from your hands. You are our Advocate and, like beggars, we come to present our needs to you. You are our Teacher, and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all the love of our hearts. Receive Dearest Mother, our praise and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.

Supplications

1.- O Sweetest Mother of Altagracia, pure and immaculate since your conception! We beg you to bless our children, preserving their innocence and increasing their love for purity.

(Hail Mary…)

2.- O Sweetest Mother of Altagracia, Admirable Mother, who in your little house of Nazareth, served as a model for Christian mothers and wives. We ask you to bless our homes so that the sanctity and holiness of marriage will flourish in them.

(Hail Mary…)

3. O Sweetest Mother of Altagracia, you who had the joy of receiving in your arms the body of your Most Holy Son who died on the cross for us, we beg you to come to our aid at the our of our death, so that by dying with the name of Jesus on our lips and hearts, we can fly to the glory of your maternal arms.

Final Prayer

Most Holy Virgin of Altagracia, from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for the continuous blessings you pour down on us. From your hands and from your maternal heart we receive, each day, the sustenance given to us by our Heavenly Father. You are our defender when we are in danger, our aid when we are in need and our hope in the sacrifices proper of our Christian life. Through your Immaculate Heart we want to sing a song of thanksgiving to God for all the blessings he has given us. We promise you, O Mother, gratitude and fidelity. You will reign forever in our homes and our town where we will venerate you as our Lady and Mother by growing in all your virtues. Make us worthy of being called your daughters so that serving God and you on this world, we will obtain the highest grace you bring to us: a holy death that will open to us the gates of heaven. Amen.

Our Lady of Altagracia ~ Pray for us!

We are all called to be rescuers!!!!

Dear Little hearts.

We are all called to be 'rescuers'..... we are all called to seek out the lost, those trapped under the rubble of Haiti and those trapped under the rubble of sin!

Let us support with our prayers all those brave men and women who even now are involved in rescue initiatives, searching for signs of life!

Do not give up hope!!!

Pray that their ears may be open, their eyes to see, their hands to find, pray for grace and strength for them all, but we are all called to be 'rescuers' !!!

Put on the helmet of Salvation, take up the life line, your pick axe, your greatest weapon (your beads) and in the company of Mary, pray the Rosary, let your prayers descend the crevices and cracks, hold on to your rope, the life line your Rosary and pray. Pray that life will yet be found....

With love,

a Poor Clare Colettine Nun (Wales, U.K.)

Our Lady of Guadupe, Mother of life pray for us all

Meditation...

The Holy Trinity

by Hendrik van Balen, I (1575-1632)
Oil on panel, 1620

God arranges the events that touch us, which are independent of our will, and which unfold themselves in time. He acts also upon our will, from within, because he is more intimate with us than we ourselves, and because he is the author of our free will.

by Raissa Maritain

(Meditation of the Day ~ Magnificat)

Our Lady of Hope

Please check out this beautiful article

Our Lady of Hope

You may also join

Our Lady of Hope on FaceBook

Mass readings..

Dear Family of Hannah's Tears,

We pray that you are all following the Mass readings this week, as the first readings all follow the story of St. Hannah and how God will use her son Samuel. These readings are so connected with the glory that God is doing in our own lives today, please don't miss out on the gifts of the liturgy and the hope it will bring to your life right now.

I would like to quote the words of Saint Pio, "Pray, Hope and don't Worry!" Our Lord has everything under control.

Our prayers are with you today!

God bless,

Hannah's Tears Ministry

Today's Mass reading....

Please read through this and let us know what your reflections are?

Mass readings: January 11, 2010

First Reading

1Samuel 1:1-8

There was a man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the highlands of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives, one called Hannah, the other Peninnah; Peninnah had children but Hannah had none. Every year this man used to go up from his town to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there as priests of the Lord.

One day Elkanah offered sacrifice. He used to give portions to Penirinah and to all her sons and daughters; to Hannah, however, he would give only one portion, although he loved her more, since the Lord had made her barren. Her rival would taunt her to annoy her, because the Lord had made her barren. And this went on year after year; every time they went up to the temple of the Lord she used to taunt her. And so Hannah wept and would not eat. Then Elkanah her husband said to her, ‘Hannah, why are you crying and why are you not eating? Why so sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?’

If you embrace all things in this life as coming from the hands of God, and even embrace death to fulfill His holy will, assuredly you will die a saint.

-- St. Alphonsus Liguori

Reflecting on the Baptism of Christ

Remember God LOVES YOU!!!

Adoration of the Magi...

Catholic Epiphany Prayer

O God

Who by a star

guided the wise men to the worship of your Son

we pray you to lead to yourself

the wise and great of every land

that unto you every knee may bow,

and every thought be brought into captivity

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

On the Twelfth day of Christmas...

also known as the feast of the Epiphany, which we celebrated at Mass on Sunday, January 3.

What a great day it is to rejoice! Our friends at "All You Who Hope" have been given a great miracle, what a witness of faith. What a statement of faith our Catholic blogging world has given in support of the gifts and joys of adoption. This is definitely a year to remember....

Blessed Andre

Hannah's Tears ~ Contact Info

Mrs. Therese Garcia, O.C.D.S.

(Founder, Columbus, Ohio)

tgarcia@hannahstears.org 

Mrs. Suzy Younger

(Co-founder, South Bend, Indiana)

syounger@hannahstears.org

Hannah's Tears Chaplain:

Fr. Thomas Blau, O.P.

c/o St. Patrick Church

280 N Grant Ave
Columbus, OH 43215

frthomasblauop@gmail.com

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

Dear Friends of Hannah's Tears,

What a treasure we have in our faith, the liturgy and the gift of

the saints. These all help to build our faith and bring us the

continued hope we need to survive each day. What a blessing

we have in the gifts of each other within the blogging

community, our parish and our family. The gift of adoption

is coming about through God's grace and the perseverance

of a faith filled community of prayer!

This is a week to rejoice as one couple who has desired a family

is receiving this treasured gift during the Christmas Season...

Let us continue to pray for one another most especially for

those who are still waiting to hear God's holy will for their lives.

Please find below a video from the Apostleship of Prayer and a

writing that will be a treasure for your heart and mine about

one of our treasured saints, Elizabeth Ann Seton. Her life was

a life filled with joy, sorrow, hope and God's plan all rolled up

into one great blessing. Let us all learn to look at our

lives as a great blessings yet to be discovered.

Please send in your needs for prayer and intercession as we

communicate with our faithful religious communities that

have offered their services of prayer before Our Lord for this

ministry and that is just for you!!!

Peace, hope and love to all during this holy week of Epiphany!

Hannah's Tears Ministry

hannahs.tears@gmail.com

From a conference to her spiritual daughters by Elizabeth Ann Seton

Our daily work is to do the will of God

I will tell you what is my own great help. I once read or heard that an interior life means but the continuation of our Savior’s life in us; that the great object of all his mysteries is to merit for us the grace of his interior life and communicate it to us, it being the end of his mission to lead us into the sweet land of promise, a life of constant union with himself. And what was the first rule of our dear Savior’s life? You know it was to do his Father’s will. Well, then, the first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly, to do it in the manner he wills; and thirdly, to do it because it is his will.

I know what his will is by those who direct me; whatever they bid me do, if it is ever so small in itself, is the will of God for me. Then do it in the manner he wills it, not sewing an old thing as if it were new, or a new thing as if it were old; not fretting because the oven is too hot, or in a fuss because it is too cold. You understand – not flying and driving because you are hurried, not creeping like a snail because no one pushes you. Our dear Savior was never in extremes. The third object is to do his will because God wills it, that is, to be ready to quit at any moment and to do anything else to which you may be called….

You think it very hard to lead a life of such restraint unless you keep your eye of faith always open. Perseverance is a great grace. To go on gaining and advancing every day, we must be resolute, and bear and suffer as our blessed forerunners did. Which of them gained heaven without a struggle?…

What are our real trials? By what name shall we call them? One cuts herself out a cross of pride; another, one of causeless discontent; another, one of restless impatience or peevish fretfulness. But is the whole any better than children’s play if looked at with the common eye of faith? Yet we know certainly that our God calls us to a holy life, that he gives us every grace, every abundant grace; and though we are so weak of ourselves, this grace is able to carry us through every obstacle and difficulty.

But we lack courage to keep a continual watch over nature, and therefore, year after year, with our thousand graces, multiplied resolutions, and fair promises, we run around in a circle of misery and imperfections. After a long time in the service of God, we come nearly to the point from whence we set out, and perhaps with even less ardor for penance and mortification than when we began our consecration to him.

You are now in your first setout. Be above the vain fears of nature and efforts of your enemy. You are children of eternity. Your immortal crown awaits you, and the best of Fathers waits there to reward your duty and love. You may indeed sow here in tears, but you may be sure there to reap in joy.

Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

Mary, mother of God; she has become the mother of God because Jesus is God, he is the second person of the Blessed Trinity.

Mary is now our mother, as Christ gave her to us, at the foot of the cross. If Mary has become our example of total and complete trust in God, why should we have any worries? Our faith must be in God our Father, Jesus our savior, and the Holy Spirit who sends us all the grace that we need to fulfill our daily life.

Let our resolution this year be our faithful TRUST, and our need for daily PRAYER, just as Mary has taught us.

Click the picture of Mary to learn more

about the Solemnity of Mary, from EWTN.