A nighttime prayer...

I noticed Bernie Bear next to my bed the other night. She is a small white bear that I got to bring home from the hospital instead of my baby. I snatched her up into my arms and lay down for the night. I think longingly, lovingly of my precious Mary Bernadette, but there was something pushing through my thick sleepy thoughts. Someone. Another mother. As I lay there, I think of Mary, Mother of God. I think of the pain in her heart as her son dies before her eyes. I think of the ETERNAL event. I think of my fleeting pain in the wake of the ETERNAL cross. I think of her reunion with her son in heaven and am comforted!

Holy Mary, Mother of God... pray for us who in a small way share in your heartache.

Palm Sunday

Please know that you are being carried in our heart, as we begin this Holy Week of Lent. Also, contact us if you need a personal prayer or are in need of support. Our intercessors are always waiting for your requests.

God bless you,

Hannah's Tears Ministry

Saint of the day

Today is the feast day of Saint Catherine of Sweden, the patroness against miscarriage and abortion. Pray for us!

What "should" have been...

Yesterday, I should've been frosting a cake with pink icing.

There should have been an excited little girl running around in a party dress, eager to blow out candles and open gifts.

Instead, there was a party given in memory of, rather than in honor of, my daughter Celeste. She would've turned five yesterday had not she gone home to Heaven when she was only four months old.

Those of us who have lost children can easily be consumed by "should haves." The death of a child is so unnatural, so difficult to bear, largely because the death is accompanied by a thousand other losses. We lose the birthday parties, the landmarks of childhood, the accomplishments and triumphs that should have been. We have no teeth to put under pillows for the tooth fairy, no bicycles to learn to ride, no brides to give away at the altar.

If not for faith, I realize I could have given in to the "should haves" myself. It's only through the eyes of faith that I've been able to see that my daughter's life, while brief, was a pure and unadulterated blessing. Because I loved her, and because I love Him who gave her to me, I can see that what is is far more important than what "should" have been.

What is....the truth is I was blessed with a baby. I was given a beautiful, unique person to love. The fact that my time on earth with her was limited doesn't limit my love - or my choice to rejoice in that love.

What is....I was given an opportunity to witness a pure soul's suffering, and to watch the transformation of almost everyone who has come to know about her. I was given a daughter who now intercedes for me at the throne of God, the most profound grace I am likely to ever know, a grace most undeserved.

What is...I was blessed with an awakening of the awareness of God's personal gifts to me in many areas of my life. As I held my daughter in my arms as she died, I made two promises to her. I promised I would share her story, and I promised I would live a full life, the kind of live she could have lived. I would not exist in bitterness and anger. Her legacy would be one of hope and joy.

I fulfilled the first promise when I published my book Broken and Blessed: A Life Story. I continue to be amazed at how God is touching lives and breaking open hearts through little Celeste Marie's story. The second promise is ongoing, and sometimes difficult to complete. But each day I remind myself of it; Celeste had only four months to glorify God with her life, and she did. I've had more than four decades. What have I done? Not nearly enough. So I continue to seek joy, and peace, and beauty in every day I have been given.

When I contemplate the many parents who mourn with me, those who have suffered miscarriages and stillbirths, failed adoptions, and infertility, those who have lost children of any age, my heart breaks. I grieve with them for all that should have been. But I rejoice for what is...the truth that we have a loving Savior who suffers with us, who suffered first and in our place.

What is....through Him we have hope. We have the understanding that all things work together for the good of those who love Him. And by loving Him were are able to live through all that is, until the only reality is eternal reunion and everlasting joy.

What is...a family blessed beyond measure.

It is a privilege to contribute to the Apostolate of Hannah's Tears blog. Please visit my blog from the field of blue children to keep in touch. Blessings, Cathy Adamkiewicz.

Our Lady of Soufanieh

This is an image from a beautiful present day apparition

approved by Our Holy Father...

Devotions: http://www.soufanieh.com/ENGLISH/eeprayer.pdf

http://www.catholicdigitalstudio.com/ourladyofsoufaniehicons.htm

PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY

O Lord, whom on the eve of Your death for our sake,

have prayed so that all Your disciples become wholly One,

the same as You are in Your Father and Your Father is in You,

please make us feel grievously the infidelity of our disunion.

Give us the loyalty to acknowledge

and the courage to reject the mutual indifference,

mistrust and even hostility which hide in us.

Grant us that we all meet in You

so that Your prayer for the Unity of Christians

ascend unceasingly from our souls and lips,

such as You want it and through the means that You choose.

In You who are total charity,

let us find the path that leads to Unity in obedience

to Your love and Your truth.

AMEN.

Our God is in Control

Every now and then a song shows up in my life and sweeps me off of my feet. It is as if the singer is singing straight to my heart. Rare is it that an entire album has this effect. But Steven Curtis Chapman's new album "Beauty Will Rise" has earned this rare honor. I downloaded it yesterday and listened to it on my iPod for the entire 8 hours I was cleaning the office out.

Beauty Will Rise is a collection of 12 new and profound songs from Steven Curtis Chapman. Created in the past 18 months in the walk through the darkness of the loss of his daughter Maria, and while God continues to meet him there on the journey. Part lament, part praise, part grief, part hope, part wrestling, part pondering; these tracks resonate as Steven’s personal Psalms. It is a desperately hopeful, raw, personal, and honest recording. And this is precisely the reason that I love it. In my own journey along this way of the cross, I too lament, praise, grieve, hope, wrestle & ponder. Steven's words and music are the cry of my own heart and I would think that of anyone else who suffers going through infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, the loss of a child, or any other cross. He truly has a God-given gift.

While each song is fantastic, one has, in my mind, become the Theme Song of our journey. The music is authentic, the words ring so true. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Our God Is In Control

By: Steven Curtis Chapman

(click here to listen)

This is not how it should be

This is not how it could be

But this is how it is

And our God is in control

This is not how it will be

When we finally will see

We'll see with our own eyes

He was always in control

And we'll sing holy, holy, holy is our God

And we will finally really understand what it means

So we'll sing holy, holy, holy is our God

While we're waiting for that day

This is not where we planned to be

When we started this journey

But this is where we are

And our God is in control

Though this first taste is bitter

There will be sweetness forever

When we finally taste and see

That our God is in control

And we'll sing holy, holy, holy is our God

And we will finally really understand what it means

So we'll sing holy, holy, holy is our God

While we're waiting for that day

We're waiting for that day

We'll keep on waiting for that day

And we will rise...

Our God is in control (Holy, holy, holy...Holy, holy, holy)

Our God is in control (Holy, holy, holy)

Our God is in control (Holy, holy, holy)

S.Younger

Creighton & NaPro ~ Open House March 21, 2010

A Proclamation of Change in the Premature Ovarian Failure Community - The Roadmap to Find a Cure

Dear all, A good friend of mine, Karima Hijane, who also suffers from POF/POI (premature ovarian failure /primary ovarian insufficiency) has put together a new website HopeForPOF.com to help us spread the word about POF/POI through Advocacy and Awareness. A petition drive has been set up on www.HopeForPOF.com . I strongly urge you to sign the petition on the website to support every girl/woman affected by POF - POI. Please send this petition to everyone in your contact book. The more people that sign this petition, the louder our message will be. Thank you in advance for your help. Best Regards, Lynn

Lynn LaVictoire

Coordinator, Boston POF Support Group

lynn.lav@verizon.net

508-699-7970

March 4 ~ today's saint

By the power of the Holy Spirit, Casimir burned with a sincere and unpretentious love for almighty God. So rich was his love and so abundantly did it fill his heart, that it flowed out from his inner spirit toward his fellow men. As a result, nothing was more pleasant, nothing more desirable for him, than to share his belongings, and even to dedicate and give his entire self to Christ's poor, to strangers, to the sick, to those in captivity, and to all who suffer. To widows, orphans, and the afflicted, he was not only a guardian and patron but a father, son, and brother.

He actively took up the cause of the needy and unfortunate and embraced it as his own; for this reason the people called him the patron of the poor. Though the son of a king and descendant of a noble line, he was never haughty in his conversation or dealings with anyone, no matter how humble or obscure.

He always preferred to be counted among the meek and poor of spirit, among those who are promised the kingdom of heaven, rather than among the famous and powerful men of this world.

from a biography of Saint Casimir written by a contemporary

Saint of the day...

~ Blessed Angela Truszkowska ~

Responding to the needy (especially neglected children and the elderly) Sophia Truszkowska, Blessed Mary Angela, founded the Felician Sisters in Warsaw, Poland, in 1855. The name "Sisters of St. Felix" or Felician Sisters was given to her first followers by people who saw the sisters take children to pray at the shrine of St. Felix, a 15th century Franciscan saint especially devoted to children. Felician Sisters are one branch of the Third Order of St. Francis. They have always sought to harmonize a deep spiritual and community life with dedication to diverse acts of mercy. The Felician Sisters strive to make GOD KNOWN, LOVED, and GLORIFIED.

PRAYER IN HONOR

OF

BLESSED MARY ANGELA TRUSZKOWSKA

Virgin and Foundress

God, our Father, you graced Blessed Mary Angela with a living faith and boundless love which she manifested in complete surrender to your divine will. By her prayers and witness may we strive to seek, to accept, and to fulfill your will in all circumstances of our lives. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen

Approved by the Congregation for Divine Worship

March 25, 1993

Prot.373/93/L

Todays Divine Office ~ "The passion of the whole body of Christ"

Lord, I have cried to you, hear me. This is a prayer we can all say. This is not my prayer, but that of the whole Christ. Rather, it is said in the name of his body. When Christ was on earth he prayed in his human nature, and prayed to the Father in the name of his body, and when he prayed drops of blood flowed from his whole body. So it is written in the Gospel: Jesus prayed with earnest prayer, and sweated blood. What is this blood streaming from his whole body but the martyrdom of the whole Church?

Lord, I have cried to you, hear me; listen to the sound of my prayer, when I call upon you. Did you imagine that crying was over when you said: I have cried to you? You have cried out, but do not as yet feel free from care. If anguish is at an end, crying is at an end; but if the Church, the body of Christ, must suffer anguish until the end of time, it must not say only: I have cried to you, hear me; it must also say: Listen to the sound of my prayer, when I call upon you.

Let my prayer rise like incense in your sight; let the raising of my hands be an evening sacrifice.

This is generally understood of Christ, the head, as every Christian acknowledges. When day was fading into evening, the Lord laid down his life on the cross, to take it up again; he did not lose his life against his will. Here, too, we are symbolised. What part of him hung on the cross if not the part he had received from us? How could God the Father ever cast off and abandon his only Son, who is indeed one God with him? Yet Christ, nailing our weakness to the cross (where, as the Apostle says: Our old nature was nailed to the cross with him), cried out with the very voice of humanity: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

The evening sacrifice is then the passion of the Lord, the cross of the Lord, the oblation of the victim that brings salvation, the holocaust acceptable to God. In his resurrection he made this evening sacrifice a morning sacrifice. Prayer offered in holiness from a faithful heart rises like incense from a holy altar. Nothing is more fragrant than the fragrance of the Lord. May all who believe share in this fragrance.

Therefore, our old nature in the words of the Apostle, was nailed to the cross with him, in order,as he says, to destroy our sinful body, so that we may be slaves to sin no longer.

From a commentary on the psalms by Saint Augustine, bishop

Diocesean Marriage & Family Conference ~ Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend

Diocesean Marriage & Family Conference

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Conference Description

It's easy to lose sight of the "big picture" in the day-to-day business of raising a family and making a marriage work. This inaugural diocesan conference aims to deepen the understanding of marriage and family life as a vocation from God and encourage an appreciation of its many dimensions. Through a combination of plenary sessions and workshops, this conference will explore the Church's rich vision of marriage and family life as it relates to topics such as the theology of the body, communication and intimacy, financial stewardship, responsible parenthood, dealing with infertility, and raising teens. A series of workshops also will be presented in Spanish. This conference is for adults of all ages and circumstances; married couples, couples preparing for marriage, single parents, college students, clergy, pastoral ministers and anyone else interested in enriching their understanding of the vocation of marriage and family life.

Schedule

9:00 AM Registration and Continental Breakfast

10:00 AM Welcome Fred & Lisa Everett

Plenary Session One: The Vocation of Marriage Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades

10:50 AM Break

11:15 AM Workshop Session One

• Introduction to the Theology of the Body Lisa Marino

• Dealing with Infertility in Marriage Dave & Suzy Younger

• Marriage & Finances: Setting a Solid Foundation Harry Verhiley

• Parenting Teenagers in the Virtues Cindy Black

• La Vocación al Matrimonio

12:05 PM Lunch

12:55 PM Plenary Session Two: Life-Giving Love Prof. Janet E. Smith

2:00 PM Break

2:25 PM Workshop Session Two

• Building a Culture of Life through the Theology of the Body Tom & Mary Akre

• NaProTechnology: New Hope for Couples with Infertility Brad Ferrari, MD & Mary Ramsey, PA

• Communication & Intimacy in Marriage Lisa Everett

• Challenges in the First Years of Marriage John & Monica Sikorski

• La Teología del Cuerpo Margarita Rodriguez

3:15 PM Break

3:40 PM Workshop Session Three

• Theology of the Body: What the Pope Couldn't Say Fr. Bob Lengerich

• Spiritual Parenthood Bill & Elizabeth Kirk

• Communication & Intimacy in Marriage Lisa Everett

• Pearls of Wisdom: What 46 Years of Marriage Have Taught Us Dan & Annette Stobierski

• Comunicación en el Matrimonio Fred Everett

4:30 PM Day Conference Concludes

5:00 PM Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart Bishop John M. D Arcy

6:15 PM Social with cash bar opens

7:00 PM Banquet & Talk by Prof. Smith: Seeking Holiness in Marriage & Family Life

Registration

You may register online or by mail or FAX. The registration fee of $35 per person for the day conference includes conference materials, continental breakfast, a boxed lunch and afternoon snacks. The evening banquet is an additional $25 per person. Please indicate your workshop preferences in order to assist in guaranteeing proper room space. College or graduate students are welcome to attend any of the plenary or workshop sessions at no cost.

Meal Preference & Dietary Restrictions

For the banquet, you have a choice of oven roasted garlic herb pork loin or Greek cheese and spinach stuffed chicken breast which should be indicated at registration. Also, please indicate if you have special dietary restrictions.

Payment Options

Registration and credit card information will be transmitted through secure and encrypted channels. For more information, you may call the center at (574) 631-6691.

About the Main Speakers

Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades

was appointed the Ninth Bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend on November 14, 2009, by Pope Benedict XVI, and installed on January 13, 2010, in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne. Bishop Rhoades serves as Chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Task Force on Health Care, and is the Chair-elect of the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth. He is a member of the USCCB Subcommittee on the Catechism, the Board of Trustees of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the Board of Trustees of Mount Saint Mary s University, and the Episcopal Advisory Board of the Theology of the Body Institute.

Prof. Janet E. Smith

holds the Father Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. She is the author of Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later and editor of Why Humanae Vitae Was Right: A Reader. She has two new books; Life Issues, Medical Choices, Questions and Answers for Catholics and The Right to Privacy. She speaks internationally on the Catholic teachings on sexuality and bioethics. She is serving a second term as a consultor to the Pontifical Council on the Family. Over a million copies of her talk, Contraception: Why Not have been distributed on tape or CD.

Baby born after 18 miscarriages

The Poor Clare Colettine Nuns saw this story on the BBC News website and thought you should see it.

Angie Baker called Raiya her 'little miracle'

** Baby born after 18 miscarriages **

A mother who had 18 miscarriages gives birth to a daughter after receiving specialist treatment in Epsom.

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A Blessed Ash wednesday

Sharing a note sent by the Poor Clare Colettines

Dear Little hearts

May this be a grace filled, a life filled day for you....!!!

Ash Wednesday.... how praiseworthy to reflect upon our God, all things will pass.... from Dust we came and to dust we shall return.... humbling and truthful. BUT our immortal soul will not know death and so , today let us focus upon from where we came, for what purpose we are here, and whence we are going.....And like St Clare " SPEAK TO OUR BLESSED SOUL".

Gaze upon Christ in his scared humanity and in his divinity.... set aside this day all that can be set aside.... for HIM....We are having a day of prayer and fast and will pray for you all.

Catholic blessings...

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