The Annunciation
Today is the Solemnity of the Annunciation and, this year, marks the 25th anniversary of Evangelium Vitae, the Gospel of Life. Often referred to as the ‘Church’s love letter to the world’, this encyclical of Pope St John Paul has woven its way into the very fabric of our little community, and we are so grateful for it. If you haven’t read it, do! http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae.html
Today’s feast comes to us as a mini Christmas in the midst of an especially desert-like Lent, and is characterised by pure JOY. A young girl from Nazareth gave her Yes to the Angel Gabriel and opened the door for God Himself to enter a world that was lost and broken – a world He had never stopped loving and never abandoned. Yet He knew well how important it was for us to be able to ‘see with our own eyes and look upon and touch with our hands the Word of life’ (1 John 1:1). Our Lady’s joy was immense because the grace and the miracle of it all far outweighed the immediate complexities, difficulties and fears arising from them.
Two years after the appearance of Evangelium Vitae, Cardinal Winning launched his pro-life initiative, which continues to operate in his name today. He understood that the natural and good response to pregnancy is joy and that, if we could only remove the very real obstacles to experiencing that joy that so many women and men face, they could have their children in peace. We give thanks for him, too, and pray for his eternal rest.
This beautiful painting, called ‘Our Lady of Light and Life’, hangs in our house. It was painted for us by Sheila Strachan, mother of Hilda (who volunteers with us) and Fr Alex (a priest of our Archdiocese). We give thanks for her too!
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IMPORTANT MESSAGE
Following Government guidelines our office has now closed until further notice.
We are operating an emergency telephone number at this time If you are in need of our help please phone 07377565291, please leave your name, number and a short message. We will return your call as soon as possible.
While the office is closed please do NOT leave donations in the grounds. We are always grateful for donations however items left in our grounds are routinely stolen and can attract vermin. We would therefore ask you not to donate at this time.
While the office is closed we are operating from home so the blog will still be updated.
Thank you
God bless
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During these uncertain time we will still be opening our centre but under certain conditions.
We won’t have any volunteers or clients in but we will allow for essentials to be collected.
We would urge people to hold off donations for the moment if at all possible.
The phones will be answered and we will be keeping in touch with all our pregnant women and families.
This situation may change, we will keep you up to date.
Please be assured of our prayers at this time.
God bless
Sr Roseann
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St Joseph
Today we celebrate the solemnity of St Joesph, husband of the blessed virgin Mary.
St Joseph is one of the saints most catholics know quite well, so I won’t give a schpeel about his life but rather a few wee thoughts instead.
The one thing that keeps coming back to me about St Joesph is: How good a man must St Jospeh have been for our God to choose him to be his father, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ? What an amazing gift from God.
The other thing on mind is that poor St Joseph was thrown in at the deep end by God and yet he continued to love, care for and protect Jesus and Mary. At this uncertain time, St Jospeh is a wonderful example of how we can trust in the Lord and listen to his voice, even when it seems crazy. We can turn to him at this time, we can ask for his prayers and we can love and care for our families and neighbours as he did so well for his.
St Jospeh, pray for us.
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Pro-Life Mass
Our Pro-life Mass is still going ahead as planed tonight, we do however ask everyone to be sensible if your planning to attend. We would recommend particularly the elderly and the vulnerable to this virus to not attend this mass tonight.
Please be assured of our prayer during these uncertain times.
Also in current circumstances we will not be serving tea and coffee after the mass, there will however still be plenty of banter.
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Check out this great video all about the development of the baby in the womb !!!
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Pro-Life Mass Reminder
Please join us in praying for the pro-life cause this Wednesday 19th February.
This month’s celebrant will be Fr Dominic Quinn.
6pm – Holy Hour
7pm – Rosary
7.30pm – Mass
Tea, coffee and great banter afterwards!
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Normally I don’t get involved in social media debates. To be honest, I’m way too busy getting on with my life directing the Cardinal Winning Pro-Life Initiative. However, it is with great sadness that I feel I must respond to the post by Grace Browne – Unapologetically, Unashamedly Anti-Abortion.
The whole tone of the post disturbs me immensely and also shows an incredible ignorance of how hard, so hard, many of us have fought over the years to not only be known as pro-life but to actually be pro-life, in thought, word and action.
I am unashamedly and unapologetically anti-abortion. I am against the taking of all human life and, along with many others, I have given much of my life to the defence of all unborn children in danger, all women faced with a crisis pregnancy and to giving healing and whatever peace we can to the many women and others affected by abortion.
I am not a coward, neither am I muddled up. I have chosen to be known as pro-life because that is what I am. I know that “abortion is not loving”, but I am.
There is no-one who knows either me, or the work of the Cardinal Winning Pro-Life Initiative, who could accuse us of being anything other than 100% against abortion. Over the years I’ve been spat upon, yelled at with undisguised hatred and insulted in person and on paper with every vile name under the sun. I have never cowered behind the phrase ‘pro-life’, nor have I ever fled from any fight in the defence of life but, on every occasion, I have chosen not only to stand up for life but also for love.
I have given thousands of talks using the pictures of the reality of abortion but I have always done it in such a way as go beyond the heat to the light, i.e. challenge people to change their minds and hearts and then challenge them to get involved and do something positive to make every abortion unthinkable and unnecessary.
Through the work of the Pro-Life Initiative, we have saved hundreds of lives and caused many, many people, especially young people, to change their minds about abortion. This we have always done with love, which is never a weakness but our greatest strength.
Just for clarification, we have neither the death penalty nor gun control issues in this country. This argument is a total red herring. What we do have is the day-to-day reality of women faced with incredible pressure to abort their child, an army of women who present as militant pro-abortion in order to cope with the pain of their own abortion, a media which is strongly against us, a law which continues to kill and a society which often just doesn’t care.
Well, I do care and I do believe that the greatest of the commandments is to love. I don’t want to be ruthless, I want to be wise. “Therefore be wise as serpents and gentle as doves” Matt. 10:16.
So my advice is for everyone to search their minds and hearts and choose to be Unapologetically and Unashamedly Pro-Life.
Sr Roseann Reddy
see the full article by Grace Brown here: https://www.spuc.org.uk/blog/reclaiming-anti-abortion-is-it-time-to-ditch-the-pro-life-label?fbclid=IwAR3CY2riaT7BBzjsKTQKZu38h_-j5fGvZFOMsvt8-Fsg2QRBlrd4cF-dFH0
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CUTE ALERT !!!!
Isn’t Dumbo just the cutest!!!!
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URGENT PRAYER REQUEST
Could we ask for urgent prayers for a young couple who have an abortion booked for Thursday.
Please storm the heavens 🙏
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