Here is a short, poignant retrospective by Sydna Masse in the LA Times on her own abortion, her days as a pro-choice activist, and her conversion to pro-life activist.
Choice Killed a Part of My Heart
Masse is an old friend of my husband, and she now runs a healing ministry called Ramah International for women who have had abortions.
Ramah International
A second chance in north Dallas:
For local women in crisis pregnancies looking for real, living options -- women who want a hopeful, positive choice for themselves and their babies -- here is a link to a ministry which provides counseling, medical services, and adoption help. It is supported by local churches, including members of our evangelical church here in Texas. Did you know these kind of organizations are dotted all over the country?
Hope Crisis Pregnancy Center
And below is a link to ministry which helps single moms receive housing and career counseling and support in North Texas, founded by some dear friends.
Shiloh Place
Finally, here is a ministry that is one of my favorites, as it provides safe housing, food, transportation, and career counseling to homeless families, and helps homeless school kids stay in their regular school system through the process. It is a national group with local chapters. Local churches provide overnight housing, facilities, and hot meals in the church building.
Family Promise
There is hope and second chance for ALL of us. We all need a second chance (and a third chance, and a 77th chance), and God is the God of second chances!
These ministries and many, many others all across America provide real, wholesome, life-giving CHOICE and a second chance to mothers and fathers and children.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Saturday, August 29, 2015
"The Georgia O'Keefe of Photography"
I'm an adult transplant to the West and have become endeared to its people and its wide open spaces. Looking forward to this exhibit in Fort Worth and hoping I can attend.
Laura Wilson and the American West
Laura Wilson and the American West
Monday, August 24, 2015
"You make eloquent the tongues of infants"
A home schooling friend sent me this prayer, cited at the Aquinas College website as one of Thomas Aquinas's prayers. It's a good one for those beginning their studies in a new school year or on a new school day. It's also a good one for those whose work is study.
Here is part of the prayer:
Ineffable Creator...
You are proclaimed
the true font of light and wisdom,
and the primal origin
raised high and beyond all things
Put forth a ray of your brightness
into the darkened places of my mind;
disperse from my soul
the twofold darkness
into which I was born;
sin and ignorance
You make eloquent the tongues of infants.
refine my speech
and pour forth upon my lips
the goodness of your blessing.
Grant to me
keenness of mind,
capacity to remember,
skill in learning
subtlety to interpret,
and eloquence in speech.
May you
guide the beginning of my work,
direct its progress,
and bring it to completion.
You who are true God and true man,
who live and reign, world without end.
Amen
Here is part of the prayer:
Ineffable Creator...
You are proclaimed
the true font of light and wisdom,
and the primal origin
raised high and beyond all things
Put forth a ray of your brightness
into the darkened places of my mind;
disperse from my soul
the twofold darkness
into which I was born;
sin and ignorance
You make eloquent the tongues of infants.
refine my speech
and pour forth upon my lips
the goodness of your blessing.
Grant to me
keenness of mind,
capacity to remember,
skill in learning
subtlety to interpret,
and eloquence in speech.
May you
guide the beginning of my work,
direct its progress,
and bring it to completion.
You who are true God and true man,
who live and reign, world without end.
Amen
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
College and the Honors League
Interesting article about the rise of honors colleges at public universities. We were impressed with the leadership path and other honors college offerings at Christopher Newport in Virginia.
A Prudent Path
A Prudent Path
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
The [Trollope] Diamonds
Anthony Trollope's The Prime Minister.
Finally getting around to reading this book -- the 5th of the 6 Palliser novels (and one praised by Tolstoy) -- which parallels our hero, the now-older Duke of Omnium and his final political challenge as the liberal head of a coalition government, with the marital fate of an earnest girl of good family named Emily Wharton.
It is the middle-late 19th century in England.
Will England's greatness be advanced? Will the coalition government be a good suitor to Albion? Will the Duke's warm and ambitious wife's social excesses on his behalf help or hurt him? She is political and he is scrupulous.
And in the other story: Will young, noble Emily Wharton marry a stranger and foreigner who is involved in shady dealings, against the wishes of her father, who is wise and loving, but whose arguments against the man are marred by blind prejudice? Will she be led by her vulgar aunt or her beloved family friends?
All of this marked by Trollope's shrewd and sometimes-funny commentary on human public and private behavior in the House and in the house. Trollope was a dissector of human foibles and greatness, though with a light touch, and his characters can be more complex and less tragic than some Victorian writers'. His heroes have imperfections and his villains sometimes have something to admire, but it is always clear who and what is right.
[Addenda 9/14/15: Finished. Oh, the noble example of the tragic loyalty of Emily Wharton Lopez! The author lost control of his secondary story line and it becomes the meat of the book in theme and pathos if not word count.]
The question the book addresses is: What is a true gentleman and Englishman like?
Some quotes from the first quarter of the book:
"The man, certainly, was one strangely endowed with the power of creating a belief."'
"Though the thing had been long a-doing, still it had come suddenly."
"And it was not the way with her Grace to hide such sorrows in the depth of her bosom."
"I remember dear old Lord Brock telling me how much more difficult it was to find a good coachman than a good Secretary of State."
"It'll be best in the long run." "I'm sometimes happy when I think I shan't live to see the long run.'"
"She knew him to be full of scruples....unwilling to domineer when men might be brought to subjection only by domination."
On political alliances: "I don't want a man to stick to me. I want a man to stick to his country."
On young, rich men with political ambitions: "He had the great question of labor, and all that refers to unions, strikes, and lock-outs, quite at his fingers' ends. He knew how the Church of England should be disestablished and recomposed. He was quite clear on questions of finance, and saw to a 't' how progress should be made towards communism, so that no violence should disturb that progress, and that in due course of centuries all desire for personal property should be conquered and annihilated by a philanthropy so general as hardly to be accounted a virtue. In the meantime, he could never contrive to pay his tailor's bill regularly out of the allowance of 400 pounds a year which his father made him, and was always dreaming of the comforts of a handsome income."
"There is such a thing as a conscience with too fine an edge that it will allow a man to do nothing."
Finally getting around to reading this book -- the 5th of the 6 Palliser novels (and one praised by Tolstoy) -- which parallels our hero, the now-older Duke of Omnium and his final political challenge as the liberal head of a coalition government, with the marital fate of an earnest girl of good family named Emily Wharton.
It is the middle-late 19th century in England.
Will England's greatness be advanced? Will the coalition government be a good suitor to Albion? Will the Duke's warm and ambitious wife's social excesses on his behalf help or hurt him? She is political and he is scrupulous.
And in the other story: Will young, noble Emily Wharton marry a stranger and foreigner who is involved in shady dealings, against the wishes of her father, who is wise and loving, but whose arguments against the man are marred by blind prejudice? Will she be led by her vulgar aunt or her beloved family friends?
All of this marked by Trollope's shrewd and sometimes-funny commentary on human public and private behavior in the House and in the house. Trollope was a dissector of human foibles and greatness, though with a light touch, and his characters can be more complex and less tragic than some Victorian writers'. His heroes have imperfections and his villains sometimes have something to admire, but it is always clear who and what is right.
[Addenda 9/14/15: Finished. Oh, the noble example of the tragic loyalty of Emily Wharton Lopez! The author lost control of his secondary story line and it becomes the meat of the book in theme and pathos if not word count.]
The question the book addresses is: What is a true gentleman and Englishman like?
Some quotes from the first quarter of the book:
"The man, certainly, was one strangely endowed with the power of creating a belief."'
"Though the thing had been long a-doing, still it had come suddenly."
"And it was not the way with her Grace to hide such sorrows in the depth of her bosom."
"I remember dear old Lord Brock telling me how much more difficult it was to find a good coachman than a good Secretary of State."
"It'll be best in the long run." "I'm sometimes happy when I think I shan't live to see the long run.'"
"She knew him to be full of scruples....unwilling to domineer when men might be brought to subjection only by domination."
On political alliances: "I don't want a man to stick to me. I want a man to stick to his country."
On young, rich men with political ambitions: "He had the great question of labor, and all that refers to unions, strikes, and lock-outs, quite at his fingers' ends. He knew how the Church of England should be disestablished and recomposed. He was quite clear on questions of finance, and saw to a 't' how progress should be made towards communism, so that no violence should disturb that progress, and that in due course of centuries all desire for personal property should be conquered and annihilated by a philanthropy so general as hardly to be accounted a virtue. In the meantime, he could never contrive to pay his tailor's bill regularly out of the allowance of 400 pounds a year which his father made him, and was always dreaming of the comforts of a handsome income."
"There is such a thing as a conscience with too fine an edge that it will allow a man to do nothing."
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Who Cares about Homer and Shakespeare?
David sent this along to me today -- sensible reasons and practical ways for all students to read and study the classics -- even business majors. But I posted this mainly for the stories about Catholic school (which I attended in high school).
The Suicide of the Liberal Arts
The Suicide of the Liberal Arts
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Check Your White, Female Privilege
In the New York Times, Ross Douthat counters Milbank et al's arguments that the only way for Planned Parenthood to provide family planning services is for them also to provide baby-in-the-womb dismemberment services.
There Is No Pro-Life Case for Planned Parenthood
It's good to point out when the actual narrative conflicts with the establishment narrative. In these videos, the antagonists are women, the victims are predominantly minorities, and the hero is a white male. Time for PP to check its white, female privilege.
There Is No Pro-Life Case for Planned Parenthood
It's good to point out when the actual narrative conflicts with the establishment narrative. In these videos, the antagonists are women, the victims are predominantly minorities, and the hero is a white male. Time for PP to check its white, female privilege.
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