goodbye october!

October has always been one of my favorite months of the year, and this year was no different. It was a truly wonderful month filled with a lot of joy and many blessings. Here are a few photos I took along the way that I wanted to share as we get ready to welcome November which starts with a bang tomorrow with All Saints Day. I hope you all are doing well!

Abby and Ani find the perfect pumpkins during their first trip to Youngstown.

Abby turned 3! Here we are practicing with our new stethoscopes :-)

Congratulations to Matt and Lauren! Matt is one of my dearest friends from Notre Dame who has even been referred to as ND baseball's version of Rudy. Lauren and Matt are both such wonderful people, and it was a huge blessing to be at their wedding and witness their joy!!

george weigel's article in newsweek

Thank you to my sister for sending me the link to this article in Newsweek written by George Weigel (author of what many consider to be the definitive biography of JPII, Witness to Hope).

There are two passages that I want to highlight:

According to his own Web site, Obama supports the federal Freedom of Choice Act [FOCA], which would eliminate all state and federal regulation of abortion (such as informed consent and parental notification in the case of minors seeking an abortion); these regulations have demonstrably reduced the absolute number of abortions in the jurisdictions in which they are in effect. FOCA would also eliminate, by federal statute, state laws providing "conscience clause" protection for pro-life doctors who decline to provide abortions. Obama (along with the Democratic Party platform) supports federal funding for abortion, opposes the Hyde amendment (which restricts the use of taxpayer monies for abortion) and has pledged to repeal the "Mexico City policy" (initiated by Ronald Reagan and reinstated by George W. Bush, which bans federal foreign-aid funding for organizations that perform and promote abortion as a means of family planning)....

... Biden is not the only Catholic who will be seriously challenged by an Obama administration bent on reversing what its pro-choice allies regard as eight years of defeat; pro-life Catholics will face different, if equally grave, dilemmas. The bishops already find themselves defending the Catholic integrity of Catholic hospitals under pressures from state governments; those pressures, as well as pressures on doctors and other Catholic health-care professionals, will increase in an Obama administration, especially if FOCA succeeds in knocking down state conscience-clause protections for Catholic health-care providers and institutions. And should an Obama administration reintroduce large-scale federal funding of abortion, the bishops will have to confront a grave moral question they have managed to avoid for decades, thanks to the Hyde amendment: does the payment of federal taxes that go to support abortion constitute a form of moral complicity in an "intrinsic evil"? And if so, what should the conscientious Catholic citizen do?

the beatification of louis and zelie martin, the parents of saint therese

VATICAN CITY (St. Therese of Liseux Gateway) - The Venerable Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face, will be beatified on Mission Sunday, October 19, in the basilica dedicated to their daughter at Lisieux in France. The first parents of a saint to be beatified, they are the first spouses in the history of the Church to be proposed for sainthood as a couple and the second to be beatified together...

In recognizing Louis and Zélie as a blessed couple, the Church points to the mystery of the vocation of marriage, the way of life in which most people are called to reach the common goal of all Christians: sainthood. Engaged unreservedly in the responsibilities of daily life, Zélie and Louis became saints in the fabric of their marriage.

They epitomize the words of Pope John Paul II: “Heroism must become daily, and the daily must become heroic.” (Full article here.)


I've found some beautiful readings online about Louis and Zelie Martin that I wanted to share in honor of this great day. "A Mother's Heart", an excerpt from The Story of a Family: the Home of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, is very touching story about the death of Louis and Zelie's daughter Helene, who died before Therese was born, and the way that her death affected Zelie.

There are two readings about her father as well: the first is an excerpt from Story of a Soul by Saint Therese on her childhood memories of "her King" her "incomparable father." The reading that follows is an excerpt from the address to Celine Martin (Therese's older sister) on the day she entered into the Carmelite Cloister (where she joined Therese and two of their older sisters). Celine had delayed her entrance into the Carmel to take care of her father in his illness until his death, which the priest addresses in his words to her upon her entrance.

Lastyl, Zelie Martin died of breast cancer when Therese was 4 years old, leaving behind 5 daughters: Marie, Pauline, Leonie, Celine and Therese. The last reading I want to share is a letter to Saint Therese from her Aunt Celine, who helped to raise the Martin girls after the death of their mother. Aunt Celine writes:

What have I done, then, that God has surrounded me with such loving hearts! I did nothing but answer the last look of a mother whom I loved very much, very much. I believed I understood that look which nothing will be able to make me forget. It is engraved within my heart. Since that day, I have tried to replace her whom God had taken away from you, but, alas! Nothing can replace a Mother!…

He willed that the mother who guided your early childhood be raised to a more sublime glory and enjoy heavenly delights. Ah! it is because, little Thérèse, your parents are among those we may call saints and who merit bringing forth saints.

Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, pray for us, especially that all families may merit the bringing forth of sainthood!

'everything to me'

Sorry it has been so long! My computer crashed, but the good news is that everything turned out just fine in the end. And now I am back online. Thanks especially to my friends at the Apple Store!!

Tonight I came across a song from Christian singer Mark Schultz that I wanted to share. The song is called "Everything to Me", and I'll just stop typing now, so you can hear his story and the song that come from it...





His story reminds me of a woman I think of and keep in my prayers often... the birth-mother of my God daughter. Though I will most likely never know this woman personally, I thank God for her choice and I pray that her heart will be consoled with deep peace in her lifetime.

Along these lines, I also came across tonight some Christmas cards that are extra beautiful because a portion of their sale goes to help support crisis pregnancy centers and other pro-life organizations.

God bless you all.
more soon...
love,
nicole

ps. I came across both the story and the cards at prolife.com.

favorite day of the year...

October 1st

~Feast Day of Saint Therese of Lisieux~

Therese recounted the following incident in a conversation with her sister Pauline. The commuion of saints was a great consolation to Saint Therese.

Sister Marie of the Eucharist wanted to light candles for a procession. She had no matches; however seeing the little lamp that was burning in front of the relics, she approached it.

Alas, it was half out; there remained only a feeble glimmer on its blackened wick. She succeeded in lighting her candle from it, and with this candle, she lighted those of the whole community.

It was, therefore, the half-extinguished little lamp which had produced all these beautiful flames... nevertheless, it would always be the little lamp which would be the first cause of all this light. How could the beauitful flames boast of having produced this fire, when they themselves were lighted with such a small spark?

It is the same with the communion of saints. Very often, without our knowing it, the graces and lights that we receive are due to a hidden soul, for God wills that the saints communicate with each other through prayer with great love, with a love much greater than that of a family, and even the most perfect family on earth.

How often have I thought that I may owe all the graces I've received to the prayers of a person who begged them from God for me, and whom I shall know only in heaven...

In heaven we shall not meet with indifferent glances, because all the elect will discover that they owe to each other the graces that merited the crown for them.