Suffering With Joy

Obamacare and Euthanasia: The Plan

April 8, 2010

Will it be the blue pill or the red one?

Today we met with our insurance agent because I received notice that my supplemental Medicare policy was going up $40 a month.  No way is that in the budget.  When he came over he told us about an all-day meeting he attended yesterday on the Deathcare bill Congress just foisted on all of us while exempting themselves and all federal employees.  Among the many evils of the bill, he said that by 2015 Medicare will no longer pay for Home Health Care, Hospice Care, or “swing beds” – that is when someone has a major operation and can’t go home right away but must go to a nursing home for some days.  It seems that people will be expected to pay for these things with some kind of private insurance, yet everything in the bill is designed to drive private insurance out of business. Moreover, few will be able to afford the premiums. Without these services, many, many, many people will die.  It may not be euthanasia outright, but it is still going to lead to death by denial of care.  Eventually we will be forced to submit to being murdered.  I wonder how long it will take for all the people clamoring for free health care to find out that not only is it not free, they aren’t going to have access to what they need in the first place.

Pray, pray, pray for the deliverance of our country.

Tags: health

Insights on Divine Providence

March 5, 2010

Portrait of a Young Man at Prayer, c.1487, Hans Memling, oil on oak panel, Upton House, Banbury

This morning I was reading Father Romano Guardini’s The Art of Praying and found these passages that seem connected in a way with Archbishop Chaput’s address to the Baptist University of Houston on March 1, 2010 where he spoke on the vocation of the Christian in American public life:

…The future of Christian life depends, among other things, on whether prayer can establish an active link with life as it is and with the stream of history.  Here, again, the idea of Providence is the starting point…

The will, the Divine Providence of God is our salvation as St. Paul says (1 Thess. 4: 3), and we laity must work it out in the world, no matter how much some of us would like to flee to the cloister. The evil perpetrated by man against man and against creation cannot be lessened without each of us doing the job he has been given by God.  Yet sometimes life seems to be too much to bear and we want to give up and run away.  If we arrive at that point, it must be because we are depending too much on ourselves and not enough on God.  We are seeking our own will and not His Providential Will.  We are not praying the Our Father with an understanding of “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Perhaps the greatest lack in the world today among Christians is a failure to trust in God.  It takes little to know we are in trouble and a lot to see God’s providence in bad or evil circumstances. Guardini says:

The prayer that God’s will be done therefore does not mean that the inevitable should be fulfilled and that we are prepared to resign ourselves to it.  The will of God is not a fate which has to be endured, but a holy and meaningful act which ushers in a new creation. The demand is that the work should be fulfilled in the way which helps that creation most.

This is as true for the world as a whole as for the individual.  The course of the world would be very different if the faithful offered up events to God in the right kind of prayer — and not only with the intent that He should help in this matter or prevent that emergency — but that the great work of His will and the glory of His kingdom should come to the earthly fulfillment that is meant for it here and now.

These quotes hit home for me personally both related to coping with my own illness by developing an attitude of wellness, and in my vocation as a lay person whom God has placed in this world to advance His kingdom. After reading Guardini these past few days, I understand that each of us was born in the exact time, place, and circumstance in history to do God’s will in a way unique to us because each of us is a completely unique creation of His. If we do not do what we were gifted to do, it will not be done by anyone else. That does not mean that God can be defeated by our unwillingness, but that graces will not be granted that would have been granted if we had but done His will.  When the instant passes, it is over.  Very sobering, thus I have a lot of personal make-up work to do to account for my many past failings.

Dear God, help me always to seek Your will and never to shirk the duties You have given me nor step from the path You have asked that I follow.  Let me comprehend Your Providential will in all events of this world with the trust that in everything, even death and disaster, You are bringing about my salvation and that of others.  Let me be a pliable instrument in Your hand for the glory of Your kingdom here and in eternity.

Tags: health, wellness

O Beauty Ever Ancient, Ever New

February 2, 2010

Fushimi, Imperial Palace, Tokyo, (c)Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/)

Wisdom 13:3 tells us God is “the author of beauty.”  In the Catechism of the Catholic Church #2500 we find this idea developed:

Even before revealing Himself to man in words of truth, God reveals Himself to him through the universal language of creation, the work of His Word, of His wisdom: the order and harmony of the cosmos – which both the child and the scientist discover – “from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator,” “for the Author of beauty created them”. (Wisdom 13:3, 5)

The Catechism goes further in #2501:

Created “in the image of God” (Gen. 1:26), man also expresses the truth of his relationship with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works.  Indeed, art is a distinctively human form of expression; beyond the search for the necessities of life which is common to all living creatures, art is a freely given superabundance of the human being’s inner riches.  Arising from talent given by the Creator and from man’s own effort, art is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill, to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing.  To the extent that it is inspired by truth and love of beings, art bears a certain likeness to God’s activity in what He has created.  Like any other human activity, art is not an  absolute end in itself, but is ordered to and ennobled by the ultimate end of man. (cf. Pius XII, Musicae sacrae disciplina; Discourses of September 3 and December 25, 1950)

In his “Confessions”, St. Augustine reveals what happens when the pursuit of beauty is not ordered to God:

Roar of Flames, (c)Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/)

Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new! Too late have I loved Thee. And lo, Thou wert inside me and I outside, and I sought for Thee there, and in all my unsightliness I flung myself on those beautiful things which Thou hast made. Thou wert with me and I was not with Thee. Those beauties kept me away from Thee, though if they had not been in Thee, they would not have been at all. Thou didst call and cry to me and break down my deafness. Thou didst flash and shine on me and put my blindness to flight. Thou didst blow fragrance upon me and I drew breath, and now I pant after Thee. I tasted of Thee and now I hunger and thirst for Thee. Thou didst touch me and I am aflame for Thy peace….

We can see in all of the above, a relationship exists between wisdom, truth, and beauty. One way the infinite All-Beautiful, All-Wise, All-Truth Creator reveals Himself to us is through beauty.  The pursuit of beauty rightly ordered is the pursuit of God.  And what makes something beautiful?  An inherent harmony, peace and order intrinsic to it.

Everyone needs to surround himself with some kind of beauty, especially the chronically ill.  Our bodies are discordant with disease; we are out of balance and disturbed to such an extent that all to much of our energy is spent coping and struggling to achieve some sense of equilibrium.  If we are open to it, looking at or listening to something beautiful restores inner peace and some sense of wellness.  It can spur us on to prayer and praise of God, and imperfect as earthly beauty is, it hints at the eternal harmony, order and joy we aspire to.  For many years now I have been practicing this and know that it works.  Earlier I wrote about the effect images of our beautiful Blessed Mother have on pain.  Sharing beauty will always be a part of this site.

Niju Bridge, Main Gate of Imperial Palace, Tokyo, (c)Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/)

Ever searching for beauty, yesterday I was looking for free stock photos to use at this site. Many pages into the Google list I stumbled upon an extraordinarily talented photographer who is willing to share his work for free as long as the user follows the terms of the license agreement at his site.  Yun is very generous.  You might enjoy reading about why here.  I find much of his work a real joy and thank God I have eyes to see.  If you visit his site, be prepared to stay awhile and be captivated by the beauty.   Perhaps other bloggers who come here may wish to use his work, or readers may like to download images for personal use.  Speaking as a professional photographer, copyright and credit is important to protect an artist and honor his work.

Tags: Catholic Church, health, joy, pain, wellness

Something Wonderful to Be Thankful For

Tags: health, pro-life