Thursday November 23, 2006

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A Thanksgiving Poem from My Family to Yours

Last year when my eldest son Joshua had just turned eight, he learned and recited a beautiful poem of thanksgiving.   The poem gave us all pause for reflection and drew us to thanksgiving to God Who provides for us from day to day. 

The poem would make very appropriate dinner-table reading tonight, and I'd encourage you to have your children put it to memory - so it can be an inspiration for years to come.

Happy Thanksgiving!

John-Henry Westen
Editor
LifeSiteNews.com

The Open Door. - Unknown Author

Within a town of Holland once
A widow dwelt, 'tis said,
So poor, alas! her children asked
One night, in vain, for bread.
But this poor woman loved the Lord,
And knew that He was good;
So, with her little ones around,
She prayed to him for food.

When prayer was done, her eldest child,
A boy of eight years old,
Said, softly, "In the Holy Book,
Dear Mother, we are told
How God, with food by ravens brought,
Supplied His prophet's need."
"Yes," answered she, "but that, my son,
Was long ago indeed."

"But mother, God may do again
What He has done before;
And so, to let the birds fly in,
I shall unclose the door."
Then little Josh, in simple faith,
Threw ope the door full wide,
So that the radiance of the lamp
Fell on the path outside.

Ere long, the burgomaster passed,
And, noticing the light,
Paused to inquire why the door
Was open so at night.
"My little Josh has done it, sir,"
The widow, smiling, said,
"That ravens might fly in and bring
My hungry children bread."

"Indeed!" the burgomaster cried,
"Then here's a raven, lad;
Come to my home, and you shall see
Where bread may soon be had."
Along the street to his own house
He quickly led the boy,
And sent him back with food that filled
His humble home with joy.

The supper ended, little Josh
Went to the open door,
Looked up and said, "Many thanks, dear Lord,"
Then shut it fast once more.
For though no bird had entered in,
He knew that God on high
Had hearkened to his mother's prayer,
And sent this full supply.

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Italian Bishops: "Nothing is More Inhuman than Eugenic Selection"

By Hilary White
 
ROME, November 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In one of the strongest anti-eugenics statements from the Catholic Church since the end of the Second World War, the Catholic bishops' conference of Italy has prepared a document for the 29th Day of Life that identifies euthanasia as part of a resurgence of that discredited philosophy.  Titled "Life to be Desired and Loved" the document was prepared for the first Sunday of February 2007. 

The bishops' statement warns against the "diabolic deceit" that attempts to legitimize euthanasia, "masking it with a veil of human mercy." The bishops speak of the resurgence of eugenics that is becoming more and more invoked as a solution to suffering, and in some places actually practiced.
 
The one who loves life, they said, "does not remove it but donates it, does not take control of it but puts it to service of the others." To love life "means also not to deny it to some, not even to the smallest and most defenceless newborn, much less when it suffers a serious disability."
 
The purpose of human life is to love and be loved, and euthanasia, abortion and genetic manipulation are opposed to that purpose: "From love, life gushes and life wishes and asks love. For this, human life can and must be donated, for love, and in this gift it finds the fullness of its meaning; it never can be despised and much less destroyed."
 
"The plague" of abortion, the attempt to legitimize euthanasia and the consequent degradation of human life is a concern for "all men of good will," said the bishops.  Referring to embryonic research and cloning, the bishops state that human life cannot be used at its earliest stage as a means to cure illness.

At a time when some European nations are considering installing and expanding legal euthanasia for disabled children and even infants, the Italian bishops write that the "unborn child, even the child with serious a disability" is to be treasured and protected as a gift from God. They caution that the currently popular philosophies that reduce human life to a thing subject to ownership will end as they have in the past, with "massacres and homicide."
 
The inviolability of life, the bishops say, is a natural instinct and constitutes the "irrenounceable principle" and foundation of justice, equality and peace. Human life, the bishops say "originates from an act of love on the part of the One… Life must be loved with courage, not only respected, (but) protected, celebrated, cared for, educated."
 
The bishops confront the reality of human suffering and assert that life, not death supplies the answer. "There is the time of the joy and the time of suffering, the time of gratification and the time of disappointment… sometimes hard work, illness and solitude can feel to us like a weight."
 
Instead of meting out death as a solution, the bishops say, mankind should "fight pain, suffering and degradation - the enemy of life - with all his talent and the contribution of science."
 
Life is not a thing subject to ownership. "True love for life," they tell Italians, not false egotism and individualism, "is incompatible with the idea of indiscriminate possession that induces us to think that it is 'mine'; 'mine' in the sense of the absolute property, the will, the manipulation."
 
"Rather than the absolute owners, we are its faithful and passionate guardians". We can never say life is 'ours'."
 
See the full message in Italian
http://www.fides.org/ita/documents/messaggio_giornata_vita_2007.doc
 
(with files from Fides news agency)

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