LifeSiteNews readers often post dramatically informative comments under our various reports. Some of them are exceptionally personal, as the lengthy, inspiring one from a recovered lesbian, for the purpose of helping others passing through similar life situations. These are only a tiny few of the very best of recent LifeSiteNews reader story comments.
In 2011, I attended Toronto Pride, but I couldn’t stomach showing you what I saw, until now
Hi myriad. I know exactly what you feel because I have been there too. I read your words and I recognize my story. People who think homosexual attraction is a choice are talking about some other imaginary phenomenon.
My story has a catch, though. I hope it will become your catch as well. A few years ago I felt that God was calling me back to the Catholic Church. I did not understand but it was too strong a call to ignore. I am not a hypocrite so I told myself I'd give up sexual sin (all of them — engaging in homosexual relationships was not the only problem I had with chastity) *for a time*, at least until I understood what it was that I was dealing with. It was not the least bit easy to do this but I felt I had a reason to try.
I went to confession (after almost 15 years!) and started praying -hours- a day. I discovered soon enough why all that prayer was absolutely necessary. I was to have an eye-opening experience with my family. I had always thought I grew up in a model Catholic home and it was me who was born wrong (same sex child crushes I did not know what to do with, teenager crushes I did not know what to do with and the whole range of feelings I imagine you can perfectly relate to). Waking up to the existence of some major problems in the household was almost too traumatic to bear. I came apart and it took me a long time to recover.
As soon as I had to face the ugly dynamics in my family of origin in full awareness, I began to see the same ugliness and brokenness in me. I became enraged because it was not my fault I was not functioning properly and yet it was me who had to clean up all the mess. I was overwhelmed by loss and sheer emotional exhaustion. I could see that my psychology developed away from its proper shape. I started going to ACA/DF meetings (adult children of alcoholics and dysfunctional families) and tried to learn what life is supposed to look like when you grow up emotionally nourished (as opposed to how it looks like when you -think- you have been emotionally nourished).
My same-sex attraction vanished in a puff of smoke as soon as I began to understand how my upbringing affected me. Along with my same sex attraction, my girlfriends, many of my habits, my attachment to certain kinds of sins — all gone. As if they echoed “empty”. I was stunned. I had spend twenty-plus years of my life trying to deal with the fact I could only connect emotionally with women and now … what-the-eeeh??! I cried so many tears to God for just how broken I found myself to be inside. I did well, because by all those tears I became teachable. I wanted to know how to do it right this time. I started paying attention and imitating what I saw.
I started growing psychologically. A few months into this process I was already yearning for a man. It feels *very different* than the way I was attracted to women and yet these are exactly the same feelings. I guess the best way to describe opposite-sex attraction to my same-sex-attracted self is “same thing, but no longer out of control.” It's a -measured- kind of attraction. I don't get engulfed by the feelings. I feel them.
My psyche still has not developed completely into a mature woman. I am much further along the process than I was back then, though. I am impatient and I want to grow up so bad because life is fuller and richer than I ever thought possible. I found my place into the natural order of things. It's a liberating feeling. It's more empowering than anything I have known. I feel I am speeding through adolescence and I am eager to grow up more every day of my life.
When he created me, God placed in me the desire to marry and have a family. This desire is surfacing now and it's so strong I almost don't know how to handle it. I just turned 34. I am trying so hard to catch up. Perhaps I am trying too hard (there's a reason I still go to ACADF) but I cannot help noticing the changes. I am spontaneously doing things I never thought possible. I laughed when I noticed. I was the butch type and I am doing the kinds of things I would have associated to the words “feminine” and “maternal”. I never had a model for any of it that was not tainted with anxiety, need to control etc. I wear the brown scapular and last year I consecrated myself to the Virgin Mary; I suppose I am seeing the fruits of being under the protection of the only model of womanhood mankind ever needed.
I still feel -strong- things for women but I no longer react the same way. I learned to name the different components of “those feelings”. The strongest part of the attraction, in my personal case, was the magnetism of a peculiar type of pain, of emotional suffering, that I recognized, understood and wanted to soothe. In hindsight, I can very well see that's the criterion with which I chose my lovers. The second part of that attraction was love. This love has been purified and it no longer has any sexual connotation. It's even stronger than it was before.
Nothing I could have done by myself would have gotten me an inch further along this path of healing. It was His grace. So I don't expect you to be able to progress on your own strength nor to be able to apply my experience to your life. I read that you grew up in a family where first Fridays and first Saturdays were honored, so Jesus will keep his promise and reclaim you to Him. I wrote this post to offer a sneak preview of what a path to wholeness looks like, for when He calls you back.
I have been chaste since I returned to the Church (not even a kiss). A good man asked me to marry him and I will say no because he's not the right man; I am amazed that I have developed enough self knowledge to know that we would not be a good match. If God could manifest such a stellar healing job in me, I am sure He will do no less in you.
May Saint Joseph protect you in his holy day
Maria-Camilla
Court to determine Marlise Munoz’s fate this afternoon; pro-lifers to attend
“Every time I made a positive entry about any responsiveness of Terri's, someone would remove it after my shift ended. Michael always demanded to see her chart as soon as he arrived, and would take it in her room with him. I documented Terri's rehab potential well, writing whole pages about Terri's responsiveness, but they would always be deleted by the next time I saw her chart. The reason I wrote so much was that everybody else seemed to be afraid to make positive entries for fear of their jobs, but I felt very strongly that a nurse's job was to accurately record everything we see and hear that bears on a patient's condition and their family. I upheld the Nurses Practice Act, and if it cost me my job, I was willing to accept that.”
Throughout my time at Palm Gardens, Michael Schiavo was focused on Terri's death. Michael would say “When is she going to die?” “Has she died yet?” and “When is that bitch gonna die?” These statements were common knowledge at Palm Gardens, as he would make them casually in passing, without regard even for who he was talking to, as long as it was a staff member.Other statements which I recall him making include “Can't anything be done to accelerate her death — won't she ever die?” When she wouldn't die, Michael would be furious.” “When Michael visited Terri, he always came alone and always had the door closed and locked while he was with Terri. He would typically be there about twenty minutes or so. When he left Terri would be trembling, crying hysterically, and would be very pale and have cold sweats. It looked to me like Terri was having a hypoglycemic reaction, so I'd check her blood sugar. The glucometer reading would be so low it was below the range where it would register an actual number reading. I would put dextrose in Terri's mouth to counteract it. This happened about five times on my shift, as I recall. Normally Terri's blood sugar levels were very stable due to the uniformity of her diet through tube feeding. It is medically possible that Michael injected Terri with Regular insulin, which is very fast acting, but I don't have any way of knowing for sure.”
Trimelda McDaniels
Study: People from large families could be key to reversing global population bust
In five generations, with a replacement rate per couple of 0.73, a population of 8.0 million (like Quebec) becomes 1.7 million. With infill by immigration from other countries and migration from other parts of Canada, lured there by low property values (due to a 100 year birth dearth), the original population becomes the minority and loses it's properties, unique culture and language.
Maybe some protection of life at the early stages is in the interests of Canada because if we don't change to become fruitful and protective of life, we're throwing away the keys.
emullen
Gay activists hurl feces at German parents protesting pro-gay school curriculum: report
The gay liberation movement has just proven that barbaric sex practices leads to a barbaric society. Look at how the police allowed the barbarism to continue. The authorities are intimidated and compromised by the gay liberationists.
If everything is allowed, then the worst will rise and the best will fall. The best can only maintain their power just as long as their morally superior positions are thought of as being right as well as just. When moral superiority is thought of as being wrong and unjust, then the only recourse the morally superior have is fight or flight.
No one wants to have the morally superior positions enforced by strict laws because that would be self-defeating. But morally superior laws are much better than morally inferior ones, as this incident shows. The police were wrong to allow the protesters to be molested. It will only get worse.
finishstrongdoc