40 Days for Life . . .

You will see that I've added a new blog to the list of suggested blogs to follow. '4O Days for Life, London'

I've been asked to advertise this Pro-Life effort which of course I'm happy to do.

March 9th - April 17th 2011

40 Days for Life is a focused pro-life effort that consists of:

• 40 days of prayer and fasting
• 40 days of peaceful vigil
• 40 days of community outreach

We are praying that, with God's help, this groundbreaking effort will mark the beginning of the end of abortion in our city -- and throughout the UK.

Do check out their website here

Holy Hour for all Nascent Life . . .

Responding to the Holy Father's wishes we were happy to hold a Holy Hour this afternoon to pray for all nascent life.

We began with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent . This was followed by a period of silent prayer and the recitation of the Holy Rosary.

We concluded with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. It was lovely that our organist was able to attend and we were able to sing the O Salutaris, Tantum Ergo and Adoremus at Benediction. It was indeed a very 'Holy' Hour.

Thank you to all who braved the freezing weather to come and prayer for this very important intention.

We are Lifesavers!

For the first time this year, we decided to send our Crib Collection to the Good Counsel Network to help them with the excellent work they do with women facing difficult pregnancies and helping them to choose life for their unborn children.

I was delighted to received this certificate in the post today along with a letter of thanks from their Fundraising Coordinator.

Our parish donation, we are told, will enable the Good Counsel Network 'to be God's instrument in saving at least one of His little ones.'

Our retiring collection in a couple of week's time will also be for the Good Counsel Network so I hope that we will be able to send them another donation enabling them to save another of 'His little ones.'

Very grateful thanks to all our parishioners who generously contributed to our Crib Collection.

It is also worth mentioning that we will be remembered in a Mass offered regularly in the Centre for members of The Lifesaver's Circle. What more could we ask for?

UK Bishops urge action against the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill

I'm delighted to see that the Catholic news service ZENIT is reporting on the letter sent by Archbishop Peter Smith, on behalf of our Bishops' Conference, to all parishes concerning the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

Along with your newsletter last week I hope you were given a card to be sent to your MP urging him/her to vote against the Bill - and that you have already posted it. It is very important that we all take action to protect the sanctity of life from conception to it's natural conclusion. You can read the leaflet from the Bishops of England and Wales here, and you might look to look again at other posts on this topic which you can find by 'clicking' on the label, 'pro-life' at the bottom of this post.

A worrying situation ...

I see from an article in this week's Catholic Herald that moves are afoot to restrict the right of Catholic doctors to refuse to refer women for abortions. According to the article by Simon Caldwell, currently about one in four doctors are now refusing to sign consent forms on moral grounds. It is expected that this proposal will be passed by the BMA's policy-making body on Thursday.

On Tuesday Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff spoke out about this proposal saying, that the "right of conscience is a fundamental human right"

It is important to mention that it is not only Catholic doctors who feel strongly about this but they are also supported by doctors of other Christian denominations as well as Jewish and Muslim doctors and some who have no religious faith.

If you have missed your copy of the paper this week, you'll find a link to the article here.

If any new readers of this blog missed the earlier post about the baby who underwent surgery in the womb please follow the link to read about this amazing story.

'Hand of Hope'

I received this by email recently and just felt that I had to share it with you all. Some of you may have seen it already. It is incredible.

A picture began circulating in November. It should be 'The Picture of the Year,' or perhaps, 'Picture of the Decade.' It won't be. In fact, unless you obtained a copy of the US paper which published it, you probably would never have seen it. The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by surgeon named Joseph Bruner. The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta She knew of Dr. Bruner's remarkable surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville, he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb. During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr.Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger.

Dr.Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile. The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, 'Hand of Hope.' The text explaining the picture begins, 'The tiny hand of 21-week- old foetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr. Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life.' Little Samuel's mother said they 'wept for days' when they saw the picture. She said, 'The photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person.' Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful. Now see the actual picture.