Would you like to help protect innocent life? This Parish Ministry works through peaceful, legal means only, to protect unborn children, women, and all people from abortion. If you would like to make a difference through volunteer opportunities, call Carolyn Hernandez at 254-458-1766 for more information. We are making it safer for innocent life.
PRAYER FOR PERSONAL COMMITMENT TO END ABORTION
"Lord God, I thank you today for the gift of my life, and for the lives of all my brothers and sisters. I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion, yet I rejoice that you have conquered death by the Resurrection of Your Son. I am ready to do my part in ending abortion. Today I commit myself never to be silent, never to be passive, and never to be forgetful of the unborn. I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement, and never to stop defending life until all my brothers and sisters are protected and our nation once again becomes a nation with liberty and justice, not just for some, but for all, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen! " (Author Unknown).
Central Texas Voices for Life meets every Thursday in the Church following the 5:30 pm Mass, to recite the Rosary for Life in support of the Unborn. All are welcome.
EXCERPT FROM PROLIFE ACROSS AMERICA BROCHURE:
www.prolifeacrossamerica.org
e-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 1-800-366-7773
"...18 Days (after conception) - A baby's heart begins to beat
43 Days " - Brain coordinates movements
8 Weeks " - All organs are functioning
9 Weeks " - Has permanent, individual fingerprints
10 Weeks " - Sense of touch (comfort/pain)
12 Weeks " - A baby can smile, suck his/her thumb, and make a fist...."
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(Excerpt from Unique from Day One by David Prentice and Tara Sander Lee.)
"Conception, or fertilization, is the union of a human egg and sperm, resulting in a zygote. Though sometimes called a "fertilized egg," it is no longer an egg, but a single-cell human embryo. This is how every person's life begins.
Central to multiple factors that work together to bring about life is deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) - unique genetic material present in every living organism. The DNA molecule replicates (copies itself), a critical step necessary for human growth and development. At fertilization, one copy of DNA from the father combines with a copy of DNA from the mother to form the genome of the new single-cell embryo, with its own characteristics.
After fertilization, the zygote (one-cell embryo) begins to undergo cleavage (cell divisions) and grow from a single cell to a 2-cell stage, to a 4-cell stage, then an 8-cell stage, and finally a 16-cell stage called a morula.
This developing embryo continues to grow and move through the fallopian tube to the uterus, forming the early blastocyst at 5-6 days after fertilization. At 6-7 days after fertilization, the developing human has formed a specialized outer layer called the trophoblast, which allows the embryo to implant into the endometrium (the lining of the womb).
The developing human organism is called an embryo from the time of fertilization until the end of the eighth week of gestation, when it is then called a fetus. These definitional terms and time frames have been recognized by leading scientists and scientific organizations for decades. The term "pregnancy" is sometimes defined as beginning with the implantation of an embryo into the uterine wall. But the biological fact remains that fertilization, not implantation, is the "critical landmark" when a unique human life begins.
Approximately three weeks after fertilization, the developing heart begins to beat with the preborn child's own blood. Brainwaves can be detected a few weeks later, as early as Day 45. Within 8-10 weeks after conception, every organ is present, and the baby already has unique fingerprints."
“This article appeared in the [JANUARY, 2019] issue of Columbia magazine and is reprinted with permission of the Knights of Columbus, New Haven, Conn.” - Wm.
"People have such a love for truth that when they happen to love something else, [sexual pleasure without complications] they want it to be the truth; and because they do not wish to be proven wrong, [that abortion kills a human being] they refuse to be shown their mistake. And so, they end up hating the truth[the baby in the womb is alive!] for the sake of the object [sexual pleasure] which they have come to love instead of the truth[the second heart-beat in a pregnant woman doesn't belong to her!; it belongs to the baby in her womb who is beginning life's journey!] ." (St. Augustine) [Inserts by Ed.]
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"Even the weakest and most vulnerable,the sick, the old, the unborn and the poor, are masterpieces of God's creation, made in His own image, destined to live forever, and deserving of the utmost reverence and respect." (From "Pope Francis' Day for Life Greeting", St. Paul Chong Hasang Catholic Church Weekly Bulletin, October 2, 2016, Front Cover)
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"Life is a gift bestowed upon us by God, a truth underscored by the commandment: 'You shall not kill' (Deuteronomy 5:17). The Old Testament also teaches us that human life in the womb is precious to God: 'I formed you in the womb' (Jeremiah 1:5). The right to life is a value 'which no individual, no majority, and no state can ever create, modify, or destroy but must only acknowledge, respect, and promote' (Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 71a). A law, therefore, which legitimizes the direct killing of innocent human beings through abortion is intrinsically unjust, since it is directly opposed to the natural law, to God's revealed commandments, and to the consequent right of every individual to possess life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death." [Excerpt from "The Public Square," by (Rev.) Richard John Neuhaus, (R.I.P.), FIRST THINGS, November 2004, No. 147, p. 63.]
Melissa Ohden should have died in 1977, but the abortion failed. On September 9, 2015, the founder of Abortion Survivors Network testified before the House Judiciary Committee to explain her story. I cannot improve on her testimony, so I offer an excerpt:
"From 'botched abortion' to 'the dreaded complication of abortion' (a child who lives), I've been called just about everything you can imagine. But as you can see here in my medical records from 1977, I am the survivor of a failed saline infusion abortion (the exact wording in my records reads ---'a saline infusion for an abortion was done but was unsuccessful.')
"A saline infusion abortion involves injecting a toxic salt solution into the amniotic fluid surrounding the preborn child. The intent of the salt solution is to scald the child to death, from the outside in.
"For days, I soaked in that toxic salt solution, and on the fifth day of the procedure, my biological mother, a 19-year-old college student, delivered me, after her labor was induced. I should have been delivered dead, as a successful abortion.
"In 2013, I learned through contact with my biological mother's family that not only was the abortion forced upon her against her will, but also that it was my maternal grandmother, a nurse, who delivered me in this final step of an abortion procedure at St. Luke's Hospital in Sioux City, Iowa. [It is a Protestant facility.]
"Unfortunately, I also learned that when my grandmother realized that the abortion had not succeeded in ending my life, she demanded that I be left to die.
"I may never know how, exactly, two nurses who were on staff that day...found out about me, but what I do know is that their willingness to fight for medical care to be provided to me saved my life.
"I know where children like me were left to die at St. Luke's Hospital--a utility closet. In 2014, I met a nurse who assisted in a saline abortion there in 1976, and delivered a living baby boy. After he was delivered alive, she followed her superior's orders and placed him in the utility closet in a bucket of formaldehyde to be picked up later as a medical waste after he died there, alone.
"A bucket of formaldehyde in a utility closet was meant to be my fate after I wasn't scalded to death through the abortion. Yet here I am today.
"I'm here today to share my story to not only highlight the horror of abortion taking place at Planned Parenthood, but to give a voice to other survivors like me, and most importantly, to give a name, a face, and a voice to the hundreds of thousands of children who will have their lives ended by Planned Parenthood this year alone.
"And I have long believed that if my birth-mother's abortion would have taken place at a Planned Parenthood [facility], I would not be here today. Completing over 300,000 abortions a year provides them with the experience to make sure that 'failures' like me don't happen again.
"As a fellow American, as a fellow human being, I deserved the same right to life, the same equal protection under the law as each and everyone of you. Yet we live in a time where not only do such protections not exist, but my own tax dollars and yours go to fund an organization that has perfected the very thing that was meant to end my life."
The above article is from the CATALYST, JOURNAL OF THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE FOR RELIGIOUS AND CIVIL RIGHTS, Volume 43, Number 1, pg .3, January-February 2016, "From the President's desk," by William A. Donohue. (Used With Permission)
"O Divine Infant Jesus, present in the womb of Mary at conception by the power of the Holy Spirit, present in the crib at Bethlehem in obedience to the Will of God, open the heart of mankind to see that true peace will only come when there is peace in the womb. Awaken mankind and help each soul to surrender to the Will of his Divine Creator. Amen." (Author unknown.)
Celebrating 17 years of Service to Women in
Bell County
Address:
613 South 9th Street, Temple, Texas 76504
Contact us:
254-742-2340 or (toll free) 877-542-2340.
Visit our website at www.ladyoftheangels.org .
Our Lady of the Angels Maternity Shelter has been developed in response to the need for emergency shelter surfacing from churches involved in the Gabriel Project, and other area agencies providing help to women in crisis pregnancies.
We are an emergency shelter.
Our Lady of the Angels provides shelter for homeless pregnant women and their children in a stable family environment, to support the mother and child in their efforts to create a hopeful future for themselves.