"Higher than the Mountains", a book of poetry and prayer. It is a respite for your quieter moments. It is for those who "are anxious and worried about many things" and who now desire "the better part", the something, or Someone, clothed in the ordinary, hidden in your heart. While drawing from my life experience as wife, mother, nurse, and artist, I also find inspiration all about me, though it is in the stillness that I listen best. Then my own voice fades away, but not until I speak my heart to God. In solitude, the world does seem to stand aside for the whisper or thunder or just the beating of my heart.
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Showing posts with label United States of America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label United States of America. Show all posts
11/5/13
Church Believes in Cures That Don't Sacrifice Life - Catholic Culture
There is a great deal of confusion in our society about stem-cell research. An important distinction must be made about embryonic stem-cell research that kills innocent human life and adult stem-cell research that doesn\'t.
The Catholic Church opposes embryonic stem-cell research but strongly supports adult stem-cell research. Opponents of the Church have branded us as being opposed to science and indifferent to those who suffer from illnesses. But we support ethically responsible scientific research and are very committed to searching for cures, as long as it doesn\'t kill human life.
This is indeed a pro-life issue. We believe that there are strong ethical issues involved here. Even a small embryo is a human being. We all started out as embryonic stem cells. To harvest embryonic stem cells — even to help human life — is wrong because it kills the embryo. It means in effect using tiny human body parts for scientific purposes.
The end does not justify the means.
We know that the genetic package is really complete when conception takes place and sonar pictures of the living infant in the womb clearly show human life as it grows and develops.
Human-life issues are the bedrock of our faith. Respect for life is central to Catholicism, and thus we defend every life where it is threatened — from conception to natural death. We are committed to a consistent ethic of life. Hence, we oppose abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, euthanasia and capital punishment. As a religious leader I have a serious obligation to share this teaching with others. I am aware that some will not agree.
Some will say that human embryos are in frozen storage and ultimately will be discarded anyway so why is it wrong to try and get some good out of them? Well, in the end we will all die anyway, but that gives no one the right to kill us.
These embryos will not die because they are inherently unable to survive, but rather because others are choosing to hand them over for destructive research instead of letting them implant in their mother\'s womb. The idea of experimenting on human beings because they may die anyway also imposes a grave threat to convicted prisoners, terminally ill patients and others.
We can all support many kinds of exciting and forward-looking avenues of stem-cell research, like umbilical cord and adult stem-cell research, with a clear conscience. These treatments have been a great help to people with Parkinson\'s disease, spinal cord injury, sickle cell anemia, heart damage, corneal damage and dozens of other conditions. There are scholars and experts who would say there is much more hope to develop cures from adult stem-cell research than from embryonic stem cells.
Embryonic stem-cell research will certainly lead to the creation of cloned human embryos — which also raises serious ethical problems.
via Library : Church Believes in Cures That Don't Sacrifice Life - Catholic Culture.
PROTECT ABQ WOMEN & CHILDREN APPLAUDS ARCHBISHOP MICHAEL J. SHEEHAN
PROTECT ABQ WOMEN & CHILDREN APPLAUDS ARCHBISHOP MICHAEL J. SHEEHAN, ARCHDIOCESE OF SANTA FE, FOR COMING OUT IN FULL SUPPORT OF THE PAIN CAPABLE UNBORN CHILD PROTECTION ORDINANCE
09/27/2013
Statement by Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan on Late Term Abortion
ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Friday, September 27, 2013-- - IMMEDIATE RELEASE
—Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan has issued the following statement:
The Archdiocese of Santa Fe congratulates the grass root efforts of so many to place a late term abortion ban on the ballot of the City of Albuquerque. This achievement demonstrates the people’s will to defend life. As Archbishop of Santa Fe, I encourage all the people of Albuquerque to support the proposed ordinance to ban late term abortion after the 20th week. These children are able to feel pain and suffer greatly when aborted. The campaign to pass this proposal will bear much fruit. First, if the ordinance passes, it will protect children. Second, the energy, time, and resources dedicated to the campaign will educate the public. I daily meet people who are shocked to know that New Mexico permits late term abortion. The public will be educated as to the reality of what is happening in our State. New Mexico now attracts those seeking late term abortions from around the Country because of the lack of laws. During this campaign many people will learn the immorality of abortion and some children’s’ lives will be saved by the education of their parents. I hope the State Legislature will pass a Statewide Bill banning late term abortion, given the support in Albuquerque. Please join me in supporting this effort with energy, time, and resources. Together we can get out the vote on November 19, 2013. Most Rev. Michael J. Sheehan Archbishop of Santa Fe
7/18/13
Renew the Face of the Earth
Jesus, henceforth,
Live my life
In blessed union with me,
And accept my every breathe and exertion,
As Your own witness to the Father.
Pour, through me, the graces,
That change the world,
In the power of the Holy Spirit,
So that I be a portal
In Creation's web,
As gateway,
That Heaven may flow,
Entering Matter and Time,
As on Your Altar,
That I may say with Paul,
"I live, no longer I,
But Christ lives in me,"
To the glory of God, the Father,
God, the Son,
And God, the Holy Spirit.
Command angels fly to the aid
Of this fallen land,
As ever fresh Redemption,
Fighting Your battles in the air,
And announcing Truth,
To renew in You,
Those who You have not left orphans.
The lowly exalt You,In the garden of Earth.
As we sing Your praise,
Turn up the volume of Your Word,
That even the deaf may hear.
Issue edicts of Love,
That, at Your command,
We be Holy,
As The Father is Holy,
And You are Holy.
Holy, holy, holy.
You dedicate Yourself, eternally,
To our sanctification,
That by Faith and "Fiat"
All creation blossom forth,
A New Heaven
And New Earth,
And Your rein recognized,
And the Lie undone,
Triumphantly in the Son.
© 2013 Joann Nelander
6/6/13
Abortion Battle Kicks Into High Gear in New York | Daily News | NCRegister.com
The release of the Women’s Equality Act drew a sharp response from the Church in New York and its pro-life allies. A statement signed by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and the bishops of the New York Catholic Conference declared Cuomo was expanding access to abortion, easing all restrictions on late-term abortion and leaving women without any legal protection from forced or coerced abortion.
“As the pastors of more than 7.2 million Catholic New Yorkers, we fully oppose this measure and urge all our faithful people to do the same, vigorously and unapologetically,” they stated. “We invite all women and men of good will to join in this effort and defeat this serious attempt to expand abortion availability in our state and to codify the most radical abortion proposals of any state in the nation.”
The Register obtained a copy of an analysis of Cuomo’s bill prepared for the New York Catholic Conference, which indicates the Women’s Equality Act expands abortion even more than the language from the Reproductive Health Act, which many pro-life advocates believed would be reflected in the bill. The Reproductive Health Act is a stand-alone bill that would make abortion a “fundamental right” in New York state law, but it has never achieved enough support on its own in the state Legislature to become law.
“The new language accomplishes the same result with less limitations,” the analysis notes. It explains that the Women’s Equality Act, in adopting Roe’s broad health exception (which Roe’s companion Doe v. Bolton case said includes “all factors — physical, emotional, psychological, familial and the woman’s age — relevant to the well-being of the patient”) would essentially mean abortion on demand up to the moment of birth.
The analysis notes the state Health Department would have the power to qualify non-doctors to perform abortions and even late-term abortions with the removal of the “duly licensed physician” requirement in the state penal law. Moreover, the analysis says that removal of abortion from the penal law would prevent prosecutors from going after domestic abusers who directly cause a pregnant woman to lose her unborn infant.
The analysis adds that the concerns over conscience protections remain, since the bill does not define whether “health-care provider” includes health-care institutions, individuals or both. It says that Catholic schools and charities could still find themselves faced with the choice of referring for abortion or losing state contracts and licenses that keep their doors open.
12/22/12
2012 Landscape Dreams Photo Contest Winners
Thank you to all who voted in the contest, especially if you voted for my sister's entry or mine.
My sister, Bernadette Buechler, is the First Prize Winner. Go Sis! Here is her photo entitled:
"Sunset Tapestry Over White Sands:
Also a winner, yours truly. Again thank you for your vote.
I am listed as "Lelander" in the winners list, but honestly, that's me, and that is, NELANDER, thank you very much!
Here's my winning photograph, entitled:
"Sunset Majesty"
Here's the list:
11/13/12
Rank and File
O God, that I may do my part.
All are arrayed for battle.
I am enjoined
Rank and file
In readiness.
Command us!
Vigilant and faith
Unconstrained,
We press forward,
Lean upon You
And desire all that You Are,
Our only rest,
Your consummate End,
With Your Spirit
We praise Your Glory
In the triumphant shout.
Alleluia!
11/11/12
Veterans Day–Passion of a Warrior
When did his passion begin?
Did it commence with the kiss
By which he bid his loved ones adieu.
Or did the call to battle
Bid him count the cost,
Shattering vanities and proud hoorahs,
With winter ice
Through veins
Piercing to the marrow of bone.
Did it commence with the kiss
By which he bid his loved ones adieu.
Or did the call to battle
Bid him count the cost,
Shattering vanities and proud hoorahs,
With winter ice
Through veins
Piercing to the marrow of bone.
The Call was always greater
Than one man’s valor or presumption.
Holier than Adam could undertake in rage,
Yet a young David found an “Amen”
Rising within his shepherd- breast,
Shielded by hope and faith
Born of a Savior,
Borne into battle
By the foal that carried Him forth.
Than one man’s valor or presumption.
Holier than Adam could undertake in rage,
Yet a young David found an “Amen”
Rising within his shepherd- breast,
Shielded by hope and faith
Born of a Savior,
Borne into battle
By the foal that carried Him forth.
All battles,
Waged for the souls of men,
Find common ground;
Friend and foe,
Dying side by side.
As grains numbered as the sand,
And the blood,
Bridle high at Armageddon,
Corpses piled and claiming
The best among us,
As generations of spent warriors’ might,
Trust to God
To judge the heart of every man,
And wear his colors in His raiment.
Waged for the souls of men,
Find common ground;
Friend and foe,
Dying side by side.
As grains numbered as the sand,
And the blood,
Bridle high at Armageddon,
Corpses piled and claiming
The best among us,
As generations of spent warriors’ might,
Trust to God
To judge the heart of every man,
And wear his colors in His raiment.
Memories, born as festering wounds,
Or toughened scars,
Mark the man and record the Passion.
No jot or tiddle forgotten,
Fingered on the ground,
Condemning only the Accuser.
Or toughened scars,
Mark the man and record the Passion.
No jot or tiddle forgotten,
Fingered on the ground,
Condemning only the Accuser.
Angels minister the balm of Gilead
As the dead live again,
And the living love
Through the Darkness.
Mended hearts,
Held to a measure,
Weighed on scales of Mercy.
Are blessed.
None forgotten,
All forgiven.
As the dead live again,
And the living love
Through the Darkness.
Mended hearts,
Held to a measure,
Weighed on scales of Mercy.
Are blessed.
None forgotten,
All forgiven.
How long? How long?
Martyrs witness the passion of the warrior,
And place merited crown,
And victor’s wreathe,
As a new name resounds,
Pronounced by the Mouth of God.
Martyrs witness the passion of the warrior,
And place merited crown,
And victor’s wreathe,
As a new name resounds,
Pronounced by the Mouth of God.
©2012 Joann Nelander
11/7/12
Hour of Darkness
To the Cross we go,
A Nation hanging,
Lifted on the wood,
Drying up, exposed,
Blood drained
In a hemorrhage
Of its young.
A Nation hanging,
Lifted on the wood,
Drying up, exposed,
Blood drained
In a hemorrhage
Of its young.
Did you watch?
We're you one
To wring your hands?
Were your hearts wrenched,
Or did you party
With the crowd
As the veil
Of the Temple
Was torn in two?
We're you one
To wring your hands?
Were your hearts wrenched,
Or did you party
With the crowd
As the veil
Of the Temple
Was torn in two?
Suffer the Moment
Hoping with Love,
That the curtain,
Was split
From top to bottom.
That even now,
In the darkest hour
Of choice's choosing,
When Herod has opened
Yet another womb,
Salvation is found in Crucifixion,
Still God will shine through
The gaping Wound in His Side,
As God is want to do.
Hoping with Love,
That the curtain,
Was split
From top to bottom.
That even now,
In the darkest hour
Of choice's choosing,
When Herod has opened
Yet another womb,
Salvation is found in Crucifixion,
Still God will shine through
The gaping Wound in His Side,
As God is want to do.
©2012 Joann All rights
reserved
©2012 Joann Nelander All rights reserved
Hour of Darkness (Read by author)
11/3/12
Just One More Day
Just One More Day
A Nation cries
In want of Thee.
Time hurries,
All the while consuming,
That which our hands have built.
Our plenty devoured
In furnaces of desire.
"More, give us more,
The engines roar. "
You wait,
That we might recognize
Your reign.
Your sun rises on each new day.
You are patient.
Wait, wait, wait....
Obedience is not our way.
We turn only blind eyes
And misprize chastisement's scourge.
We know only
The gates of Hell demand,
Demand our sacrifice,
Human sacrifice.
We do not deny them.
No place too sacred to invade.
Give the gods their due,
For they pay our way.
After all, we are only clay,
Living to be merry
One more day.
You speak of Love and Eternity.
Our bellies cry out "Now"
"Who needs Your Throne!"
Give us bread without God,
Our way,
Just one more day.
©2012 Joann Nelander All rights reserved
10/3/12
8/14/12
Who Is the Poorest of the Poor
Who is the poorest of the Poor?
Is it not the one deprived of womb?
Is it not the one gone unnamed?
Given a frame
But denied rightful claim,
Stripped bare of place,
No space to grow,
Deprived of a proper birth?
Is it not the one evicted,
Before drawing it's first breath,
Whose beating heart is silenced,
With the sanction of the Court!?
With privacy,
Lest the whole world hear it's cry?
Though a mother forget her child,
The Father of all fathers
Will not, no never, forget.
He has a place,
And a name,
For all the poor,
For the poorest
Of the poor,
Called "Beloved"
And "Poor No More".
©2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
7/31/12
Glory Dwelling in the Land
From my small domain,
A mere spot
On the face of the Earth,
Shine out!
Like a monstrance,
Held high before me,
Give light to a world
In need.
O You, my Eucharist,
Heart of Love
Rule my heart.
Soul of sanctity
Convert all peoples.
Holy Truth,
Go forth to illuminate the Nations.
Then shall the heavens witness,
Your "glory dwelling in the land."
©2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
7/15/12
King of All Nations
Cover your eyes,
Lest you look on evil.
Stop your ears
Lest the fowl word assail.
The unthinkable
Has come to pass.
The forbidden
Have come to be.
The very air carries
The Tempter's brood,
Sinister, in cloaked deceit.
Evil snakes in high places,
Surreptitious, in plans and plotting.
Look, and you will not see
The Perpetrator.
Sound the alarm,
But to meet mock outrage,
And the blind eye.
The pot once simmering
Has come to a boil,
No lid to contain,
No effort to constrain.
Prepare ye!
Prepare Ye!
With prayer,
And fasting,
Prepare ye!
From the Four Corners
Trumpet blasts,
Herald of battle,
A call to arms.
Arrows, tipped with prayer,
Fly heavenward,
Rising to hail the Almighty,
To bid bright Michael
To storm.
Let them descend as rain
To pierce the heart of Darkness
To rout the Foe
On the Terrible Day,
The Day of the Lord.
Mercy opens His Breast,
Revealing a Heart of Love.
Justice clothes the anawim
In plated armor.
Light from light
Fills the Earth
As Pentecost,
And Genesis meet.
A New Heaven
And New Earth to come,
As the King of All Nations
Arises in the East,
Prepared to mount His throne.
Prepare ye!
Prepare Ye!
With prayer,
And fasting,
Prepare ye!
©2012 Joann Nelander
All rights reserved
6/15/12
Then and Now – The Dilemma and the Dialog
It’s been fifty years, since I was first confronted by issues of life in the womb, and of choice conflicting with traditional morality. It’s an old story, but very personal, and fraught with emotional triggers. Then, I was a student nurse at Mt. Sinai Hospital, where Dr. Alan Guttmacher and Margaret Sanger were being hailed as super-heroes of Womankind. In a lecture presented to student nurses in our formative years, opinions were presented as fact. The class focused on birth control, under the banner of Women’s Health. A one-sided presentation of he hirMory of Planned Parenthood took center stage. I knew, then, the class was skewed, avoiding the issue, and immorality of abortion, which, in reality, eventually raises its ugly head in a unbi`Med arena.
I was silent, asked no questions, although I was aware that what was being said was not the whole, unadulterated story. The heroine, Margaret Sanger, in truth, wrote prolifically, revealing the underpinning of her eugenic philosophy. Her own words promote a foundational agenda more akin to racial cleansing, than savior of womankind. Her involvement in the Negro Project and speeches to the Klu Klux Klan should have been red flags stripping her of any moral authority. She was, and, is no hero, to at least half our Nation.
Yet, fifty years, and Sanger’s own words, have not deterred Planned Parenthood from canonizing her, and striving to re-write her actual history. Then, I didn’t know her history; I do now.
You can find Sanger’s writings online, as well as ample examples of her questionable associations and eugenic thought processes. I wish I knew all this years ago, for my experience of the lecture left me feeling that my inexperience and naiveté, made me vulnerable to propaganda. I was not prepared to confront the status quo, and those in authority, even at this level, in a teaching venue.
Well, it has been fifty years, and in reading our Alumnae News, spring 2012, an article entitled, “The Past- Planned Parenthood from the Beginning” brought me back to that day and my dilemma. What bothered me most about the recent, well-meaning article was the writer’s voice that seemed to me to assume moral superiority. There is a false compassion that plays to emotionalism and worse case scenarios, and I heard it in the tone of this piece. It, yet again, presented its cast of characters as pioneer heroines, and their cause as above reproach. Yet, there are many Mt. Sinai alumnae, and millions of people in this country, who, in a just righteousness, also seek the welfare of women, desire to protect the living, the home, and the foundational fabric of society as guardians of family and the individual, and who do not agree with this stance, and suppositions made here. They are ignored in this article, as they were in the lecture of years ago.
Motherhood plays poorly, when pregnancy is portrayed as an albatross hung about its neck. For a true dialog, and the Big Picture, the voice of the other side needs to be heard by student nurses and society as a whole, for the good of women and society. It is a necessary and rational voice, lifted to oppose, what it views as a pseudo-sophisticate, myopic view presented as progressive. This other valid voice addresses life issues compassionately, while being circumspect and prophetic, speaking for, and caring for, the good of the person and humanity. It, too, takes a moral stance that is unselfish, sometimes unpopular, and honors the wisdom of cultures and the sages of present and past ages. Dismissive attitudes do no justice to truth and learning. Student nurses, and society as a whole, deserve the whole truth. Our personal humanity hangs in the balance.
I, for one, want a voice, not a label. I’ll stand with those that reject a culture, in which truth doesn’t matter, that seeks the material over life, “whose morality is only a mask, which covers confusion and destruction”1and in doing so comes dangerously close to denying the Creator of life.
Our motto, “Vota Vita Nostra”, “We devote our lives,” speaks not only to our personal decision, but to there being One, and a cause, greater than ourselves, worthy of sacrifice, and our dedication, greater even than the Mt. Sinai from which we ventured forth, will never forget, and now are carrying into this day and this hour of history. Keep it real. Keep it honest. Listen for truth with the heart of a nurse.
© 2012 Joann Nelander
I was silent, asked no questions, although I was aware that what was being said was not the whole, unadulterated story. The heroine, Margaret Sanger, in truth, wrote prolifically, revealing the underpinning of her eugenic philosophy. Her own words promote a foundational agenda more akin to racial cleansing, than savior of womankind. Her involvement in the Negro Project and speeches to the Klu Klux Klan should have been red flags stripping her of any moral authority. She was, and, is no hero, to at least half our Nation.
Yet, fifty years, and Sanger’s own words, have not deterred Planned Parenthood from canonizing her, and striving to re-write her actual history. Then, I didn’t know her history; I do now.
You can find Sanger’s writings online, as well as ample examples of her questionable associations and eugenic thought processes. I wish I knew all this years ago, for my experience of the lecture left me feeling that my inexperience and naiveté, made me vulnerable to propaganda. I was not prepared to confront the status quo, and those in authority, even at this level, in a teaching venue.
Well, it has been fifty years, and in reading our Alumnae News, spring 2012, an article entitled, “The Past- Planned Parenthood from the Beginning” brought me back to that day and my dilemma. What bothered me most about the recent, well-meaning article was the writer’s voice that seemed to me to assume moral superiority. There is a false compassion that plays to emotionalism and worse case scenarios, and I heard it in the tone of this piece. It, yet again, presented its cast of characters as pioneer heroines, and their cause as above reproach. Yet, there are many Mt. Sinai alumnae, and millions of people in this country, who, in a just righteousness, also seek the welfare of women, desire to protect the living, the home, and the foundational fabric of society as guardians of family and the individual, and who do not agree with this stance, and suppositions made here. They are ignored in this article, as they were in the lecture of years ago.
Motherhood plays poorly, when pregnancy is portrayed as an albatross hung about its neck. For a true dialog, and the Big Picture, the voice of the other side needs to be heard by student nurses and society as a whole, for the good of women and society. It is a necessary and rational voice, lifted to oppose, what it views as a pseudo-sophisticate, myopic view presented as progressive. This other valid voice addresses life issues compassionately, while being circumspect and prophetic, speaking for, and caring for, the good of the person and humanity. It, too, takes a moral stance that is unselfish, sometimes unpopular, and honors the wisdom of cultures and the sages of present and past ages. Dismissive attitudes do no justice to truth and learning. Student nurses, and society as a whole, deserve the whole truth. Our personal humanity hangs in the balance.
I, for one, want a voice, not a label. I’ll stand with those that reject a culture, in which truth doesn’t matter, that seeks the material over life, “whose morality is only a mask, which covers confusion and destruction”1and in doing so comes dangerously close to denying the Creator of life.
Our motto, “Vota Vita Nostra”, “We devote our lives,” speaks not only to our personal decision, but to there being One, and a cause, greater than ourselves, worthy of sacrifice, and our dedication, greater even than the Mt. Sinai from which we ventured forth, will never forget, and now are carrying into this day and this hour of history. Keep it real. Keep it honest. Listen for truth with the heart of a nurse.
© 2012 Joann Nelander
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