Illum oportet crescere, me autem minui

Just another Catholic blog, trying to do some good and learn some stuff. Please pray for me if you can spare a moment.

[oatmilfcoffee]

“Be so full of love, it overflows from you like rain. You never know who is living in a desert and is in need of water.”

— a.k. (via alunit)

[worshipgifs]

You’ve never shed an unnoticed tear. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground apart from your Father. And you are more precious to him than many sparrows. Words by Scott Hubbard

[eternal-echoes]

They deceive themselves who believe that union with God consists in ecstasies or raptures, and in the enjoyment of Him. For it consists in nothing except the surrender and subjection of our will - with our thoughts, words and actions - to the will of God.

Saint Teresa of Avila (via catherine-of-alexandria)

[prolifeproliberty]

Pro-Life Vocabulary 101

Things not to say:

“She/you should have kept her/your legs closed.”

“How hard is it to not have sex?”

“Just give it up for adoption.”

“Pro-choicers are evil/sickos/murders”

(To a post-abortive woman)

“You’re a murderer.”

“You’re going to hell.”

“You’re sick.”

Things you can/should say:

“Abortion kills a child and harms a mother.”

“You have other choices.”

“There is help and support for you.”

(To a post-abortive woman)

“There is forgiveness for you.”

“There are people who want to help you.”

“Feeling a wide range of emotions after an abortion is to be expected.”

(To pro-choicers)

“Can I have a dialogue with you about the abortion issue?”

“Let’s find common ground and build from there.”

“Let’s clarify our language so we’re communicating effectively.”

“How can we help women in crisis without killing their children?”

“What resources does our community lack?”

“How can we help meet the real needs of women and families in our community?”

[hislittleflower-throughconcrete]

Thank you for writing this. 

I unfortunately said two of those “not to say” things (just stop having sex, just give it up for adoption - it’s “simple!”) quite a lot as a teenage pro-lifer. I didn’t understand that even though those things are simple, they are by no means easy to accomplish for many people, and are honestly so unhelpful. The goal is to help and support women, children, and families in crisis.

That’s what gets so blurred in passionate, idealistic (well meaning) pro-lifers in the beginning: you get so distracted by defending life to loud and deliberately offensive pro-choice individuals who call the human fetus a parasite infringing on bodily autonomy (a mere fraction and misrepresentation of the collective pro-choice population) that you lose sight of the fact that that’s not the fight. Defending life through debate should always, always be secondary (or, dare I say, significantly less important) compared to actually helping women in crisis pregnancies. Pro-choice people are not enemies. The culture of death is the enemy. Pro-choicers, pro-lifers, post-abortive women, aborted children, children of unplanned pregnancies, rape victims, crumbling families, mourning fathers - in the war of the culture of death, we are all casualties in our own way. 

[gouachevalier]

“It cannot be too often repeated that what destroyed the Family in the modern world was Capitalism. No doubt it might have been Communism, if Communism had ever a chance, outside that semi-Mongolian wilderness where it actually flourishes. But, so far as we are concerned, what has broken up households, and encourages divorces, and treated the old domestic virtues with more and more open contempt, is the epoch and power of Capitalism. It is Capitalism that has forced a moral feud and a commercial competition between the sexes; that has destroyed the influence of the parent in favor of the influence of the employer; that has driven men from their homes to look for jobs; that has forced them to live near their factories or their firms instead of near their families; and, above all, that has encouraged, for commercial reasons, a parade of publicity and garish novelty, which is in its nature the death of all that was called dignity and modesty by our mothers and fathers.”

— G.K. Chesterton, The Well and the Shallows (AD 1935) (via seen-through-blue)

[venisanctespiritusveni]

there seems to be no hope in my life and my spiritual director is going to be away for a long time

i don’t know what i’m doing i just wish God would finally take me

[marcphun]

Hey friends

I could use prayer for emotional healing

A lot has happened this year with friends and family. A lot of my core relationships are falling apart

But I hold on to the hope that Jesus is with me and all I need, in times of trouble and also when times are good

Thanks so much

[venisanctespiritusveni]

i feel really alone and abandoned and like nobody cares about my problems or my life, and my mental health is deteriorating in addition to some really horrible circumstances

i’m lost and i don’t know what to do, i want to pray but i’m finding it really difficult

please pray for me if you can

[prolifeapologist]

Pro-life is pro-woman.

[unbotheredmuse]

the other day my grandma told me, “when you and him are fighting, you both need to remember that it’s you two vs. the problem, not you vs. him.” and that hit me hard

[venisanctespiritusveni]

I honestly don't know what God wants for me and I keep forgetting to ask Him because I'm so busy being desperately lonely and unhappy Also I have so much to do and it all just seems hopeless, it's too much I keep thinking about suicide

[venisanctespiritusveni]

God, through sacraments and charismatic renewal, is keeping me alive. I know that He is greater than all my pain, but I don’t know how to make myself truly feel and know that.

[venisanctespiritusveni]

thank you to everyove who prayed or prays for me. you are in my prayers too. i am still struggling but i would really like to start using this blog again.

met a sister from the congregation i was hoping to enter and my heart broke. things are difficult and i don’t know what God wants for me, and it’s hard for me to wait to find out when everything seems to be falling apart.

[venisanctespiritusveni]

Everything in my life seems to be terrifying and an endless series of terrible, painful things. I need to believe constantly that God is with me and He will not fail even when everything and everyone else does, when I do, when things fall apart. Let me love You more, Lord, with every single breath, even when all I want to do is end the life You gave me. You know my purpose even if I don't.

[venisanctespiritusveni]

I’m sorry to resurface to ask for more help, but I’m very anxious, which is a mixture of real problems/dangers, and imagined or exaggerated things - I would greatly appreciate any prayers anyone could offer for me, regarding those issues as well as my emotional state in itself, the complex and difficult relationships in my life, and my next confession

Thank you so much in advance, I’m really afraid right now and not coping, and it doesn’t help that I have plenty to be genuinely scared about

I will pray for all of you too; I probably won’t know every person who might remember me in their prayers, but I know God will

I will try to return to this blog properly soon but for now I just had to ask for help because I’m struggling and you’ve all been so kind and have helped me so much with your prayers before

[venisanctespiritusveni]

Honestly have even more anxiety now after a conversation I've just had. It's like my worst fears are coming true one by one. Please, please pray for me and the people dear to me. I truly think only God can help us at this point but I know He can do anything. Please ask Him to bring His light, His love, His peace and His healing where it is needed.

[venisanctespiritusveni]

I'm sorry to resurface to ask for more help, but I'm very anxious, which is a mixture of real problems/dangers, and imagined or exaggerated things - I would greatly appreciate any prayers anyone could offer for me, regarding those issues as well as my emotional state in itself, the complex and difficult relationships in my life, and my next confession Thank you so much in advance, I'm really afraid right now and not coping, and it doesn't help that I have plenty to be genuinely scared about I will pray for all of you too; I probably won't know every person who might remember me in their prayers, but I know God will I will try to return to this blog properly soon but for now I just had to ask for help because I'm struggling and you've all been so kind and have helped me so much with your prayers before

[just-shower-thoughts]

There will be many people,who over the next couple of days will be experiencing a hard and difficult time alone. Thoughts and best wishes are with you. Take care.