Monday 18 November 2013

March for Women October 20th 2013, Victoria Australia


 

 Dear friends, eight days following the March for the Babies, another march was held in Melbourne in the suburb of Brunswick and this march was held in memory of a young woman Jill Meagher who was murdered in September 2012 and a now global movement called “Reclaim the Night.”

 This march to reclaim the streets and make it safe for women to walk day and night without fear of assault and even murder as with Jill Meagher and other victims. Again the number of marchers was about 3000 with marchers carrying signs and shouting “no violence” “five, six, seven, eight, end the violence end the hate” was the chant! And I need to ask where these chanters were the previous week? Or were they same ones who hurled abuse at the pro lifers who were also marching for the safety of babies and women. Where were these protestors who are demanding that they have a right to walk on the street without being attacked and of course rightly so?

“We have a right to go out at night and feel safe” said one young lady being interviewed.  What about an infant in the womb and his/her right to feel safe?  What about the marchers for the babies and their right to feel safe from being abused and harassed by the rent a crowd?  There is that word “right” again but it’s a pity that this “right” is only for a select crowd and not for everyone.
 What is the difference between this march and the march for the babies? Dear friends the difference is visibility.  Jill Meagher and other young victims are

visible, known, and media heightened whereas the infant in the womb is invisible and is dependent on own mother and father to want or not want it.  The infant is also beautiful. Is also being killed. Is also vulnerable but the media and the rabble have no
respect for the newly created life and so it is up for being killed because “womyn’s rights” say that “womyn” can choose to take their child to die without being disturbed. These “womyn” do not see the “violence and the hate” underpinning abortion.
 
For the infants in the womb there is no “five, six, seven eight, end the violence end the hate”
The March for the babies clearly showed that violence and hate are alive and well in Melbourne, the “world’s most liveable city” especially when it comes to violence and hatred of in utero babies and those who would march to defend their right to be born and to enjoy their own life. 
A anti violence advocate, during the march to reclaim the streets, said in interview that violence against women occurred all the time at the hands of violent men. Indeed!
However, violence against in utero babies happens 50,000,000 times a year globally and over 100,000 in Australia yearly and unless we as a society understand the underlying violence which makes up our society beginning with violence against the smallest and frailest, and this violence demanded by its own parents, then the violence that occurs to other women and men and youth in the streets, in homes, in schools, in playgrounds, in cyberspace, should not come as a surprise. 
 
Violence permeates all our modern society because if it becomes permissible to kill the smallest of innocents with impunity, the frail, the disabled, then the only differences are of size, visibility and perhaps of physical appearance (beauty), then the streets will not become safe no matter how many chants. 
 
The streets will become safe when we as a society begin to honour and respect all life.  Until then no amount of chanting “five, six, seven eight, end the violence, end the hate” will not end the violence or the hate because to have killed an in utero child is to commit violence and have hate for life as the reason.
 
 
 
 

Sunday 27 October 2013

Book Review

Dear friends perhaps you might like to read this review.
I loved it.  Thank you Edward and Crisis Magazine.

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/god-man-and-abortion-a-new-summons-to-hope


Anne

Wednesday 16 October 2013

March for Babies protest-attack by anti lifers.


 

Saturday’s March for the Babies and the ensuing craziness and behaviour of pro abortion lobby gives grave concern not only for freedom of all of us  in Victoria but sets precedent for other states to be brought into disarray by those who would have a different opinion.  My right to march quietly and show support for babies who die daily at the hands of so called doctors was  compromised forever I believe. The police commissioner should hang his head in shame for not thinking that those of us who value in utero babies have a right to be protected from the violence heaped on us by a rabble mob. Had he and his underlings respected my /our right, and the right of those of us who believe that the Abortion Law of 2008 is wrong,  there would have been open protection  of those of us who were pelted, shoved, pushed, abused.  The reality was that the few police who were there were just  a“token” effort. Imagine not one arrest made of those who shoved, pushed, felled, abused the silent pro lifers inclding little ones and elderly, and this atrocity in broad daylight, on a beautiful saturday afternoon,  in “the world’s most liveable city.”  A precedent and fuel  ensured for the coming years. 

 The new law ensures abortion of babies to 40 weeks, that is full term,  when we know that infants who are wanted and are helped can survive as premature as 21 weeks.  The law and law makers in Victoria are assinine.  the law needs to be repealed immediately, this will remove  (in time) the fuel of pro abortion lobby who are now beginning to speak about “4th trimester abortion” (that is  death of babies up to 3 months after birth).   The Slippery slope has indeed been rewaxed and made more slippery. 

Further to the chaos which was the March for the Babies, we have in the new abortion laws a removal of right of conscience of doctors and medical staff to refuse to participate in an abortion.  Imagine! the Government telling us how our conscience must be dictated to by them. My own barometer for decision making removed because the Law says so.  That is what Sect. 8 of the new abortion laws does. A doctor cannot refuse to participate in an abortion, encourage a woman to rethink her decision, offer alternatives,  without threat to his own career and livelihood as we have seen with Dr Hobart and several others who have been targeted by the Medical Board.  Is this what Victoria has come to? A new socialist state?
Sect 8. which intrudes on conscience needs immediate repealing because if this continues then the future means that the government can order to  euthanase first infants and then others who do not fit criteria for making money.  “Caesar” has violently taken control of what belongs to God....life, and we are seeing the after effects of this usurping.

Saturday 5 October 2013

Forgiveness for the post abortive woman


 

To forgive means to be able to see the humanity of the other. Distorted at times. Discoloured at times. Disfigured at times, but still humanity.  To forgive  someone who has wronged does not mean that what was done was acceptable or should go unpunished but rather to cut the chords which keep on binding the wounded one with the one who has wounded.  It is these toxic ties, which continue to re wound.  The chords can be cut using more violence or by forgiveness.  Violence adds to the wounds a new dimension of pain.  Forgiveness says “no more.  you have no more power over me.  You cannot harm me again” but refrains from hurting the other. Again this adds to the dimension of humanity of both  the victim, and the perpetrator.

That’s why forgiveness is healing especially to the wounded.  Compassion and forgiveness means sharing with another their load, walking alongside, so that humanly speaking the load is lightened.  The prisoner chained in pain is still a human person in pain and chained but who still needs bandaging.

Remembering that a post abortive woman/man will suffer from lack of self esteem. Her own dislike of herself.  The barrier, which existed between herself and everyone else.  Her sense of having “lost” herself. Her belief that she is not worth living or helping.  At times even her own comments “I have killed my baby...I am a murderer I don’t deserve anything”   Her continual need to “disappear” to a “safe place” (mentally) when life difficulties arise and in that place she cannot see her life experience and her decision.  Her compulsive need to wash her hands (sense of feeling guilty  and dirty)  and her lips (because she agreed and said YES to the abortion) All these need to be recognised as signs that she cannot forgive herself and needs help in this area of her life. To begin to forgive herself so she can forgive others who “forced” “encouraged” “urged” “made” her have the abortion.  Even the medical profession who carries out these procedures.

Over time much has to be spoken about and explored and forgiven and then let go.  Many losses discussed and wept over and let go.   Loss of security. Loss of normal life without abortion in the history. Loss of femininity, loss, of confidence in mothering, loss of motherhood, loss of place in family...many losses. 

But most importantly helping the woman to see herself as good person beginning from when she was a child. To see that little girl, that continued to make progress and grow, and that the abortion, terrible as it was, has given her a new  but different opportunity at life.  An opportunity to begin again but as a different person (a mother) because now she has known suffering and loss as only a parent can know,  and has come through it, not without scars, but different because of her suffering.  She cannot go back to a time pre abortion, but she can continue in another  but equally good way. The Way of forgiveness. The Way of Jesus.

Friday 20 September 2013


Book Launch September 17th 2013 Parliament House Sydney Australia.

 

Dear friends, since last newsletter I have also had a wonderful experience of having my book Redeeming Grief, Abortion and its Pain, (Sec. Ed) launched in the New South Wales Parliament House. It was launched by the Hon. Mr Paul Green member of the Legislative Council, and all this organised by his very beautiful personal assistant Yvette Hanna.

Mr Green had very obviously read the book, that is, not just the back cover as sometimes happens, because he seemed to know all the topics covered.  His words of commendation and encouragement nearly made my heart burst with pride that we have such good members who represent us.

Thank you Paul I very much appreciated everything you said and a huge thank you to Yvette who amongst all the work of a personal assistant also organised this beautifully.

I would also like to say a big thank you to the Rev Fred Nile MLC for his presence and other distinguished guests. Thank you also to Kath and Carolyn who travelled hundreds and hundreds of kilometres from Canberra to be present.  There were others there but I didn’t recognise them except Ray. Thanks Ray Wood. 

A final big thank you to my publisher (Freedom Publishing) for assisting in all ways to make things happen.

I hope that this book finds its way into a million hands. It really is a hope filled book which explains that abortion grief is not to be despised, hidden, denied but accepted as a “good” kind of grief experienced because of love and loss and a grief needed so that an aborted baby does not pass by unnoticed and the mother has a chance to openly grieve for her loss. Not the manner of the dying BUT the dying of her child.  This is utterly important.
 

Wednesday 11 September 2013

Voice for Life Conference New Zealand September 6-7, 2013


Dear Friends,
Have just returned from Voice for Life  conference in Dunedin, New Zealand where I gave two talks and  fielded a session (forum) of questions and answers.
It was a marvellous conference full of life, energy and dynamic speakers like  Hillary Kieft whose personal story is one of pain and victory and who will be a dynamic force for life.
Dr Chris Pemberton Research Associate Professor at the University of Otago, Christchurch School of Medicine, he is an Endocrinologist and has  many more accolades. His talk was on "The Beginning and the End  Euthanasia- Its on the radar:" Chris also spoke about abortion and what do medical students and neonatalogists think of this practice.
Another speaker Brendan Malone a really strong speaker on abortion and is involved in reaching out to the young through speaking at university and high school forums.  He speaks to the youth on matters of leadership, values and ethical issues. He is involved in pro life apologetics.  Brendan is so dynamic that it was easy to see why the youth would be attracted and encouraged to be involved. His obvious passion for apologetics  and life makes him really listen-able.
Other speakers were James Bedingfield and  his Pro life team from Hawkes Bay whose work in pro life began with the fetal models and now he and his team work to save babies from death.
Another two speakers were Kate and Jordan  who also do work of saving babies "I do not want to live in a town where the systematic destruction of the lives of precious children can take place silently without a word of protest" (Thank God for such thought).
I for my part did two talks, one on post abortion grief and a second on the similarities between the suffering of abortion grief and the suffering following sexual abuse and the link between sexual abuse and multiple abortions.  Both of the talks I think were well received especially the second one.
I particularly enjoyed the forum type third session 45 minutes (all the talks were about 45 minutes-50 minutes) where questions and answers are possible without "time constraints" as usual after a talk when only 3-4 questions are quickly permitted.
Anyway I want to thank Bernard Moran President of Voice for Life, New Zealand, and Steve Jauney, also Voice for Life, for the invitation and for looking after me so well.   Hope we meet again.
Anne

Thursday 22 August 2013

Asia Pacific Rim Conference August 16-19th 2013


Dear Friends, have just returned from 5 days in Malaysia (Kuching Sarawak) where I attended a conference the Asia Pacific Rim Counsellors and Psychotherapists Conference. I also delivered a paper on Post Abortion Grief.   I enjoyed the conference so much and made new friends and caught up with friends made at the same conference two years ago.
The venue, The Riverside Majestic Hotel was exquisite, I would recommend it to anyone and the people are so courteous. It was simply a great pleasure to be there.
For me, who works 5 1/2 days per week starting 7.30am and having long days, it was lovely to have nothing to do but to listen to talented speakers and hear how their journey in the world of counselling progresses. I also met several Victorians and we will be in touch to continue the friendship.

I think that the most important thoughts I brought back home are these, that what I am doing is good and correct, and this was confirmed by three different people at different times of the conference who said "Anne you really are a strong person aren't you?"  I didnt know what to answer because mostly I dont feel strong or powerful I feel very vulnerable and alone and a lot of the time "lonely" in this work,  and the other thought I brought back is that the style of counselling I practice is very very good. It changes the brain. Talking to people changes the brain structure, and who I am as a therapist facilitates that brain change.

How interesting that the speaker who spoke on the science of the brain said "the brain developes within a few weeks after conception."  I imagined all the knowledge that has been lost through the abortions in society.  If the brain is one of the first organs to develop imagine the loss to us all, that the hundreds and hundreds of millions of aborted babies were not able to develop their brain and maybe find a cure for all our ills.  I wonder about the talent lost to selfishness of this society.

As always I have returned  with renewed vigor to continue not only to counsel, but to speak and write about abortion and the pain that this abomination causes not only to the baby, the woman and the man but to whole society who suffer an immense loss.

Sunday 21 July 2013

Requiescat In Pace






With great sadness I heard yesterday of the dying of a young priest Rev. Dr. Fr. Amin Abboud
whilst at a retreat in NSW on July 18th.  It appears that he died in his sleep, at this time thought  from a heart attack.

Fr Amin was 48 years of age of the Opus Dei Prelature. He was a Registered medical doctor, had a PhD in Moral Philosophy and a book on the moral philosophy of Peter Singer pending publication.
He had been a priest for only aa few years.

Rest in Peace dear Fr Amin and thank you for your strong witness to life.  Surrounded by the babies you were escorted home.

Anne

Monday 15 July 2013

Redeeming Grief-Abortion and its Pain.




Dear friends, my book Redeeming Grief is out at last both here in Australia and UK.
In Australia through Freedom Publishing and UK through Gracewing Publishing and I love some of the comments reviews being made.  Have a look at this one.  Yeah.....Anne



http://jasmineyow.wordpress.com/tag/anne-lastman/


Sunday 14 July 2013

Hail Holy Queen - Salve Regina


 

The prayer Hail Holy Queen which we pray after the Rosary is a most ancient prayer and beautiful. We declare that Mary the Mother of Jesus is "Holy" is "Queen" "Mother of all Mercy" (Jesus).
She is our "hope". We cry to Mary because before Mary's "Fiat" and the beginning of the work of our Redemption we were indeed "poor banished children of "Eve" (hawah-mother of all living) and in some ways we still are because we can no longer meet our creator face to face as "Eve" did in the garden. Today we meet our God and creator only with the eyes of faith. The Sin of Origins (of our first parents) deprived for us the experience of visual and "face to face" intimacy” (He walked with Adam in the cool of the garden) with Him. As we live on this earth and it is His joy and ours that we do so, we are deprived of the same intimacy of our "Father" as we have the visible and tangible intimacy with our own fathers. As all of us I have an intimacy with our children.
We sigh and are sad because of this barrier that prohibits us from embracing our Heavenly Father as we embrace our own living children.
"This Valley of Tears" is the earth and our life as we live it.
My own life is strewn with tears and all human beings in one way or another experience much sorrow and loss and the tears shed often feel like we could fill a whole valley with our tears (poetically). So collectively the tears of the human beings in our daily lives fill a whole valley and form a river and fill and top up the ocean.
"Turn then most gracious advocate thine eyes of Mercy towards us" A new title for Our Blessed Mother. Gracious Advocate. Remember Jesus on the Cross gave her to us as "our Mother" so we can turn to "our Mother" as we turn to our human mother for advocacy, for comfort, support, for intimate needs, so we turn to our heavenly mother for comfort for our soul’s needs, to help us to carry that heavy cross  like my own deeply regretted two decisions which changed the trajectory of my life.
"And after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb....Jesus"
And in this exile/banishment from the embrace and vision of my own true Father, we ask, "Mum, when we come to the end of this journey, would you take me by the hand and introduce me to your Son who gave you to me and who bought for me this new and intimate relationship with Our Father/my Father?
I believe wholly completely and totally that I receive the body, blood, soul and divinity of my Lord Jesus when I receive the Eucharist and as I said in the past if I close my eyes I can see the beauty of the light of my Lord Jesus of the Transfiguration. But it is only through the imagination and not the visual.
We are meant to be perfect as Our heavenly father is perfect, but the reality is that we are not and whilst we remain on this earth we can and do fail the ideal. None of us is sinless. We all sin and fall far short of the glory of God. However, for this and for the reason of His great love for us, He has left for us the remedy for this  our inclination towards failing the ideal.
Yes Jesus has conquered the Sin of World, but this knowledge has to be taken on board, acquired and made one's own and again the reality is that we are human beings who are frail and like St Paul says, I want to do good things but I fail.
The prayer "Hail Holy Queen" has written within it a most marvellous catechesis and if it could be "delivered" it would open the eyes of the soul. Within this catechesis, is the story of God, creation, sin, redemption and return to Our Father.
To the best of our knowledge seek Christ in His integrity, unbroken just as His mother and Father gave Him to us. This is what the journey is all about. Finding the Total and Whole and Complete Christ in His divine essence.
That we should love our enemy is a given. That we get hurt with our enemy's arrows, is also a given and in our labour to forgive is when we grow deeper in the dimension of the Cross and in the finding Christ in His integrity.


Thursday 11 July 2013

Marriage Covenant-a Heavenly Reality


MARRIAGE COVENANT -A HEAVENLY REALITY.

 In this decisive moment where marriage and family life is being challenged and threatened, it is important that we restate exactly what marriage is.  What constitutes marriage? And why it is so crucial to begin again to learn why marriage is a covenant between a male and a female.    Unless this happens then all other types of “marriage” become possible.  Just as some wish to redefine marriage to incorporate various combinations so those who believe marriage to be a covenant need to fight to reclaim and teach what is the true nature of marriage.  To this end understanding what is a covenant?  What is a contract? And what is the difference between the two and how this difference is the essence of a true marriage.

 Whilst it is important to enter into the fray to vigorously defend marriage via the legal system, political or even secular system, this is not the most important weapon for fighting this demonic attack against the future of humanity.  It is important, but not the most important.  Entering into the fray using the legal/secular system to win is almost a guarantee of losing, because the legal system seeks secular justice and not moral justice, and on a natural plane, justice demands that all, including those who have desires which are intrinsically wrong, are accorded this justice.  On the natural plane all things become possible as long as it appears that a good is being countenanced. We need to fight on our terms. That is, defending of God’s honour and justice,  and defending God’s idea of morality.   Unless this is done we may win minor scuffles, or even public debates, but the agenda for the destruction of marriage, family, life, remains in place.  To this end let us begin anew and relearn and rebuild what we understand to be an eternal covenant. 

 So what is a covenant and why is it important to see marriage as a covenant?

A secular understanding of the term “covenant” suggests that it is an agreement, with certain stipulations, which must be met by the covenant parties.  The reduction of the term “covenant” to such an understanding can and does cheat mankind of an understanding of “covenant” as something more than contract. 
The covenant idea is central to our knowledge of God and Scripture.  

While our society uses the terms “covenant” and “contract” interchangeably, the differences between them are profound. With a contract what is exchanged are “things” whereas with covenant what is exchanged is “essence of self”.  Contracts exchange the material.  Covenants exchange the essence of the human being.

D.J. McCarthy defines covenant, “ as a means by which the ancient world took to extend relationships beyond the natural unity of blood”.   To be related by blood means a familial relationship.  However, to extend this type of relationship, it is done via means of a covenant. Indeed covenant is a type of familial bond based on an oath.[1]  The Hebrew word for covenant berit means to “bind” or to “fetter” and in its etymology the word means to bind together by blood.(Lv 1:5e)  There is sacredness to the relationship, which is related by blood  or by extension, by covenant, because these relationships cannot be broken as the individuals are “fettered.”

 God’s word in scripture is based on a series of covenants. Indeed we see how important the covenant idea is to God, and how very much He is involved in the covenants which He establishes with His people.[2]  Through the covenants and under this symbol, God “binds” or ties Himself to the human family.  The relationship is sacred because it is based on God’s “binding” love for His family (Ps 100, 145, 150, 1Jn 4:7).  We can understand the covenants and the importance of them by looking at the progression of the covenant structures and how they “grew” from the first ever-made covenant which was a marriage covenant (Adam and Eve), followed by family covenant (Noah).  A tribal covenant (Abraham).  National covenant (Moses).  Kingdom covenant (David), and finally the definitive overarching universal covenant with Jesus His Son.  Over time, God instituted covenants and designed them so as to incorporate larger and larger dimensions of humankind until finally the definitive covenant with Jesus is made.  The new family begun by the new Adam (Jesus).  Through the covenants God established the means by which imperceptibly, He expanded and extended His relationship until the time when His unique and ultimate relationship in and through Jesus is fulfilled and sealed in and through the new covenant.

 To think of “covenant” it is also important to think about the concept of “oath.” These two terms appear interchangeably. (Ez 16:59, 17:13,16,18, Lk.1: 73, Mal 2: 14-17, Ps 105:8-9). There is an oath sworn when a covenant is made.  It is the oath, which unites individuals in a lifelong “fettered” covenantal relationship.  It is a promise of faithfulness in and to the relationship.   The words “I will” spoken by  the covenanting couple, (marriage) or by God, (to His people) “you are my people and I will be your God,” (Ez. 31:31)  are the pledge of  fidelity, “or sacred oath sworn by the faithful love with which Christ loves His Church and sanctifies her through His sacrificial love.”[3]   It is the love of God which is the bonding and binding agent which will reside within the covenanted parties in order to give strength and perseverance when it is required. 

 St. Augustine also understood St. Paul’s word “mysterion” to mean Sacramentum or “oath” which Jesus Christ swore for and on behalf of His bride.  As Adam had failed to protect his bride (Eve) and therefore not loving her into eternal life, so Jesus’ Sacramentum (oath) for an on behalf of His bride was that He would remain faithful to her until the end of time. (Mt: 28:20).  Fidelity to the Sacramentum (oath) ensured a re imaging of the bride into a reflection of the groom.  The Sacramentum of marriage was therefore not only a sacred sign of a divine reality but it was also a sacred bond between a husband and wife.” [4] The covenant, Sacramentum, because of its divine origin, could not be rendered empty or barren.  The covenant Sacramentum was until death and could not be dissolved, because it took on the character of family bond (chain, fetter) and therefore unbreakable.  Just as Jesus’ fidelity toward His bride is until death or until the “end of time” so too is the bond between a covenanted married couple, (male/female) unto “the end of time” (Mt. 28:20) and “Until death us do part” (marriage oath).

 Marriage was not always understood as a sacrament imbued with sacred properties, but it has been clearly understood from the beginning that marriage, was in the desires and designs of God. From the very beginning, marriage, relationship, and procreation was not cursed (Gn1-3) These were blessed and remained blessed.[5]   God blessed marriage, with a special blessing which makes clear its goodness “as proof of His blessing, receive from God, children who crowd about the family table.”[6]  Herein lies the difficulty with the newly sought-after redefinitions of marriage (same gender marriages) they cannot receive blessing from God because children cannot legitimately be awaited as a fruit of that blessing.  Children cannot crowd around the table because the relationship by the nature of the couple is inherently barren, illicit and fruitless.   Redefinitions cannot be blessed irrespective of how much or how many or how devoted are the desires or even the intentions of those calling for them.

 “Human marriage finds its eternal and proper reality, in the bridal relationship of God with His people.”[7] . With Jesus and His Bride. (male and female).   Perhaps in the mysterious nature of covenant, it may be possible to see why marriage is both indissoluble and between a man and a woman.  It is marital relationship unto death. It is a relationship of fecundity. It is steadfastness in the face of infidelity. The character of marriage covenant is one of fecundity, fidelity and steadfastness. Any one of these elements missing then renders the marriage covenant dissolvable and therefore not a fulfilled covenant..   Fecundity in a same gender marriage is decidedly impossible and therefore the union becomes not a covenant marriage, but instead a contracted association where goods and services, or even a friendship might be exchanged, but cannot be the two selves donating their essence to each other and creating of a new “other” because of the exchange. A friendship yes…marriage no.

 Jewish progressive understanding of their relationship to God was seen imaged “ not from human marriage to divine covenant but from divine covenant to human marriage.”[8]  So in Old Testament times the Hebrew people “gradually discovered an explicit place for marriage in the religious scheme of life.”[9]  Marriage for the Hebrew people gradually acquired a dimension of sacredness because a new meaning was read into the relationship between Yahweh and His people and Yahweh’s character, that is faithfulness, self-giving and steadfast love. “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you” (Jer 31:3 cf. Ez 16:63: Is 54:7-8).    The prophets Hosea, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Malachi turned frequently to the image of marriage “marriage became, as it were, a mirror in which something of God’s love was seen as reflected.” [10]

 The idea of covenant relationship is continued in the New Testament. The new covenant entered into by God and His people is facilitated through God’s own Son Jesus Christ and His redeeming action on Calvary. Through His death and resurrection Jesus established the new covenant in which He unites Himself to His people (1 Cor 11:25).  His blood sealed the covenant and fulfilled all the stipulations set out, “just as Moses sealed the Old Covenant in blood, from animals offered as “peace offerings” [11]
Old Testament covenants, whilst initiated by God Himself, always involved human responses and therefore temporary.   The New Testament espousal, between God and humankind has been accomplished by Jesus Christ and is eternal.  This covenant, and the relationship between the covenants partners Jesus and His bride, the Church, is assured because of His words “I am with you always” (Mt. 28:20). The new covenant may be seen in the context of the “great mystery” of God’s mighty acts in and through Jesus Christ and His mystical body the church.”  [12] 

 The new covenant of Jesus Christ is realized, actualized and consummated within His new creation.  In union with His spouse the Church they give birth to children for God’s Kingdom.  Children who have looked to the family and whose parents (Jesus and His bride the Church) can rest in the eternal Sabbath (sign of covenant).

 To understand covenants it must first be understood that covenants are not only what God “does” with human persons but also “what” God is.  God’s promises are kept because He is the promise itself and for humankind the promise was redemption through His own design and using what He had originally made, that is, the highest of His creation, the human person.  The history of covenants is the timeline of salvation and each new covenant took into account expansion of what He had made until finally in Jesus, He Himself, becomes what He has made, in order to fulfill His own promise to redeem. In Old Testament dispensation Yahweh God slowly emerged as the “Bridegroom” a symbol of divine fidelity unlike Adam (infidelity).  In the New Testament it is Jesus who is the “bridegroom.”  Jesus is the ultimate symbol of “bridegroom” because He is both the divine and the human bridegroom par excellence.  Jesus loves His “bride.” In death He gave birth to her, (Church) and with utmost fidelity He loves her.  Unlike Adam of old He dies for His bride in order to give birth to her and unlike Adam of old He “binds” Himself to her in faithfulness, and fruitfulness “in this sacrifice there is entirely revealed that plan which God has imprinted on the humanity of man and woman since their creation.”[13]  

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has this to say, “The entire Christian life bears the mark of the spousal love of Christ and the Church.  Already Baptism, the entry into the People of God is a nuptial mystery; it is so to speak, the Eucharist.  Christian Marriage in its turn becomes an efficacious sign, the sacrament of the covenant of Christ and the Church.  Since it signifies and communicates grace, marriage between baptized persons is a true sacrament of the New Covenant.” (CCC 1617)[14] Indeed it can truly be called a sacrament of the new covenant because it is a sacrament of persons in love with one another.    The covenant of marriage is a covenant preserved by one clause – love, faithfulness and endurance and this model of love is based upon the love of Christ (bridegroom) for His very own bride.   “It is the model and pattern of all human love.”[15]

 The late Blessed  Holy Father, John Paul II has seen marriage as the restoration of the “primordial sacrament” the perfect harmony of the “covenant” in creation in Eden- a covenant with God and between man and woman.  In the covenant of grace and election, God choosing us and espousing Himself to us.  St. Paul in Ephesians revealed marriage as the “sacrament of redemption.” [16]   By Baptism men and women, are drawn through marriage, into the eternal spousal covenant of Christ.  Matrimony is the sacrament of the new covenant because it is the sacrament of the great “mystery” (Eph 5:32) of Jesus Christ and His Church.

 Relationships, according to St. Paul, had to be lived in the Lord, the way Christ gave Himself in love to His bride the Church, and the Church received and submitted with the same love.  So too, human marriage was to have those same characteristics.  Donation in love is the supreme understanding.  Covenant love, both old and new, is underpinned by unhindered “donation” of self in a dimension of divine love.  Total, free, fruitful loving donation of self, is the mystery of love, because it is a reflection of a greater love, which is divine love.  Marriage as a Christian Sacrament draws on the theology of the covenant relationship between God and Israel, and Christ and the Church. 

Redefinition of marriage to incorporate other combinations (same sex and other types of coupling) is therefore illegitimate and cannot be called “marriage” because marriage in its original design (since time immemorial) has inscribed within it nuptial fecundity which is only possible between male and female. Not fecundity outside of the couple but as an encounter which forms one fruitful flesh.  It is in marriage that human beings are most like God (God self donates in love perpetually and is fruitfully) creative.  God blessed them and commanded them also to be fruitful and multiply. (Gn 1-3) In the natural plane same sex coupling and other coupling cannot be fruitful.  God designed one male and one female (Gn 1:27) so that they have natural affinity.  They have natural complimentarity. She is a part of him and he is a part of her but they are different.  They fit together.  They complete one another.  What is lacking in male is brought to him by the female. What is lacking in the female is brought to her by the male. (they socialize and humanize one another).   Together they form the “one flesh” which in due course is open to “one flesh” plus one new one, child fruit of marriage between one man and one woman, freely entered into and for the duration of life.

 

 


 

 

 

 








 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


[1] D.J. McCarthy, Treaty and Covenant: A Study in Form in the Ancient Oriental Documents and in
   The Old Testament, Anacleta Biblica 21a (revised text) Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome, 1978,
   Pp 253,256,295,296. cited in P.J. Elliott, What God Has Joined…pp 175
[2]   M.G. Lawler, Secular Marriage, Christian Sacrament, (Mystic: Twenty-third Publications, 1985) p8
   
[3]   B. Haring, C.SS.R. The New Covenant (London: Burns & Oates) p 203.
[4] Martos, J. Doors to the Sacred (London: SCM Press 1981) p407
[5]   A.G. Martimort, The Signs of the New Covenant (Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1963) p282
[6]   A.G. Martimort, The Signs of the New Covenant, p282, 283
[7]  R.Haughton,  The Theology of Marriage  p21
[8]  M.G. Lawler, Secular Marriage, Christian Sacrament, p 11
[9]  R. Haughton, The Theology of Marriage
[10] Geoffrey Robinson, “God’s Plan for Marriage, in Marriage and Nullity: A Guide to the Annulment
    Process in the Catholic Church.  (Melbourne: CollinsDove, 1989) pp1-13
[11] P.J Elliot,  What God Has Joined…The sacramentality of Marriage (Homebush: St. Paul, 1990) p173
  
[12] P.J. Elliott, What God has Joined… p 174
[13] John Paul II Familiaris Consortio: The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern       world.(Homebush: St. Paul Publications, 1982)  p 26
[14] Catechism of the Catholic Church.  Official Edition for Australia & New Zealand (Homebush:
     St. Paul Publications, 1994)
[15] Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II. (Homebush: St. Paul
    Publications, 1988) p92.
[16] Elliott, P.J., What God has Joined… p 175

Wednesday 26 June 2013

The complimentarity of his body and her body, fulfilment.



Dear friends at a conference in Brisbane recently, a colleague gave me a copy of these words by
Anais Nin, which I found so deep and beautiful that I want to share them with you. I hope you also see them as beautiful as I do.

"Man can never know the loneliness a woman knows.
Man lies in the woman's womb only to gather strength,
he nourishes himself from this fusion, and then he rises
and goes into the world, into his work, into battle, into art.

He is not lonely. He is busy. The memory of the swim in
the amniotic fluid gives him energy, completion.

Woman may be busy too, but she feels empty.
Sensuality for her is not only a wave of pleasure in which she is
bathed, and a charge of electric joy at contact with another.

When man lies in her womb, she is fulfilled, each act of love
a taking of man within her, an act of birth and rebirth,
of child rearing and man bearing.  Man lies in her womb and is
reborn each time anew with a desire to act, to be.

For a woman, the climax is not in the birth, but in the moment
man rests inside of her."

Anais Nin,  The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol 1: 1931-1934.

Sunday 9 June 2013

Book Launch

Hello dear friends

Don't forget the launching of my book Redeeming Grief (2nd Ed) Abortion and Its Pain,   to be held on Tuesday night  11th June 2013  at the offices of the Publisher Freedom Publishing
 http://freedompublishing.com.au/visitbookshop.php

Address: 2nd floor,  35 Whitehorse Rd, BALWYN, VIC, 3103
Phone: (03) 9816 0888
Email: orders@freedompublishing.com.au

Time:   7.30pm.   

I will be there and will be happy to sign book.

For Interstate readers of blog there will be a launch in Parliament House on Sept. 17th
More on this as we come closer to the date.

Hope to see you Tuesday night.

Love
Anne

Friday 24 May 2013

World Congress of Families -Sydney-2013

Well the world Congress of Families, Sydney, Australia, 2013 has come and gone and indeed what an amazing event it was.  We know when something is amazing because on the final day there was a sense of sadness. A feeling of ending. A low feeling. A sense that we had to say goodbye to previously known friends from other nations and newly made friends also from other nations and from states within Australia.
I went to the Congress in Madrid in 2012 and it was so good that I wanted to repeat the experience however, after going to our own I definitely want to repeat it again in Russia in 2014.
The speakers were excellent each bringing an area of expertise in family issues, fatherhood, motherhood, family, its challenges, its joys and times its sorrows.  The keynote speakers held the listeners enthralled, the various religious denominations mingled happily together each with the health and well being of family in mind.
In Sydney over 600  delegates over three full days listened to a  authoritative speakers on family, marriage and related issues. Dr Carlson (Founder of Congress) and other international keynote speakers such as  Bradford Wilcox, Janice Shaw Crouse, Steve Mosher, Patrick Fagan, Miriam Grossman, Ian Grant, Larry Jacobs, Ted Baehr, and Bob McCoskrie. Fr "Jay" Szymczak (Poland) and others.
Australian keynote speakers included   His Eminence Cardinal George Pell,  Bishop Peter Elliott,  The Hon. John Anderson AO (former member of parliament) Ian Harper, Patrick Parkinson and others. A further large number of  Australian and other nation speakers were also included in conurrent sessions, Sharon Slater, William May, Warwick Marsh, Rabbi Shimon Cowen, Peter Westmore, Pat Byrne, Paige Patterson, David Phillips, Miranda Devine, David van Gend, John Ballantyne and Bob Day.Byron & Francine Pirola, Bill Muellenburg and many many more including yours truly.
Congratulations to Babette and the late Charles Francis for the Lifetime award for their work for the family and other life issues.
The theme of this WCF was “Happy Families, Healthy Economy: A New Vision for National Prosperity and Social Progress.” Each and every speaker in one way or another showed how the well-being and health of families leads directly to the well-being of nations. Healthy, functioning men and women creating happy families make for healthy, functioning societies, while broken dysfunctional  families result in volatile economies, volatile generations and  countries in decline.
Attending a congress of this nature helps to make clear our need to reclaim, relearn, and renew what we know as family.  It helps us to understand that the future always depends on the "now" and how the "now" is treated.
Congratulations to the organisers  headed by Mrs Mary Louise Fowler and her very able colleagues for bringing together  this  really spectacular Sydney 2013 World Congress of Families and best of luck and best wishes to the Russian delegates who took home to Russia the banner to prepare for the next congress in 2014 in the Kremlin.  Imagine! where once not so nice things came out of the Kremlin, next year the Kremlin will host World Congress of Families.
Indeed miracles do happen.
If possible please buy any of the talks which might be of interest to you.  They are really worth hearing.
as a PS: The entertainment was also distinct and magnificent. Meet and greet cocktail, formal dinner overlooking dalring harbour(with Ken Duncan putting on a display of his work) the screening of Return to the Hiding Place with producer and star there, singing by Tongan youth choir, singing of Congress theme song, fashion parade (beautiful) so there was something for all.
Anne

Friday 29 March 2013

Will You Wait a While?


“Will you walk into Gethsemane with me?  Will you wait a while?  It’s very cold tonight and I am so burdened. Will you wait a while?  It is lonely here-so desolate a feeling.  It feels like all around me is mourning.  I am weary.  The time has come and I am lonely.  Come sit by me. Don’t be afraid. I need your comfort tonight. This moment. I need your comfort. Rest a while-wait with me.

Can you see the blood on my face?  It’s falling down like drops of dew.  I’m lonely.  Rest a while.  Wait with me.  I have a weight, a burden on me and it’s so heavy.  This is a new feeling for me.  What can it be that is so heavy and dark?  Ah yes! Now I know-it’s sin.  Will you wait a while with me?  I’m so lonely.  Even the night has lost its stars.  Father where are you?  I’m lonely without you-My father where are you? I can’t see your face.

There is a faint light-Ah yes its coming closer-where are you my friend? Will you walk with me?  Will you accompany me? Where are my friends?  Where are those I healed and fed and touched and comforted and loved?  Will you run too?  Come walk with me, we’ll meet the approaching night together-walk with me-hold my hand and one day I will hold yours.

Can you stand by me during the hours of torment as I am accused and abused and tormented?  As I am denied and spat upon?  As I am ingloriously led by a leash, with no one to say a kind word on my behalf?  Will you speak for me? Will you speak words of comfort to me?

My thorns hurt so much they are pressing further down and piercing so deep that it feels like my brain is being pierced.  They can’t even touch it with their bare hands. That accursed crown and yet they press it harder to inflict more pain, and they feel no compassion for me.  How depraved has humanity become to feel no compassion for pain?  Will you ease my pain a little?  Your compassion and your love will suffice to help me endure.  Father I am weary and so lonely. I can’t see you.  Your image, your face is blurred.

Can you my little one rest a while with me?

I am mocked and I am scourged and tortured.  Father I came for this and I do your will but Father I am in pain-I travail with not even one little one to love me.  Wouldst that one of these had a little compassion then it would be worthwhile.  I am so lonely.  Would you rest a while with me.?

My blood is slowly being drained from my being.  I am giving my life’s blood for yours.  Will you at least stand and wait a while?  Even from a distance wait with me so that I can see a gentle face?  Wait a while.  You will see that you will not regret it for one day I too will wait for you.  I will stand by you and extend my hand in welcome.

Will you walk with me along the road to the top of the mound?  It will be very slow and arduous journey for I am very weak now.  Step by step we get closer, and I am beginning to fall more often.  The burden is getting heavier and heavier.  Will you carry my cross even for a short distance so that I may rest a while?  Ah yes! It’s a heavy burden my child it’s not possible for you to carry it alone-here I will help you.  See how easier it is when we share the load.  I wouldn’t let you carry it alone; you see if I did let you it would crush you.  Too heavy is the weight of the cross, so I will carry the heaviest part for you.  Rest a while.

We have reached the summit-walk the rest of the way.  Can you bear to come closer to watch while I am stripped of my garments? OH the humiliation!  My dearest ones have to endure the humiliation too.  OH Father this further indignity is unbearable.  Wait a while stand by me.  See this humiliation I also ask you to share.  Don’t be afraid I am with you.  Will you hold my hand one more time before the nails are hammered in?  Hold my hand tightly.  Give me some comfort-let me feel that all this suffering is not in vain.  That someone does love me.  That someone will know how great my sacrifice is.  Come stand by me.  Your presence is enough.

Oh my Father the searing pain as the nails are driven in.  OH Father how can they do this to me? Father how can they do this to you? OH My Father how far they have fallen. No compassion.  Little one come closer, look up at me.  Let me see your face-don’t cry.  I am assured of your love. Yes my Father this sacrifice is appropriate am loved at least by some and because of them it is worth all the pain humanity can inflict.

MY Father!! It’s getting dark.  All is a blur. I can’t see. My eyes are dimming. I can’t even see the faces of those who love me.  Father….. Have you gone too?  No, that cannot be.  You would not abandon me.  But Father there is a darkness that surrounds me.  There is shield and I cannot see your light anymore.  Father where are you I feel a loathsome burden.  How much longer Father will this earth’s sins cover me?  Father…if only they knew the barrier that sin erects.  Father every sin conceivable has been poured onto me and now it is so dark, I can’t see the light of my father’s love.

Father my spirit is trapped like a diamond in the heart of the mountain of charcoal.  It is hidden and darkness cannot allow your light to pierce through.  Father…I know your eyes are too pure to gaze upon iniquity, but father I cannot bear it much longer.  Help me Father because I am ready to come back to you.  INTO YOUR HANDS FATHER I COMMIT MY SPIRIT for now I have finished the work you entrusted to me.  Father I come to you. Wait a while little one, wait a while and soon you will be with us too.

 

Anne Good Friday,  2013