Rolled up to my neighborhood Catholic pharmacy this week only to be greeted with this ominous sign.
“Divine Mercy Care, the parent organization of the DMC Pharmacy announces that the DMC Pharmacy will close permanently effective 6:00 p.m. March 4, 2010 due to financial difficulties.”
So Divine Mercy Care and Tepeyac will continue to exist and care for OB/GYN needs, but the only 1-of-7 pro-life pharmacies in the U.S. will close permanently. I have become personally acquainted with Robert Semler and his wife, Pam over DMC Pharmacy’s too-short run. They are top-notch caring people and their service to our community will be sorely missed — by me and my family in the immediate future.
The larger Catholic and pro-life community will miss them as well, but not until much later (perhaps when all their real choices have dried up). I believe that DMC Pharmacy did not succeed at this time because people — and specifically Catholics — failed to care.
A number of people were excited at the inception of the pharmacy and gave time, talent, and treasure. However, the ordinary pew-sitter failed to patronize the store, failed to transfer their prescriptions, failed to see the extra-ordinary chance at building a sustained Catholic culture and presence in the shadow of our nation’s capital.
With who-knows-what on the verge of passing in the health care reform legislation (mandatory subsidization of abortion, absence of conscience clauses, government “management” of costs and procedures) this is particularly bitter.
Surely the recession played a part, even though the prices were very competitive. But the “it’s too far” or “not convenient enough” or “that’s nice, but” excuses are the real culprits. The business was growing, but not fast enough to make it. Dr. John Bruchalski said in his letter
You knew it was coming. You hoped it wasn’t, but in a society as debauched as ours, it is hardly surprising.
[ABCNews] Angie Jackson says nothing is off-limits on Twitter, not even the details of her abortion [to] chronicle her experience taking RU-486, commonly known as the abortion pill, in an attempt to “demystify” abortion for other women.
Already the mother of a 4-year-old son with special needs, Jackson, who lives in Tampa, Fla., with her boyfriend, said that after a difficult and life-threatening first pregnancy her doctors advised her to not get pregnant again.
“I had made a decision when my son was born to try to not get pregnant again, and if that failed I’d planned that I would get an abortion if I needed one,” Jackson said.
“It’s not that bad. It’s not killing a child.” she says in her YouTube post.
I’m not sure what is mystifying about the abortion drug, unless it’s the idea that it’s either safe, painless, or doesn’t kill a child. One has to be willfully ignorant to gloss over the basic science and purpose of RU-486.
Jackson adds, “I’m not trying to ignite a culture war, I’m just offering one person’s personal experience and true story.”
Here is where the story starts to unravel. Jackson’s Twitter handle is “AntiTheistAngie” — not atheist, anti-theist. She signs off her posts, “Hope everyone has a Godless day”. People who are “not trying to ignite a culture war” don’t throw grenades. I don’t believe in little green men, but I don’t spend much time and energy trying to debunk those who do.
While Mrs. Nod and I worked on shoveling out 30 inches of snow from the driveway, I sent Wynken and Blynken out back to clear away the heat pump. After warning them to be careful of the nearby outside basement steps, I returned to my grueling task.
Not five minutes go by when Wynken comes rushing up and says “Blynken fell down the basement steps and now she’s stuck!”. I rushed to the back and sure enough, she fell down the well of the stairs into the drift, arms and legs akimbo. Not only that, she lost her boot in the process.
She handled it well and didn’t panic; thankfully she didn’t get hurt – just stuck. I scooped her up in my arms and carried her back into the garage and set her down safe and sound.
She says, “Thanks, Daddy.”
I said, “Don’t you know, I’ll always come for you?”
The Nodlings enjoy watching football with dear old Dad. My boy, Wynken, likes football; the toddlers, Nub and Nib, love to shout “Touchdown!” on every play; the older girls, Blynken and Nod-girl, just like hanging out and eating my snack food.
So with one hand on the remote to avoid the commercials and one eye on my snack plate, we are getting ready to enjoy the Game-That-Must-Not-Be-Named-Due-To-Litigious-Copyright-Holders.
A major part of The Game ™ of course is the football food. Catholics everywhere will be watching (and eating) along with the rest of the nation at the biggest football game of the year.
Everybody’s got their favorite football food; Catholics are no exception. So how will you know if you’re at a Catholic Football Fest? Let’s take a look at a sample menu:
It’s called life — it happens; God made us because he thought we’d like it. And in general, we do. Still every parent wonders sometimes how they’re doing raising their kids. This month Wynken turns 11 years old. Eleven! Where does the time go?
So it’s probably illustrative of how we’re doing to see what the boy wants for his birthday.
First, Star Wars stuff or Legos – okay, pretty typical for his age.
Next, a memory card for his new DSi – again, typical.
His own adult Bible (not a kid’s version).
Wait.
Did he say his own Bible? Okaaay.
That’s an encouraging sign that he would actually ask for his own. Granted, the boy will literally read anything you put in front of him — newspapers, encyclopedias, dictionaries — but those are targets of opportunity, boredom, curiosity, whatever. He asked for his own Bible. I guess they do listen, they just pretend like they don’t hear you.
So here it is: the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition by Ignatius. Bonded leather with the symbols of the four Evangelists and an icon of Christ embossed on the cover.
The RSV Second Catholic Edition made some changes and added footnotes according to Liturgiam Authenticam, and features new typesetting and maps. The main difference between the RSV-CE and the Second Catholic Edition is the updating of some of the more archaic language. [source]
Apparently this is the translation that we will be using in the near future at Mass; he may as well get used to it.
Nib is my smart, cute, funny little two year old girl. She’s also a pint sized munchkin.
Her growth chart is abysmal, with height and weight starting to fall off the bottom of the curve. So she’s headed in to the specialist for an endoscopy to see if there are any upper-GI or digestive issues.
Prayers appreciated.
She nearly choked to death on a little rubber ball yesterday while in the car. --Yikes! That’s going in the trash!
It’s hard to keep all that kind of stuff away from the toddlers in a big family. The older kids have toys with small parts that don’t always get put out of reach. I finally had enough close calls with Blynken’s bead making kit and threw it out.
Life with Nodlings is never dull. Did I mention that prayers are appreciated?
Divine Mercy Care has provided our OB-GYN and baby needs since 1998. The doctors there are fantastic and are a model of how to bring our Catholic faith into everyday life.
Divine Mercy Care is a grass roots, community-based healthcare corporation that is at at the nexus between the culture wars and the healthcare crisis.
Divine Mercy Care is not a series of programs. It is not social work.
For healthcare workers, Divine Mercy Care is our vocation in medicine: caring for all stages of the human person; fighting illness and suffering yet recognizing their role in the mystery of life; and supporting our communities by seeing all people including the weakest and most vulnerable. Divine Mercy Care is how we love God and love neighbor in our practice of medicine.
This is the foundation of our excellent care for all people.
These are true, committed Christian doctors who use the Theology of the Body in their everyday practice. They serve the poor, the under-insured, and the uninsured every day for free as part of their regular practice, as well as ordinary Joes and Janes like us.
Most of them haven’t been saints their whole lives, but their conversion to the Gospel is real and tangible. We are blessed to have them as our doctors. If you’ve never had your doctor pray with you — you’re missing out on an amazing experience.
Pray for them and for like minded doctors everywhere; contribute if you can — you are literally helping the most vulnerable and at-risk members of our society by doing so.
These events originally happened to me on April 21, 2009.
—————————-
It was a day like today.
It was neither especially warm nor cold. It was slightly overcast, but nothing to speak of. The work day had been especially average, with nothing particular to recommend it. Things were quiet, no dramas unfolded.
It was a day like today.
We were walking down the street. I had heard snippets, but I wasn’t paying particular attention. Small details flitted through my mind. It didn’t even have to do with me, just a friend of an acquaintance, really. She was on her way to pick her up after the procedure.
It was a day like today.
She turned to me. “You’re pro-choice, right?” So cavalier. A heartbeat passed. Then two. “No. Pro-life.” A taxi blocked the crosswalk. The light changed. I added, “I just think everyone deserves the chance to live.”
Should you have another piece of pie? Should you keep that money you found? How can we know right from wrong? And just what the heck is truth anyway? Enter Meta-ethics.
Meta-ethics isn’t some kind of Japanese monster movie, Godzilla vs. Meta-Ethics. Meta-ethics deals with the overarching principles of which things are “good” and “important”; the things to be valued; the worldview. It’s important because the meta-ethic determines what the ethics are. Morals are derived directly from ethics. These tell you what to do.
If you have a bad meta-ethic, you get bad ethics; bad ethics lead to bad morals; bad morals lead to bad actions. So, it’s important to start from the right place.
So next time you hear about some pharmaceutical company or some Bio firm who is experimenting on human embryos and justifies it because their Ethics board said it was OK, ask them: what’s your meta-ethic?
On this second week of Advent, I went to the Cathedral of St. Matthew in Washington D.C. for the holy day Mass today.
Holy Smokes, this place is gorgeous! I had a hard time not gawking during Mass, but gawked to my heart’s content afterward. Its design is a hybrid of Byzantine and Romanesque architecture; and although it’s a fair debate on whether you prefer Romanesque or Gothic, the main point is that good church architecture necessarily raises your mind to God. In this case the architecture literally forces you to raise your head to take it all in — everything worth seeing is above the 50-foot mark.
This one was my favorite, and since it is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, I thought it particularly appropriate. There’s radiant joy on her face. “The statue by Gordon S. Kray shows this caring Mother reaching down to fallen humanity and pointing to her ascended Son. This is a very unusual depiction of Mary placed here in 1984.”
Recent Coments