Category Archives: Resources
Advent Blessings
Wishing you a Blessed Advent!
Please visit Praying Advent 2012
as you prepare
YOUR hearts
for the
Feast of Christmas
the coming
of the
Christ Child.
Gifts Shared…
Today I seek the fruit of patience, the gift of fortitude and the virtue of hope. How about you?
The 12 Fruits of the Holy Ghost
Charity
Joy
Peace
Patience
Benignity
Goodness
Longanimity
Mildness
Faith
Modesty
Continency
Chastity
Note: See Galatians 5:22-25 (three of these are not mentioned in some Greek and Latin manuscripts). The 12 Fruits of the Holy Ghost are the effects of the 7 Gifts of the Holy Ghost.
The 7 Gifts of the Holy Ghost
Wisdom
Understanding
Counsel
Fortitude
Knowledge
Piety
Fear of the Lord
Note: See Isaias 11:1-3
The 3 Theological Virtues
Faith
Hope
Charity
Note: Reference I Corinthians 13:13. The Theological Virtues are called such because they are supernatural in origin, relate immediately to God, and can only be gained through His grace
The 4 Cardinal Virtues
Prudence
Justice
Fortitude
Temperance
Note: Refrerence Wisdom 8:7. The Cardinal Virtues, unlike the Theological Virtues, can be achieved by human effort.
Treating the Sacred with RESPECT
We must get this message to the youth, that they are a treasure that is unique and special and their lives must seek the love of Christ as we are made in the image of the one who is sacred we too are sacred. This is why our vote today is so very important, we must make a stand for life and not take it lightly, we must protect the unborn and the laws that will be made in this country. We must stand for the gift of life, family and marriage. Others make their choices but we must make a stand for what is true!
Bl. John Paul pray for us…
A Special Mother is Born Celebrates its First Birthday
CCC 166 Faith is a personal act — the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself. But faith is not an isolated act. No one can believe alone, just as no one can live alone. You have not given yourself faith as you have not given yourself life. The believer has received faith from others and should hand it on to others. Our love for Jesus and for our neighbor impels us to speak to others about our faith. Each believer is thus a link in the great chain of believers. I cannot believe without being carried by the faith of others, and by my faith I help support others in the faith. 
In 2002, I , the mother of two girls, became the mother of a baby girl with Down syndrome. It was something I never imagined I could handle, I rationalized that I didn’t have enough patience, that my marriage could not withstand the stress, nevertheless, one Sunday morning, while attending Mass halfway through my pregnancy, I heard a voice in my heart, which said, “You are going to have a baby with Down syndrome.” I doubted this voice, and tried to shrug it off, but a few minutes later, I was in the Communion line and the voice said, “I want you to accept this child as a gift from My Hand.” I accepted God’s will and His Body in tears saying, “yes, Lord, but please bring my husband along for the ride”. God used even my reluctant fiat to accomplish His will in my life.
Four months later, Christina was born and the voice was proved to be prophetic; Christina did have Down syndrome and was tiny at 5 lbs, but was otherwise healthy. I was surrounded by an embrace of love. Phone calls came, meals arrived, and over one hundred people attended her Baptism, in the pouring rain on Mother’s Day. Their faith kept me afloat when I was weak, recovering from a C-section, dealing with her jaundice and nursing issues, as well as supporting family members who were still coming to grips with the fact that she had Down syndrome.
My pastor connected me with the mother of a lovely 20 year old young lady with Down syndrome who calmed my fears by telling me that Kristin was happy, working a job a local bakery, busy with family activities, and a godmother three times over. Another friend sent an Elizabeth Ministry package with a book and CD “Sometimes Miracles Hide” which was full of testimonies of parents of special needs children. My faltering faith was buoyed by a loving tide of support from my faith community.
Once I regained my stride as a mother, I began to notice that other mothers of babies with Down syndrome are not given such support.. I took Christina to her older sister’s softball game and brought tears to the eyes of a mother who had felt unequal to the challenge of bearing a child with Down syndrome, and made the tragic choice of abortion. My baby made this mother realize she had made a mistake; between 75-92% of moms who received a diagnosis of Down syndrome choose abortion. I resolved to share my story with moms like this who feel overwhelmed, as I did, but who do not have the beautiful community of support I enjoyed. I learned that my doctors were not going to pass my phone number to their patients, so I took to the Internet. There I found a place to share how my little child with Down syndrome was a blessing to my family and the larger community. I shared how she was an example of faith by her simple prayers to God in times of need, her unconditional love of all those she met, and her boundless joy at Mass. Soon other parents shared their inspiring stories with me, and I collected them into a book A Special Mother is Born a collection of 34 stories from Catholic parents of special needs children who share what a blessing they are.
So many women have told me that these moving stories strengthened their faith, making them additional links in the chain of believers, and I am grateful to God for the grace to say “yes” to His gift of Christina a little girl with Down syndrome.
Ad Jesum per Mariam,
Leticia Velasquez
Co-founder of KIDS (Keep Infants with Down Syndrome)
author of “A Special Mother is Born“.
Leticia Velasquez
Co-founder of KIDS (Keep Infants with Down Syndrome)
author of “A Special Mother is Born“.
National Infant loss Awareness
October is National Respect life month and National Infant loss Awareness month. Please consider making a donation to ” Back In His Arms Again” a ministry that helps nearly 80 families a month in the Columbus area through infant loss. For more information please visit our NEW web site at www.backinhisarmsagain.com to learn more about our services and how you might be able to help or donate. We are most grateful for you response to this growing need in our community.
When making a donation. Go to our new web site…….hit the DONATE tab at the top and follow instructions!
God Bless,
Kambra Malone
President/CEO
Back in His Arms Again
We ALL need to practice these ….
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First Ever Drug to Treat Down Syndrome
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| Dr Alberto Costa and his daughter Tyche |
An encouraging article by Dan Hurley in the Washington Post describes the clinical trials of the first ever drugs to improve learning and memory in those with Down syndrome, conducted by Dr Alberto Costa and Dr William Mobley. Enthusiasm is spreading througout the research community that Down syndrome, once considered too complex to treat, and abandoned by researchers, is now the subject of clinical trials.
“A lot of us are well aware of progress we’ve seen . . . in the past five to 10 years,” said Jamie Edgin, a developmental psychologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Among those advances, she said, are tests designed to measure the cognitive abilities of people with Down syndrome. The development of mice with the genetic equivalent of Down syndrome, essential for studies of possible drug treatments, has been another milestone. “There’s a lot of excitement,” Edgin said.
It is a devastating irony that stunning advances in accuracy in prenatal testing AND the first clinical trials for medicine to treat cognitive impairment of Down syndrome are discovered concurrently. Sadder still is the fact that the prenatal testing is receiving vastly more press coverage.
Imagine the excitement in the press if a new cancer drug were discovered?! Well, this is how the families of over 400,000 Americans who have Down syndrome feel about this drug and its potential to change lives. Not only can it help my ten year old daughter communicate with her classmates, but it may help insure that she has more classmates who look like her.
Maybe, just maybe, if mothers who are told that their unborn baby has Down syndrome heard that there are amazing advances in treatment for the cognitive delays in Down syndrome, they would not despair of their child’s potential for a happy and fulfilling life as stated in this article.
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| Servant of God, Dr Jerome Lejeune |
Of course, we who love our children with ‘designer genes’ already know their lives are wonderfully rich, full of love and learning, and giving back to their community. But if it takes more hope to help bring such gifted people to birth, then we want to be the first to spread the word. Thank you WaPo for joining us in our efforts to spread the good news.
Dr Jerome Lejeune, the French geneticist who won the Kennedy prize for his discovery of trisomy 21, the cause of Down syndrome spent his career hopeful that such treatments would be discovered, and his family via Lejeune USA continues to fund such promising research. Dr Lejeune understood the importance of such research when he said, “I see only one way left to save them, and that is to cure them. The task is immense, but so is Hope.”
Posted By Leticia to Hannah’s Tears Ministry at 8/01/2012 01:22:00 AM
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The Seven Sorrows of Our Lady Rosary
Video
For a Mom Suffering Loss
Help in Time of Miscarriage
Saturday Book Pick: Karen Edmisten offers her experience and insights to hurting mothers.
by LETICIA VELASQUEZ
05/12/2012
When I lost my second child to miscarriage nearly 20 years ago, I searched Catholic bookstores in vain for a book on miscarriage.
I suffered interiorly for years, until my parish held a healing Mass on Feb. 2 (feast of the Presentation) for mothers who had lost a baby. It was an extraordinary evening of grace. We named our babies, writing their names on certificates which were laid upon the altar as we entrusted them to Christ. continue here
For a Baptized Child
Lord of all gentleness, surround us with Your care and comfort us in our sorrow, for we grieve at the loss of this [little] child. As You washed (Name) in the waters of baptism and welcomed him/her into the life of heaven, so call us one day to be reunited with him/her and share forever in the joy of Your kingdom. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
For an Unbaptized Child
O Lord, Whose ways are beyong understanding, listen to the prayers of Your faithful people: that those weighed down by grief at the loss of this [little] child may find reassurance in Your infinite goodness. Amen.
For a Stillborn Child
Lord God, ever caring and gentle, we commit to Your love this little one, quickened to life for so short a time. Enfold him/her in eternal life. We pray for his/her parents who are saddened by the loss of their child. Give them courage and help them in their pain and grief. May they all meet one day in the joy and peace of Your kingdom. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
For the Deceased Child
To You, O Lord, we humbly entrust this child, so precious in Your sight. Take him/her into Your arms and welcome him/her into paradise, where there will be no sorrow, no weeping nor pain, but the fullness of peace and joy with Your Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
Prayer for Deceased Son or Daughter
O God, You gave us a son/daughter, and in Your wisdom and love have called him/her home to You before us. Please listen to our humble prayer: pardon his/her sins and faults, and grant that we may be reunited safely in Your Presence. Through Your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, we beg this of You. Amen.
The Apostolate of Hannah's Tears 