We offer prayer support and comfort to the brokenhearted who suffer the pains of infertility at any stage of life, difficult pregnancy, miscarriage, stillbirth, the loss of a child and the adoption process.
1/2 c sliced shiitake mushrooms (about 5) 1/2 red bell pepper 2-3 green onions 1 stalk celery 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated 2 tsp toasted sesame oil 1 quart chicken broth 1 egg
METHOD:
Heat the stock in a saucepan. While it is coming to a boil, slice or chop the vegetables so that they are in small pieces, and set aside.
Add the ginger and toasted sesame oil to the stock. Once it comes to a boil, add the vegetables and cook until they soften, about 10 minutes. Once the vegetables have cooked, remove them with a slotted spoon back into a bowl.
Break the egg into a small bowl and lightly beat it. Stir the soup with one hand so that it is swirling around in a circle, and slowly pour the egg mixture in with the other hand. The speed with which you stir and pour will determine how thin and long the egg strands become.
Once all the egg is poured in, remove from heat and add the vegetables back in. Add salt if needed (this will depend on how salty the chicken stock was).
There are many versions of this recipe which mostly vary depending on which vegetables you add. Other additions include peas, chopped onion, meatballs, tomato slices, a little dry white cooking wine, dash of vinegar, and chili oil.
Today is the day we celebrate the gifts of 2 holy souls, St. Hannah and St. Juan Diego. They are truly the main patrons of this ministry as they suffered infertility. We learn in the Old Testament that we as Christians need to come to the foot of the altar where the sacrifice is made and where graces will flow. Do you recognize the gift that we have been given in that their feast day is the day after the Immaculate Conception? What is God telling you today? What does this mean to you? I think it is something to truly meditate upon on this feast. Let us open our hearts to this that graces may enter the depths of our saddened minds and hearts to find Jesus and Mary guiding us where we are to go in our time of sorrow let us find the path to Him who knows what He is asking of us. Pray to accept the call Our Lord has placed in you, as you have not been forgotten but recognized as an individual with purpose.
Saint Juan Diego, infertile, holy and devoted to serving Our Lord as he was called. I would like to share with you today the post that “Martha Trying to be Mary” has shared with us today concerning St. Juan and infertility, God did not let his life become fruitless. This is what our focus should be as we make our journey in this life. Nothing is empty when we live our lives for Christ, He has something special prepared for us we need to see this with His eyes.
Prayer to St. Juan Diego
You who were chosen by Our Lady of Guadalupe as an instrument to show your people and the world that the way of Christianity is one of love, compassion, understanding, values, sacrifices, repentance of our sins, appreciation and respect for God’s creation, and most of all one of humility and obedience; You whom we know is now in the Kingdom of the Lord and close to our Mother; Be our angel and protect us, stay with us as we struggle in this modern life often not knowing where to set our priorities; Help us to pray to our God to obtain the gifts of the Holy Spirit and use them for the good of humanity and the good of our Church, through the Heart of Our Lady of Guadalupe to the Heart of Jesus. Amen.
“Lay woman from the diocese of Braga. At age 14 Alexandrina jumped from a window to escape a rapist; she was injured in the fall, paralyzed, and was bed-ridden for the rest of her life. Member of the Salesian Cooperators. Mystic and visionary. The last 13 years of her life she had the gift of inedia, living solely off daily Communion.http://saints.sqpn.com“
Feast Day: October 13
4th Seer of Fatima
Uniting our sufferings to Christ Jesus on the Cross is so important in our lives today, don’t forget that this is a prayer that will do much more then you know. Pray the Chaplet of Hannah’s Tears uniting your sufferings to Jesus Christ Crucified. All at the foot of the altar where graces flow.
Prayer:
Blessed Alexandrina da Costa
My Protectress
By Alexandrina Society Founder – Francis Reynolds
Alexandrina, as an unworthy sinner I ask you To place me on a path of salvation, To save my soul and help with your mission Of saving other souls for God.
I implore you to plead for me As I beg the grace to be holy, To be pure, to be kind and to do Only what is pleasing to God.
Then God will dwell in me and His blood Will flow in my veins with my blood And His Flesh will be with my flesh And I will be with Jesus forever.
Oh, sweet and gentle Alexandrina, God gave You power equal to that of the all-powerful and Appointed you protectress of mankind. I ask you To intercede for me in my time of need and protect Me spiritually, physically and mentally through this day/night through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen
All I can say is that this song is a representation to my heart of what the Chaplet of Hannah’s Tears is all about. Mary said yes and we also need to say yes to what God is asking of us, no matter what it is He will see us through.
One of my pet peeves was brought to mind by World AIDS Day. Not that I oppose finding a cure for HIV. I was a social worker when AIDS emerged in the eighties. I helped a young man with HIV who was kicked out of the loft in Greenwich Village which he had shared with his lover, and was now living miles from a payphone in the country where he slowly died of AIDS. No one was with him. He covered his mouth in my office, and treated himself as a pariah, asking me to touch the doorknobs for him, since no one knew how AIDS was transmitted. My heart broke with compassion for him, abandoned to die alone. There was very little I could do besides make him comfortable and keep him company in 1985.
In a little over three decades, we discovered AIDS existed, raised money for research, and found treatments. Now its effectively cured, if only we would admit that it is spread by immoral sexual activity, we could have it under control. I am happy for those who are benefiting. Too bad that young man is not among them.
In 1958 Dr Jerome Lejeune discovered trisomy 21, the cause of Down syndrome. We should have rejoiced that a cure was now possible, and as with AIDS, banded together to raise funds. However, rather than joining him in his efforts to find a cure, which Dr Lejeune described as “taking less effort than sending a man to the moon” (which, by the way was done since T21 was discovered) the March of Dimes spent its millions developing a search-and-destroy methods of prenatal diagnosis, using Dr Lejeune’s discovery to find unborn babies with Down syndrome. This led to an abortion rate of 92% for such babies. Some cure. Dr Lejeune watched this happen and dedicated his life to finding a cure, 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.”
Did we kill AIDS patients as a means to a cure? Or cancer patients?
Dr Lejeune said, “Medicine becomes mad science when it attacks the patient instead of fighting the disease. We must always be on the patient’s side, always.”
Why was pre-natal diagnosis and abortion for nearly 50 years considered the end of the Down syndrome story? Sure, its a complicated disease, but so is HIV. I have to think that AIDS patients being movie stars like Rock Hudson had a lot to do with the dedication and speed with which we found a cure. There are 2.7 million afflicted with HIV in the USA and nearly half a million who have trisomy 21, or 20% of that number. That is still a significant population, yet there were no huge TV specials, no ribbon on the White House, or until recently, no big Hollywood celebrities sponsoring efforts to raise money for Down syndrome research. Instead, researchers like Dr Alberto Costa have to give of their own money to search for a cure for his daughter’s Down syndrome.
Like Dr Costa, I have a daughter with Down syndrome. She is no Hollywood celebrity, but don’t try to tell her that. Her smile and her can-do attitude brighten her elementary school. I volunteer full time to raise awareness of the inequity with which people with trisomy 21 are treated. No, not in education, thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act, she can go to typical school right through college. But in research and in the way it is considered standard medical practice that a woman expecting a child with Down syndrome gets no more than a phone number for an abortion clinic instead of information about how good life is for those with Down syndrome. Thanks to Dr Brian Skotko, whose new survey in the American Journal of Medical Genetics, brings out the fact that 99% of families are happy with their child with Down syndrome, and that the people with T21 are just as pleased with their liives. This is not what expectant women have been hearing. My friends have been told they were selfish for wanting to give birth to their child with Down syndrome, bringing misery upon themselves and their families. Its simply not true. And I am working through KIDS (Keep Infants with Down Syndrome) to change how the diagnosis is treated, especially since with the new diagnostic test, MaterniT21, the diagnosis will be offered more widely and earlier. Doctors will have results at 12 weeks instead of 22, giving women plenty of time to educate themselves about what life is really going to be like for their child with Down syndrome before making a decision to abort.
I want people like Christina to find the compassion, resources, and acceptance which is now offered to AIDS patients. Why shouldn’t she be treated with equal dignity?
Things are changing. Three years ago, the National Institute of Health formulated a research plan to find a cure for the cognitive delays of Down syndrome, and is now forming a consortium of parents and researchers. The legacy of Dr Lejeune lives on in newly formed Lejeune USA which had a major meeting at the Neuroscience Convention last month in DC (more about that meeting in future posts). UC San Diego Down syndrome researcher Dr William Mobley said, “if you told me a decade ago, I would be discussing clinical trials for a drug to treat Down syndrome cognitive delays, with four laboratories, I would not have believed it”.
I was heartened by the star-studded fundraiser “Be Beautiful, Be Yourself” offered by the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome in Washington last month at $500 a plate. Gladys Knight was there and so was my Congressman. We don’t want people with Down syndrome to go away, but there is bright promise that within a decade, the significant delays in memory and learning which my daughter endures, may be, like AIDS, on the way to the dustbin of history.
![[Alexandrina Maria da Costa]](https://hannahstears.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/sainta6y.jpg?w=584)
The Apostolate of Hannah's Tears 