Morgentaler-Order of Canada? Are you kidding me?

Abortion King and Devil’s Disciple, Henry Morgentaler has been given the Order of Canada for his: “commitment to increased health care options for women, his determined efforts to influence Canadian public policy and his leadership in humanist and civil liberties organizations,”

My mind boggles! Regardless of what your politics or beliefs are on this issue, the idea that someone who has such controversial medical ethics can be designated the recipient of such a prestigious appointment is ludicrous.

What’s next, the Nobel Prize to Kevorkian?

The Order of Canada was instituted by Queen Elizabeth 11 on April 17, 1967, under the advisement of Lester B. Pearson. It was officially launched on July 1, 1967, during the celebration of the Dominion of Canada 100 years earlier.

There are three levels of appointment:

Companion (this is the designation “Dr.” M is to receive)

Officer

Member

Not unlike Pontius Pilate, Stephen Harper has effectively washed his hands of the decision to honour Morgentaler with the award issuing this statement:

“The Conservative government is not involved in either deliberations or decisions with respect to which individuals are appointed to the Order of Canada,” said Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Ironically, the Order of Canada purports to “recognize a lifetime of outstanding achievement and dedication to community”.

Most Rev. Thomas Collins, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Toronto, said the Order of Canada will be “debased” if Morgentaler receives this award. He went on to compare the outstanding life-affirming contribution of previous recipients Banting and Best and “other medical heroes who selflessly brought healing where there was disease and suffering. “Now,” he said, ” it honours with the Order of Canada a medical man who has brought not healing, but the destruction of the defenceless and immeasurable grief.”

The Sovereign’s badge that Morgentaler will now be appearing in at all pro-abortion propoganda pitches looks like this:

However, this one might be more appropriate::

(He’s in good company with some other so-called “doctors” of a different era.)

Note: a number of people have been citing “Godwin’s Law” to me claiming that my use of the swastika
is in fact negating my argument. How then should I express it? There are no other doctors in history that I can think of who performed such heinous acts. It is not so much that they were Nazis, but that they were medical men who chose to use their talents in a way that was contrary to the original Hippocratic Oath. I’m open to suggestion if anyone wants to present me with an alternative.

I suspect Henry Morgentaler will not be reading The Bible any time soon. That’s too bad. He might do well to heed the words of Mark 10:31: “Many that are first will be last, and the last first.”

Mind you, I don’t really think he’ll even get to the door, do you?

Some worthy recipients of the Order of Canada

Governor General Roland Michener was the first inductee (Companion)

Vincent Massey,

Louis St. Laurent,

Hugh MacLennan,

Father David Bauer,

Gabrielle Roy,

Donald Creighton,

Thérèse Casgrain,

Wilder Penfield,

Arthur Lismer,

Maurice Richard.

For complete list of Companions of the Order of Canada

Lessons from Bible-reading at random

Try this: pick up your Bible and open it at random. Read the first passage that comes to your line of vision. What does it tell you? What message is our Lord sending you?

I did this today for the first time ever in my life and here’s what happened.

First of all, I said a prayer before I ran my thumb along the edge of my soft-covered Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition that came all the way from Scotland back in 1989.

I stopped at random. I opened the Good Book, saw the number 29 in bold and discovered the chapter was Chronicles 2.

Now, I’ll be honest. I’ve never read a word of Chronicles (unless it was in the Sunday missal) and if I have, I don’t recall it. The passage I picked at random is all about Hezekiah. He apparently began to reign in Jerusalem when he was only 29 years old.

Hezekiah was the son of Ahaz . The Lord had “brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had dealt wantonly in Judah and had been faithless to the Lord.”

When Hezekiah takes over, there is a new regime–a cleansing, if you will. He immediately opens the doors of the house of the Lord and repairs them. He assembles the priests and Levites and bids them sanctify themselves and the house of the Lord and to “carry out the filth from the holy place”. Hezekiah has been made ruler to make reparation for the ills of his father.

He knows his father has been unfaithful and done evil in the sight of the Lord. He made molten images of idols, burned incense in the valley of Hinnom and even burned his sons as an offering. (So, Hezekiah has perhaps had his own narrow escape.)

As payment for his evil-doing, the Lord delivered Ahaz into the hands of the king of Syria and the king of Israel. He met his match, when he contravened the rules laid down by God. He should have been very afraid.

Basically, Ahaz was his own worst enemy. He disobeyed God and then added insult to injury by repeatedly making sacrifices to the gods which he believed had defeated him. In the end, he shut the doors of the house of the Lord and made himself altars “in every corner of Jerusalem”. He was doomed.

According to Chronicles 2, the rest of his crimes can be found in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. He did so many things to offend God.

Yet God is good. God places Hezekiah, one of the wrong-doer’s sons in charge and he sets about putting things right.

What can I take from all this?

I have recently been far more like Ahaz than Hezekiah. I have been missing mass and getting deeper and deeper into sadness and frustration. My husband and I are struggling with insomnia and mid-life changes. Instead of turning to our Lord and being restored and ballasted by him, we have been turning away. We still say our prayers, we still have faith, we still listen to Christian music, but we have been missing that essential part of our faith-life: going to mass and receiving the Eucharist.

Part of this is due to circumstance - family commitments away from home, poor sleep patterns resulting in fatigue and idleness, distractions.

I’m writing this piece today because I know that it is the only way to kick-start my faith. It’s the only way to get back on track.

I’ve opened my Bible for a message and the message is this:”Open the doors once more, Come back to me! I am the only answer.”

Call me Hezekiah.

“Sunday Best”: Dress-code for church?

(Me at 5 years of age - ready for Mass on Christmas Eve -”Teddy” didn’t get to go.)

Coming into the season of Summer, I feel it necessary to address the issue of church attire.
As a child, it was impressed upon me that when you go to church you are in the presence of God and the presence of the Eucharist - the Body of Christ. In keeping with this, I was taught that in order to respect our Lord and the sanctity of going to Mass, I must dress with due modesty and in a manner that showed I was honouring our Lord.

From the time I was a little girl, my mother dressed me in finery for church. No expense was spared to clothe me in sweet pastel dresses with matching hat, patent shoes and even gloves. Each season my mother put me in beautiful clothes that befitted the attending of church. I do not recall ever going to Mass in pants or anything inappropriate.

Not until I was a teenager did I ever wear anything less than my “Sunday Best” to church and even then, I was still encouraged to wear a skirt with a nice blouse, or a good dress. “Good” clothes were always worn to church.

When I’m at church these days, I can’t help but ask myself, to where did the idea of wearing “Sunday Best” vanish? It seems to have been a gradual slide from what I can tell. First, ladies started wearing pants to church, then jeans, then t-shirts, then sleeveless shirts, then tops with spaghetti straps, then strapless!!! Don’t get me started on short shorts, mini-skirts, flip-flops, painted toe-nails (which in my house was just verboten!), ragged runners or stiletto boots.

Men too, have fallen into the habit of wearing slovenly gear. First, it was the down-grade from suits to slacks and sports jacket, then slacks and casual jackets, then jeans and t-shirts and in the heat of the summer - shorts. Nowadays anything goes in the upper bodywear department. You might see bomber jackets emblazoned with company logos and brands, or t-shirts with the latest rock stars or even skulls and crossbones in the current “Pirates of the Caribbean” trend.

I am not exempt. I too have fallen into the easy habit of donning a pair of jeans and a sweater even on a Sunday. You will however, never find me in anything immodest or tight or showing lots of skin.

To their credit, many priests will take on this subject from the pulpit and gently request that parishioners abide by a certain standard of dress in the church and in the presence of our God. Most people are quite willing to keep to this code, but there are always a few who seem to think they are going out for a few hours of mall-hopping, or a day at the beach.

I’m not one to mince words. So, here goes. I hold the parents of young people responsible for the apparent disregard for the sanctity of being in the presence of the Eucharist and our Father in Heaven. Quite a lot of young parents are not setting a good example or they are not making clear to their kids why they must make an effort to look their best - or if not their best, then at least a semblance of it.

I’m not saying teens of today should be in polyester trousers with button-down shirts and ties, or neck-hugging blouses with floor-length skirts. No! I’m merely saying they should give some thought to what they are wearing to the House of God. When you go on a date, do you not shower, put on your best new outfit and shoes and make an effort to please the other person by your appearance? How then can you do less for the Creator who gave you life, keeps you safe and will forgive your every transgression?

We would all do well to reexamine what we choose to put on when we head out on Sunday morning (or even Saturday evening) to enter the home of our beloved Father. I know I, for one will be rethinking those jeans even if it means shaving my legs!

What do you think? Should there be a dress code for Sunday Mass? Or am I just an old fuddy-duddy?