July, A Month of Grace outside London Abortuaries

July was a very special month at the prayer vigil outside the abortion mill where a few of us pray and do some pavement counselling on Saturdays. Thanks be to God for His intercession and Graces, there were three Christian couples who turned around because they believed there was a sign from God when they saw the prayer vigil. They then spoke to some of the pavement counsellors who advised them properly that abortion was wrong and to put their trust in God instead. One Christian couple had come a long distance and they noticed the picture of the 12 week old baby developing in the womb and stood talking about the baby and God to my colleague Mary for a good half hour.

They booked an appointment with our Centre the next day but then phoned to say they did not need to come for help and that they had definitely decided to keep their baby and that they had realised that it was a sin to abort their baby.

When I was on holiday one following Saturday my friend Gabi texted me to say that another Christian couple had changed their minds. She had spoken to them outside the abortuary. They sent an e-mail to one of our friends afterwards, who had given them his e-mail address, to say that they had set off that day very unsure about what they were doing but decided to go along to the abortuary with abortion in mind, while trusting that when they got there, if it (the abortion)was the wrong thing to do, that there would be a sign from God. They realised that the prayer vigil outside was that sign from God not to go ahead with the abortion.

The third couple whom Mary spoke to had come all the way from Malta and had Catholic parents but were not married and were in difficult circumstances. They were very upset at the thought of abortion and really wanted to stay and talk about it for over an hour. The young lady took a prayer card from me which I offered her from Padre Pio because she was very fond of him and I told her to pray ‘The Sacred Heart Novena’ which was on the prayer card for help and told them that if they put their trust in God that He would help them through their difficulities. Somebody at the vigil also gave this lady a Rosary Prayer Card which she was happy to take. They told us they could not go ahead with the abortion and they went inside the abortuary to tell the staff who queried them why they had changed their minds. The evening before this Saturday we had had all night Adoration at our Centre and somebody told me there was a lot of Adoration going on in different areas around the UK at that time.

All praise and thanks to God for His intercession.

Lorraine Coyne

Pro-Life Tube Ads Are Up

Well they're up. Some of our posters have already appeared in Central London tube stations. Please pray that they are successful in attracting many women who may otherwise consider aborting their children.

Please pray also that we may raise the funds to continue the campaign if it is successful. And in the meanwhile, let's enjoy seeing Our Blessed Mother's image in tube stations.

It was quite a battle getting them up, but that's a story for another day. If you bump into one of our posters on your travels, ask Our Lady of the Wayside to prepare the hearts and minds of people in this country for the visit of the Vicar of Christ and to end the practise of abortion and euthanasia in our land.

God bless You.

If you would like to donate to our campaign click here.

Clare McCullough

My Heart Says No

‘I don’t want this abortion. My heart says no. I promised myself that my last abortion was the last one. I never wanted to be in this situation again’ said Amy, who was in her first trimester. Her cheeks sagged in misery, and her eyes bulged with sadness. I knew by the way she looked intently at the close-up picture of the unborn baby’s eyes that this was not her ‘choice’.
‘Did anyone urge you to have the last abortion?’
‘Well my Christian friends told me an abortion would be all wrong for me, and that Jesus will bless me if I continued the pregnancy. So during the last pregnancy, for a long time I decided to have the baby. But I ended up having the abortion because my boyfriend told me it was a sin to be pregnant.’
‘Really? What religion is your boyfriend?’ I asked.
‘Aalee is a Muslim, and he is very concerned that I become a Muslim too. He wants me to become a Muslim before we get married.’
‘And is that what you want?’
‘No. I’m a committed Gospel Christian, and Our Lord saved me. Our Lord wants me to have this baby’ Amy said and looked me right in the eye.
‘And yet, you’re planning an abortion...’ I said in a surprised voice.
‘I’m really confused, my friends in church tell me to keep the baby and that it’s a sin to abort. But my boyfriend tells me that the pregnancy is a sin, and that I won’t be in sin anymore if I abort...If I become a Muslim then the abortion won’t be a sin.’

We invited her boyfriend to accompany Amy for counselling.
Aalee became very concerned about the risks multiple abortions pose to Amy’s fertility, and has stopped pressurising her with the ‘pregnancy is a sin’ ruse.

I encouraged Amy to seek much support from her Christian friends who frequently quote the Ten Commandments when urging women not to have abortions. Amy is now beginning her second trimester, and we would be grateful for your sustained prayers for her pregnancy.

Mary O'Regan

Religious Believer's More Likely To Recognise Sanctity of Life

Since I have been involved in counselling women who are planning an abortion, I have become more and more aware that a woman with a religious belief is far more likely, ultimately, to keep her baby than an atheist in the same situation.

I meet many people, including many pro-lifers and many Catholics who swear this is not so. But statistically all the evidence suggests it really is.

OK, we all know a really good atheist, and we can look at their high standards and moral values and feel that being pro-life is not a religious issue.

Likewise we all know Christians, and other believers, ourselves included, who constantly fall short of the mark in our beliefs and our behaviour, in little ways and in big ways.

We may know many religious people who have had abortions for example.

But nevertheless, there is a vast difference in talking to a woman who is planning an abortion if she believes in God and talking to her if she doesn't. And their is a vast difference between a nominal "believer" and someone who really believes in God with their heart and soul.

Simply put, the believer sees the unborn child as a child of God, created for a purpose, and created to be her child. Furthermore, the believer sees the child as someone with an immortal soul, who will not 'end' when the abortion happens, but who they may one day meet again face to face. Lastly, the believer knows that one day they will face God and have to account for this deed. They, therefore, have much more than the 'here and now' to consider in aborting this baby.

The atheist may respect life and want to spare the child the physical pain of abortion. But where there are real difficulties involved in having the baby, if they can be assured that their baby will not feel pain (a lie women are often told when aborting) they can consider the worldly sufferings the child could endure if born to be their paramount concern.

Despite this, it is true that sometimes the Christian woman, for example, may abort, and the atheist may keep her baby. But this does not disprove the general rule that the believer can more readily recognise the incalculable worth of the soul created by God and then, therefore, treat it with the respect due, where the atheist often cannot.

Therefore it came as no surprise to read Thursday's Guardian article: "Atheist Doctors 'more likely to hasten death' ". The article goes on to say;

Doctors who are atheist or agnostic are twice as likely to take decisions that might shorten the life of somebody who is terminally ill as doctors who are deeply religious – and doctors with strong religious convictions are less likely even to discuss such decisions with the patient, according to Professor Clive Seale, from the centre for health sciences at Barts and the London school of medicine and dentistry.

After all, how could an atheist be expected to appreciate that God has numbered our days, and permits us the grace of exactly the right number of days, and exactly the right amount of suffering for us to be able to work out our own salvation?

Apologies to good-hearted atheists who do respect life. But in my experience, the odds are stacked against them doing so.

All this shows the importance of praying for the conversion of your country, click here for more information.

Clare McCullough

With The Immaculate Heart We Will Convert The Entire World

One of our supporters recently wrote and said

“In response for your plea for funds (see our appeal here) here is a cheque which I hope will help a bit. Thanks be to God that you are putting publicity on the Underground(learn about our poster campaign here). I am sure your hard work and sacrifice will bear much fruit.

The poor hardened old world needs the message of true love so badly even while it is afraid of the sacrifice which is part of real love. We all need this courage and your work is an example and encouragement to me, when times are so dark.

But, with ‘the Immaculate we will convert the entire world!’ St Maximillian Kolbe. Her Immaculate Heart will triumph and Christ will reign again.

Yours in Jesus and Mary.

A supporter "

Stuart McCullough

To End Forced Abortions & Sterilisations In The UK

In light of Mondays blog explaining just some of the horrors of the Mental Capacity Act it is vitally important that we all act now. All of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats who voted at the time voted against the bill. As they are now the government they need to be made to stand by their convictions and revoke this Act. If you have a Conservative or Liberal MP please contact them immediately asking them to have this Act struck from the statutes book. Click here for a list of MPs and how they voted.

Some of the MPs that voted for this bill are of course no longer in parliament such as Greg Pope who now surprisingly works for the Catholic Education Service. It may be that some MPs that voted for this bill were unaware of the totally evil consequences of their vote. They may have overlooked the fact that this bill, as well as allowing forced abortions and sterilisations also allows for experimentation on the mentally handicapped. The type of experimentation that it allows is not necessarily of any benefit to the individual who is experimented on. Therefore it is also worth contacting MPs who voted in favour of the bill and making your concerns about the bill clear to them in the hope that they will do something about it in Parliament and in the case of Catholics go to confession.

As well as contacting the MPs it is important that we continue to pray and fast for the end of Abortion and Euthanasia in this country. The struggle that we are involved in is not just one of flesh and blood it is of powers and principalities and therefore without God’s assistance it will come to naught.

Canal Walkers - You can still sponsor them.

Above. L-R: Pio Hendrickx seeing off Gaelle Hendrickx, Charis Willey, Michael & Johanna Hendrickx, Lorenzo, Anuli, Maria Burne, Julian, Rose Burne as they set off on their sponsored walk

for Good Counsel.

Left: Johanna and Gaelle, the organisers of the walk demonstrate the art of being a bridesmaid...you've obviously been out in the sun a bit too long ladies if you think that's how to hold a bouquet!

Last weekend, Saturday 21st August, some of our supporters successfully completed a sponsored 20 mile walk along the Grand Union Canal. They were aiming for £4,000 in sponsorship. So far they have brought in around £2,000.

Let's all congratulate them upon their efforts.

It is still not too late to sponsor them. The easiest way to sponsor them is to go to www.justgiving.com/gaelle-hendrickx who was the leader on the day. But if you prefer to post them you can send cheques and postal orders made payable to The Guild of Our Lady of Good Counsel, To: 15 Maple Grove, London, NW9 8RD. Many thanks in advance if you can sponsor them.

Conor Carroll

Here are Gaelle and Johanna's comments on the walk:

On the 21st August, nine merry troopers set out for a brisk 20 mile walk along the Grand Union Canal, to raise funds for the Good Counsel Network. We started from Watford Metropolitian Line Tube Station and walked into the park. We got a good pace going and marched with our heads held high. We skillfully dodged a near constant stream of walkers, bikers and joggers. It must be said that by 12.30 we had all sped up, enticed by the prospect of food - a yummy lunch of J20's and rather squashed sandwiches!

Our route back seemed ever reaching and never ending. Our despondency, however, was lifted by a recitation of the Rosary, and an energetic performance of the group's collective repertoire of Christian songs. This lively recital enabled us to take our minds off our feet, and march on homewards, towards the promise of pizza and rest!

At 5 o' clock the whole group of tired and no doubt smelly walkers stumbled into Cassiobury Park, grateful we'd made it alive, yet thankful for the opportunity to have done it. Knowing that our hard work enabled us to raise money to help save the lives of countless unborn babies made the pain and suffering we experienced completely worth it.

Gaelle and Johanna Hendrickx

When They Came for The Mentally Incapacitated...

If someone said that in your lifetime a UK government would legalise forced abortions and sterilisations would you think that was scaremongering?

But what if someone told you that such a law was already passed in 2005?

Would it matter that the people who British Courts, behind closed doors, can force to have abortions and sterilisations (so far) have to be deemed "mentally incapacitated"?

Or would it be OK because the law "only" applies to "them"?

Because this is the law in your country, today.

And I think it really matters.

And I think we need to do something about it.

For a start let's pray and fast for the judgement to work against all threats to the dignity and the sanctity of human life in a way that is both moral and effective.

Click here to learn about The Good Counsel Network's Days of Prayer and Fasting for Life.

Click here to find out about attacks on the rights of people with all sorts of disabilities.

The Telegraph reported on this on Thursday 19th August, referring to the case of a married woman with a low IQ and with two children who had previously been taken into care. While on this occassion,

Mr Justice Bodey said it would not be “acceptable” for police to take the married woman from her home before doctors sedated her and imposed birth control on her, against her will.
He said the local authority’s plan, to stop the 29 year-old having more children, “would raise profound questions about state intervention in private and family life”.

However the judge agreed that she lacked the mental capacity to make important decisions about her medical treatment, paving the way for the council to make a further request for force to be used...

The judge said Mrs A’s social worker admitted “there would need to be police involvement” and it would be a “horrendous prospect” for her to be “physically removed from the family home and taken to have contraception under restraint and anaesthesia”.

We should note however, that:

...The council said it “reserves the right” to argue that force should be authorised in the future.

For more information on the current laws in the UK see the following articles:

Council Tries to Force Woman to Take Contraception

Secret Court Can Order Forced Abortions and Sterilisations

Clare McCullough

Barrier Contraceptives Bear Dead Fruit Too

Condom failure causes numerous abortions. Here's one of the few that survive.

Pro-lifers are of course opposed to abortion in all of its forms.

Most serious Pro-lifers being aware of the abortifacient nature of all chemical methods of contraception would also be opposed to the use of these.

A small number of pro-lifers will however have difficulty when it comes to so called barrier methods. As most women going for abortions do so as a result of contraception failure there should be no such difficulty.

Pregnancy Centres worldwide report that the most common contraceptive failure, that so often leads to abortion, is condom failure.

The United States Supreme Court (see below*) has stated that legal Abortion must be available as a fall-back when legal contraception fails.

If we are not prepared to tackle the root of the problem (contraception), the major cause of abortion, then we will never be able to combat this evil effectively.

Stuart McCullough

* Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the ... Supreme Court decision that confirmed Roe v. Wade, stated, "in some critical respects abortion is of the same character as the decision to use contraception . . . . for two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail."

That A People Yet Unborn May Praise the Lord!

At Mass in our small chapel recently, a Mass which was celebrated by a priest who was kind enough to spend 1 hour and a half travelling here, and will no doubt spend a similar amount of time travelling home, I was struck by one line in the responsorial psalm:

“Let this be written for ages to come that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord”. Psalm 101.

No doubt, as with most scripture this will have a number of meanings, but all that I could think about was the idea of the unborn children praising the Lord.

As was the case with St John the Baptist when he leapt in his Mother's womb to praise the Lord.

Stuart McCullough

The "Golden Glow" of Abortion's False Promise

Recently at a vigil outside Bedford Square, it was an especially hot day, when the sun’s golden rays dripped into our eyes and made the road outside the abortuary glare with yellow sunshine. The intensely bright weather was in sad contrast to the many young women whose faces were frozen with anguish, and whose eyes ran and overflowed with tears. We had just spoken to one Muslim girl who told us that ‘I want to keep my baby, don’t want to do this to my baby, but I’m not married, so it better thing that I do now.’ Tears showered from her eyes.
She stopped to talk to us, and told us a familiar situation-that-leads-to-an-abortion. She wasn’t married, and her Muslim boyfriend had told her that her pregnancy was a sin. At first she had refused to abort, thinking that he would get used to it, but he cut off all contact with her, and started seeing two other women. But he had told her that she was in sin because of her pregnancy, and that she had better get rid of the baby, and in doing so better get rid of ‘the sin’, and ‘the evidence’ that they had been sleeping together.
She went into the abortuary, saying that she needed to keep her appointment, and had the abortion. But was never asked if this was actually what she wanted, or if she needed help, or if someone had pressurised her into doing this.

Whatever way the pro-abortionists make the ‘choice’ for abortion appear in a sunshine glow, they have to concede that they never offer women help to get out of stormy situations or help to see through the fog of confusion.

Those who run the abortuaries are complicit in false ideologies that tell women their pregnancies are ‘sins’, and in hiding ‘the evidence’.

And in helping many manipulative men evade their responsibilities.

Mary O'Regan

Adoration and Pro-Life Work

Sometimes I am so busy trying to get things done at home that I am tempted to miss the hour of Adoration that I usually put aside each week.

Then I remember Jesus words and He reminds me “Would you not spend one hour with me?”.

And I think of how vital Adoration is to our pro-life work and I know that I must make every effort to be there and pray before God for the success of our work and to put prayer before other things. So many of the saints have had such great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and so it is important to follow their example and offer it to God.
When I am at Adoration I try to remember the first names of the women who have contacted our centre so that I can pray for them and especially if I know that somebody will be counselling them on that day and I always include all woman seeking abortion throughout the world at this time. I also pray for their conversions and for the baby’s father’s conversion because I know that this is very important for their salvation. It is vital to pray for the counsellors too and for the vigils that are taking place outside the clinics.
There are also some really good dedicated supporters who pray an hour of Adoration each week or more especially for our work and people who pray at our centre chapel at our monthly first Friday all night Adoration and I am sure that as a result of their sacrifices, dedication and efforts there have been many turnarounds from the abortuaries. I have witnessed myself that on the occasions when there has been all night Adoration we have had more turnarounds the next day from the abortuaries. And I believe Mother Theresa's words when she said that if enough people prayed before the Blessed Sacrament that abortion would end completely.

If you can join our Adoration Rota, offering an hour of Adoration each week in a Church of your choice, or our Rosary Rota, offering a Rosary each month for our work, please click here to sign up, or call us on 02077231740.

Lorraine Coyne

Evangelium

A recent weekend (6th - 8th August)saw the Evangelium conference held for the third consecutive year, and for the second time at the Reading Oratory Boys School. I can only say that it was a particularly wonderful weekend.

I was there with my wife running a stall for the Good Counsel Network in order to publicise our work and spread the pro-life message.

The speakers were of the highest standard ranging from regular stalwarts like Joanna Bogle speaking about Catholic heroines and Pope Benedict XVI, to equally entertaining American speakers such as Steven Ray and Roy Schoeman who gave their own testimony.

We were fed better than I have ever been fed at any Catholic meeting. The Oratory school provided as much hot and tasty food as even the largest stomach could take for every meal and we were in large open grounds with far reaching views in all directions which could be explored in free time while meeting good like-minded people wherever you looked.

Possibly the most important part of the weekend was the reverence and beauty of all the prayer and Masses. We had the Schola Gregoriana from Cambridge leading the chant for all the Masses and all the priests involved celebrated Mass in a beautiful manner.

I can recommend that if you are looking for a good, sound Catholic conference to go to next year, Evangelium is the place to go!

Conor Carroll

Having Pro-Life Discussions...You Never Know...

Unexpectedly, I got a knock on my door last night and opened it to find a friend of a friend of mine. I hadn’t seen ‘Lauren’ in almost a year, and when I saw her mascara running down her face, I said, ‘what’s wrong, are you alright?’ She blurted,
‘I’m pregnant. I know you’re anti-abortion, and I really need to talk to you.’
‘Lauren’ is resolute that she will avoid abortion, even though the pressure has been mounting over the past months. Her ex-boyfriend has been very casual, ‘Look babe, we’re in Britain and I already have two kids. That’s the most anyone in this country should have. This baby will be baby number three, and it’s not on!’ Lauren’s employer asked her why she was not having an abortion.
Unbeknownst to me, friends that I and Lauren have in common have been repeating to Lauren the pro-life things that I said, even ‘discussions’ where we may not have seen eye to eye. Through our mutual friends, Lauren got to know me as someone who wouldn’t push her into an abortion. Lauren is a practising Catholic, and has asked a convent of nuns to pray for her, but she mustered the courage to visit me because she wanted to talk in detail about the unborn baby, and didn’t want to take the risk of talking to yet another person who would do a hard-sell on abortion.
Lauren is determined to go through the pregnancy, and we discussed baby names and baby clothes. She’s also going to avoid all those pro-abortion voices (including her ex-boyfriend’s) that are seeking to bully her. In an ideal world, she would talk to the baby’s father about her visits to the GP and her birth plan, but the father has stopped all contact with her.
Lauren also commented that many girls get manipulated into having abortions. And she’s right – bamboozling pregnant women into ‘getting rid’ is an acceptable form of coercion. In contrast to this, Lauren looks forward to getting further emotional support from The Good Counsel Network.

Mary O' Regan

The Assumption - She Will Crush the serpent's Head.

On August 15th, we have a great Marian feast in the Church's calender, The Assumption of Our Lady.

"A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown".

The first reading for the Mass on this day is from the Apocalypse. It strikes me for it's relevance for the pro-life cause. It describes a vision of a woman who is "pregnant and in labour and crying aloud with the pangs of childbirth", and the dragon who tries to eat the male child as soon as the woman gives birth.

The devil, the 'father of lies', hates all of God's creation, and attempts to destroy God's plan of creation, by attacking primarily the woman, and "the fruit of her womb". The sanctity of human life from the moment of conception is so under attack today through the evils of abortion and contraception. Many people today are blind to these evils. We must not lose hope, but trust in God's infinite mercy. God will destroy the lies surrounding abortion and contraception, through his Beloved Mother, the Virgin Mary. She is the new Eve, who "will crush the serpent's head", and who promised to the children at Fatima that "Her Immaculate Heart would triumph".

God has already won the Victory through His death on the cross and His defeat of death through His Resurrection. Let's take great courage from this reading, that God will destroy death forever through His Mother, and abortion and contraception will disappear from the world, because Our Lady will intercede and prevent the devil from causing anymore harm to God's children.

I invite you to entrust yourselves totally to Our Lord through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so that we can be instruments for God's light and love to shine through us, enabling God to work miracles and replace our culture of death will a culture of Life.

James Coulborn

Saturday 14th August National Day of Prayer and Fasting for Life

There is little doubt that when something which is as widespread and as evil as Abortion and has such a powerful grip on our society, good works alone will not rid us of this scourge. Therefore, there is a great need to increase our personal penance with prayer and fasting.

Saturday the 14th August is a National Day of Prayer and Fasting for Life (See our poster link). It is the vigil of the Assumtion and also the feast day of St Maximillian Kolbe, thus making this date doubly appropriate for such a day of prayer and fasting. We would ask you on that day to;

A great prayer for Life is urgently needed. - Pope John Paul II

And He said to them; This kind (of demon) can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

(Gospel of Mark 9:29)

On Saturday 14th August please pray and fast for the end of abortion and euthanasia.
Your prayer and fasting is urgently needed. Join us each month in Prayer and Fasting:
Fasting
Fast from all food except bread and water for the day
Or Fast from a particular food or luxury, e.g. chocolate, alcohol, cigarettes, TV.
Fast from whatever you can given your state of health etc, but make sure it is something that involves a sacrifice to yourself.
Prayer
We are asking people to say a Rosary (or an extra Rosary if you say it daily already). You could also offer an extra effort such as going to Mass (or an extra Mass) on the day, or going to Adoration. You can even pray before a closed tabernacle if Adoration is not available near you.

For information on the days of Prayer and Fasting contact The Good Counsel Network on 020 7723 1740.
Download a Poster about the Fast Day here

And the people of Ninevah believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and puton sackcloth, from the greatest to the least…God saw their efforts to renounce their evil ways. And God relented about the disaster which He had threatened to bring on them, and He did not bring it.

(Jonah 3:5,10)

Stuart McCullough

'Old Rite' Latin Mass Friday 13th August, Corpus Christi Church, Central London.

As mentioned previously here the Latin Mass Society organises a monthly Mass to support the work of the Good Counsel Network at Corpus Christi Church, Maiden lane. The Mass is held at 6.30pm on the second Friday of each month using the 1962 Missal, it is usually not very well attended. However as the Mass fell on the feast of the Sacred Heart in June, there was quite a good congregation, with numbers falling slightly for the Mass on the Feast of St John Fisher and St Thomas More in July. This month the regular Mass for Pro-Life work falls on Friday the 13th August, the feast of St Oswald, King and Martyr, in the diocese of Westminster. If you are able to attend please do so.

Stuart McCullough

Urgent Appeal

Dear Friends

Saving lives comes at a cost. We have just paid more than £2,000.00 for adverts that will go up in the London underground stations shortly. We have a number of women, some pregnant, some mothers who rely on a little bit of weekly support from us so that they will have food to eat.

This support fulfils the promises we made to them when they were pregnant – many planning to abort – and we offered the very basic support needed to put food on their table when their children were born.

Putting aside a couple of large outstanding bills that we have, amounting to over £5,000.00, this week we are urgently in need of to £2,500.00 to pay the things that cannot wait. This letter will not even be posted to all of our supporters as we don’t have the cost of postage. I therefore hope that you can help at this time, but if not please say the prayer to St. Philomena that we will raise the funds needed to continue our Life Saving work.

As you will see on the attached form some supporters are doing a sponsored walk to help raise the money that we urgently need. This is a great way to raise funds because even if you cannot give, or cannot give very much, asking friends and family to support the sponsored walk can help us to raise a lot.

God Bless,

Stuart McCullough

Ps Please make cheques payable to; The Guild of Our Lady of Good Counsel, and send to; PO Box 46679, London, NW9 8ZT. Or online see; http://www.goodcounselnetwork.com/



Novena Prayer to St Philomena

O Faithful Virgin and Glorious Martyr, St Philomena, who works so many miracles on behalf of the poor and sorrowing, have pity on me. Thou knowest the multitude and diversity of my needs. Behold me at thy feet, full of misery, but full of hope. I entreat thy charity, O great Saint! Graciously hear me and obtain from God a favourable answer to the request which I now humbly lay before thee – that Good Counsel may raise the money it needs and that as many lives as possible will be saved through their work (add your own intentions). I am firmly convinced that through thy merits, through the scorn, the sufferings and the death thou didst endure, united to the merits of the passion and death of Jesus, thy spouse, I shall obtain what I ask of thee, and in the joy of my heart I will bless God, who is admirable in His Saints. Amen.

St Philomena and Her Cord, A Powerful Sacramental

A supporter very kindly knitted some beautiful woollen sweaters for babies. One cheerfully coloured jumper has a clever design feature. In this case, the Cord of St. Philomena has been stitched around the neckline, and gives the effect of a little ruffled collar. The Cord of St. Philomena has the most marvellous promises, including protection against accidents and evils of every kind. The Holy Curé of Ars blessed and distributed a great many of the Cords. The Cord has been approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites. A very fortunate little babe will wear this jumper!

Now that St. Philomena’s feast day (or you may know her as the Wonder Worker) is being celebrated today (in the Old Rite), we invoke her intercession especially in the cause of helping women under pressure to be sexually active, or women who are victims of violence. St. Philomena was subjected to foul torture – scourged like Our Lord until like Him, she was unrecognisable. She was then thrown into the Tiber with an anchor tied around her neck and eventually murdered by decapitation. Why? St. Philomena was merely thirteen years old, and her ‘offence’ was that she refused the sexual advances of the Roman Emperor. We pray to St. Philomena for young for young girls who want to stay pure but whose peers goad them into ‘sleeping around’. We pray for the adults who throw ‘a blind eye’ to the sexual abuse of girls as young as ten or eleven. We pray that these guardians of young girls will realise that they need to take responsibility in protecting vulnerable children and young teenagers. These adults may be the GP who puts a young girl on the Pill so that her boyfriend (or as is can happen– the mother’s boyfriend) may take advantage of the girl. We pray for teachers who urge young girls to become sexually active, and give no advice or help if a girl is pressurised into exploitative sexual relationships. We also pray for the young girls who are treated as if they have committed a crime by not sleeping around.

Indulgences Attached to St Philomena's Cord
By wearing it (usually around the waist) we may merit a Plenary Indulgence on the following days when the cord is worn for the first time; on May 25th, anniversary of opening of Saint Philomena's tomb – in the catacombs of Saint Priscilla. Or today, August 11th, her proper feast day. A plenary indulgence may also be sought on December 15, which is the anniversary of the approbation of the cord by the Holy See. And if one is wearing the Cord at the moment of death. The usual conditions for obtaining a Plenary Indulgence must be met.

Mary O'Regan

A Good Man

We often complain on this blog about the men who send, bring, drag, cajole, bully and beg their girlfriends into aborting.

So just for once I thought I would pay a few dues to the good men we see, not often enough, but occasionally.

So here's to Damian who "colluded" with me regularly to encourage his girlfriend to trust us and seek the help she needed, even after she had rebooked her abortion for the third time. They now have a beautiful 5 year old son.

And here's to Jim who tried every means to stop his wife of 2 years, who had been desperate to have a baby, from aborting their baby - within a week of finding out she was pregnant, because she went into a sudden unexpected depression. He offered her his total unconditional love and support - not the fake variety that would have walked her round the abortuary. We don't know the outcome.

But my all-time favourite is the gentle Australian builder, Joe, who went out to have a smoke after seeing what an abortion involved. "come back" said his girlfriend, "I know we disagree on abortion, but we have to discuss everything. I want you to understand why I feel abortion is right."

"Discuss?" he replied "Did you just watch that? If you don't see that that is wrong there is nothing to discuss." And he simply wept for her, and for her moral view of the world and for their baby." We continue to pray for Joe, his girlfriend and their baby.

Clare McCullough

Keeping Things Safe at Our Lady's House

I went to visit Sisters Chinedum and Mary Joseph at our Home for Mothers in West London. I was going there as part of our ongoing commitment to support Mothers. Some of the women who live there are some of our most needy Mothers. If it were not for your support, these women would have nowhere to live.

There were a few things to do. Some of the children are getting a little bit bigger and have started to crawl around. Up until now most of the babies that have lived there have been small enough that they would need to be carried everywhere. It has now become necessary to make some adjustments. We had already done a few things, including installing a new door closer for the kitchen. One of the Mothers needed a cot put together for her baby and some stair gates needed to be put up, one at the top and bottom of the stairs. The stair gates proved to be more difficult than you would imagine. The house is Victorian and the stairway is wider than average and has an ornamental handrail.

All in all it is quite a satisfactory feeling to have completed it all. I then had the treat of an African style rice and fish dish cooked by Sr Mary Joseph.

Conor Carroll

Blessed Rosaries Are A Powerful Weapon to Bear

In case you didn't see this in the news last week:
A British soldier was saved by his rosary beads in Afghanistan when he stooped to pick them up and saw that he was next to a landmine. Glenn Hockton, 19, was on patrol in Helmand province, Afghanistan, when bent down to pick up his prayer beads after they fell off, Daily Express reported Tuesday.
It was then that he realised that he was standing close to a mine.
“As he (Glenn) bent down to pick up his rosary to see if it was broken, he ­realised he was near a landmine.
“He had to stand there for 45 terrifying minutes before his colleagues managed to get him,” Glenn’s mother Sheri Jones was quoted as saying.
Nearly 65 years back, Glenn’s great-grandfather’s life was saved during the World War II, thanks to rosary beads. He survived a blast, which killed six of his platoon.
Joseph “Sunny” Truman was with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
“Grandad (Truman) was walking across a field with half a dozen of his platoon. He bent down to pick something up and was the only one to survive a sudden bomb blast. He had picked up a rosary,” said Truman’s grand-daughter Sheri.
She said she was shocked when Glenn told her about the ­coincidence.

Coincidence? My foot! God-incidence. It is nice when Jesus and Mary intervene in our lives in such a clear way.
This story should remind us of the importance of praying our Rosary, and the indulgences which apply to even carrying a blessed rosary beads.
Of course they are not a lucky charm but as sacramentals they are a witness to our requesting Our Lady's protection and prayers.
St Louis de Montfort said that when he got a blessed Rosary into someone's hands he considered them saved. Of course, he did no doubt pray and sacrifice a lot for them beforehand.
But it should remind us too of why we try to give blessed miraculous medals and rosaries to girls considering abortion. And it should strengthen our resolve to do so in the future.

Clare McCullough

Marie Stopes Don't Provide Help for Women - Just Abortion. But We Can With Your Support.

Regarding Marie Stopes Abortion TV Ad, this week's Guardian tells us that:

The advertising watchdog has cleared the first British television advert to offer advice on abortion services, despite almost 5,000 complaints.
The Advertising Standards Authority cleared the ad, one of a series of three, of breaking any of the rules in its code, while acknowledging that the issue was "controversial and distasteful for some".
The campaign has become the seventh-most-complained about of all time, with 1,054 official complaints. The ASA also received more than 3,300 postcards and petition signatures from the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children and 327 calls before the first ad aired.
The ads featured three women who may have missed their period with a voiceover offering Marie Stopes International as a source of pregnancy advice...
"Many complainants regarded the advertisers as advocates of abortion and therefore interpreted the ad as a promotion of abortion," said the ASA. "However, the ad was for an advice service for women dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, and stated that Marie Stopes could help women who were 'pregnant and not sure what to do'. We considered it was an ad for a general pregnancy advice service for women who wished to learn about and discuss their options, which might include, but were not limited to, abortion."
The ASA also said that the women in the ads looked "deep in thought" and therefore it did not trivialise unplanned pregnancy and did not suggest that only the woman would be affected.
It concluded that the ad would not cause widespread offence and was not harmful in that it would not encourage promiscuity or overly appeal to young people.

Marie Claire's website tells us that:

The ASA added, ‘We were satisfied that any callers to the advice line would be advised about health implications of any intervention or procedure which might be appropriate for her, in consultation with a qualified and regulated healthcare professional.’

If you have had enough of this nonsense and want to see pregnant women receive real help and advice, why not support our advertising campaign, due to start on the London underground shortly. It's also a witness to the fact that catholics and catholic agencies provide real help and support to women in crisis pregnancies. But ads don't come cheap, so please follow the link to donate if you can to The Guild of Our Lady of Good Counsel: http://www.justgiving.com/goodcounsel/Donate

Clare McCullough

St Felicissimus, Ora Pro Nobis!

The 6th of August is the feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ, it is also, in the old calendar, the feast of a number of martyrs. St Felicissimus, a deacon, was decapitated along with his fellow deacon St Agapitus in the year 258 during the persecution of Decius. Their feast day now falls on the 7th August and early on that morning their Holy Mass will be offered in the Good Counsel Network's Chapel. As we have an old rite Mass on the Friday, they will also be commemorated then. It is quite appropriate to be having both of these Masses as we have a relic of St Felicissimus in our altar. He died witnessing to the truth of the Catholic faith in a decadent pagan era where politicians believed they had the right to dictate right from wrong.

It is ironic to think that more than seventeen hundred years later in a decadent neo pagan Britain we are still faced with a constant onslaught of liberal politicians, along with those within and outside the Church, who demand that we deny the truths of the faith. Whether it is same sex couples adopting, abortion on demand or sex education for five year olds, Catholics must be prepared for martyrdom just as St Felicissimus was in his day.

Stuart McCullough

Fancy A Nice Summer Walk Along the Canal?

Johanna (left) and Gaelle Hendrickx

Two young pro-lifers will be doing their bit to raise funds for The Guild of Our Lady of Good Counsel this month and we invite you to support them if you can Gaelle and Johanna Hendrickx will be doing a sponsored walk along part of the Grand Union Canal on Saturday 21st August. As well as sponsorship, they welcome anyone who would like to do the walk with them and also get sponsorship from their own friends and families.

If you can sponsor them please go to the links at the bottom of this blog.

If you are interested in doing the walk, and raising sponsorship yourself, please get in touch with Conor Carroll on 020 7723 1740. Gaelle Says:

We are going to walk from Cassiobury Park (close to Watford Metropolitan line tube station) to Hemel Hempstead and back, along the Grand Union Canal. This is 20 miles in total. We will be doing this to raise money for The Guild of Our Lady of Good Counsel who are a Catholic Pro-life organisation who support The Good Counsel Network. This is a really great charity who have helped to save thousands of unborn lives. If you want to find out more about them look at http://www.goodcounselnetwork.com/ (which is their new website) or call 0207 7231740. Please sponsor us if you can as we would really like to raise as much money as possible for this great cause. You can donate to support our fundraising effort by visiting our JustGiving page. www.justgiving.com/Gaelle-Hendrickx or www.justgiving.com/Johanna-Hendrickx

Where Do We Draw the Line Re Aborting the Handicapped?

From time to time people will ask what seems to me a preposterous question, ‘ Why are you pro-life’ the reason this seems preposterous to me is because to be pro-life seems perfectly normal to me. Prior to being a Roman Catholic I would have considered Abortion in most circumstances wrong, I would probably not have considered Abortion wrong in the case of pregnancy resulting from rape, or in the case of a woman carrying a handicapped child, but upon reading a letter from a Christian in a secular newspaper defending the right to life of those conceived through rape or those with disabilities I found my position untenable and changed my stance.
Shortly afterwards when I was received into the church and continued to study the Faith it became more and more clear. On one occasion arguing with a National Socialist from Germany, who was a friend of a work colleague, on the issue of Abortion in the case of Handicap, it was nice to find him say at the end of the argument that “your position is obviously far more logical but is not one that I can accept”. The argument that I put forward to him as he argued his case for the master race was: 'At what point did the disability of a child become serious enough to kill them', and it is a question that I would put to any of his fellow travellers who consider the abortion of the handicapped acceptable.
The line drawn by God is clear and unmovable, “Thou shalt not kill.” But where does man seek to draw that line? To abort those who are blind, born with one leg, or one and a half legs, or with a foot missing or a toe, or with dark hair and brown eyes? It is clear throughout the history of Man that when we stray from God’s path we very quickly go to hell. It is incredible to think that we live in a country whose laws on Abortion and Euthanasia have much more in common with the illogical position of the young German national socialist with whom I argued.

The law in England and Wales now states that a handicapped child can be aborted up to and during birth. A considerable number of the MPs who voted for that law in 1990 were elected by Roman Catholics and many of them still, to this day, sit in our house of Parliament.

It is almost beyond belief.

Stuart McCullough

A Day in My Life at the Good Counsel Centre

It's Monday. First things first. I greet Our Lord in the chapel, and sprinkle holy water on my forehead, asking the Holy Spirit to inspire all my actions and words this day,‘please give me the right thing to say at the right time to the pregnant ladies that I will meet’. Then, I check the messages and find out which client has
called; has anyone’s circumstances changed over the weekend? Is ‘Amanda’ still
intent on keeping the baby after finding out that her baby will be due on
Christmas day? Has the father of ‘Jane’s’ child (she had a one night stand with
him two months ago) decided he wants to help her? Did any girl deliver her baby
over the weekend? I add the girls’ intentions to the prayer list, and take
comfort that prayers will be offered for them during the day.

I get ready a pram for ‘Fran’ and a bag of baby clothes. While waiting for ‘Fran’, I look up a news story that could be the subject of a blog post; The Irish Daily Mail carried a story about Sarah Hewson who had an abortion at 19, but at 38 is still childless. In the Daily Mail article, they describe Sarah as having regretted her abortion because she aborted the only child she ever conceived. A bit of research later reveals that Sarah Hewson is reviewing legal action against The Mail, because she’s very resentful that The Mail presented her as feeling so guilty.

‘Fran’ comes and we have a chat, she’s only one month from the due date, and getting
very excited about the forthcoming arrival of her baby boy, if only she didn’t
have heartburn! Fran learns to use her pram and is delighted with it, and
leaves the centre, walking into the May sunshine more prepared for the baby,
than she ever imagined she would be, all those months ago when she first
came.

I grab a bit of lunch and enjoy a coffee before the next client comes. Rosie is
twenty-five and twenty-one weeks pregnant; she wants some advice. Rosie pours
her heart and uses wads of tissues; in the past week she has been crying so
much that her voice is low from hyperventilating. Rosie is ‘having a holiday in
London for the sake of getting a late abortion’, because in her native African
country, abortion is illegal, except if you ‘if you pay someone to use the
straw for early abortions’. Previous to coming to us, Rosie went to a private 'clinic', but didn’t like the sound of the late-term abortion methods, and that she would have to be induced to start the process. She asks many times ‘is there an easy way to do it?’ She is shaken to know that at this stage of the pregnancy, the baby could live outside the womb. Looking at a picture of a twenty-one week baby, she says, ‘you know, I could deliver a premature baby…’

Two and a half hours later, Rosie leaves but would like to come back soon to get
more matters off her chest, we are the first people she has told anything to,
and the pregnancy is semi-hidden.

I’m scheduled to do Eucharistic Adoration, and as I walk into the chapel I feel
bathed in love. During Eucharistic Adoration, there is the distinctive
atmosphere (for me) of Christmas day. I offer a Rosary for Rosie, and ask God
to heal her hurts. I’m never so grateful for Eucharistic Adoration as when I
leave a very emotionally involved counselling session. We have Benediction
promptly at 5PM, and I ask Our Lady to intercede for those of us, working in
the country that is her dowry.

Afterwards, I answer the phone, and speak to girls who have phoned to say that they have received their financial help for this week, and find out how they are sorted for other matters. Then it’s
time to get the counselling rooms ready for tomorrow, and before I forget,
replenish the tissue box.

Mary O'Regan

Be There to Support the Pope!

The Papal visit is now just over 6 weeks away. I haven’t seen any real mention of it in the secular media for a little while. Perhaps it is the calm before the storm. We have to expect the “storm” to come and be ready for it. This is the time to witness to our faith, and the time to become modern day martyrs in defence of our faith and our spiritual father, Pope Benedict XVI.

In the next couple of months friends and work colleagues will naturally talk about the Pope coming. They will probably complain about the cost of his visit and possibly bring up the abuses and blame the Pope for (as the media have portrayed it) trying to cover them up. This is possibly the best natural opportunity to evangelise and witness to our faith that we may ever get. Let's make sure we do not miss out. Take advantage of these conversations. Let your colleagues know your beliefs and why you have them. Defend the Pope and Catholicism. Invite them to listen to, or watch, the Pope, or at least try to convey his message to them yourself.

But most importantly show your support for the Pope. Go and see him and listen to him. This is the first time in 28 years a Pope has been to England, and the first State visit to England of a Pope ever. It doesn’t happen very often, so let's make sure we can look back with good memories, because we have done our bit to make his trip as successful as possible.

Conor Carroll
(P.S. There are still parishes with spare tickets. Ask around before they are all gone! Editor)