Five-fold Increase in Women Coming to Good Counsel - Help Us Feed and House Mothers and Babies Today

Babies - they and their mums are what it's all about.

It is always a great blessing to be busy in our work. The more women we see, the more women we can offer alternative options and support, and the more of them we can pray for - hopefully resulting in more women keeping their babies.
Through various initiatives to spread our work, we have recently had a more than five-fold increase in the women that we are seeing. And almost all of them are coming to us set on abortion.
This has meant a great increase in the number of women who have chosen life for their children.
What we have not had however is a five-fold increase in the financial support we receive. Nor even a two-fold increase. So I am writing this to ask you to put your hand in your pockets to help us out at his time. We urgently need some lenten sacrificial giving or the weekly vouchers we send out to Mothers who are not entitled to any other support will be threatened by our lack of funds. Our resources are depleting rapidly and yet 23 women are currently dependent on us for food each week and 9 of these are being housed by us.
Many of them will only need our help for about 1 year, before going back to independence, but in their hour of need we cannot let them down.
There are several options for donating which you can see here.
If you can help, please do and please pass this message on to your friends by sending them a link.
We always need your prayers for expectant mums under pressure, especially Ann, Una and Alana.
And lastly if you can help with donations of baby goods please click here to see what we need:
http://www.goodcounselnet.co.uk/Donating-Baby-Items.html and phone us on 02077231740 or email us at info@goodcounselnetwork.freeserve.co.uk to arrange collection or a time for you to drop it off.

Clare McCullough

A Blessed Christmas And Can You Help Us Make Room At The Inn?

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment In which the Son of God was born Of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, [here mention your request] through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.

Have a very Blessed and Happy Christmas

from all at The Good Counsel Network!

Christmas Day Appeal

Help us to make sure that there is always room at the Inn for Expectant Mothers and their babies.

Make a donation to our work today by clicking here.

Having trouble with this link?

Paste http://www.justgiving.com/Charity/Donate.aspx?cid=147073 into your browser.

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

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.

The Difficulties of Being A Priest

I realised last weekend the difficulties of being a priest one weekend when visiting a parish for a collection for Good Counsel's work.

The Parish Priest is very supportive and is involved with our work. The appeal was mostly very well received.

At the end of the Second Mass of the day I was standing at the back of the church thanking people for contributions which they put in the collecting plates and handing out leaflets when I and the volunteers with me were approached by a man who told us he thought the Church needed to change many of its teachings even though he went Mass every Sunday. It was very difficult to speak to him, but I feel, and I hope, that by the end of the conversation we had explained our side of the story and he might one day come to reconsider his views. We must pray for him.

While I was getting ready for the next Mass I noticed a couple sitting outside the Church in the sunshine. I thought that they were just taking a break from wherever they were walking to. It turned out that they were not. After a short while they approached me to ask when the priest would be finished his sermon. After realising they wanted to speak to him, I informed them that the Mass would probably be about another half an hour. The man informed me that he needed to get married to the lady with him, he then went on to say that he already lived with her and that he was not practicing, although she was a Catholic.

I don’t know which is harder, to speak to someone who has a deep wound and is very hostile towards you and all you stand for or someone who is very blasé about things but living a life which is against the teachings of the church. Whichever it is, both of them are examples of the many people that your priest has to deal with along with helping all the God-fearing Catholics who are living out their lives as the Church teaches to come closer to God.

The year for priests has now come to an end, but we must remember to continue praying for them. Now, more than ever, they need it!

Conor Carroll

Maria Stops Abortion Ad Campaign

As many Londoners amongst you will know, the abortion providers, Marie Stopes International or BPAS, from time to time will take out advertising on the tubes or over-ground train-lines. When this happens, for several weeks we all have to live with the sight of some tastefully designed posters, promoting abortion as though it was the reasonable person’s answer to the ‘problem’ of an ‘unwanted’ pregnancy. Women who are pregnant and are in a panic can easily be brought to feel that abortion will solve all their problems. And of course the advertising makes no reference either to the horror of what the different abortion procedures involve for the baby OR to the awful suffering that many, many women will endure afterwards.
Advertising abortion on TV will worsen this situation because a) it will bring abortion into every living room and b) it continues the trend of implying that abortion is simple, morally acceptable and is something which facilitates a happy future. So we will continue to oppose TV advertising of abortion with prayer and fasting.
We would also like to increase our outreach to women in trouble in a pregnancy which maybe wasn’t planned or where they suddenly find themselves in crisis. Using the title Maria Stops Abortion, we plan to reach out to women who would otherwise only see adverts for the ‘help’ offered by abortion providers. Tube and rail adverts are extremely expensive, but we feel the need to launch out into the deep and experiment with this type of outreach with the hope that any woman seeking an escape from abortion will find us.
Can you support our advertising programme with any contribution? A regular contribution by standing order helps us to plan ahead for future advertising as well. You can donate by cheque, by card online through the link at: www.goodcounselnetwork.com on the ‘Donate’ page and you can obtain a Standing Order form and/or a Gift Aid form by phoning us or online also on our ‘Donate’ page.
£20.00 buys one ad inside a tube carriage for 2 weeks. But for about £400 we can begin advertising in Stations. If you support this campaign, please send what you can.
Meanwhile, why not get one of our posters put up in your parish or anywhere locally where pregnant girls could see it (while we are mainly London based, we can provide advice and support to girls in England and Wales).

Originally From The Good Counsel Newsletter

New Tabernacle Installed

Our Tabernacle before (left) and after (below).

We recently asked readers to contribute towards the renovation of an old tabernacle we had been given. Our aim was to replace the tiny tabernacle we had been using with one more suited to our daily Mass and Adoration schedule.

Fr Timothy Finigan had the following to say on the subject:

The tabernacle currently in use is not large enough properly to hold the pyx which contains the Benediction host. It has to be put in (reverently, of course) on its side, in order to fit into the small tabernacle along with the ciborium.

I'm delighted to see that there is now a better tabernacle (see the Maria Stops Abortion blog) donated by a kind priest. Quite properly it has been re-gilded to make it more respectable to hold the Blessed Sacrament. The cost was £1000 - maybe someone might be able to cover this? It would help keep funds available for the vital work of safeguarding unborn children and assisting mothers who are in trouble.

you can see his whole article for 28 May on The Good Counsel Network by clicking here. The new tabernacle is now fitted, but it is not too late to donate to this appeal, please help if you can. Adoration is vital to our work. Helping women to change their minds in the most difficult crisis pregnancy situations.

Clare McCullough