40 Days For Life is back in London

"Wednesday 14th September, 7pm, Farm Street Parish Hall, London, W1K 3AH - Cast the Vision event. We will meet to launch London's third 40 Days for Life Campaign. We have Rachel's Vineyard post-abortion help and Fiona Mansford coming to speak. Refreshments will be provided. Hope to see you there. The Committee."

This is well worth supporting, as it saves babies from abortion as well helping Mothers avoid abortion. If you cannot be there do see their website to see what else you can do to help. After their first Campaign Good Counsel carried on with the daily vigil.

Stuart McCullough

Urgent extra National Day of Prayer and Fasting for Life, Tuesday 6th (or Wednesday 7th) September

On Tuesday 6th September(moved to 7th after we sent this out as an email!) in the House of Commons there will be a debate regarding Health and Social Care Bill. A number of amendments regarding the counselling of pregnant women in relationship to abortion will be debated. With the details that we currently have it is not clear what would be the long term outcome of these amendments. Although there are some serious concerns that pro-lifers have raised. The Good Counsel Network has therefore called for an extra day of prayer and fasting for life with the intention that God’s Will, will be done and that the bill and any amendments to it, will do nothing to hinder the pro-life movement and that it will also not lead to an increase in the number of abortions.

Therefore on Tuesday 6th of September (or on Wednesday 7th)please:

Fast

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.

(Photo of Benediction at Good Counsel on the eve of the Fast Day.)

Stuart McCullough

Kneel Down Next To Me, at World Youth Day

Last Saturday morning Mass for Seminarians, as part of World Youth Day, in the Cathedral of La Almundena Spain, with the Pope. A lot of future Priests kneel to receive Holy Communion on the tongue from The Holy Father, while an Acolyte holds a Communion Patten under the chins. Take the hint, take the hint!

[Photo, Spanish Crown Prince Felipe receives Holy Communion during the Papal Mass in Santiago de Compostela, northern Spain, last year]

Stuart McCullough

Louisa Staunton RIP, 7th anniversary Mass

This article was written a number of years ago, but is well worth reading again and has been added to at the end;

You gave me shelter….
….Louisa Staunton RIP

Miss Louisa Staunton, a deceased benefactor of The Good Counsel Network, saved a lot of time and money as well as saving a lot of lives by her generous response to an appeal for housing.

Louisa originally came to The Good Counsel Network, a Catholic Pro-Life organisation, to attend the Counsellor Training Course we run. One day when attending one of the sessions, she overheard one of us phoning around trying to find accommodation for a woman who was turned around outside an abortion clinic and who wanted to keep her baby, but could not go home as her boyfriend had threatened both her and her baby. Louisa immediately said, “she can stay with me!”.

Without regard for her own safety or comfort, Louisa took this lady home with her and there began her new work of looking after vulnerable expectant mums. Louisa turned her whole house over to us, having as many as 3 members of our staff/volunteers living with her at any time as well as up to 4 mothers-to-be. She hated to accept any money from the mothers who stayed with her and was regarded as a grandmotherly figure by them all. The last Friday before she died, I brought another girl to stay with Louisa. “Mary” had spent the previous night sleeping on various London buses, after being made homeless by her employer because of her pregnancy. We had tried to find her a place wherever we could and Louisa was the first to say yes, even though there were already 4 other women staying with her. When we arrived she made Mary very welcome and cheered her up no end by her friendliness. The last time I saw Louisa conscious she was blowing bubbles in the living room to entertain Mary. “Its Our Lady’s house” she told us as we thanked her for taking Mary in.

Louisa went to bed that night but could not be woken in the morning. She was taken to hospital where she remained unconscious until Monday. Doctors found she had had bleeding around the brain during Friday night. On Monday a Priest came to the hospital to say Mass in her room. The gospel that day was the cure of the woman with a hemorrhage. Louisa died immediately after the Mass, having never regained consciousness.

During her life Louisa worked as a nurse, later a psychiatric nurse and also an assistant to the blind. She was involved in many Catholic organisations, especially the Legion of Mary. Even at the age of 75, she did the shopping for many ill and housebound neighbours and was known well by all who lived near her. She gave away anything that was asked of her to others, including on one occasion where she gave her car to a family she had just met whose car had broken down!

Louisa was involved in the Justice and Peace movement throughout her life and regarded justice and peace for the unborn as a priority. She had supported various pro-life causes over the years and while working with us she housed over 20 mothers and many babies, who may not otherwise have come into he world.

She did not confine herself to providing a roof for these girls but really loved them and took and interest in their lives. From serving ice cream to them at midnight to helping them repair their relationships with their families, she was always there for them. The more difficult the girl, the more she loved.

She was a special friend to the lonely and depressed. She loved Our Lord and had a strong devotion to Our Lady, particularly Our Lady of Good Counsel and Our Lady of All Nations.

Louisa had spent a long period of her life wanting to become a religious sister. Speaking at her funeral, one of her brothers pointed out that although she had not been able to achieve this she made her world a kind of convent where she could serve God through prayer and through her actions to those around her.

Through a strange series of events she was buried wearing a Carmelite habit and was buried on the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
May God rest your soul Louisa, our great pro-life friend and sister in Christ.

Please pray for the repose of her soul, and also ask her prayers for your intentions.

“Then the king will say to those at his right hand. ‘Come, O Blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me”. Matt 25 v34-36

Due to the generosity of Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, we have been allowed to continue housing pregnant women at Louisa’s house.

Last year Louisa's house was sold and a new one purchased. It was nice at the Mass today to have one of the Mums-to-be, in attendance who are still being housed by Louisa!

By the Babe Unborn, GK Chesterton

"By the Babe Unborn"

by G.K. Chesterton

If trees were tall and grasses short,
As in some crazy tale,
If here and there a sea were blue
Beyond the breaking pale,

If a fixed fire hung in the air
To warm me one day through,
If deep green hair grew on great hills,
I know what I should do.

In dark I lie; dreaming that there
Are great eyes cold or kind,
And twisted streets and silent doors,
And living men behind.

Let storm clouds come: better an hour,
And leave to weep and fight,
Than all the ages I have ruled
The empires of the night.

I think that if they gave me leave
Within the world to stand,
I would be good through all the day
I spent in fairyland.

They should not hear a word from me
Of selfishness or scorn,
If only I could find the door,
If only I were born.

There will be a Chesterton Conference in Oxford on Saturday 2nd July. Chesterton Prayercards can be printed from here.

Stuart McCullough

Twitter To Save The World, But Not England

I could not help but remember GK Chesterton's poem, The Secret People, when hearing an English MP talking in Parliament about a well known Welsh Footballer. He had already been 'named' by thousands on Twitter and the like.

Chesterton's poem talks about Nations raising up in the past, much as people in the Middle-east are today with modern technology. He says that the English will be the last.

And so now we have state sponsored television (BBC) telling us about mass civil disobedience by the English posting on Twitter. Regime change a la the Middle-East? Revolution like the French? Ending the killing of over 500 babies a day through abortion in this Country? Not likely! This is England we twits demand the right to gossip about who may have been sleeping with who?
God help us, because no one else would bother!

For Chesterton prayercards.

The Secret People

G. K. Chesterton

SMILE at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget.
For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet.
There is many a fat farmer that drinks less cheerfully,
There is many a free French peasant who is richer and sadder than we.
There are no folk in the whole world so helpless or so wise.
There is hunger in our bellies, there is laughter in our eyes;
You laugh at us and love us, both mugs and eyes are wet:
Only you do not know us. For we have not spoken yet.

The fine French kings came over in a flutter of flags and dames.
We liked their smiles and battles, but we never could say their names.
The blood ran red to Bosworth and the high French lords went down;
There was naught but a naked people under a naked crown.
And the eyes of the King's Servants turned terribly every way,
And the gold of the King's Servants rose higher every day.
They burnt the homes of the shaven men, that had been quaint and kind.
Till there was not bed in a monk's house, nor food that man could find.
The inns of God where no main paid, that were the wall of the weak,
The King's Servants ate them all. And still we did not speak.

And the face of the King's Servants grew greater than the King:
He tricked them, and they trapped him, and stood round him in a ring.
The new grave lords closed round him, that had eaten the abbey's fruits,
And the men of the new religion, with their bibles in their boots,
We saw their shoulders moving, to menace or discuss,
And some were pure and some were vile, but none took heed of us.
We saw the King as they killed him, and his face was proud and pale;
And a few men talked of freedom, while England talked of ale.

A war that we understood not came over the world and woke
Americans, Frenchmen, Irish; but we knew not the things they spoke.
They talked about rights and nature and peace and the people's reign:
And the squires, our masters, bade us fight; and never scorned us again.
Weak if we be for ever, could none condemn us then;
Men called us serfs and drudges; men knew that were were men.
In foam and flame at Trafalgar, on Albeura plains,
We did and died like lions, to keep ouselves in chains.
We lay in living ruins; firing and fearing not
The strange face of the Frenchman who know for what they fought,
And the man who seemed to be more than man we strained against and broke;
And we broke our own right with him. And still we never spoke.

Our patch of glory ended; we never heard guns again.
But the squire seemed struck in the saddle; he was foolish, as if in pain.
He leaned on a staggering lawyer, he clutched a cringing Jew,
He was stricken; it may be, after all, he was stricken at Waterloo.
Or perhaps the shades of the shaven men, whose spoil is in his house,
Come back in shining shapes at last to spil his last carouse:
We only know the last sad squires ride slowly towards the sea,
And a new people takes the land: and still it is not we.

They have given us into the hand of new unhappy lords,
Lords without anger and honour, who dare not carry their swords.
They fight by shuffling papers; they have bright dead alien eyes;
They look at our labour and laughter as a tired man looks at flies.
And the load of their loveless pity is worse than the ancient wrongs,
Their doors are shut in the evening; and they know no songs.

We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet,
Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.
It may be we shall rise the last as Frenchmen rose the first,
Our wrath come after Russia's wrath and our wrath be the worst.
It may be we are meant to mark with our riot and our rest
God's scorn for all men governing. It may be beer is best.
But we are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet.
Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget.

Stuart McCullough

Most important Pro-Life talk in England so far this year, will be on Wednesday

Monsignor Philip J Reilly, the founder of the Helpers of God's Precious Infants will be in London on Wednesday. He will be giving a talk at St James' Church, Spanish Place, 22 George Street, London, W1U 3QY, on Wednesday 18th May 2011 at 7.30pm.

The number of babies, as well as Mothers & Fathers saved from the horrors of abortion by God's Grace, through this Priest is amazing. Should we go to the abortuary and pray? What should we do when we are there? Do Bishops and Priests need to go? Will me going really make a dfference? Over years I've heard Monsingor answer all of this and much more besides.

Stuart McCullough

Pro-Life talks on CD

If you missed the Family Life International Conference on Saturday 7th May, you can order some or all of the five Pro-Life talks on CD from FLI or telephone; 02088579950.

Here is a 30 second clip of Hugh Owen speaking, taken with my phone.

London Pro-life Conference Saturday 7th May

If you are concerned about the moral decline of our society and feel powerless to change things YOU MUST attend this Pro-Life Pro-Family Event.

Fydor Dostoyevsky once said: “If God is not; then nothing is impermissible”

The purveyors of death are trying to eclipse God in the eyes of our Nation, so that they can promote an atheistic creed and moral world view.

We live in a society where the killing of unborn children is normal. Babies are killed in the very hospitals and clinics where doctors work to save the lives of accident victims. This horrendous situation does not revolt our society.

Family Life International, through our programmes are turning the tide among our youth. This coming year’s conference will highlight the dangers and what we can do as faithful Christians.

The FLI 2011 Conference is planned for Saturday May 7th 2010 again at Westminster Cathedral Hall.

Bring family and friends
Speak to family and friends about attending the conference. Why not organize a group in you parish. Speak to your Parish Priest about promoting this coming event. Register online early and help us to promote this events, if you need further information e-mail us.

Speakers
Fr Linus Clovis - Secularism; A Failure to Evangelise
Fr. Clovis holds a PhD in Mathematics from London University and studied Theology and Canon Law at the Angelicum University in Rome before he was ordained a priest by Pope John Paul II in 1983. He single handedly took on the St. Lucia Government in the fight against the legalisation of abortion, with the support of almost 20% of the adult population who signed a petition against the killing of the preborn. Fr Clovis is the Spiritual director of FLI and has spoken at various conferences around the world.

Andy Pollard - The Sins of the Fathers (Europe’s Demographic Winter)
Is a Management Consultant and advisor on the effects population control has on the economy and the market. Andy has spoken in a number of forums around the world on the catastrophic effects of depopulation and an ageing population. Andy is among the first academics to predict the devastating impact the ageing population would have on the UK economy and the high cost it would impose on our children.

Patricia Morgan - The Abolition of Marriage (Same Sex Marriage)
Is a Senior Researcher Fellow in the Family at the IEA Health and Welfare Unit, Patricia is a sociologist specialising in Criminology and Family Policy and is a prolific writer with titles such as “Farewell to the Family” and “Are families affordable?”. Patricia is a frequent contributor to radio and television programmes and has given evidence before the parliamentary Social Security Committee.

Hugh Owen - Evolution and the Culture of Death
Is the convert son of Sir David Owen, a former Secretary General of International Planned Parenthood Federation. Hugh directs the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation which provides a forum for Catholic theologians, philosophers, and natural scientists throughout the world. The Kolbe Center is dedicated to make available to Church leaders and to the laity the evidence for and against the theory of evolution.

Dr Claude Newbury - Mortal Combat Against The Culture of Death
Together with his wife Glenys, has devoted 35 years to propagating and defending the Culture of Life. They have together given more than 6000 talks. Claude founded The Catholic Doctors Guild of Southern Africa and served as National President of Pro-Life South Africa for 25 years and Human Life International for 15 years. In 1992, Fr. Paul Marx, in an HLI Award designated them “The couple who had done the most to defend human life around the world”.

To book or for more information click here

Stuart McCullough

Bishop Hopes is a True Shepherd of the Pro-Life Movement

Bishop Hopes is a True Shepherd of the Pro-Life Movement, here he is (in black next to the 2 Friars)leading the prayers at the Twickenham abortuary on Saturday 16th April. For information about other vigils at abortuaries see here or here.

Stuart McCullough

Catholicism and Abortion ~ Opposites

Catholicism leads people to know and love God throughout their lives. From the very moment of conception – Life is a gift from God, and this life will grow fuller and closer to God if we allow the love of God to increase within us. As we grow into adulthood it is a chosen direction throughout our lives.
All life comes from God, and abortion which is to name it clearly – murder – destroys life and one will be called to account for this life one day.
The Good Counsel Network helps everyone who wants to keep their baby, but has no one to help them. Thus with God’s help, which only has to be asked for, every new life can grow to fulfil God’s plan for them.

Angela Murphy

Suffering After an Abortion? Click here

Pregnant? Worried? Seek help here.