Appleton couple attributes miraculous birth of child to Fr. Solanus Casey, who's first Mass was celebrated at their parish

On Nov. 18, Fr. Solanus Casey, who was born in Wisconsin, will be beatified at a Mass in front of more than 66,000 people at Ford Field in Detroit. Fr. Casey is only the second American-born man to be honored with such a distinction.

Fr. Solanus was born on Nov. 25, 1870, in Oak Grove. He entered the Capuchin Franciscan order in Detroit in 1897. He celebrated his first Mass at St. Joseph Parish in Appleton and passed away 53 years later on July 31, 1957. His body was found incorrupt 30 years after his death, and he was declared venerable by Pope John Paul II on July 11, 1995
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“In 2003 my wife Lara and I were blessed by God to have brought our son Kaden into the world,” said Bleck. In 2006 they became pregnant with their second child.

Lara’s water broke at the 22-week mark and on Feb. 2, 2006, their daughter, Lauren, did not survive the birth. “We still had hope for another sibling for Kaden,” said Bleck. “In early 2007 we were again blessed to learn we’d have a new arrival in late December.”

At 22 weeks, Lara’s water broke again and the couple believed they were faced with the same conclusion to her pregnancy. Days in St. Elizabeth Hospital turned into weeks.

“As I traveled back and forth to the hospital, one of my frequent detours would involve a stop at St. Joe’s,” said Bleck. “I became a regular visitor and was often in deep prayer asking for intercession from Fr. Solanus Casey before his prayer garden statue. At these moments I felt a level of peace and calmness.”

On Nov. 3, Lara came home from the hospital and on Dec. 13 she delivered a healthy son, Adam.

“There is little medically to explain how a significant breaking of the amniotic sac could have been solved with absolute permanence for an additional 16-week period for Adam to completely develop,” said Bleck. “In the words of Fr. Solanus, ‘We leave the remaining explanation of our miracle in God’s hands.’”

full story at The Compass

The story behind the St. Gianna Beretta Molla painting at the Guadalupe Shrine

God always has a plan, and although we may not know it or see it at the time, we can look back and understand that what felt like a tough circumstance was really God at work in our lives. Such was the case in the early 2000s. At that time, there were several young couples having difficulties with pregnancy and they were brought together through a new saint, Gianna Beretta Molla.

This all happened about the same time the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe was being built, and the story unfolds in the shrine’s painting of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, who is surrounded by children known as Gianna babies.

The artist, Neilson Carlin, was painting St. Gianna Beretta Molla when, midway through, it was suggested that she be surrounded by Gianna babies, or children whose births were attributed to her intercession. Above her is Our Lady, Patroness of the Unborn, who is surrounded by unborn children offering roses.

What people don’t often realize is that the children in the painting are real Gianna babies who live in or near La Crosse.

continue at Catholic Life

Also, the Guadalupe Shrine does have St. Gianna Molla's actual gloves available for veneration.  I've heard some pilgrims will come and put them on and pray for assistance with conception/pregnancy.

Oops, Sister reminded me, tomorrow April 28th the Shrine is hosting a Relic Veneration for Saint Gianna Beretta Molla. Details

We Can't Stop ... Having Babies

HT LA

These twin babies don't realise they've been born yet and are being slowly eased into their new surroundings

These twin babies don't realise they've been born yet and are being slowly eased into their new surroundings with a new nursing technique - incredible! xVideo Credit: Sonia Rochel http://gem106.co/1E0yqrB
Posted by Gem 106 on Wednesday, April 8, 2015

HT Aunt Jeanne

Fecundophobia: Growing Fear of Children & Fertile Women

We have become a quite weird people. When I take my many children to the park people ask if our family is "blended" or if we have friends playing with our children. It would have been much more acceptable to many people we have talked to for us to have said we had children inside and outside of wedlock with multiple parties involved than to have told them we got married and had children inside that union. The most common complaint is "How can you pay for all these children?" Below we see that money doesn't seem to always (often?) be the concern. If an NFL quarterback is being singled out for his family size, what is the real cause?

Until very recently (not even a visible sliver in the pie chart of the history of human civilization) people had children with some regularity. How do we go from "A good family with many well-behaved children in tow at church every Sunday." to "My mother had five children and I had one when I was 38. He isn't at church this morning because he has hockey." Both of these are actual sentences I've heard from parishioners recently.

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Last week Deadspin ran six sentences and a picture under the headline “Philip Rivers Is An Intense Weirdo.” The final two sentences about the San Diego Charger quarterback were blunt:

And he’s also about to have his seventh kid. There are going to be eight people with Rivers DNA running around this world.

continue at Byzantine, TX

Become a 1-percenter!

My wife and I are part of the 1 percent — so we’re used to criticism. We’ve made a bundle — heck, a number of bundles — and while the rest of the nation seems to be in a slump, we’re just making more. We’re part of the false cult of quantity at the expense of quality. Our consumption hurts the environment. Our ridiculous tax breaks reward our selfishness at others’ expense. To give us larger breaks is so ridiculous a suggestion even the Wall Street Journal calls us tax “gangsters.” But we, I reply, are the makers. It’s right that our tax burden is lower, since we ultimately provide the raw material for jobs, innovation and future tax revenue.

Of course, when I say we’re in the top 1 percent, I mean kids. I can’t prove conclusively that we’re 1-percenters, but given that 2010 census data showed that only 1.9 percent of American homes had seven or more members, I think it’s likely. Many seven-plus households are surely multigenerational, and 2012 census data shows the average number of children under 18 per household living with parents was 1.88.

We ended 2012 with five. No. 6, God willing, will emerge from the womb in late summer.

continue at MN Catholic Conference

I haven't had a chance to post on it, but if you missed it a Gay Marriage bill is storming through MN legislature.  It has no exceptions for adoption agencies so it will likely shut down Catholic Charities in MN like it did in Illinois. It will probably come down to court challenges which will likely enshrine it into law.  Prayers. 

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Large families and holiness

"Large families can foster holiness for many reasons. For the parents, here are three: less sleep, higher costs, and more work. Three great reasons, some might say, for avoiding children altogether. And many do. But not if your aim is heaven. Indeed, the fruits of conjugal love produce the conditions by nature that monks and nuns have to impose upon themselves by grace."

From Crisis Magazine: The Long War Against the Family

HT Sam G

Image: NYT

UW-Madison confirms ongoing use of aborted baby parts in research

From Pro-Life Wisconsin:

In mid-July, I wrote about UW-Madison opposing potential legislation that would ban the use of aborted fetal parts in research projects in the state.

That legislation was introduced last week Tuesday, authored by Rep. Andre Jacque. Read the bill here.

The legislation bans persons from knowingly and for valuable consideration acquiring, receiving, or transferring a fetal body part. It also bans persons from knowingly providing, receiving, or using for experimentation a fetal body part. Fetal body part is defined to mean a cell, tissue, organ, or other part of an unborn child who is aborted by an induced abortion.

University of Wisconsin (UW) officials are already attacking the bill, claiming that it will have a “chilling effect” on the biomedical research UW Madison is currently conducting using aborted fetal tissue. Click here for a Capital Times article detailing the UW’s opposition to AB 214 and Rep. Jacque’s and PLW’s response.

Click here [PDF] for PLW's legislative memo detailing the UW’s grisly research on human fetal body parts.

Federal law prohibits the interstate trafficking of human fetal body parts. Wisconsin’s intrastate commercial activity must have a similar prohibition so that we can guarantee the highest ethical standards of academic research and medical care in our state. Pro-Life Wisconsin thanks Representative Jacque for introducing AB 214 and defending the human dignity of our aborted brothers and sisters.

Why would UW-Madison oppose such a law? Shouldn't the state's flagship university be concerned with the education of students (not to mention human beings that will never experience college, due to being aborted)?

There is documented evidence of UW conducting research on human fetal brain and pancreatic tissue, most recently a 2000 fetal brain cell study conducted by Su-Chun Zhang of the UW-Madison Department of Medical Sciences used immature neural cells from fetal human brain tissue of 15-20 gestation weeks “after elective termination of intrauterine pregnancies” to study neurological disorders including multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. The study acknowledged Dr. Dennis Christenson, a former Madison abortionist, for his “assistance in this project.”

And now we know UW is currently using aborted baby parts in research. UW's vaunted research facilities have turned into a Communist-style house of horrors. You know who else performs research on human beings? Cuba, Russia [during the WWI era] , China, Germany [during Hitler's regime], Korea...