A new perspective?

I've felt called lately to listen to Catholic radio in the mornings. I get to work 30 minutes to an hour before my co-workers so I've been tuning to EWTN or Catholic Radio on Sirius. This morning I caught 7 am Mass on EWTN. However, I'm torn. I'm at work to work (in a government setting - even though we're pretty relaxed) & we have the radio as entertainment. However, I felt kind of inappropriate listening to Mass while I dealt with my case-work. It just seemed an injustice to the Mass (even though I wasn't in attendance) to be thinking about crimes against people while participating long-distance with the Mass. The other morning I was driving & listening to the Mass & it still felt inappropriate - although not as bad as this morning - because I try to pay strict attention to the words & spirit of Mass. What do you guys think?

While I was listening to Mass, the homily was about the race-inspired scripture of St. Paul. You know the one - running the race with Christ as our goal. Winning the race is really about fulfilling our God-given talents and overcoming sin (our competition). Anyway, it made the think about strength. Then, as usual, my thoughts turned to the abortion debate. I've never thought in this light before, so I thought I'd share. The pro-aborts make abortion about the woman's rights and/or her well-being. They can cite facts, figures, and ancedotes about abortion basically being a woman's salvation from a horrible situation. Basically, the pro-aborts equate abortion rights with feminism & woman empowerment. However, I think having the option of abortion has lead to not only the de-feminisation of women, but also as a show of weakness for women.

Everyone (even the pro-aborts) acknowledge that women who overcome their bad situation and carry their baby to term are exceptionally strong. However, I don't think they're *exceptionally* strong - I think they are embracing the inherent strength of woman-hood & motherhood. As women we are give many struggles that even many men admit they could not or would not have a desire or the strength to overcome. One of my husband's favorite sayings is, "Never trust something that can bleed for 7 days & still survive." Its a crude way of expressing the male acknowledgement that women have an inner strength that they don't - even though men are theoretically the 'stronger' sex.

Back to the abortion debate: abortion is a show of weakness because it takes away the need for strength. I'm not saying that abortion is an easy choice (even pro-aborts admit that). I'm also not saying that women who have succumbed to the temptation to abort have had easy lives. Instead I'm saying that if these same women had felt that they had the inner strength that is inherent to women and mothers, they wouldn't have felt the need to abort. Whether their abortion was brought about by personal circumstance, poor fetal prognosis, poor maternal prognosis, etc; these women would *not* have felt the need to abort if they had trusted themselves to have the strength to carry to term. In other words, these women short-changed themselves because society has taught them to short-change themselves.

While feminism claims to empower women by making them 'equal' to men, in reality it reduces us to male strictures. Women and men are fundamentally different on many levels.That's why God paired us as he did. He knew our strengths and weaknesses. He designed us to complement each other (compliments are also appreciated). Feminism has made women try to become men. However, this has made us less than we were intended to be. We don't embrace our God-given strengths because we're too busy trying to emulate men's God-given strengths.

Having abortion as an option has lead to women not trusting themselves to be strong enough to face what women have *always* faced - their femininity. It has lead to the acceptance that women aren't strong enough to face the difficult situations we find ourselves facing. Instead we have to terminate a life growing within us in order to make ourselves feel like we're in control. Instead of protecting that life within our bodies, women are made the think of their babies as alien invaders. Instead of realizing that being the protector of innocent life requires more strength of character and will than terminating that life, women are mislead to believe their lives will be better and easier without that responsibility and gift. Women are being taught that shirking responsibility is what is *best* for them and society. So instead of abortion freeing women and making us stronger, it is actually whittling away at our inherent strengths.

Pray to end abortion. Pray for women who have had abortions & who will have abortions. Pray for the aborted babies. Pray for hearts to change.