Terri's Fight: "With God All Things are Possible"

"Pray, Study, and Act" is Keeping It Catholic's motto, which is the Church's perennial directive because it was Our Lord's example, His "way of life."
Please forgive me for repeating the motto, but important things bear such repetition. This time, though, I'm going to ask you to speed up the process - keep praying, keep studying, but act now!

Last night, I sent out a notice about the urgency of Terri Schindler-Schiavo's case to the Keeping It Catholic members on our Yahoo list (please join us by subscribing to the Keeping It Catholic faith, family and home education email list; just send an email to KeepingItCatholic-subscribe@yahoogroups.com)

Please keep praying for Terri, whose life is still in grave danger. Last night, John, one of our "KIC Contacts" emailed me with the following update on Terri's case:

"Fox News just reported that a stay has been issued and the tubes will not be pulled until another pending hearing has been held." (Thanks, John!)

If you'll forgive a mix of metaphors - we can't rest on any laurels yet. Now's the time to "push the envelope," "to strike while the iron is hot," and to remember that "when the going gets tough, the tough get going."

It's tougher for Terri and her family. It is not our lives in danger; it is not our daughter or sister whose life is threatened daily by the very man who once promised to love and cherish her all the days of her life, "until death do we part" and who has repeatedly proven he has no intention of keeping his vow before God and man. A man who cannot keep a vow is a man who cannot be trusted, but who also must be pitied and prayed for just as much as he is opposed. If Michael Schiavo would stop pushing for what his lawyer euphemetistically calls Terri's "right to die," there would be no courts involved.

No, Terri is not our blood sister, or daughter, or wife. But let's remember, fellow Catholics, and all visitors to the KIC web-log, Terri really is our spiritual sister, a suffering servant in the Church Militant, and we can help her. All we have to do is choose which of the 3 things we can do today, tomorow and every day while we pray that either her husband's heart is changed and he dedicates himself to Terri's cause in the way Our Lord wishes him to or her birth family gains legal guardianship of Terri. And if (let's show our hope and say when) either of these two prayed-for outcomes are realized, we can still offer our help to Terri and her family when that happy day arrives. In the meantime...

WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW:
Pray, Study, and Act! Here's how:

1. Keep PRAYING for Terri's intentions and for the continual strength and perseverance of her blood family who work and pray constantly in her defense. What to pray? The Holy Rosary, which is the Church's most highly indulgenced prayer after the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Rosary is the prayer for our age, the prayer constantly emphasized by Our Lady of Fatima when she instructed: "Pray the Rosary every day."

2. STUDY the Church's profound and deep teachings regarding the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." This commandment of God's forbids the so called "mercy killings" (euthanasia) or "death with dignity" (which really means the sufferer has decided to take his life, either by his own hand or with the assistance of another, or a major decision maker in the family is weary of caring for or bothering with the sufferer.) Remember what David did to the man who killed the suffering Samuel, who had attempted to kill himself by his own sword and was therefore in agony, begging another to finish the deed and take his life? A man killed Samuel out of pity, and ran to David as quickly as he could to give the news and bring Samuel's personal effects. He wasn't bragging; he was reporting and did not try to lie about his deed. But a thing happened he could not foresee - David ordered that the man himself be slain. Why? David said it was because the man had slain an "anointed of the Lord" and, when questioned further by David, had admitted he had known that Samuel was the anointed king, chosen by God.

Catholics are anointed with holy oil when certain sacraments are administered to them - first at Baptism, then with Confirmation, and also during Extreme Unction (also known as the "Last Rites" and the "Sacrament of the Sick"). Yet even if one is not anointed by the sacraments of the Catholic Church, each human life is precious to God, Who commanded long ago that "thou shalt not kill."

3. ACT! Time is of the essence!

-IF YOU LIVE IN OR NEAR FLORIDA, seriously consider demonstrating outside the facility where Terri will be starved to death.

-LOCAL and LONG DISTANCE ALTERNATIVES. Email or fax Governor Jeb Bush. Email
jeb.bush@MyFlorida.com OR Jeb@jeb.org or FAX: 850.922.4292,
Alternate FAX 850.487.0801.
MAILING ADDRESS: Governor Jeb Bush, Office of the Governor, The Capitol, Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001.
-CONTACT PRESIDENT BUSH to demand an Executive Order to ban the starvation of Terri Schiavo. Email: president@whitehouse.gov
or FAX the President, c/o Andy Card, White House Chief of Staff: 202.456.1907.

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
"And Jesus beholding, said to them: With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~