Death with Dignity?

Now that the Culture of Death has found its poster child (Brittany Maynard, who moved to Oregon where it is legal to hire an assassin disguised as a "doctor" to help her kill herself), the big push for more states to adopt Oregon's so-called "Death with Dignity" law has begun in earnest.

The following video from Chris Stefanick is the best response I've seen.  It needs to be spread far and wide.  The Culture of Life has its own poster child.

Who is truly dying with dignity?  Brittany or Lizz?  You decide.

This means war!

It's a Christian!

Born on Mother Teresa's birthday, our little Fulton was reborn on her Feast Day, September 5! (How cool is that?!)

As instituted by Jesus Christ, the Sacrament of Baptism has saved him (see 1Pet. 3:21)!  He has been adopted by God and now shares as an heir in the eternal glory of Jesus Christ (see Gal. 4:5-7).   Fulton's covenant relationship with God was ratified at 8:17 A.M. before an all-school Mass with all students and staff on hand.  As circumcision initiated children into the Old Covenant at 8 days old based on the faith of their parents, Fulton was initiated into the New Covenant via Baptism, which replaces circumcision, as taught by St. Paul (see Col. 2:11-12).  These promises have been made to us and our household (see Acts 16:15, 31, 33; 1Cor. 1:16).

Since we celebrate a baptism within our circle of friends quite often, it's easy to forget about these truths, which were taught by our Lord, passed on to his apostles and their successors, and confirmed in Scripture.  The familiarity makes it easy to forget about the magnitude of what actually took place here!

Fulton was the 31st Hoffman, including his mother and grandmother, to wear this 68-year-old baptismal gown made my his great-great-grandmother, with some help from the Carmelite nuns in Louisville, Kentucky.

Some might wonder, why so early?  While we had our first two sons baptized barely within the 40-day window recommended by the Church, those weeks were filled with some anxiety.  But after losing a child before the chance to baptize, the sense of urgency was greatly magnified for us.  This time, waiting 10 days seemed a long time, and we experienced a huge sense of relief on Friday.

The proper sense of urgency has been largely lost by modern Christianity for several reasons.  Part of this loss stems from missing the effects of Original Sin (see Rom. 5:12-19; 1Cor. 15:21-23), which leads to a lack of understanding regarding the necessity of Baptism, even for "innocent" infants (see John 3:5).  Part of this shift in practice also comes from a misreading of paragraph 1261 of the Catechism, which mentions a "hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism."  Notice hope, not certainty.  For more on this misunderstanding, I highly recommend this article from Crisis Magazine:  The Urgency of Infant Baptism by Dr. Jared Staudt.

And to see further questions on infant baptism (an issue close to our hearts for multiple reasons) addressed on a previous post, see this tab.

Please join us in offering prayers of thanksgiving and welcoming Fulton into the family of God!

Bl. Teresa of Calcutta and Ven. Fulton Sheen, pray for us!

A special thanks to his Godparents, Elias and Claudia, and Fr. Brian.

Brothers

John Paul singing the Salve Regina to baby Fulton...


JP Serenades Baby Brother from Domestic Church Militant on Vimeo.

It's a Boy!

"Certainly sons are a gift from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward.  Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons born in one's youth.  Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them.  He will never be shamed, for he will destroy his foes at the gate."  ~Psalm 127:3-5

INTRODUCING...

Fulton Michael

Born 8/26, 7:12 P.M.

9 lbs. 7.5 oz.

22 1/4 in.

We stuck with our modern-day saint first name, family middle name "formula" in naming Fulton Michael.  He is named after Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.  Just as we did with John Paul, we anticipated an immanent declaration from the Church.  Fulton Sheen's Beatification, which we hope to attend with our Fulton, awaits only final approval from the College of Cardinals and then from Pope Francis.  Sheen will (hopefully) be the first American-born male saint to be Beatified.

Who was Fulton Sheen?  He was an American priest and bishop most known for his Life is Worth Living television program in the 1950s.  As a Catholic bishop, he actually won two Emmy's for Most Outstanding Television Personality!  His show was syndicated in the 60s and his TV career was preceded by 20 years on the radio hosting The Catholic Hour in the 30s and 40s.  The digital versions of his shows often keep me company during my commute to work and on long road trips.

Archbishop Sheen's book Three to Get Married has had a profound impact on both Sarah and me.  We often quote it during our marriage prep instruction, and it's our favorite gift to give to our newly engaged or married friends and family members.

My connection to this shoo-in saint is intensified by his Illinois roots.  He was born in El Paso, Illinois and raised and ordained in Peoria.  He went to undergrad at what was St. Viator College (now Olivet Nazarene University) in Bourbonnais, near my hometown.  Some of his family members even lived in Herscher and were parishioners at my home parish of St. Margaret Mary.

Monsignor Sheen became Auxiliary Bishop of New York City in 1951 before being named Bishop of Rochester in 1966.  He died in 1979.  His cause for sainthood was opened by the Diocese of Peoria in 2002 and cleared step two (of four) when Pope Benedict XVI declared him "Venerable" in 2012.  A miracle attributed to his intercession is required for the third step of Beatification (after which he will be called "Blessed").  That miracle has been recently approved by both the medical and theological boards!  It involved a 2010 miraculous recovery of a stillborn Peoria baby who showed no signs of life for 61 minutes!

Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, pray for us!

Fulton Michael is also named after his triple-great grandfather.  Michael Sr. was the original O'Connor to emigrate from Ireland in 1852, and Michael Jr. followed with his siblings in 1853.  They first lived in Paris, KY (near Lexington) before moving to Utica, IL in 1854 and then finally settling outside of my hometown of Herscher in 1868.

See more pictures below.  We thank God for this most amazing blessing!

BLESSED

Our Fallen Soldier

It was a busy winter.  Over Christmas vacation we were blessed to visit 5 grandparents, and we've since lost 3 of them.  First, Sarah's beloved grandparents incredibly passed away on the same day after 70+ years of marriage.  Then in February, my maternal grandmother lost her 4-year battle with cancer at the age of 92.

I just wanted to share a few thoughts on Grandma Lee D.

Number one, Grandma D. has friends in high places.  And I'm talking much, much higher than Colorado.  She sat in the pews of St. Martin of Tours for years and years reciting the Creed from the early Christians, which includes, “I believe in the Communion of Saints.”  And she meant it.  She not only believed in the communion of all saints-in-the-making on earth, members of the Bride of Christ, the Church, through the Holy Eucharist.  She also knew Christ's Kingdom stretches well beyond this world.  She knew the Communion of Saints includes the Church Suffering, in Purgatory, and she knew the Communion of Saints includes the Church Triumphant, the saints in heaven.  These are her friends in high places.   

One of her friends in this great cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1) was St. Frances Cabrini.  Sadly, I was not aware of this devotion until she died.  Our frequent trips to pray at Mother Cabrini's shrine near Denver will never be the same.  

For big prayer intentions, Grandma didn't hesitate to call on the big guns.  One of her closest companions was St. Jude the Apostle, patron of impossible causes... which perhaps reveals what she thought of all of us!

An Authentic Marian University in ND

For us the 2009 Obama-Notre Dame Commencement was life-changing.  It triggered a year of research and reflection and brought into focus the unofficial schism from the Church, about which we were previously completely ignorant.  It unveiled the truth about our beloved Notre Dame and Fr. Hesburgh's prominent role in leading countless schismatics, many through no fault of their own, into apostasy.

Strong words, I know.  And the results of my research (published here) contained many strong words as well.  Several years later, you might think the shock of the scandal has worn off and my stance has softened.  Well, after more years of study, including some attempts to figure out the historical roots leading to our overall cultural decay, my original stance on ND has indeed changed.

It's even worse than I initially thought.

Love Conquers Death

In 1943, Sarah's grandparents stood before the altar of the Lord and swore covenant oaths of love, permanent until death.

Last week, after 70+ years of marriage, they stood before the altar of the Lord together again.

 

There is simply nothing else I can add to these striking images, other than to quote Peter Kreeft's magnificent commentary on the Song of Songs:

"Love, being the fundamental spiritual force in the universe, transcends all other forces and their laws.  It especially transcends the principle of physical entropy:  its energy does not decrease but rather increases... love cannot be defeated even by death.  Love is the only thing that can stand up to death.  Death removes everything else.  Even the stars are subject to death.  But billions of years from now, when all the stars in the universe have died, love will still be alive, and if we live in love, if we identify ourselves with love, if we pin our hopes of eternal survival to love, if we glue our spirits to love, we too shall still be alive and eternally young, like love itself.  For love is the very stuff of God.  That is why it lasts forever (1Cor 13:8).  When death destroys the destructible, the indestructible remains... At the point of death, a great battle is waged for the heavyweight championship of the universe:  in this corner Death, and in that corner Love.  But death cannot change love; love changes death.  Love changes the meaning of death, but death does not change the meaning of love.  When fire and water meet, one must die.  'Love is strong as death' (Song 8:6) because 'many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it' (Song 8:7).  Death threatens love with extinction... But love replies, in triumph."

Thank you, Meema and Boompa, for your witness.  Pray for us.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.  May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen.

A Tale of Three Ultrasounds

We showed you some highlights from our summer, but we left out the most eventful week, full of extreme highs and lows.

In fact, July 9, 2013 was one of the worst days of our lives.

The day started with a triple doctor's appointment.  It was a 3-year check-up for John Paul, a vaccination for Kolbe, and an OB appointment for Sarah and Baby #3.  Kolbe's appointment went fine - the other two did not.

First, the doctor discovered a large mass in John Paul's lower abdomen.  It obviously caused immediate alarm, as he quickly scheduled a radiology appointment for the next morning.  Doc was pretty certain it would have to be surgically removed asap.  No need to describe our instant spike in anxiety levels, you can imagine.

Next, the doctor could not find the baby's heartbeat with his doppler.  At 8 weeks, this was not unusual for this machine.  However, we decided to seek out an ultrasound to check in and make sure everything was ok.  Our doctor doesn't have a machine, and the doctor we've used in the past for ultrasounds has now retired, so we made a few phone calls to other places recommended by our doctor.  By Divine Providence, the only place that could get us in soon was a Catholic pregnancy center.  They could fit us in right away - ultrasound number 1.

Rejoice!

Nolan Andrew

My sister has delivered the newest member of the family!  We praise God in thanksgiving for our nephew, revealed to the world this week, weighing in at 7 lbs. 13 oz. and measuring 20.5".

Congrats Erin and Ryan!  

May his first baseball series, a Red Sox sweep, sour his taste for Cardinal red and open the way toward Cubby blue.

We've Moved!

Well, not physically, but virtually.

BeYellow has run its course.

What started as a way to log our travel adventures in Guatemala and beyond in 2006, evolved into a defender of innocent human life and authentic Catholic identity, before ending up as basically a what-the-kids-are-up-to-now journal.  We've been contemplating pulling the plug for a while, as blogging dropped more and more on the priority list, and posts became fewer and far between.  While it wasn't outrageously expensive, it also seemed silly to be paying "GoDaddy" to power the whole thing.  We didn't like supporting them anyway, given their morally repugnant ad campaigns.

So why start a new blog?  Well, for starters Google's "Blogger" is free.  It's also much more user friendly, which will hopefully encourage us to move it up the priority list a few notches.  We are torn, because we know the digital age has brought so many distractions and noise and made it harder for us to hear God, and it's certainly easy to waste a lot of time on the internet.  At the same time, however, we feel Catholics need to have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and the blogosphere.  So the new blog is our small way of answering our grandpapa Benedict's call for the faithful to "introduce into the culture of this new environment of communications and information technology the values on which you have built your lives" (24 May 2009).

So reset your bookmarks to DomesticChurchMilitant.blogspot.com.
(See our About tab for an explanation of the name.)

What to expect from the new blog?  We're not sure.  We'll see where the Holy Spirit takes it.  We place it under the patronage of St. Padre Pio and of our other media-savvy heroes like Venerable Fulton Sheen, St. Maximilian Kolbe, and St. Francis de Sales.  As you can see, we've put a few holdovers from BeYellow as tabs at the top.  Also, this time our sidebar is full of websites, articles, books, resources, tracts, and other blogs worth taking a look at.  Hopefully we will be able to share many adventures and joyful family moments, and "an account for the hope that is in us" (1Pet. 3:15).  Simply put, we want to share our search for what is true, what it beautiful, and what is good, and that search requires the inverse: exposing what is false, what is ugly, and what is evil.  We invite you to enrich and sharpen our search/journey with your comments, questions, suggestions, or even challenges and criticisms.  Let's speak the truth in love, and help each other fulfill the purpose for which we were made.  Nothing else matters!