?You are there, O Mary, at the foot of the Cross, standing, in strength and courage; and my Master says to me, ?Ecce Mater Tua.? Behold your Mother. He gives you to me for my Mother! And now that He has returned to His Father, and has put me in His place on the Cross so that I may fill up those things which are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh for His Body, which is the Church, you are still there, O Mary, to teach me to suffer as He did, to let me hear the last song of His soul which no one but you, O Mother, could overhear.?

-Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, on the suffering endured by Our Lady.

(Pope John Paul II, April 17, 1981)

Baby Christian Campuzano, who I?ve blogged about over the past several weeks, will be undergoing open heart surgery on Tuesday, September 8th. Here are some details from his mother:

We finally have the plan set for Christian’s surgery tomorrow. It’s been kind of up in the air about what exactly they would do in the operation. Several doctors talked to me today and they have decided to take a fairly conservative route. They will open his chest and put a band around his pulmonary vessel which will limit the amount of blood that is flowing to his lungs. Right now, there is too much blood pumping to his lungs and not enough to the rest of his body. They want to see how he recovers and how well his body handles open-heart surgery before they go ahead with a more complex procedure. After he does recover from this surgery, they will either move on to the Stage 1 procedure, which is a 5 hour open heart surgery, or if he does not seem to respond well to surgery tomorrow they will have to do an alternative surgery. We are hoping he responds well and the doctors can move ahead into the stage 1 surgery. Tomorrow is going to be an extremely scary day for us as he goes into surgery. We will be able to hold him and have some time with him for about 30 minutes tomorrow, and I cannot wait to cuddle with my baby. It will be so special. We are not sure what time surgery will be because it depends on how long the operations before him take, but it will most likely be mid-morning. Please pray for him, especially tomorrow, that his little body will make it through!

Please keep Christian and his family in your prayers. Thank you and May God bless you for your thoughtfulness!

For more details about Christian, see the following website:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/christiancampuzano/journal

With the resignation of Scranton Bishop John Martino earlier this week, the Church has lost a strong pro-life voice. I don?t live in the Scranton diocese, so I can?t comment on his much criticized parish closures, but I was always comforted by his constant defense of the Church?s position on life.

During his farewell press conference, Bishop Martino stated, “I did what my mother told me to do. She would always say, ‘Well, you do the right thing.’ And my conscience is clear.” He referred to vocal supporters of the right to life as being, ?very dear to the Lord as they try to overturn a profound cancer in our society, this sin, frankly, of murdering 50 million people (referring to the number of abortions since Roe v. Wade in 1973). I think we have become quite blas? about that, and that scares me very much.”

The bishop was never afraid to make waves, always standing up for the teaching of the Church. His refusal to compromise may have cost him his job, but who knows how many souls he saved with his truthful teaching of the Catholic faith. In his own words, ?By the world’s standards perhaps I have not been successful here, but I did what I thought was right.?

You can?t ask for more than that!

I have been trying to decide all day whether or not to blog about Senator Edward ?Ted? Kennedy, who passed away early this morning at the age of 77. While I didn?t want to ignore his inexcusable support of abortion, I wanted to make sure that I could be charitable about a man who is currently experiencing God?s judgment.

Let me first be very clear about the facts. Senator Kennedy was a Catholic who publicly dissented from the teaching of the Church on abortion. His voting record contributed to the death of many unborn babies over the course of his career in the Senate. It is a shameful record and cannot be glossed over or defended. Knowing that he ignored the plight of the helpless unborn makes it very difficult to listen to the endless accolades and tributes presented by the media.

However, it is up to God to decide where Senator Kennedy will spend eternity. As Catholics, our duty is to pray for his soul. Praying for the living and the dead is one of the Spiritual Acts of Mercy and is the proper thing to do, whether we like it or not. While it is appropriate to speak out against his horrific anti-life voting record, we should always show charity toward the man himself. The ultimate expression of that charity is to pray for him.

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.

I had a very interesting dream last night. I dreamt that I was visiting Padre Pio?s house, which (in my dream) was a townhouse somewhere in New Jersey. There was an older woman giving me a tour and showed me a room where Padre used to hear confession. I started getting excited about the prospect of meeting the great saint, but then I remembered that he was no longer alive. After the tour, the woman proceeded to give me several sets of rosary beads blessed by Padre Pio. As I held them in my hands, my eyes filled up with tears as I realized that they were blessed by a saint. I woke up shortly thereafter, but had a ?good? feeling.

Now before you think I?m a nut (I know?too late!), I?m not insinuating that this dream was some sort of a message from Padre Pio or God. It could have come from any number of random thoughts in my head. What I can say is that the dream reminded me to ask for Padre Pio?s intercession for the healing of Christian Campuzano (see blog entries from a few days ago) and also to post his quote of ?Pray, Hope and Don?t Worry? on Twitter. Two people picked up on this quote and decided to ?re-tweet? it. Therefore, because of this ?crazy? dream, Padre Pio had the opportunity to work in some people?s lives.

Even though this dream had some silly details, I can?t rule out that it was a message from God. Whatever the explanation, some good came out of it and I?m glad that I didn?t just ignore it. So the next time you have a dream, get an idea, hear something, etc. you might want to consider how it may pertain to your life?Acting on the idea just might bring about some good!