Calling all Nurses!!

Please read this to learn about the proposed American Nurses Association position statement on the withdrawal of nutrition and hydration from patients. The National Catholic Bioethics Center has responded with its grave concerns about this proposal and asks all nurses to do the same.

Virgina Bishops Support our Governor in restricting abortion funding

Read here about the effort in Virginia to limit state funding of abortion

Peeps!

The highlight of the Washington Post's journalistic endeavors is its annual Easter Peep Show. These are so fun! This rendition from Goodnight Moon stole my heart. I have so many happy memories of reading this book to my children.

Dance Me to the End of Love

Last week I found I had a major cultural blind spot. I had never heard of Leonard Cohen. He is a Canadian singer, songwriter, poet, and novelist. The lawyers over at Mirror of Justice were finding that in spite of their political and ideological differences, they could all enjoy the music of Leonard Cohen. It began when Robert George posted this video. Perhaps because my parents and my husband's parents both celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2008, my husband and I celebrated our 25th anniversary in 2009, and our oldest son got married this past December, this video had me in tears by the end. It is hauntingly beautiful.

In a bit of Lenoard Cohen trivia, he is the composer of Hallelujah, that song made famous by Shrek and by American Idol:

Cantemus Domino: gloriose enim magnificatus est

Pope Benedict XVI offered his Urbi et Orbi message yesterday. Please read the whole message, but if your time is short today, perhaps you can reflect on this excerpt:

Yes, my brothers and sisters, Easter is the true salvation of humanity! If Christ – the Lamb of God – had not poured out his blood for us, we would be without hope, our destiny and the destiny of the whole world would inevitably be death. But Easter has reversed that trend: Christ’s resurrection is a new creation, like a graft that can regenerate the whole plant. It is an event that has profoundly changed the course of history, tipping the scales once and for all on the side of good, of life, of pardon. We are free, we are saved! Hence from deep within our hearts we cry out: “Let us sing to the Lord: glorious his triumph!”

The Christian people, having emerged from the waters of baptism, is sent out to the whole world to bear witness to this salvation, to bring to all people the fruit of Easter, which consists in a new life, freed from sin and restored to its original beauty, to its goodness and truth. Continually, in the course of two thousand years, Christians – especially saints – have made history fruitful with their lived experience of Easter. The Church is the people of the Exodus, because she constantly lives the Paschal Mystery and disseminates its renewing power in every time and place. In our days too, humanity needs an “exodus”, not just superficial adjustment, but a spiritual and moral conversion. It needs the salvation of the Gospel, so as to emerge from a profound crisis, one which requires deep change, beginning with consciences.