“I Make All Things New”

by Sr. Natalie Sayde Salameh, MSCL

We laugh as we see a baby tickled,

watching it twist, move and giggle.

Children bring us so much joy,

just watching them play with their favorite toy.

We beam with delight at the laugh of a baby,

we cradle a baby girl and call her ‘little lady’.

We welcome a bundle of joy born anew,

but somewhere in this world something has gone askew.

Now a baby has to fight for its life in the womb,

what should be the safest place has become a potential tomb.

What of the awesome mystery do we not understand?

10 fingers and toes, a beating heart, two legs on which to stand.

Thousands clapped in New York over a wicked right to kill,

an innocent, unborn child! Who would that thrill?

What have we come to? A sad day has come to pass,

when a mother can abort her baby and discard it like a piece of glass.

Will she know that a part of her will never be the same after that day,

she will always wonder how the baby would look and what it would say.

Will she know that she will regret the decision for the rest of her life,

and be torn from within by guilt, shame and strife.

But will she also know that she need not carry the burden of her guilt alone, 

That there is Someone there for her who hears her cries and groans.

He comes to restore her in His image and likeness,

to show her mercy and remove her darkness.

He longs to draw her close and tell her, ‘I love you’,

‘I do not condemn you, I know what you are going through’.

‘My love will heal your pain and your empty womb’,

‘I will bring you new life and lift you from your gloom’.

‘I took the burden of your pain and nailed it to the Cross’,

‘I saw you from Golgotha and felt the pain of your loss’.

‘Death has no victory now, and no longer a sting’,

‘My death has conquered all, including all your sins’.

‘Break your silence now, dear mother, and do not be afraid’,

‘In My love, all will be new, all will be remade’.

For those seeking help after an abortion, please refer to these resources:

Project Rachel – www.hopeafterabortion.org

Rachel’s Vineyard – www.rachelsvineyard.org

Hope Alive – www.messengers2.com

Ramah International – www.ramahinternational.org

Healing Hearts – www.web-light.com/heart

P.A.C.E (Post Abortion Counseling and Education) – 800/395-HELP 

Massachusetts Senate Bill 1209 – An Attack on Women and Life

By Sr. Natalie Sayde Salameh, MSCL

On Wednesday evening, May 15, I attended a meeting in Fall River on Massachusetts Senate Bill 1209 facilitated by the Massachusetts Citizens for Life (MCFL) where a  number of representatives from several Christian denominations were present.

This bill #1209 is currently being proposed in the Massachusetts State Legislature and it has serious, dangerous consequences for the protection of women and the protection of life. This Bill is similar to its New York counterpart that was approved by Gov. Cuomo earlier this year.

The proposed legislation in Massachusetts would produce the following perilous consequences:

• Allow abortion in Massachusetts during all nine months of pregnancy.
• Eliminate any requirement that even late-term abortions be performed in hospitals. As a result, a woman’s health would be less protected than the law’s commitment to promoting abortion at any time, for any reason.
• Eliminate the requirement to make efforts to care for a child who survives an attempted abortion. Senate Bill 1209 strikes out all requirements that doctors provide life-saving treatment to born infants resulting from an attempted abortion. 
• Eliminate any requirement that a pregnant minor (under 18) have any adult consent before undergoing an abortion. This leaves our children, maybe some as young as 12 or 13 years old, prey to sexual predators and sex trafficking.

The proposed provisions of this Bill are extreme and a violent attack on women and the right to life of all unborn (and born) babies in Massachusetts. This Bill is promoting nothing short of infanticide.

Please join the Sisters in signing a petition against this Bill: 
https://www.masscitizensforlife.org/petition-against-extreme-roe-abortion-act

Also, please call or visit your local representative in Massachusetts to voice your concern about Senate Bill 1209. 

The proposed Bill will be formally heard by the Senate Committee on Public Health sometime in June. If you wish to publicly testify against this Bill at the Senate Committee hearing in June, the MCFL welcome you to join them in this effort. 

Let us unite in prayer for unborn children, all women and families faced with excruciatingly difficult pregnancies, and let us pray for our legislators and elected officials that they may see the dangerous consequences of this proposed Bill.

Feast of the Apostle, St. John the Beloved – May 8

A homily by Fr. Herbert Nicholls at the Mother of Light Convent on Wednesday, May 8, 2019.

Often when we think of the Apostle, John, the first thought which comes to mind is his love and loyalty for Jesus and Mary; surely fitting thoughts for this Easter Season.

Despite the years of age, John has lost none of the sharpness of memory, for like the Virgin Mary, he learned to treasure and reflect in his heart upon the mysteries of life, in order to make tangible the transcendent…”from the beginning”, we have seen…heard…touched, not mere appearance but real flesh and blood.

In his Gospel Prologue, John narrates the first encounter at the River Jordan. When he asks Jesus: “Where do you live?” Jesus invites to “come and see”. Whatever he saw and heard is kept secret, but it was so decisive that he carefully notes the very hour it took place, 4PM.

For three years he would share the deepest intimacy with Jesus and later with Mary. So intense was his sense of love that he was consumed with the desire to make others aware of the awesomeness of this love.

It is written that God has no favorite children. He is also free to choose whomever he pleases in his relationships. John was highly favored but surely it was not because John was without fault. He and his brother are called Boangeres, literally translated as ‘sons of thunder’, but more idiomatically as fanatics.

When they asked Jesus to call down the wrath of God as Elijah had done, the Lord rebuked them. (It is interesting that the old vulgate translation of St. Jerome had a line which is no longer in modern translations: “You know not of what spirit you are. For they had not yet received the Spirit that came, not to destroy but to save” (cf. John 3: 17)

Ancient tradition ascribes the Eagle as a symbol of the Evangelist, who with his piercing eye has discovered and communicates to us: “God is love. He who abides in love, abides in God and God abides in him”. So treasured is this discovery that John refers to himself as the “disciples whom Jesus loves”.

Delicacy would have prevented using this appellation during the lives of the other apostles. Perhaps it required the wisdom and reflection of advanced years to realize what is hidden from the learned and the clever is revealed to the merest children. Perhaps that is why he addresses his readers as little children. Love one another.

In a similar passage from the Gospel he writes: This is the commandment that has been given to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. It is not a new commandment but one that came from the beginning. Rooted in the prophets it is the reflection of the Father’s desire for His people through the ages.

It is not the first commandment, but inseparable from it. For if you say that you love God, but you do not love your neighbor, you are a liar (1 John 4:20). Love is first of all a gift from God. “It is not that you have first loved God, but that He has first loved you”, and made you loveable. This gift is first and foremost totally unmerited. It is a response to God. It is a yes to God. It is that place, that sanctuary where God reaches our deepest need. For John, that moment occurred as he gazed into the empty tomb and saw the wrappings, and his eyes were opened to the Truth.

Each of us has a sanctuary where God reaches out to us, to meet us in our deepest need. And until the contact is made, the sanctuary remains no more than an empty tomb. Only the touch of God can bring life and love. 

We should not despair if in our own early days, like John we are rebuked for failing to understand this love. Reach out in your search for Emmanuel. Ask for his grace. Lat at his feet all of your failed efforts and embrace His power in hope…is this not after all, the real miracle of Easter?

The Choice Made by God

By Sr. Natalie Sayde Salameh, MSCL

One of the most topical issues in the mainstream media is abortion. It’s not surprising with the State of New York formally legalizing third trimester abortions and infanticide. All this coinciding with the release of the movie “Unplanned”, which is an awesome depiction of the true story of Abby Johnson, former abortion advocate and employee of Planned Parenthood turned Pro-life advocate and mother of eight children. 

Many, I think, fail to grasp the reality of abortion. Well, this reality has hit home for me on a very personal level as I have just recently come to know the full truth about the story of my conception, a story I want to share with you. This story is not really mine to share but that of my parents, and they have given me permission to share it.

My parents had three children, my two older brothers and myself. My eldest brother Peter is 11 years older than me, and Malcolm is 8 years older than me. When I was conceived in 1984, after an 8-year gap, the doctor who examined my mother told her that the baby would be born with serious birth defects; actually, he said that I would be missing an eye or both eyes and some limbs. This was before the advancement of technology including ultra sounds and sonograms. The doctor gave my mother a white slip of paper, which stated clearly at the top “Recommendation – Termination of Pregnancy”. 

The doctor advised my mother to abort me. My father being the typical Lebanese man who doesn’t go into exam rooms was outside in the waiting room. My mother emerged visibly distressed and crying and she told my father what the doctor had said. She showed him the white slip of paper from the doctor which would have ended my life. Now bear in mind, English is not my parents’ first language, so my father went straight in to see the doctor to ascertain exactly what was going on, while my mother was drying her tears in the waiting room.  

He asked the doctor, “did you give this slip of paper to my wife? What’s going on?” The doctor told my father the same thing he had told my mother about my being born with serious birth defects. What my father said in response to the doctor is to this day, the most moving thing I have ever heard my father say. He said, “are you going to take care of this baby or are we? Who are you to say that we have to end our baby’s life just because that baby may be born with some defects? We’re happy to keep this baby no matter what, I don’t care if the baby is missing both eyes and all four limbs, we will look after the baby because it’s ours”. The doctor then said the buzz word of the century to my father, “well, Mr. Salameh, it’s your choice.”  Choice! My father again responded beautifully, “the choice was made by God when he gave us this baby as a gift”. 

My parents left the doctor’s office and went to another doctor, who again examined my mother. It turns out that this doctor said that I would be born with both eyes and with all my limbs, with no defects whatsoever, and so it was. My mother carried me to term; actually, I was born after my due date. 

Now let’s rewind the tape for a second. Had my parents taken that white slip of paper and gone ahead with the abortion, the reality is that I would not be here. This is the reality of abortion which we cannot escape and cannot hide, that it destroys human life in the womb. Had my parents gone through with the abortion, the Maronite church would not have this sister serving it. Now think about this, how many nuns, priests, monks, bishops, popes, servants of God and His Church have been lost because of abortion? I exist because my parents chose life that day. 

For all expectant mothers out there, please cherish the gift of life in your womb. And for all the women who have had abortions, please know that you are so loved by God, and He wants to offer you healing. God wants you to know that He comes with mercy and forgiveness, not with judgment or condemnation. The sisters can help you find that healing by sharing some awesome resources with you. 

The sisters wish you a most blessed Season of the Glorious Resurrection! The Lord came to bring us life and life in abundance! (Jn 10:10)