Category Archives: Marriage and Family

Pro-Life Rosary App for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Ryan

liferosaryCaritas et Veritas is proud to announce that Apple has approved the very first Pro-Life iPhone app for distribution!

Life Rosary – Meditations and Prayers is a meditation and instructive aid for those praying the Rosary. It does NOT replace your Rosary beads, but rather helps you focus on the mysteries of the Rosary.

Fr. Frank Pavone from Priests for Life has shared additional prayers and meditations to compliment and focus your attention on life and human dignity. Each day of the week includes special prayers for mothers, the unborn, for forgiveness, governments, and the world.

Our Pro-Life Rosary app is priced at $1 to help raise money for pro-life causes. All of the proceeds go to support pro-life initiatives and organizations, including Priests for Life. Our first iPhone app is free and was downloaded 25,000 times in 6 months. With your help in promoting this latest app, we could raise $25,000 or more for pro-life initiatives this year!

Please help us spread the word about this app to your friends, parish and diocese. Share this post on Facebook and Twitter.

Screenshots from Life Rosary – Meditations and Prayers

Each image is linked to a higher resolution version for press and sharing with friends.

Posted in Life Issues, Love & Truth, Prayer, Pro-Life | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Lent for Life: Prayer

Posted on March 16, 2010 by Ryan

prayerNext up in the Lent for Life series is Prayer.

The USCCB’s Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities encourages us, alongside the Scriptures, to petition the Lord for mercy and justice.

Prayer is the foundation of all that we do in defense of human life. Our efforts—whether educational, pastoral, or legislative—will be less than fully fruitful if we do not change hearts and if we do not ourselves overcome our own spiritual blindness. Only with prayer—prayer that storms the heavens for justice and mercy, prayer that cleanses our hearts and our souls—will the culture of death that surrounds us today be replaced with a culture of life.1

I’d like to focus on three points in the pastoral plan that every one of us can take action.

Pray for life at every Mass

Parishes should include in the petitions at every Mass a prayer that ours will become a nation that respects and protects all human life, born and unborn, reflecting a true culture of life.2

As a new Catholic I was impressed by the prayers for life offered daily at Mass. If your parish does not participate in this request from the USCCB, please consider adding it to the book of petitions or speak with your pastor about including prayers for life at every Mass.

Posted in Life Issues, Love & Truth, Prayer, Pro-Life | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Lent for Life: Education

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Ryan

WombDuring this season of Lent I’m walking through the four approaches to pro-life action as suggested by the USCCB’s Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities. With each of the approaches I hope to discuss how we might get involved in tangible and practical ways to “respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life.”1

The Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities begins with Education and offers some essentials for action:

  • Biblical and theological foundations that attest to the sanctity and dignity of human life
  • Scientific information concerning the humanity of unborn children, especially that made available by modern genetic science and technology
  • American founding principles, as articulated in the Declaration of Independence, that reflect unchanging truths about the human person
  • Society’s responsibility to safeguard every human life, to defend life by non-violent means wherever possible, and never purposely to destroy innocent human life
  • Discussion of effective and compassionate care for those who are terminally ill and for persons with disabilities
  • Information about effective, compassionate, and morally acceptable solutions to the very real and difficult problems that can exist for a woman during and after pregnancy, as well as help for those who suffer from the consequences of abortion
Posted in Life Issues, Pro-Life | 3 Comments

Organic Family Planning

Posted on December 7, 2009 by Jason Shanks

NFP is 100% natural, has no artificial preservatives, is completely organic and is the only green option!

Organic CertifiedIn my working with couples preparing to be married I have discovered that while many of them know that the Church is “against” birth control, pre-maritial sex, and cohabitation, they have no idea why. They hear the Church saying, “No, no, no” but are not taught what the Church is for and what the Church is saying, “Yes, yes, yes” to. The couples seem to believe the Church is out of touch and out to lunch on these issues. And they certainly have never heard that within marriage there is an alternative that embraces the openness to life, and allows the couple to be a discerning, co-creator with God.  This alternative is called Natural Family Planning (NFP).

However, one of the many reasons I give, as a male working with couples, is that Natural Family Planning is pro-women.  It respects the femininity of the female and does not ask her to be something she is not.  In articulating my point, I have changed the name from “Natural Family Planning” to “Organic Family Planning.”  I even joke that my wife and I are “Organic Certified” and I have thoughts of producing t-shirts to wear to that effect. 

Posted in Natural Family Planning | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments