I want you to do something, so please read this entire post.
For many, I suppose that the true meaning of last week’s events has yet to sink in. For the last few days as I pondered the meaning of the arguably miraculous turn of events, I am overwhelmed with gratitude.
As we approached the birthday of Our Lord, pro-lifers in the U.S. reluctantly realized that this momentous battle in the war on life was likely lost. The opposition had overwhelming superiority in numbers and a steely determination to institute a universal health-care regime that funds abortion. We, along with many other concerned citizens of various stripes, protested, marched, attended townhalls, lobbied, and prayed, seemingly to no avail. The Senate had passed, in complicity with ostensibly pro-life Senators, its version of the bill with its thinly disguised abortion on demand funding.
The passage of the Senate bill signaled what seemed to many, the end of the fight. Democrats huddled to hammer out any compromises necessary to achieve final passage of the bill. We watched in dismay as every day inched closer to the compromise that would seal the deal and put the bill on the desk of the President in time for the State of the Union. We had lost, there was nothing more we could do, but pray.
But God had other plans.
In a way that seemed almost impossible, the entire battle has turned. I need not go into detail here, you all know the story. We understand that the war on life is far from over, but today, at least for a while, by the grace of God, we have avoided institutionalized and tax-payer funded abortion. There will be other battles and perhaps they will be very soon, but it is incumbent upon all of us to acknowledge the great miracle that we have witnessed and to thank God for delivering us from this evil.
So what I propose is that we Catholic, Christian, and pro-life bloggers everywhere give thanks to God by way publishing the Non Nobis in gratitude for this wondrous day.
Sed nomini tuo da gloriam.
Not to us, not to us, o Lord,
But to your name give glory.
I ask that any blogger interested in showing their gratitude for this victory, print the Non Nobis. I will also encourage you to also link or show your favorite version of the Non nobis. Mine is the scene from Henry V after the battle of Agincourt.
If you choose to participate in this show of gratitude, link this post, email us, or post a comment with a link to your site so that we can link back to you here!
Giving Thanks!
Reflections on Faith and Culture
January 24, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Done! Thanks for the reminder of all that has happened.
January 24, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Amen to that. Only God knew how a pro-choice man would ironically be our best bet against a culture of death. Nothing is impossible for God. Glory and praise to him forever.
January 24, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Posted and linked- though I don't have a favorite version, as someone currently going through RCIA I don't have a lot of exposure to Faith-filled works to fall back on.
January 24, 2010 at 8:43 pm
I don't mean to be impertinent, but "ostensibly" is not a synonym for "supposedly." It clangs upon the ears.
January 24, 2010 at 10:19 pm
not sure about Brown justifying this since he's still pro-abort, but then again, we never really need an excuse for such a true prayer.
This is my favorite version, too– not that I've heard many but this one sticks in my mind from that fantastic film version of Henry V.
January 24, 2010 at 10:47 pm
A wonderful suggestion, which I have followed completely. Thanks for recommending it.
Gil Bailie
My blog post is:
http://cornerstone-forum.blogspot.com/2010/01/non-nobis-domine.html
January 24, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Clanging away!
Thesaurus
Main Entry: ostensible
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: alleged, supposed
Synonyms:
apparent, avowed, colorable, demonstrative, exhibited, illusive, illusory, likely, manifest, notable, outward, plausible, pretended, professed, purported, quasi, seeming, semblant, so-called, specious, superficial
January 24, 2010 at 11:11 pm
Dear Anonymous @ 3:43 pm
Perhaps you are not impertenent, but I believe you are mistaken in your critique. The article has "ostensibly pro-life senators." The Oxford Dictionary, American Ed., has ostensible (adj): apparent, but not necessarily real; professed . Now granted, the OP used the adverbial form, but, I suspect, with exactly the intention the word conveys; that is, to suggest that certain members of the Congress benefit from the appearance of being "pro-life," but do not, in fact, vote consistently with that position.
January 25, 2010 at 12:28 am
'Ostensible' vs 'supposed' – there is a difference, although the meanings overlap. In both cases there is a presupposition that the surface and what is underneath are in clash. However, 'ostensible' refers to the thing itself – how it appears; 'supposed' refers to the way that appearance is received – people suppose the appearance to represent reality, when – we are intended to infer – it does not.
Synonyms are generally approximate only.
jj "Linguistic Nanny"
January 25, 2010 at 12:33 am
Patrick – I will post the prayer right away. Having just returned from the March for Life, I am really feeling God's hand in current events. Estimates of the crowd are around 250,000. The faces were primarily youthful. The attitude was joyful and optimistic. But, what struck me most was the positive feeling of moving forward. It truly seems that the Administration and the anti-life forces are "whistling past the graveyard" and ignoring the reality that the minds and hearts of Americans are moving in a pro-life direction. That being said, I don't deny that we're in the middle of a raging battle, but with God on our side, we know how this will end.
January 25, 2010 at 12:51 am
Branagh meant his HENRY V, and hence the "Non Nobis" scene, be fashionably ironic; how wonderful that the prayer shines through in spite of all.
— Mack
January 25, 2010 at 12:58 am
I am confident that I will live to see Roe V. Wade to be overturned and a right to life amendment in the constitution. For our God is powerful and He hears the cries of the poor – even from within the womb.
http://www.divine-ripples.blogspot.com/
January 25, 2010 at 1:31 am
Linked at my place.
January 25, 2010 at 2:03 am
The prayer will be listed tomorrow as the "Prayer for the Day" on my blog GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO @ http://virtualchapel.blogspot.com.
January 25, 2010 at 2:28 am
I couldn't agree more with this post. It's a well needed dose of perspective for me, since I've been making myself a nuisance reminding everyone that we shouldn't be too enamored with Scott Brown…but truly we can be thankful that a disaster was averted.
And that's my favorite version of this chant as well. Posted and linked to at:
http://indenturedservantgirl.blogspot.com/2010/01/giving-thanks.html
January 25, 2010 at 2:29 am
Anonymous/Mack: I think you might be being not quite fair to Branagh, to say he didn't mean that "Non nobis." He is a complex person, and that's a complex film.
He'd been "hanging around priests" a lot for a while back then, by his own admission. He might have meant it–at least on some level.
And of course you're quite right–the prayer shines through regardless.
January 25, 2010 at 2:57 am
This is perhaps the first time you've had a hip-hop-meets-epic-poetry blog link to CMR, but there's never a wrong time to do the right thing.
http://www.hiphopodyssey.com
January 25, 2010 at 3:36 am
http://manwithblackhat.blogspot.com/2010/01/patrick-archbold-talked-me-into-this.html
January 25, 2010 at 3:41 am
WBN is in: Non nobis, Domine!
January 25, 2010 at 3:45 am
Although the fight is not over, God has used the unlikeliest of instruments to gain this victory — our own enemy, a pro-choice politician. Therefore, WBN joins Creative Minority Report and countless others in saying: Not to us, not to us, O Lord, but to Your Name give glory.