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1. Introduction

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Many people feel that dating today is harder than it used to be, even though there are more options, more tools, and more freedom than ever before.

Feeling confused is not a personal failure.
It is the predictable result of a system that has lost its purpose while intensifying intimacy.

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2. Dating lost its direction

Historically, dating pointed toward marriage or clear separation.

Modern dating often points toward:

• connection,
• chemistry,
• experience,
• or “seeing how it feels.”

When a process has no agreed-upon end, every step inside it feels unstable.
Without direction, people make up rules as they go, which leads to confusion.

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3. Intimacy increased before commitment

Modern dating frequently includes:

• emotional vulnerability,
• sexual closeness,
• constant communication,
• shared routines,

before there is clarity regarding commitment.

This creates a mismatch.

Attachment forms in the body and emotions long before there is any shared agreement about responsibility or future. The nervous system experiences bonding while the relationship remains undefined.

Confusion is the natural outcome.

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4. Relational language became ambiguous

Modern dating uses terms that reduce accountability:

• “talking”
• “seeing each other”
• “not putting labels on it”
• “just going with the flow”

This kind of language can reduce immediate pressure while also making shared expectations harder to recognize and discuss clearly.
As a result, emotional closeness often develops without clear agreement about direction, responsibility, or commitment.
This can leave people deeply attached while still uncertain about what the relationship actually is or where it is going.

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5. Too many options undermine discernment

Dating apps and endless profiles encourage constant comparison.

Instead of asking, “Is this good and true?”
people are trained to ask, “Is there someone better?”

Discernment requires presence and attention.
Having endless choices teaches people to feel dissatisfied.

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6. Trauma is normalized rather than addressed

Many people are dating while:

• emotionally guarded,
• avoidant of commitment,
• anxious about abandonment,
• or distrustful of intimacy.

Rather than stepping back to heal, the culture encourages continued dating as if repetition alone will resolve the problem.

Some wounds require attention outside the momentum of dating itself.

When people don’t heal, their relationships become unpredictable.

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7. Moral structure was removed and not replaced

Old rules were discarded, sometimes rightly.

But nothing coherent replaced them.

As a result:

• boundaries feel awkward,
• clarity feels like pressure,
• commitment feels like a loss of freedom.

People end up making up their own relational rules as they go, which can have real emotional effects.

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8. The deeper truth

Modern dating feels confusing because it asks people to offer:

• vulnerability without vows,
• intimacy without intention,
• and loyalty without language.

This contradiction makes it hard for people to trust each other.

Reducing confusion in dating often requires:  

• slowing relational acceleration,
• communicating more directly,
• observing patterns over time,
• and being willing to clarify the relationship, rather than relying on assumptions or momentum.

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9. In one sentence

Modern dating feels confusing because it lost its purpose but became more intimate, so people end up connected without clear direction or responsibility.

☾         

Related Essays in the Dating Arc

• What Dating Is For
• Bonding and Pacing
• Clarity, Ambiguity, and Naming Reality in Dating
• Permission to Be Confused

Copyright © 2026 Patrick O’Donnell.
The author retains all ownership and publication rights to this work.
Bearers of the Preborn Christ, Inc. is granted limited license for website publication only.
All other rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Dating is not something you fall into. It is something you enter intentionally—and leave responsibly. Much of the pain around modern dating comes not from dating itself, but from starting too early, staying too long, or drifting without clarity.

2. When to start dating

You are ready to date when most of the following are becoming true:

You are able to manage your emotions and choices without relying on another person to stabilize you.
You can be alone without panic, fantasy, or self-contempt.

You are not looking for someone to rescue you, define you, or give you a sense of worth.
You can tolerate disappointment or rejection without collapsing into resentment, desperation, or self-erasure.

You are able to name your boundaries and standards without apology.
You know what would represent a serious concern or clear incompatibility, and you are willing to act on that knowledge if clarity emerges.

You have some sense of direction in your life, even if many details remain unresolved.
You know what kind of life you are trying to build, and you have begun considering what kind of person could realistically share that life with you.

You are capable of allowing closeness without immediately treating attachment as decision.
You are increasingly able to tolerate uncertainty without forcing premature clarity or rushing intimacy.

Readiness does not mean perfection.

It means possessing enough interior stability, freedom, and discernment for dating to remain ordered toward clarity rather than governed by emotional momentum.

Dating begun without these conditions often becomes emotionally costly — not because people are bad, but because the foundation is still unstable.

3. When to stop dating someone

Dating should end as soon as sufficient clarity arrives.

That clarity may come through:

• misaligned values,
• incompatible life directions,
• repeated boundary violations,
• or a growing sense that peace is being eroded rather than built.

Staying after clarity is not kindness. It is avoidance.

Other clear signals that dating should stop include:

Chronic ambiguity

If conversations about direction, exclusivity, or purpose are consistently avoided or postponed, ambiguity itself has become the answer.

Boundary pressure

When emotional, physical, or time boundaries are repeatedly tested or dismissed, trust is being weakened, not built, signaling it may be time to reconsider the relationship.

Becoming less yourself

If you find yourself anxious, rationalizing behavior you would warn a friend about, or slowly abandoning your own judgment, something is wrong.

Dating should not require you to silence your conscience.

4. When to stop dating altogether (for a season)

Sometimes the right decision is not to end one relationship, but to pause dating itself entirely.

Pausing may be necessary if:

• you feel numb, cynical, or emotionally depleted,
• dating feels compulsive rather than discerning,
• the same unhealthy patterns keep repeating,
• or you are using dating to avoid deeper work in your life.

A pause is not failure. It is recalibration.

5. A governing principle

Dating should cost you comfort, not your integrity. Discomfort is normal. Confusion, erosion, and self-betrayal are not.

6. In one sentence

Start dating when you can act with clarity and restraint, and stop dating the moment clarity tells you it should end; such discipline protects both people and preserves freedom.

☾         

Related Essays in the Dating Arc

• What Dating Is For
• Readiness for Commitment Discernment
• Permission to Be Confused
• Ending Well: Clarity When a Relationship Should Not Continue

Copyright © 2026 Patrick O’Donnell.
The author retains all ownership and publication rights to this work.
Bearers of the Preborn Christ, Inc. is granted limited license for website publication only.
All other rights reserved.

1. Dating exists for discernment through relationship development.

It is the process by which two people come to understand who they are with one another, what they are offering, what they are receiving, and whether this particular relationship can rightly move toward commitment.

Dating is not an end in itself.
It has a purpose — and when that purpose is unclear, confusion and pressure follow.

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2. Dating is ordered toward decision

Dating is meant to help answer a real question:

Should this relationship move forward toward commitment, or should it end?

That decision may be marriage.
Or it may be an honest recognition that the relationship should not continue.

Either outcome can be faithful to the purpose of dating.

What matters is that dating remains ordered toward clarity, not prolonged simply because closeness has grown or time has passed.

Discernment in dating requires:

• observing patterns over time
• communicating honestly
• allowing clarity to develop gradually
• being willing to name reality when it becomes clear
• and allowing the relationship to develop naturally rather than forcing conclusions prematurely

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3. What dating is not for

Dating is not primarily for:

• entertainment,
• validation,
• curing loneliness,
• sexual access,
• or avoiding difficult decisions.

When dating takes on these roles, it quietly loses its purpose and becomes governed by momentum rather than judgment.

Closeness grows, but direction does not.

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4. Bonding is not the same as deciding

Bonding happens naturally through time, presence, proximity, shared experience, and vulnerability.
It is a bodily and emotional process, not a choice of the will.

Because bonding is powerful, it can make a relationship feel inevitable even when no decision has been made.

Dating exists to ensure that decision is not replaced by attachment, and that closeness does not substitute for discernment.

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5. Love does not lead dating — it follows decision

In modern dating, the word love is often used to justify closeness before clarity.

But love, in its fullest sense, is not a feeling that appears on its own.
It is a choice of the will — a decision to accept responsibility, promise fidelity, and bind one’s life to another.

Dating does not require love to begin.
It requires honesty, care, and discernment.

Dating helps determine whether love can rightly be promised.

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6. Confusion is not failure

The Dating Arc assumes something important: confusion is common, and often honest.

In a culture saturated with sexual and relational messaging, uncertainty is not a sign of immaturity. It is often the first signal that discernment is needed.

The most truthful thing a person can sometimes say in dating is:

• “I don’t know yet.”
• “I’m not clear.”

Dating fails not when confusion appears, but when it is ignored or hidden.

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7. Each relationship is unique

No two people are interchangeable.
No relationship is meant to be measured against another.

Dating requires each person to decide:

• who they are in this relationship,
• what they are offering,
• what they are not offering,
• and what genuinely appeals to them.

Health is not determined by comparison or timelines, but by whether this relationship is unfolding with honesty, freedom, and care for both people.

Intimacy does not require secrecy, but it does imply that much is shared relatively exclusively between the two.

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8. When dating has fulfilled its purpose

Dating fulfills its purpose when:

• clarity has emerged,
• responsibility has been faced,
• and a decision — to commit or to part — can be made honestly.

Continuing to date once clarity has been reached does not deepen discernment.
It delays it.

Ending a relationship truthfully is not a failure of dating.
It is often its success.

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9. On one sentence

Dating is for discernment — so that commitment, if it is made, is made freely, intentionally, and in order.

☾         

Related Essays in the Dating Arc

• How Dating Progresses: Relational Bands
• Bonding and Pacing
• Clarity, Ambiguity, and Naming Reality in Dating
• Permission to Be Confused in Dating

Copyright © 2026 Patrick O’Donnell.
The author retains all ownership and publication rights to this work.
Bearers of the Preborn Christ, Inc. is granted limited license for website publication only.
All other rights reserved.

By Patrick A. O’Donnell December 25, 2025
Preborn Christ Spirituality

Introduction

The following prayer seeks a fruitful union with Jesus—through the Word and through the Sacraments. It asks for a meaningful integration of Christ into one’s life, which necessarily involves a willingness to change. To receive Jesus is not merely to welcome Him inwardly, but to make room for Him, to adjust one’s life to accommodate His presence, and to surrender one’s will to His Will.

Scripture speaks of Christ being formed within us (cf. Galatians 4:19). This prayer draws upon the image of spiritual conception and growth. Just as a pregnant mother must answer truthfully—even to herself—when asked if she is pregnant, “Yes, I am bearing another,” so the Christian must eventually ask: Am I now showing? Is Christ becoming visible in my life?

This prayer is a plea for that grace: not only to receive Christ, but to bear Him, nurture Him, and allow Him to be made manifest for the life of the world.

Prayer for Communion by Word or Sacrament

Seed,
Word that can save souls,
I humbly welcome You into my body.
(cf. James 1:21)

This body is not mine; it is Yours.
You have purchased it at the price of Your blood.
(cf. 1 Corinthians 6:20)

I surrender my body to You
as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God,
(cf. Romans 12:1)
as a temple of the Holy Spirit.
(cf. 1 Corinthians 6:19)

May I receive You, Jesus;
that I may conceive You, Jesus;
that I may bear You, Jesus;
that I may nurture You, Jesus.

With the labor of Mary and Your Church,
may You, Jesus, be formed within me.
(cf. Galatians 4:19)

May the two of us—You, Jesus, and I—
become one within this body of mine,
(cf. Genesis 2:24)
that I may put on the mind of Christ,
(cf. Philippians 2:5)
that You may increase and I may decrease.
(cf. John 3:30)

May I die with You,
so that I may live within You, Jesus.
(cf. Romans 6:8; 2 Timothy 2:11)

Having died,
may it no longer be I who live,
but You who live within me.
(cf. Galatians 2:19–20)

May my life remain hidden with You, Jesus.
(cf. Colossians 3:3)

May Christ be made manifest in this body.
(cf. 1 Timothy 3:16)

May I remain in You, and You in me,
that we may bear much fruit.
(cf. John 15:5)

In this body,
may I complete what is lacking
in the sufferings of Christ,
on behalf of His Body, the Church.
(cf. Colossians 1:24)

May I present Christ to others,
while seeing only Christ in the other,
as I serve Christ—
building the Body of Christ in this world.

Through Jesus,
may I participate in the life and love
of the Blessed Trinity
here in this world
and in eternal life in Heaven.

Amen.

By Patrick A. O’Donnell December 25, 2025

Concluding Reflection / Call to Prayer

To receive Christ is never a static moment—it is the beginning of a transformation. Communion, whether through the Word or the Sacrament, calls us not only to welcome Jesus inwardly, but to allow Him to grow, mature, and become visible through us.

As you pray this prayer, consider asking honestly: Where am I making room for Christ—and where am I resisting the changes His presence requires? May this prayer draw you into deeper surrender, deeper union, and a life that truly bears Christ for the sake of the world.

May the peace of Jesus in the womb of Mary be with you.

Advent is a time of preparing for that which we already have. We await Christmas Day, the revelation of Jesus, who had been physically conceived nine months previous, the Feast of the Incarnation. God revealed himself in the flesh of Mary as a separate person who lay in the manger on the first Christmas Day. We seek to reveal Christ in our flesh this coming Christmas Day. Have we taken on the mind of Christ? Are we now prepared to say, “This is my body; I give it to you,” to Jesus within ourselves?

If not, why not?

If it is because of unrepentant sin that you carry, Advent is also a period of penance and reparation. This is a perfect time, an acceptable time to examine one’s own conscience and apologize with the hope of forgiveness through absolution for any present unrepentant sin. Upon completing one’s penance and reconciliation, one can begin the process of self-examination anew. Such a second examination of conscience that begins at the graced moment of completion of the reconciliation process, given sufficient time, can often lead to a follow-up, much deeper and profound reconciliation. Yes, this is a suggestion that you plan on seeking the Sacrament of Reconciliation on two occasions before Christmas. This is a short Advent so two occasions requires seeking the Sacrament this week and a second maybe two weeks hence.

It is up to each person to decide for oneself if this Advent will be a typical period of material preparation for Christmas or a truly new beginning for your relationship with Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and ultimately with the Father. Many churches enrich the Advent season with the offer of extra opportunities for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, often with added evening opportunities to seek reconciliation through the Sacrament.

Jesus Christ is waiting with graces for you to make this a Holy Season for yourself. Don’t let yourself miss this opportunity. For this Christmas, be at least as spiritually prepared for Jesus on Christmas Day as you are so often materially ready. 

May the peace of Christ in the womb of Mary be with you.

© 2023 Patrick A. O’Donnell All Rights Reserved

This is the beginning of a series of posts that will be provide a basic and complete understanding of the spirituality of a Bearer of the Preborn Christ. This will come in small pieces through the blog while it will develop with the accumulation of each piece to a whole of all pieces combined on a single webpage.

Part One

Introduction

“…it is in dying that we are born into eternal life.” Although this last line from the Peace Prayer of Saint Francis is not believed to have been written by St. Francis, it has been embraced as capturing his spirit.1 This line highlights his perspective on mortal life as a womb where we are perfected in charity for eternal life. As eternal life and happiness with God should be the goal of everyone, Francis devoted the last half of his life to his perfection in charity. He did this by seeking to imitate the earthly life of Jesus Christ as closely as he could. In his often-dramatic fashion, Francis acted in a manner that would impress upon himself a virtue or truth about Jesus by living it himself. In this manner, he grew and developed his faith in God, preparing himself for eternal life. That he viewed it as a womb gives us a glimpse into Francis’s mostly hidden spiritual life that this study may help illuminate for us to share. 

Peace of Jesus in the womb of Mary be with you.

1 Bodo OFM, Murray, A Look at the Peace Prayer of St. Francis, Franciscan Media.org, Dec 30, 2020. https://www.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-spirit-blog/a-look-at-the-peace-prayer-of-st-francis

© 2023 Patrick A. O’Donnell All Rights Reserved

A Labor Day Statement from recently incarcerated William Goodman

I am blessed to have a narrow 2-inch-long window by which to see the blue sky. Deo gratias. It’s Labor Day weekend, and it seems I am right where God wants me to be, even if it’s not so much where I wanted to be.

In some ways a jail cell is like a womb in that it is a place of confinement, hope and waiting. You are in the dark regarding all that’s happening in the world. Far away from the action. But you are close to God despite the times of feeling alone. It can be a place of life and growth. It may sound strange, but in some ways I feel closer to my persecuted preborn sisters and brothers here than almost anywhere (save maybe for in a church during the Liturgy or inside a fully operational killing facility).

The jail retreat makes you feel invisible to the world. Helpless and absent. Separated. Muted. It makes me mourn the many tens of thousands of little ones who die alone. And helpless. And separated. Their tiny cries muted. Dying at abortion chambers where all humanity is utterly absent.

These heavy thoughts haunt me constantly here. I am heartbroken over how tragically alone God’s children are inside these killing facilities. And yet, I am more convinced than ever for the need of rescue and this particular gift of self – which one offers to the perishing – as also a personal presence of peace and conscience to the parents at the last moment.

Rescue is a truthful witness of love, before love comes too late, with the hope that love will conquer selfishness and fear. It is also a witness of nonviolence in a place of awful violence. A witness to hope in the gallows of despair. Rescuers seek to join Christ the Divine Rescuer Who is the Light of Hope.

I suppose there’s a certain fittingness for rescuers to be incarcerated over Labor Day weekend. A witness of good against evil is our labor. And our small gift of loving reparation.

Will Goodman has been found guilt of conspiracy against rights and violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for blocking access to late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo’s Washington Surgi-Clinic in downtown Washington, D.C. in October 2020. 

Peace of Jesus in the womb of Mary be with you.

© 2023 Patrick A. O’Donnell All Rights Reserved

Please “. . . forgive the jury, the judge, and all those who witnessed against us, and to pray that they would see how God loves the gift of every human life,”[1] is the request of the just convicted William Goodman facing a possible eleven years of federal imprisonment and a $300,000 for violating the FACE Act (Freedom of Clinic Access Act) intended to protect abortion from contentious objection.

The profilers sought to protect persons in the womb from abortionist Cesare Santangelo, who is filmed acknowledging the law that requires him to render medical care to a person who is born-alive from a failed abortion, but that he would not and instead let that person die from neglect. Abortionist Santangelo stated it plainly when he was recorded by LiveAction.org saying, “We would not help it.”[2]

The preborn person, existing first as an idea in the Creator’s mind, is brought to the Washington Surgi-Clinic abortion center to be surgically destroyed. The preborn person is a complete human being capable of feeling pain and with a heartbeat and brain waves.

Rescue those who are being taken away to death;

hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. Proverbs 24:11 RSV

Some of those charged were sitting in the center’s waiting room while encouraging the abortion-bound mothers to save their children from abortion. The others were arrested while standing in the outside hallway. This action is known in prolife circles as a ‘rescue’ because it is an intended action that has proven to affect many mothers to change their minds and save their baby from abortion. 

In common law, if one must violate a lesser law to achieve a higher good, the violation of the lesser law is excused for the higher good. If one, when entering a burning house to rescue a human being who otherwise would not get alive, trespasses to save the life, the courts excuse the trespass for the higher good of saving a human life. This concept is known as the ‘necessity defense’ and is a long and hallowed legal defense in civilized societies. The court has denied the pro-lifers from raising this ‘necessity defense’ or any other related defense of themselves from these criminal charges. 

In total, ten were charged with having a role in a sit-in at the Washington Surgi-Center in DC on October 20, 2020. They were arrested and indicted on March 31, 2022. Five were tried over the past three weeks and were found guilty. These guilty verdicts were unsurprising as the judge denied the defendants the ‘necessity defense’ or anything related to it. Three others will be tried for the same charges beginning today. A final defendant faces trial beginning on October 23, 2023. A tenth defendant, inexperienced with acts of conscientious objection such as a rescue and offered the prospect of a maximum of ten months of incarceration, pled guilty earlier. 

A quick breakdown of the charges that may lead to an unprecedented threat of eleven (11) years in federal prison with accompanying fines are:

1. Incarceration for up to one year in federal prison for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrance Act (FACE) that prohibits threats of force, obstruction, and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care service (a euphemism for abortion).
2. Incarceration for up to ten years in federal prison for “conspiracy to interfere with civil rights.” In the fifty years of active contentious objection since Roe V. Wade unleashed unrestricted abortion in our country, the prosecutors have never sought such draconian penalties.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” is from the Declaration of Independence’s preamble. 

Life is a self-evident, inalienable right of all human beings created. Because abortion unjustly takes the life of the preborn person, it is neither a constitutional nor a civil right of anyone’s. Akin to the defense of slavery in our past, the preborn person is neither recognized as a person in our courts and, accordingly, nor is recognized as having the rights of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness. 

When the right to life is denied, it is not the denial of one right; rather, it is the denial of all rights. St. Pope John Paul II stated this principle when he wrote, “Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights, for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture- is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination.”[3]

These contentious objectors, or Rescuers of the preborn, are prepared to accept the solidarity with the alienated preborn. As Joan Andrews Bell, one of the defendants, has been saying for decades, “You reject them, you reject me.”[4]

Aside from being a creative use of the law by Merrick Garland’s and Joseph Biden’s Department of Justice, these charges and penalties are cruelly punitive. They are meant to punish the contentious objector and send a message to us not to even consider following their attitude, much less their action.

Contraception/Abortion has become a structure of sin in our culture. It is tolerated, accommodated, and promoted as a good for all. The unrepentant sin of individuals has accumulated to a body reaching in and corrupting all aspects of our society, i.e., marriage, the family, courtship, medicine, law and justice, insurance, education, entertainment, and foreign aid, to name a few. Even the Church and its teachings are severely challenged by these unrepentant sins.

Just this past week, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which had for decades offered qualified acceptance of abortion, just came out for unrestricted abortion.[5]

May we also take into prayer and fasting the systemic alienation from the preborn that society has promoted. Ask God what else he may be asking from you to transform our minds to God’s counsel and our love for these families threatened by abortion.

May we meet in prayer under His Cross.

© 2023 Patrick A. O’Donnell All Rights Reserved

[1] “Pro-life rescuers immediately incarcerated following jury’s guilty verdict in DC FACE Act trial,” August 29, 2023 – 3:05 pm EDT, https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-pro-life-rescuers-immediately-incarcerated-following-jurys-guilty-verdict-in-dc-face-act-trial/

[2] Miller, Monica Migliorino, “Life, Abortion, and Injustice in Washington, D.C.,” Catholic World Report, September 2, 2023, https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2023/09/02/life-abortion-and-injustice-in-washington-d-c/

[3] St. Pope John Paul II, Christifidelis Laici, Section 38, December 30, 1988.

[4] cf NAB Luke 10:16

[5] Parks, Kristine, OB-GYN group attacks pro-life ‘misinformation’ on abortion: ‘Must be available without restrictions,’ Fox News, September 1, 2023, https://www.foxnews.com/media/ob-gyn-group-attacks-pro-life-misinformation-abortion-available-without-restrictions

Jesus is known as the second person of God in the Most Blessed Holy Trinity. He is also mankind’s cause and medium through which we find salvation with God the Father and live eternity participating in the life of the Holy Trinity. It is Jesus, being of God’s substance and Divine nature, who assumed human nature in the complete sense of having the composite of human life of both a soul/spirit and body. He lived a perfect human life after emptying Himself of relying on the Divine nature for grace any more than is available as recourse to any other human through prayer and trust in the Father’s Divine Providence. He is God showing us the way through His example in life, through His passion, in death, in Resurrection, in His Resurrection, and through His eternal intercession on our behalf.

The name Christ is best understood as the Church being its body with Jesus as the head. [Col 1:18] It is through Baptism that all Christians become members of the Church and, in turn, members of the Body of Christ. As practicing members of the Church and Body of Christ, Christians surrender themselves to the reign of the head, Jesus. Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” [ John 14:6 ]  All of creation was made subject to futility, but not without hope. Jesus, our head individually and of the Church, leads us to be free from sin as children of God. [ cf. Romans 8:20-21 ]

All things were created through Jesus, who existed before all things, and it is through Him all things hold together. [ Cf. Romans 8:16-17 ] It is also through him that all will be reconciled for Him. [ Romans 8:20 ]

The name Jesus, in Hebrew, means “God saves.” [ CCC 430 ] The name Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah meaning “anointed.” [ CCC 436 ] Jesus was anointed with the Spirit, who is the anointing. It is with this same Holy Spirit that each Christian is anointed at Baptism. The Holy Spirit prepares the Christian as a Temple to receive the conception of Jesus so that we may bear Jesus in both the word and sacrament. Through both, the Christian surrenders to the reign of Jesus as our head.

The question for the Christian to answer is, “Are you responding , in surrender to Jesus our head, His own words, ‘This is my body, I give it up for you.’”

Peace of Jesus in the womb of Mary be with you.

© 2023 Patrick A. O’Donnell All Rights Reserved

Above photo: One of the buildings where The Pill was invented in Shrewsbury, MA prior to approval by the FDA on May 9, 1960.

May 9th is such an ordinary day. It is neither a national holiday nor a day of religious significance. It is just another spring day leading toward summer, with green returning to trees and bushes alike, flowers offer their first bloom, and Little League baseball returns to the local diamond. Highlights of the day may include graduation ceremonies at various schools, while ballrooms may include junior and senior proms.

May 9th is also the anniversary of the contraceptive Pill (The Pill), approved as birth control by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It was invented in Shrewsbury, MA, at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology.The Pill is possibly today’s most prescribed pharmaceutical, while the women prescribed The Pill are also likely the least informed in terms of the effects and dangers of this pharmaceutical. Considering that the Pill has been tried by as many as 94% of women for over sixty years, with them having little forehand knowledge, there has also been meager public discussion on its impact on the culture and its merits or failings.

To an unchallenged populace, The Pill represents control over reproduction with the promise of a better life. It’s timing of invention was some fifteen years after the technology of the atomic bomb was seen as having brought the end of hostilities by Japan without sacrificing many soldiers of the United States and its allies. Technology, it was argued, saves lives. The technological imperative was seen to serve the human imperative.  

It seems that for many, only experience with artificial contraception affords the opening of the user’s mind to the disappointments entreated on the user. These disappointments manifest in the body, the emotions, and the spirit. Couples often say that pregnancy changes everything. Artificial contraception changes everything, too, but for the worse, with its distortions of truth.

The failings of artificial contraception are as varied as are the harmful consequences to the human person. These failings can even be deadly. To properly and fully document these failings to the individual by these contraceptives will require time and dedication on this website, going far beyond the scope of a single blog post. Look for follow-ups to come.

It is just as important to consider the resultant structures of sin that have changed a culture striving for a higher humanity where right makes might to the more animalistic might makes right.

Can this be attributed to the adoption and acceptance of artificial contraception alone? It is more likely weak faith formation and the temptation “to be like Gods” that all new technologies manifest is a more likely explanation. [NAB Genesis 3:5]

Experience of sin, such as turning to artificial contraception, can enlighten one to the truth, but usually only after a period of sorting out the consequences of sin:

1) Confusion of the intellect;

2) Malice of will;

3) Disorder of emotions and passions; and

4) Weakness, sickness, and death of the spirit and body.

We, Bearers of the Preborn Christ, believe that full knowledge of artifiical contraception, properly presented, can spare many people from falling into this practice while others may overcome the resulting negative consequences from contraceptive practice with practicing the virtues of:

1) prudence;

2) justice;

3) temperance; and

4) fortitude.

Reliable knowledge of and the distortions of truth associated with artificial contraception to the individual and in culture will be a point of an ongoing study in this blog and website.and death of the spirit and body.

Peace of Jesus in the womb of Mary be with you.

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