Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

Ok..it is time to address the question of the relationship between Lumina and Entering Canaan. Seems more and more people are getting confused .

Around 13 years ago, The Sisters of Life and I began developing a post abortion ministry called "Entering Canaan-a Sacramental Journey to an Inheritance of Mercy". The ministry consists of a multi faceted program.."Days of Prayer and Healing", the first contact, where our goal is to bring the message of hope to those who attend. This day is followed by monthly "Gatherings" . This is a group where we spend time in front of the Blessed Sacrament with a scripture meditation that addresses a post abortion issue…like say, "denial". The scripture would be on denial and then there would be questions after it relating to the denial of abortion, after time before Our Lord, we go into another room and share our thoughts and experiences.

Then we have the "Hope & Healing" weekend. This weekend consists in conferences and is for people who have attended a day already.Different women from the ministry as well as a and a spiritual director give talks on things like "Allowing God to Love Us", of course in relation to aboriton. Lastly, we have our yearly "Mercy' weekend which is a renewal weekend for everyone in the ministry..and then, of course, we end with Camp st Joseph every year. http://sistersoflife.org/ec.html

In addition to the ministry, and interwined with the ministry because I do both, is my full time work, Lumina, a program of Good Counsel Homes. Through Lumina, I do public speaking, education through trainings for clergy, lay people and mental health professionals, referrals for those post abortive to ministries, therapists and clergy, groups, and of course the Poor PreNatal, Sibling and Mens Days.

Confusing??? Yes, they do overlap but it is good…it enables me to work at this full time and reach more people. Without much of any advertising, we get around 200 new people a year here in the NY area. Pretty amazing for something that it said does not exist.

I will be forever grateful to Cardinal O'Connor for his heart for those post abrtive and his support of us beginning the ministry, and to Chris Bell and Fr Benedict Groeschel, CFR of Good Counsel http://www.goodcounselhomes.org/for starting Lumina. I also will be forever gratful to Dave Reardon of the Ellliot Institute http://www.afterabortion.org/who was so instrumental inthe start of Lumina and who continues to be such a source of truth to the world of the pain of post aboriton.

Some day I will share some correspondence I had with Cardinal about PA….