Well, my family are sitting watching the ABC News as I write this entry. One of the stories tonight is about a couple who are suing their GP and hospital for negligence in not testing their baby - whilst still in utero - for Down Syndrome. In case you are not aware, a test for Down Syndrome babies is standard for pregnant women, especially if they are mature age women. Now in this case, neitehr the GP nor the hospital undertook the test to see whether the child would ahve Down Syndrome. But it gets worse. The family are suing the hospital and GP for the expenses of raising their daughter because she was born with Down Syndrome, and had they known, they would have terminated their pregnancy. Another couple are also launching legal action over their doctor's not sending them for further testing when thier early ultrasound indicated that their child might have Down Syndrome.

If that isn't bad enough, imagine the precendent that would be set in legal terms if either of these couples were to be successful in their suit!

In my own two pregnancies, my husband and I refused to have this test for Down Sydrome done because we were going to keep our children regardless. Dear friends of us, who are about ten years older than us, were referred for this test because she was in her thirties. Upon some of the markers indicating that there was a chance their daughter might have Down Syndrome, they were referred to a genetic counsellor in order to discuss terminating the pregnancy, despite their determination to keep the child. In fact, this woman felt that she was being railroaded into terminating her pregnancy. Needless to say, they kept their baby and she is almost one now, and no, she doesn't have Down Syndrome. She is a perfectly healthy baby girl who could have been aborted needlessly.

So while I sympathise that raising a child with Down Syndrome is a tough ask and a major challenge - I know several families who have done this, and loved their children regardless. Just because your child may be handicapped or disbaled, does not make them any less worthwhile than a 'normal' child. God created us equal, despite our flaws, faults and ailments, and each of us has an inherent dignity and beauty.

Okay, so I know we have addressed this issue in 'In Sight' and 'ave maria' before, but I was watching the Today Show on Win the other day and they had a segment of the current statistics of Generation X women in the workforce. Generation X were supposed to be the first generation to 'have it all' that is, the successful career and family life.

What this recent survey has shown is that a lot of these university educated women have left the workforce, or work flexible or part time hours, so as to be at home with their young families.

Lisa Wilkinson, the co-host of the Today Show, seemed bemused at such statistics and asked why this had happened.

The answer to her question was simple, I cannot remember the name nor position of the 'specialist' they were interviewing, but he did say that women had realised the hard way, that they could not have it all, at the same time! In the end something had to give, and for the time being, Gen X women were putting their careers on hold while their young children were still at home. I was really surprised at Lisa's reaction to this and her seeming disgust that it was the women who were dropping out of hte workforce to stay atr home, whilst the men and obviosuly fathers of these children, were still able to work full time.

Now perhaps I am somwhat traditional or old fashioned, but I can't see there being any problem with women choosing to put their family first and either work part time, flexible hours, or even stay at home full time with their children who are under school age. I also have no problem with these women choosing to resume full time work sometime in the future when they feel they can juggle both their personal and professional lives. There are also cases where the stay at home parent is a father, though is the exception, not the rule, and I don't have a problem with that either. Why don't I have a problem with any of this? Basically, I strongly believe that as we as parents are the first educators and formators of our children, it is ideal that one parent is home with their under school aged children.

It is unreasonable for society to porpose that women can have both a successful career and happy family life, at the same time. It is like the Lord says, 'you cannot serve two masters' and ultimately something will crumble. Your professional work will suffer, or your family will fall apart. In the end, I think the question is a simple one. Which holds more value to you? Would you chhose your work over your family, or would you put your family first, even if it meant making financial sacrifices to do so?

And finally, if any woman chooses to put her family first, she should be free to do so without being attacked by feminists who think they got a raw deal or aren't living up to their potential.

“But” Jesus replied, “I tell you Peter, the cock will not crow this day before you have denied three times that you know me.” (Luke 22:34)

As Christians we are all familiar with the Passion of Jesus, more specifically however, we are all familiar with Peter’s denial of our Lord.

Foretold by Jesus during the Last Supper, scripture tells us that when questioned after Jesus’ arrest Peter denied any association, no matter how slight, with our Lord.

This has always been for me, one of the most disappointing moments of the Easter story. My response was always Peter, how could you?

But if we were in a similar situation would we stand up for Jesus or would we deny him?

Chances are, in this increasingly God-less society, we would deny him rather than stand out from the crowd.

How many of us, through our high school years and in our social lives have stuck up for and defended him in the presence of our peers?

Not surprisingly, most of us are ashamed that we downplayed our weekly obligation and our love of the Lord in the face of peer pressure. We denied him, not three times like Peter, but on a regular basis because we didn’t, or don’t, have the courage to follow him without reservation or fear of what others think.

Perhaps the season of Lent is a timely reminder of our human weakness, the same human weakness that caused Peter to deny Jesus, the same human weakness that too causes us to deny our Lord.

I do not necessarily mean that each of us denies Jesus in the same manner as Peter, who vocally denied, his ties to our Lord. There are other ways in which we could have denied Jesus, though they are just as heartbreaking.

Perhaps we no longer find time to spend with Jesus in prayer, in our own personal prayer let alone in Adoration or at Mass. Perhaps we failed to speak up in a situation where the voice of Jesus needed to be heard. Perhaps we no longer attend Mass on Sundays because it’s boring or no one else our age is present. Perhaps we said no to him, refused our vocation, or his influence in our lives.

Perhaps we underestimated how much we really need God’s help and took too much pride and confidence in our own abilities. Perhaps we have denied Jesus’ importance in our lives and turned instead, beckoned by the allure of the secular world to God-less things.

Disconcertingly, most of us have probably denied Jesus in our lives at some point. We have denied our redeemer his rightful place in our lives, and put first instead, something that is less important but seemed better at the time.

Knowing this, we can come closer to understanding how unworthy we are of God’s mercy, and how much he really loves us. After all, why else would you give your life for people who will deny you, or sin against you?

How we bounce back from this denial is what makes all of the difference. Look at Peter, the rock on which Jesus built his church. Only last year was Pope Benedict XVI named the next successor of Peter, a position in the church that continues to influence the world.

Peter could have continued to deny Jesus, or to wallow in his misery like his fellow disciple Judas did. But he didn’t, and thanks to him we have a Catholic church that has stood the test of time and lives on today, 2000 years later. Of course, Peter did not do this alone. He had friends in high places.

The first step for us is to repent and be sorry for denying our Lord, and the next to make reparation. Make Jesus an integral part of your life – even more than that; make him the centre, the focus of your life.

Care no longer what other people will think of you when you speak of Jesus. Who would you rather impress? Think about it carefully, your answer not only affects this life, but the next one as well.

The church of God needs saints today. This imposes a great responsibility on us, to fight against our own ego and love of comfort that leads us to choose a comfortable and insignificant mediocrity. We are called upon to make our lives a rivalry with Christ; we are called upon to be warriors, for the church needs fighters today. Our war cry has to be “Fight – not flight.”

These words, penned by Mother Teresa, are an accurate summation of the life of the church in today’s society. Our church, and indeed our world, is in desperate need of saints. The lives of people like Mother Teresa and John Paul II, both on the track to canonization, speak volumes as to what we can achieve if we fight for the church today.

One might argue that these inspiring Christians are few and far between, that there aren’t many who fit the criteria of saints, and little chance of us ‘average Joes’ achieving sainthood. However, this argument hardly seems plausible when we consider the fact that nothing is impossible for God, and if we have faith in God, then with his help, nothing is impossible for us.

The life of a saint is not easy indeed it is perhaps one of the hardest lives of all. (I would argue that the hardest life of all, is one lived without Christ). Picking up our cross and following Jesus is no easy feat, but it is not unattainable.

In order to become saints, or at the very least, to live a good Christian life we need to be fighters for the church, to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and to stick by him when times get tough, no matter what the consequence.

If we will not stand up for the church in our society, then who will? If we will not proclaim the Good News and evangelise the world, then who will? We are the church today and, like it or not, we have an obligation to help keep the church alive and active, and to defend it against the onslaughts of an immoral culture. We have a responsibility to protect the legacy that Christ has left for us.

We are all called to be warriors, or soldiers for Christ. Young and old alike are called to step away from the complacent mediocrity of life in the secular world today and to enlist in God’s army, to fight, suffer and die (to self - though physical martyrdom for some is a distinct possibility) for the salvation of souls.

Yes, it is an imposing task, and yes, there will be suffering and pain. But the path is well worn, many a great saint has walked this path before us, and each time they have been accompanied, as we will, by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Step out of your comfort zone and centre your life on Christ. Join the army that boasts the best reward of all, eternal life. I’ll see you in the battlefield.

It has been a long time coming, but we are now up and running with our blog!

Feel free to browse through and read our opinions and thoughts on issues as they arise. Make sure you share your comments here or on our online forum . 

If you see this post it means that BlogEngine.NET 1.6.0 is running and the hard part of creating your own blog is done. There is only a few things left to do.

Write Permissions

To be able to log in to the blog and writing posts, you need to enable write permissions on the App_Data folder. If you’re blog is hosted at a hosting provider, you can either log into your account’s admin page or call the support. You need write permissions on the App_Data folder because all posts, comments, and blog attachments are saved as XML files and placed in the App_Data folder. 

If you wish to use a database to to store your blog data, we still encourage you to enable this write access for an images you may wish to store for your blog posts.  If you are interested in using Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, VistaDB, or other databases, please see the BlogEngine wiki to get started.

Security

When you've got write permissions to the App_Data folder, you need to change the username and password. Find the sign-in link located either at the bottom or top of the page depending on your current theme and click it. Now enter "admin" in both the username and password fields and click the button. You will now see an admin menu appear. It has a link to the "Users" admin page. From there you can change the username and password.  Passwords are hashed by default so if you lose your password, please see the BlogEngine wiki for information on recovery.

Configuration and Profile

Now that you have your blog secured, take a look through the settings and give your new blog a title.  BlogEngine.NET 1.4 is set up to take full advantage of of many semantic formats and technologies such as FOAF, SIOC and APML. It means that the content stored in your BlogEngine.NET installation will be fully portable and auto-discoverable.  Be sure to fill in your author profile to take better advantage of this.

Themes and Widgets

One last thing to consider is customizing the look of your blog.  We have a few themes available right out of the box including two fully setup to use our new widget framework.  The widget framework allows drop and drag placement on your side bar as well as editing and configuration right in the widget while you are logged in.  Be sure to check out our home page for more theme choices and downloadable widgets to add to your blog.

On the web

You can find BlogEngine.NET on the official website. Here you'll find tutorials, documentation, tips and tricks and much more. The ongoing development of BlogEngine.NET can be followed at CodePlex where the daily builds will be published for anyone to download.

Good luck and happy writing.

The BlogEngine.NET team