Can hear them crying? Can you feel their pain?

"Can you hear them crying? Can you feel their pain? Will you feed my hungry? Will you help my lame? See the unborn baby, the forgotten one. They are not forsaken. They are not unloved."

I can't help but tear up each time I sing this verse of "We Are One Body". During adoration or by myself in my room practicing, the words scratch at my very core and I am moved at the words spoken to us by Christ. We are each called to do what we can to reach out and save the lowliest of these. We are reminded of this again today as we read the latest post at martha, martha...

*St. Anthony, St. Anthony, please come around....something's been lost and can't be found....*


I was walking through a crowded nursery yesterday when one of the nurses was asking a student if she would not mind feeding a baby? The student hesitated as she had another patient she had to look after so I volunteered.

It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

I held this little one and as I rocked and fed him, looked at his features: he was perfect (as are all babies, really) and had this beautiful little face with a tiny nose and black hair, barely a wisp, forming a swirl on the top of his head. I asked the nurse if I should take him back to his mother when I am finished?

"He's on a DYFS hold."

"What does that mean?"

"His mother is a crack- and alcohol-addicted prostitute that has three children in foster care already. She was going to place this one up for adoption but decided at the last minute to 'go to rehab and get it together so I can get him back,' and was discharged yesterday to go back to the rescue mission. He stays with us until DYFS can find a suitable foster home for him."

(The baby tested positive for cocaine, but cocaine is actually one of the drugs that babies do not withdraw too badly from, if you can imagine that, so he was in pretty decent shape physically.)

I was stricken and for the balance of the day, I was his personal attendant. When all my work was caught up, I was the feeder, changer, rocker, nurturer, pray-er.

*....something's been lost and can't be found....*

Lord, have mercy.

Indeed: Lord, Have mercy. How easy it is to be consumed by our own trials and to be so self-absorbed that we forget those who have no one to pray for them. Shuffled here and there, literally handed off from person to person until hopefully a place will be found. We cannot know what it is like for these little babes and I pray that one day, no one will have to endure this anymore. Lord God, have mercy on your children. From my last post:

+Fast from self-concern ... feast on compassion for others.
So many times we are self-centered and self-loving. Let us this Lent turn from our own needs and offer our attention to the needs of the lowliest of these.

I challenge each of you that reads this to offer up at least one Hail Mary each day for these souls who are often forgotten.

"St. Anthony, St. Anthony, please come around... something's been lost and can't be found..."