Orthodox Christian Initiative for Africa: Remembering the 14,000 Holy Infants (Holy Innocents) slain by Herod in Bethlehem and… the many innocents killed by the herods of our days

Παρασκευή 30 Δεκεμβρίου 2016

Remembering the 14,000 Holy Infants (Holy Innocents) slain by Herod in Bethlehem and… the many innocents killed by the herods of our days

Christ is Born, Glorify Him!

In the festive atmosphere that embraced heaven and earth, just few days from the Nativity feast of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Church coats herself in much sorrow for the innocent babies slain by king Herod’s cruelty. Back than Jesus was saved from the wrath of Herod. Still today, He suffers the torment of death with each of the babies slain by modern tools of medicine, by the will of a society that had lost its balance and sense of life and raised to the rank of the law, the grivial sin of murdering babies.

Truly the commandment of the Gospel “Thy shall not kill!” no longer holds true in a world that calls the good evil and the evil good.

Life starts at conception

Most people do not know what happens during an abortion. Perhaps many women who committed abortion did not know that actually they killed a child. Why? Because they are told that by the third month in the womb they bear only “a ball of cells” and not a true man.

British Professor Stuart Campbell, a researcher at “Create Health Clinic” in London, managed to obtain, through a new type of ultrasound scan, three-dimensional images that allow viewing of fetal movements in real time. The study demonstrates for the first time that life begins with fertilization and not at birth. At the moment of conception, 46 chromosomes with 30,000 genes combine and determine all our physical characteristics: gender, facial and bodily features, eye color, hair and skin. Then, in just a few weeks, from one cell a tiny man is formed, having all the organs already present and able to work.

What happens following the 3 months – in which some argue that the fetus is merely “a ball of cells”?

The heart starts beating 18 days post conception, fetal blood passes through the umbilical cord, the placenta where the metabolic exchanges take place between the mother and the child: the child passes to the mother the remnants of carbon dioxide and the mother provides oxygen and nutrients. In about 3 weeks the hands start to form and at 8 weeks, the fingers. The fetus can move the fingers and open his/her mouth.

At 40 days, the brain function is measured by EEG waves. This wonderful control center – the brain – sends messages to both mother and child.

At 2 months, the baby fingerprints are already imprinted in the skin.

At about 7 weeks, the first spontaneous movements are noticed, although the mother usually doesn’t feel the baby moving until about 16 weeks.

At 18 weeks, the fetus is active and energetic and makes numerous muscle flexes and can give sufficiently strong punches and kicks :)

At 26 weeks, the fetus can do a wide range of child specific gestures – to scratch, to smile, to hiccup and suck his/her fingers …

“Let children come to me …”

(the choice is made by God not by the pregnant women)

by Fr. Alexander Stanciu

Before enjoying the light of this life, God had ordained that the child will dwell and develop for 9 months in the safest shelter of the world: his mother’s womb. Today, however, man has transformed this possible safest shelter in the most dangerous place for that, although the child can do nothing to defend himself, his life can be taken even by the dearest person, his MOTHER .

The conceived fetus becomes a human being at the time of fecundation, when God created immortal soul of man. The sin of abortion is a form of murdering baby Christ, Who in a certain way, is born with every baby. From the moment of conception, the child bears the image of God, and through Baptism will carry the image of Christ within. If this image is destroyed, in the women womb Christ is been crucified once more. Saint Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain goes so far as saying that a mother who commits abortion, does not kill one human being, but in so much she is killing as many survivors as would have resulted if her child had lived.

Can abortion ever be recommended?

Lets follow these three examples:

1. The father is an alcoholic, the mother has tuberculosis. They have four children. The first one is blind. The second one died. The third child is deaf, and the fourth has tuberculosis. She becomes pregnant again. Given this extreme situation, would you take into account the recommendation of abortion?

2. A little black girl, aged 13, was raped by a white man, the little girl became pregnant. If you were her parents, would you recommend abortion?

3. A teenager girl is pregnant. She is not married. Her fiancé is not the father of the child. He is very upset and plans to leave her. In this case, would you consider abortion appropriate?

If you said “yes” to the 1st question: You have killed Beethoven.
If you said “yes” to the 2nd question: You have killed a great black singer of religious music, Ethel Wathers.
If you said “yes” to the 3rd question: You just decided to kill Jesus Christ.

“The Gestating Virgin Mother” - an icon by hagiographer Sophia Papazoglou, in the church of Saint Eleftherios on Acharnon Street in Athens, Greece (from here)