REPORT (with photos below) of Sacred Heart Parish-Milwaukee "Celebration of Life" event as part of the parish Spiritual Adoption Program. This report may give you ideas for your own "Celebrate Life" event.
 
 
Dear friends,
 
Many of you are aware of the basic elements of the Spiritual Adoption Program:  Individual parishioners commit to saying a brief daily prayer, as suggested by Archbishop Fulton Sheen, for nine months for an anonymous child in danger of abortion.
 
Besides prayer, which is the most important element, the Spiritual Adoption Program can provide an excellent framework for a wide variety of Gospel of Life activities - educational, service, pastoral and public witness.  A key element are the Sunday Mass petitions for a particular aspect of the Gospel of Life and the corresponding brief Gospel of Life weekly bulletin messages (For samples, see  www.4life4family.org/petitions-bulletin-messages ) Beautiful "Watch Me Grow" brochures and posters are frequently used in the parish to highlight the preciousness of life before birth. (See: http://www.littleonepublishing.com/insidebrochure.html )
 
Parishes are essential for grass roots evangelizing on Life issues. A few people working together with the pastor can be very instrumental in creating awareness and offering opportunities to all parishioners to more fully respond to the call of the Church as so beautifully taught by Pope St. John Paul II's "Evangelium Vitae" ("Gospel of Life").
 
Many parishes conclude their nine-month program with a "Celebrate Life" event. I thought you might be interested in seeing a summary report (below) of Milwaukee Sacred Heart Parish's recent closing event.
 
I am happy to provide more information and assistance to a parish, school or diocese interested in considering implementing a Spiritual Adoption Program (in English or Spanish).
 
Dan Zeidler
Family Life Council, Inc.
Toda America con Cristo
414-218-3769
 
 
REPORT on Sacred Heart Parish Spiritual Adoption Program - "Celebration of Life" after Masses on Sunday, June 12, 2022:
 
For the past 8 months Sacred Heart Parish (Milwaukee) has been praying through the Spiritual Adoption Program for the protection of babies threatened by abortion. 
 
As we near the anticipated birth of these babies, we decided to celebrate God's gift of life with a "shower of love" parish celebration. 
 
It was so wonderful to see the parishioners respond so generously by bringing gifts of money, diapers, baby blankets, clothes, etc. to the celebration in the parish hall for the benefit of the Women's Care Center.
 
It was a joyful celebration with fun activities and games, brunch including "birth day" cake, balloons, and educational displays and fellowship. (See Photo 1 at: www.4life4family.org/photos-celebration)
 
One of the displays that was the most popular presented ultrasound photos of parishioners' children in utero alongside a current photo of the child with the title, "Me - Still Me". (Photo 2 at: www.4life4family.org/photos-celebration )
 
Another display was youth-centered, featuring photos of young people at a March for Life last month in Croatia (our parish is known as Milwaukee's Croatian parish), next to photos of one of our young parishioners, college student Lily Jones, participating in the USA March for Life this past January in Washington. D.C. (Photo 3 at: www.4life4family.org/photos-celebration)
 
Another display featured books, brochures and the complete set of posters to emphasize the beautiful development of the precious child's nine-month journey in the womb. Parishioners were amazed to listen to the recording of a baby's heartbeat 6 1/2 weeks after conception - approximately double the rate of an adult's heart. (Photo 4 at: www.4life4family.org/photos-celebration )
 
Games included the ever popular "Turkey Shoot". Participants won small prizes including pencils and buttons with pro-life messages. (Photo 5 at: www.4life4family.org/photos-celebration )
 
The greatest laughs came from the Matching game where participants won candy bars corresponding to the match they made. (See list at end of this note.) 
 
There was good interest and participation by children who were offered paper and crayons and invited to make greeting cards for mothers being helped by the Women's Care Center. (Photo 6 at: www.4life4family.org/photos-celebration)
 
Door prizes were various popular pro-life children's books, including the Dr. Seuss book and DVD, "Horton Hears a Who" and its famous line, "A person is a person no matter how small".
 
Additional background information on the main elements of the Spiritual Adoption Program for parishes and schools can be found at:  www.4life4family.org/parish2022 
 
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Baby Shower Game
 
Participants finding the matching word/phrase won the corresponding candy:
 
MATCH                                 CANDY PRIZE
Baby bottle                                  Baby bottle shaped candy
Baby giggles                                Snickers
Breast Feeding                            Milky Way
Epidurals                                     Life Savers
Girl's name                                  Baby Ruth 
Hospital bill                                  $100 Grand
___in the oven                             Bun 
Mother's lunch/nap time              Take 5 or Fast Break
Pile of dirty diapers                     Mounds 
Post-partum tummy                    Jelly Bellys
3rd trimester weight gain           Chunky
Time alone                                 Zero
Triplets                                       Three Musketeers
Tummy to back/back to tummy  Rollos   
 
 
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