Tag Archives: Paul Stefan Foundation

Journey Into the Desert

Journey Into the Desert

By Father Stefan Starzynski

How many times have we said at the end of Lent, “I wish that I had a better Lent”? Here we are at the beginning of a new Lent. We have another opportunity to begin anew. Lent is about preparing our hearts to receive Jesus on Easter Sunday.

We are told in the scriptures that the Spirit drove Jesus into the desert. The same Spirit drives us into the desert. The desert has two purposes in the scriptures. The desert is the place where we are tested and stripped of the illusions that we have created about ourselves. The Desert is the place where we can hear and meet God.

We find an example of this desert experience in the life of Moses. Moses went into the desert for forty years in exile, but Moses experiences God on Mount Sinai. Moses had to go into the desert for forty years before he met the Living God in the Burning Bush. The Prophet Hosea says that God in the desert comes to us as a Groom meeting His Bride. God prepares us to become his bride in the desert.

One of the titles of Mary is the Rose of Sharon. This rose is a desert Rose. It is small, delicate and beautiful. This Rose springs up in the desert.  In the morning the petals capture a single drop of dew. The rose protects the dew from the heat of the desert. The dew also gives nourishment to the rose. In the desert we meet God and God meets us. The Rose of Sharon is an image of the Blessed Mother and of every Christian. The Dew is an Image of Jesus.

We are called to be like Mary and receive the dew of God’s Word. In the desert of Lent our hearts are made more sensitive to the small ways that God comes to us.

How many people say that they have a hard time hearing God? In order to be able to hear God we first have to enter into the desert. May this Lent be a time when we make a journey into the desert in order to hear the still small voice of God.

May we come to know that we are God’s precious rose in the desert of the world.

Fr. Stefan Starzynski is Parochial Vicar of St. Marry of Sorrows in Falls Church, VA and serves as Spiritual Adviser to the Paul Stefan Foundation and its Maternity Homes for Women in Need.

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Pro-Life Foundation Helps Expectant Mothers Choose Life

The Paul Stefan Foundation is an amazing mission.  It was inspired from the tragic experience of a family told to get an abortion and through the prayers of a parish priest in Novena to St. Andrew and at the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Read this inspiring story here.

Since its 2006 founding, the PSF has helped over 70 women and babies.  While they maintain three homes in Virginia, they are looking to open homes in Maryland soon, as well as in other parts of the country.

These homes are not only a great mission that SMS encourages our fellow Catholics to support, they are also important to our pro-life mission to overturn Roe vs Wade.  Overturning Roe is inevitable, and when it is overturned these life or death decisions will be left to the states to legislate.  An argument long used by pro-abortion advocates is what do you do with women who are pregnant and abandoned or abused who cannot afford a baby.  The answer is the Paul Stefan Foundation and its Homes for Expectant Mothers.

The PSF just announced that its 3rd Annual Celebration of Life Gala will be in Historic Fredericksburg, VA on September 25 and will feature former Virginia First Lady Susan Allen and acclaimed pro-life Catholic Doctor John Bruchalski, Founder and President of the Tepeyac Medical Center and Divine Mercy Care.

For more information on the event or how you can support this important mission read below.

Former First Lady of Virginia, Susan Allen, To Headline Virginia “Celebration of Life” Event for Expectant Mothers and Newborns

Fredericksburg, VA—The Paul Stefan Foundation, a Virginia-based charitable organization dedicated to providing homes for expectant mothers and their newborns, announced today that Susan Allen, former First Lady of Virginia, will be a featured speaker at the organization’s Third Annual “Celebration of Life” Gala Event to be held September 25, 2010 at the Fredericksburg Expo Center.

The former First Lady joins acclaimed Doctor Dr. John Bruchalski, Founder of the Tepeyac Medical Center and Divine Mercy Care as a featured speaker. Tickets for the event can be purchased by calling 540-854-2300, or online at http://www.paulstefanhome.org/celebration-of-life-gala/

“I am so excited to be a part of this event and this great cause.  When you see how the Paul Stefan Foundation, with its three homes in Virginia, is helping expectant mothers in need and their newborns, it is inspiring and incredibly heart-warming.  I look forward to seeing and meeting others in support of this cause at the Gala.  It will be a truly beautiful evening in so many ways,” Ms. Allen said.

Founded in 2006, The Paul Stefan Foundation www.paulstefanhome.org

operates three homes in Virginia, two in Orange County and one in Fairfax.  Since opening its doors to pregnant women in need, the PSF has helped over 70 women and newborns.  The Foundation was inspired through a Catholic priest, Father Stefan Starzynski, and by the death of Baby Paul Stefan James, who died less than an hour after birth.   Learn more about this miraculous story at http://bit.ly/bx2kCM

“We are so grateful to Ms. Allen for accepting our offer to speak at this year’s event.  She is an inspiration to us all and we are extremely honored to have her involved in our cause,” said Randy James, CEO of the Paul Stefan Foundation.

“We hope that with such great speakers this year to further enhance our cause of saving women and babies in a more ecumenical way.  There are so many women right here in Virginia, who find themselves pregnant, abandoned, some abused, others living out of their cars — they have no where to turn.  It is the goal of our Foundation to provide these women and their pre-born babies homes of safe haven where they will receive loving care, support and nourishment necessary for their further growth and development,” said Evelyn James, Director of Homes for the PSF.

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Prayers Successful for Young Lady Considering Abortion — Having Baby!

Last week, we were informed by our friends at the Paul Stefan Homes for Expectant Mothers that they and Project Rachel were working around the clock to persuade a 19 year old young lady seriously considering abortion to choose life.  After hearing this news, we appealed to our growing list of friends and fans involved in defending and promoting the faith through the St. Michael Society. 

The response was moving and heartwarming.  Many of you emailed back or told us on Facebook and Twitter that you were praying the rosary, attending Mass or Holy Hour, etc.  Well…..as expected when we appeal to God for good things, it worked!

We are so blessed and pleased to inform all of our SMS friends that we just learned that these prayers have been answered and the young lady has chosen life.  She has decided to have the baby and give it up for adoption!  God is so good and not only will this baby live, this mother’s decision will now bring joy to a future adoptive family. 

On behalf of Paul Stefan Homes CEO, Randy James, SMS was asked to thank, from the deepest depths of his heart, the prayers from each of you that made this possible.  Another life is saved!

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Young Lady Considering Abortion Holds, Will Meet with Paul Stefan Homes

We received this email from Randy James, CEO of the Paul Stefan Homes for Expectant Mothers in regards to our post earlier in the week about a 19 year old young lady who was seriously considering an abortion.  Through Project Rachel, this young lady was introduced to the Paul Stefan Homes and is now reconsidering.  But as you can see from this email below from Mr. James, the Paul Stefan Homes asks that we continue praying as the baby’s life is still at risk.

Dear Friends at the St Michael Society,

I have an update on the young lady who we and Project Rachel have been communicating with regarding her pregnancy.

Please keep praying- she did not go through with an abortion and has agreed to call us and meet for shelter. But, most important to keep praying because she could change her mind at any time. Good news for now. Please post to SMS if you can with our sincere thanks for the prayers.
God bless,

Randy James, CEO, Paul Stefan Homes

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Please Pray That This Young Lady Chooses Life!

Prayer Alert!  Our friends at the Paul Stefan Homes www.paulstefanhome.org have just informed us that they are in deep conversation with a 19 year old young lady wanting to have an abortion. 
Please join us in praying for this young lady, that she chooses life, and for wisdom for our friends involved in these conversations that the Holy Spirit may help them to be convincing in support for life. 
Please join us in this prayer provided by Priests for Life:

Prayer to Mary, Mother of the Life Within

O Mary, Mother of the Life Within,
all life we entrust to you;
The life of every expectant mother
and the child within her womb:
The life of every human body,
the life of every human soul;
The life of every newborn child
and the life of all grown old.
You held the Lord to your own heart
and drew Him so close in.
So draw us now in all our needs,
O Mother of the Life Within.
Amen.

http://www.priestsforlife.org/prayers/motheroflifewithin.htm

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How One Family’s Tragedy, and a Priest’s Prayer, Inspired a Miracle to Save Many

Paul Stefan Home Babies

Paul Stefan Home Babies

Advent brings great joy in preparing for the coming birth of our Lord. It is also a season during which many of us look to help others in need. 

As the Lord tells us in Matthew 25:40 – “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”

In the spirit of this Advent and Christmas Season, SMS has decided to adopt a charity, the Paul Stefan Foundation.   We encourage all of our friends to take a few minutes out to watch this short video and see how one family’s tragedy, and prayerful commitment from a priest, inspired the founding of the Paul Stefan Foundation and its Homes for Expectant Mothers.  We hope you will prayerfully consider donating to the PSF during this Advent and Christmas Season.

The PSF is an amazing story of a family (Randy, Evelyn and their children) in mourning over the death of their newborn son/brother, Paul Stefan, and a priest, Father Stefan Starzynksi, who’s prayerful reflection at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, is saving pregnant women in need and their newborn babies.  Many of these women are abandoned, homeless, or abused.  One woman the PSF found living in the woods in the back of a U-Haul — pregnant.  

With the help of a national Gas Company, these homes were founded only to lead to a third home in Virginia and in just a few years the caring and nurturing of 59 women and babies.  These three homes are now inspiring the organization to open new maternity homes in other regions across the country.

After watching this video, featuring Evelyn James, Director of Homes at the PSF, we  hope you will consider making a donation via the PSF’s Baby Bottle Campaign– link here – to help provide food, care, mom and baby essentials as well as basic home operational needs. 

Thank you so much for anything you can donate — every dollar matters.  The PSF motto is “Saving Babies, One Mom at a Time.”  By making even a small donation you are helping the PSF fulfill that mission.

Watch Mrs. James tell her heartfelt story of her family’s tragedy that inspired a blessing for so many others:

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Maternity Homes and the Future of Abortion

Father Stefan Starzynski, Spiritual Advisor for the Paul Stefan Homes for Expectant Mothers, talks about the future of abortion, the conversion of a Texas Planned Parenthood Director and the impact of maternity homes.

For more information about the Paul Stefan Homes please visit www.paulstefanhome.org

Paul Stefan Home babies

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