Tis the Season of ‘The Gospel of Life’
STRUEB, Hans and/or Jakob
The Visitation
c. 1505
Cousin Elizabeth was in the sixth month of her pregnancy with John the Baptist. Here is my mother greeting Elizabeth. I blessed unborn John and he leaped for joy. (Luke 1:39-55)
Meditation
“Humble Elizabeth has an important role in this encounter; Fulton Sheen spoke of it in this way: “One of the most beautiful moments in history was that when pregnancy met pregnancy ‑ when child bearers became the first heralds of the King of Kings.” God moves in mysterious ways. Fittingly, the elder of the two women present takes the lead in describing the great work God was doing in their midst. Most spiritual writers have held that Mary understood that it was not her mystery to reveal, but one God would make known. Thus the need for discretion made it unfitting for Mary to proclaim her secret to Elizabeth. However, Mother Angelica notes that “Like all fathers, God could not keep the wonderful secret too long. He had to tell someone, and that someone was Elizabeth….”
Elizabeth seems to have been awestruck by the immediate revelation she received at this moment. Some people would be similarly overwhelmed should a famous celebrity or world leader walk in their front door, but for Elizabeth there could have been nothing more momentous than the pregnant mother of the Messiah – carrying Him within her – entering her home. The Holy Spirit imparts to Elizabeth the gifts of knowledge and understanding, and she, who is full of good will and faith, is enlightened as to the meaning of what is occurring (Lk 1:42).
Archbishop Goodier notes that “… throughout His life the one desire of Jesus was that He should be discovered; that He should be discovered, and recognized, owned. For every step made in that discovery He was grateful; no man made it but met with reward overflowing. The one thread of interest running through the whole drama of His life is the growth of this discovery.” Unborn John and his mother Elizabeth share in this first discovery together, as if to remind us all that the first place Jesus should be discovered is in the family.”
George Peate, Unborn Jesus Our Hope
Tis the Season of ‘The Gospel of Life’
After I was miraculously conceived in my mother’s womb, she went with haste into the hill country of Judah to visit her cousin Elizabeth (Lk 1:39). Here is a picture of us traveling by donkey and accompanied by angels.
Meditation
A Prayer by Caryll Houselander
Breath of Heaven,
carry us on the impulse
of Christ’s love,
as easily as thistledown
is carried on the wind;
that in the Advent season of our souls,
while He is formed in us,
in secret and in silence-
the Creator
in the hands of his creatures,
as the Host
in the hands of the priest-
we may carry Him forth
to wherever He wishes to be,
as Mary carried Him over the hills
on an errand of love,
to the house of Elizabeth.
From the Splendor of the Rosary by Maisie Ward
with prayers by
Caryll Houselander
Tis the Season of ‘The Gospel of Life’
The Annunciation… and then the angel left her
by Geraldine Farrell
My mother said ‘yes’ and the Holy Spirit overshadowed her – although I was miraculously conceived, I began life as one cell just like any other unborn baby. And then the angel Gabriel left her… she had become my mother.
Meditation
The following reflections are from Cardinal Bérulle 1575-1629 (founder of the French School of Theology). Some of the most notable followers of the French School were St. Louis de Montfort, St. John Eudes, and Father Jean-Jacques Olier.
“Stuttering rather than speaking, this is what we can say about things that so greatly surpass the human mind and even the angelic mind. These are the first thoughts of the incarnate Word. This is the first conversation of Jesus in the Virgin. This is the Virgin’s first contemplation, or better yet, this is the Virgin’s first ecstasy before the Son of God made Son of Man in her.” p. 166
“The Virgin is involved with Jesus and she is the only one in the whole world involved with Jesus. Thus she is the only one in the whole world adoring the mystery of the Incarnation, which was brought about on earth for the earth but unknown to the earth. She is the only one adoring Jesus. The more that she is the only one captivated by such a great subject, the greater is her involvement. She is devoted to it with all her faculties. All her senses are brought to bear on it, for it is a tangible mystery and tangible within her. All her senses should pay homage to her God made tangible for human nature. Her whole mind is concentrated on it. And the Spirit of Jesus, which enlivens this little divinized body, enlivens the spirit and body of the Virgin as well, through grace, love and a holy, gentle influence.” p. 164
Bérulle and the French School: selected writings By Pierre de Bérulle, edited by William M. Thompson
The following is a footnote by William M. Thompson
“The authors of the French School were so struck by the humiliation and sublime grandeur of Jesus living in Mary’s womb that they counted his time on earth from the moment of conception…Bérulle implies that Nazareth and not Bethlehem is where the “first birth” of Jesus occurs. It is fascinating to note that, although he intended to write about all of Jesus’ thirty-four years on earth, Bérulle’s Life of Jesus, through its thirty chapters, never moves beyond the nine months of gestation.” p. 187
Bérulle and the French School: selected writings By Pierre de Bérulle, edited by William M. Thompson
Tis the Season of ‘The Gospel of Life’
The Annunciation. c.1655 by Nicolas Poussin
I was conceived in Nazareth. The Angel Gabriel appeared to my mother, the Holy Spirit came upon her and the Power of the Most High overshadowed her. (Luke 1:26-38)
Meditation
“The Incarnation is as much the world in which we live as the globe on which we tread, with its earth, air, fire and water, its sun, moon and stars, its animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms. If we look at our souls, their present wants and eternal expectations, their life, strength, health and maladies, the Incarnation is as indispensable to them, and as indispensable every hour of the day, as the heat and cold, the air and light, are to our natural subsistence..” We live and move in the Incarnation. We are what we are, through it. It covers us, underlies us, and is all around us. It is incessantly affecting us in almost numberless ways, both within and without. We cannot get beyond the reach of its blessed influence, even by disbelieving it or dishonoring it.” Father Faber (The Blessed Sacrament)
“When we cast the mysteries of His Life into great groups and masses, we make His Life threefold, Joyful, Suffering and Glorious. The most complete form is that which distinguishes eight lives in Him, His Unborn Life, Infant Life, Hidden Life, Public Life, Suffering Life, Risen Life, Ascended Life, and Sacramental Life. Into these moulds the Incarnation pours itself, and comes out in forms and shapes of the most surpassing beauty.” Father Faber (Bethlehem, p.242)
Tis the Season of ‘The Gospel of Life’
When you think about it – the Church has two special times of the year when it asks Christians to set a time aside for prayer and reflection (and fasting) -Advent and Lent-.
Why Advent?
Because…
As John Paul tells us in Dominum Et Vivificantem:
- ” Creation is thus completed by the Incarnation and since that moment is permeated by the powers of the Redemption, powers which fill humanity and all creation.” #52
- “The mystery of the Incarnation constitutes the climax of this (God’s) giving, this divine self-communication” #50
- “What was accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit “in the fullness of time” can only through the Spirit’s power now emerge from the memory of the Church. By his power it can be made present in the new phase of man’s history on earth: the year 2000 from the birth of Christ.” #51
- “But it must also be remembered that for us Christians this event (the Incarnation) indicates, as St. Paul says, the ‘fullness of time’, because in it human history has been wholly permeated by the ‘measurement’ of God himself: a transcendent presence of the ‘eternal now.’ ” #49
Advent is that time to get in touch with that ” divine self-communication”, to become aware of “human history that is permeated by the measurement of God himself” and the “powers of the Redemption, powers which fill humanity and all creation”. Right now in our world’s history we desperately need this power of the Incarnation to ” be made present in this new phase of man’s history on earth”.
We must realize that Advent and Christmas is a time where God is prepared to pour out anew many graces upon his children. Pro-lifers: in a special way this is our season. We who are pro-life should use this time when Christ came to our world first in a womb and then in a manger to renew ourselves to go out and build a ‘culture of life’.
Conception by Gabori Sandor
When Christ came into the world He was an unborn baby. If we could have seen Him in the womb, we would have seen Him in His littleness and vulnerability. Initially, He barely looked human. Around 18 days after His conception, His rudimentary heart began to physically pulsate with blood – this would be the currency He would use to purchase the salvation of humankind! Like a mint manufacturing the currency of a commonwealth, here we would see the production of a body and It’s blood for a future day in the Kingdom of God, a day when a supreme price would be paid (I Cor 7:23).
Pope Pius XII reminds us that the mystery of Christ’s love is deeper than the physical body we might have observed, explaining that from the first moment of His conception: “Immediately the Heart of Jesus, ever to be adored, has begun to pulsate with love, divine and human” (Haurietis Aquas). So His Love precedes His blood. The river that is God’s Love becomes the stream of blood coursing through this unborn baby’s primitive heart; and it beats a psalmody of salvific love for us. But no one hears it yet…or rather, only His mother hears it, feels it, indeed she surrounds it as a chamber holding a melody.
About thirty-three years later, as His final Passover drew near, Jesus sat in the temple one day – where the blood of lambs, goats and bulls had been offered for centuries – across from the treasury, and He watched as people placed money donations into it. Suddenly, He saw that poor widow who put in her two meager “copper coins” (Mk 12:41-44). His heart went out to her….”he called his disciples to him”… and His words went out to His disciples.
Finally Gethsemane. Now His blood begins to trickle down – He begins the messy business of paying for our salvation…paying for Mercy, paying for forgiveness, paying for our stubbornness, selfishness and stupidity, paying for the love we throw back in God’s face. From Gethsemane and all through that night and the following day His blood slowly trickles down…now from thorns, now from scourging, now from the abrasive cross laid upon Him. This is the currency of our salvation! Now on the cross. Suddenly we see it – His Sacred Body is the Treasury, the Mint which has been long producing the Mystical Currency of God’s Love for us. See in the open palm of each hand a crimson coin. Two coins. He has taken them out of the Treasury of His broken Body and holds them out for us; two small reddened coins. Worthless to the world, priceless to the soul.
Fra Angelico. Christ on the Cross Adored by St. Dominic.detail c.1442
Filed under: Pro-life
The Catholic Bishops have started a campaign to blanket parishes with information about the Health Care Bills going through Congress. They are asking Catholics to email and call Congress because it has become clear that abortion funding is a big part of these bills. The Catholic Bishops are joining their voices with others and are asking Catholics to tell their Senators and Congresspersons to remove Abortion Funding and Mandates from the Health Care Reform Bills.
Below are links from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website. If you know your parish Respect Life Coordinator please email this information to him or her. You can also click on the links for Bulletin Inserts and the Saving Lives Ad/Flyer and show these to your coordinator or to your Pastor.
Here is a link to email Congress:
Filed under: Pro-life
Most of my friends are pro-life and are adamantly against the passage of the pro-abortion Health Care Bill going through Congress. Surprisingly, when I ask this question: I”ve contacted Congress, have you?’ – most of them answer no. And they always add – I really should. At that point they ask me to send them information about how to get in touch with their Congressperson or Senator.
In case you have friends – who just don’t know how to go about contacting Congress. This is a newsletter to help you get that information out to them.
If you call this number you can ask for your representative by name. The Congressional switchboard operator will get you through to them. The phone number is (202) 224-3121.
If you don’t know who your Congressperson or Senators are click here . Put your zip code in the Get Involved box and the names of your representatives will be displayed – click on the name you want to contact and a box with information about your Representative will display – the tab in that box entitled contact will give you all of the information you need to write or phone your representative.
Our opinion is that a personal letter is best, but a personal phone call is also very effective and at this late date may be preferable and third it is also important to email Congress.
Americans United for Life have an online form that allows you to email your representatives with one easy quick form. Click on the icon below.
This will take you to Americans United for Life. They make it easy with one form letter that will be sent to both your Congressperson and Senators.
Why is this important?
1. The pro-abortion health care package will pass unless you call.
2. The Democrats and pro-abortion groups are getting their supporters to call.
3. It has been documented by various groups including the Catholic Bishops that the health care bill will pay for abortion. See what the Bishops say – click here.
Click here for a good link at Americans United for Life that gives information on the health care bills.
Americans United for Life have done a great job researching and documenting the health care bills coming out of Congress and showing how they will fund abortion. What is also troubling is that the Senate committee voted down a conscience clause that Orin Hatch proposed. I believe that if Congress passes the health care bill without a provision specifically outlawing abortion spending – it will be FOCA in disguise.
Filed under: Pro-life
The Visitation by Elizabeth Wang
Within the past couple of weeks I was fortunate to attend two spectacular Pro – Life fundraising dinners in the Los Angeles area ( Los Angeles Pregnancy Services and The Pregnancy Counseling Center) – both are outstanding Pro Life centers which are focused on obtaining ultrasound capabilities on site for the pregnant women who visit them. I tend to find such events a bit emotional – in a good way! – and there were numerous inspiring aspects to both evenings.
But what I would like to address here is the women who spoke who had been planning abortions for themselves (and their little unborns) but were gently persuaded to give birth instead. In every case, the woman would focus on another woman who was either a “sidewalk counselor” or a woman volunteer or staff person in the Pregnancy Counseling Center who reached out with love, offered a reason to choose life, began to uncover the beginnings of hopefulness, revealed themselves as a true friend of the woman-in-need and her unborn child.
Trust is a remarkable thing. We can see it on two levels; trust in God our loving heavenly Father, and trust in another person (or even an organization, but that is less personal). Briefly, trust in God is the foundation of all life:
“For thou, O Lord, art my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
Upon thee I have leaned from my birth;
thou art he who took me from my mother’s womb.” Psalm 71:5-6
St. Thomas Aquinas, like the Psalmist above, links the supernatural virtue of trust to the theological virtue of hope. One spiritual writer speaks of “trust’s twin wings”; humility and “an intimate and practical knowledge of God…of his goodness, of his watchful tenderness” (Rev. Paul de Jaegher, S.J.). Trusting God also shows confidence in His Providence and Will. Trusting God seems to engage the heart of the believer; it is not a merely passive thing.
Which leads us back to the woman planning an abortion for herself. When the pro – life woman reaches out in love she is an ‘Icon of Trustworthiness’ – but will the woman contemplating an abortion respond to her? This is where your prayers and mine come in!!!
The women who spoke at the two events I attended revealed that they were in a somewhat “broken” state, humbled…perhaps ready to trust in someone other than themselves. Enter the trustworthy pro-life woman reaching out with compassion and understanding. Trustworthy women save lives! Trustworthy pro-life women heal this world’s wounds, one pregnancy at a time!
Trust in God (and His weak ambassadors) is a key to the Culture of Life! Mary (and Christ within her) reaching out to help Elizabeth (pregnant with John) is God’s timeless Icon for the pro-life movement.
Michele Tosini (1503-77) St. Luke
October 18 is the feast day of St. Luke.
In chapters One and Two of the Gospel of St. Luke we have 127 verses of narrative concerning the infancy and childhood of Jesus Christ and mysteries surrounding His infancy (Lk 1:5 – 2:52). These verses are unique to Luke and outline the earliest vignettes known about the childhood of Jesus Christ. The verses restricted to the infancy period are slightly less: 114 verses (Lk 1:5 – Lk 2:39).
The extraordinary account of the Annunciation to Mary by the Archangel Gabriel, for example, is presented only in Luke and no where else. Likewise, the remarkable Visitation event (and Magnificat “song”) and Bethlehem birth saga are Lukan treasures only. Which might lead us to wonder how would Christianity be different if there was no Luke? Would we celebrate Christmas? (Matthew also provides 47 verses of invaluable introductory information as well concerning Mary, Joseph and Jesus, before and after the birth. Mt 1:18 – 2:23)
We are indebted to Luke in a thousand ways, but especially for the first two chapters of his Gospel which are in a way a “prologue”, comparable to the famous “Prologue” to the Gospel of John (Jn 1:1-18): “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God…” But while the Prologue of John is about Mysteries and realities concerning the Word Incarnate, this “prologue” of Luke’s is focused on biological and historical events which reveal the Child Incarnate. While John is mystical, Luke is highly personal yet supernatural. All of this is to say that, the Incarnation Mystery of faith is so wondrous, that we need both Luke and John to unfold for us its beauty and reality. We can listen to John’s Prologue and see it with the eyes of the heart, but Luke’s we visualize all in fabulous images.
But it is only Luke who reveals to us the babyhood of Jesus and the attendant mysteries thereto. Luke is one of the Church’s great “Pro – Life” saints! There is no way around it. He alone tells of the conception of Jesus Christ, paints for us the tender mother who opens up her heart and soul to God’s plan and Spirit, then recounts the mysterious encounter between pregnant mothers and unborn children and finally recounts in all its poverty and glory the birth of humankind’s Savior in a manger.
St. Luke we thank you for the little details you carefully recorded about our Savior’s first nine months in the womb and then in the manger. You, St. Luke, have brought more tears of joy to human eyes than any other author in human history. You have revealed to us the mother of the baby Jesus and have transported us in our thoughts to kneel beside the beasts and shepherds, beneath the angels’ meditative gaze. It was first your descriptive words which gave rise to those Christmas hymns we sing now that cause our hearts to bow down in adoration again.
St. Luke, when we see you in heaven, we will get in that very long reception line of pro-life Christians who want to shake your hand, the hand which wrote down the sacred events of our Savior’s babyhood, events which gave us hope for all our earthly days.
George A. Peate, Unborn Word Alliance
El Greco (1541-1614) St. Luke (detail)
Rachel Campos-Duffy is an author, blogger and television personality. Click here to see her website. The other day she was on The View – you know the morning show with Whoppi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd and Barbara Walters. She was a guest host for the day replacing Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
During a discussion about President Obama’s receiving the Nobel Peace Prize she said,
“When I think of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, I think of the quintessential winner, I think of Mother Theresa. And Mother Theresa said we wouldn’t have peace until we ended abortion. I think personally for me, that its Obama’s radical abortion position that makes him the least qualified…”
Great witness to the world, Rachal Campos-Duffy. We need more woman like you who are not afraid to speak the truth.
In a previous post on St. Elizabeth Ann Seton we mentioned that both she and St. Louise de Marillac had a devotion to Christ in the womb. (St. Elizabeth Seton formed her sisters in the Vincentian spirit according to the tradition of Louise de Marillac 1591-1660 and Vincent de Paul 1581-1660.) In that post, we highlighted some quotes from St. Elizabeth speaking of her devotion to Christ in the womb. In today’s post we would like to highlight St. Louise’s devotion.
In the book, Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac – Rules, Conferences and Writings, Vie Thorgren writes of St. Louise: ” They remind us of the importance of the hidden years of Jesus’ life-hidden within the womb and hidden in a village noted only for its insignificance. As early as 1626, Louise began a daily practice of meditation on Jesus within the womb receiving his flesh and blood, which became the means of our redemption. Recognizing the fruitfulness of this meditation, she offered it as an enduring legacy to the Daughters of Charity.”
In her Rule of Life in the world, St. Louise enumerates several devotional practices in honor of the Virgin Mary – one of these practices concerns Christ in the womb.
A quarter of an hour of prayer exactly at midday to honor the moment when the Incarnation of the Word took place in the womb of the Blessed Virgin.
In her own words, we learn from St. Louise herself, of a personal devotional practice she had honoring the unborn Christ Child. St. Louise drew up a little rosary. She wrote to St. Vincent: “This little chaplet is the devotion for which I asked permission of your Charity three years ago as a personal devotion. I have in a small box a quantity of these little chaplets, along with some thoughts on this devotion written on a piece of paper, which with your permission, I wish to leave to all our sisters after my death. Not one of them knows it. It honors the hidden life of Our Lord in his state of imprisonment in the womb of the Blessed Virgin and congratulates her on her happiness during those nine months. The three small beads hail her under her beautiful titles of Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, and Spouse of the Holy Spirit. That is the main thought behind the devotion. By the grace of God, unworthy as I am, I have continued this devotion since the time I mentioned, but I hope to discontinue it, aided by God’s same grace, if your Charity so orders. By means of this little exercise I intend to ask God, through the Incarnation of his Son and the prayers of the Blessed Virgin, for the purity necessary for the Company of the Sisters of Charity and for the steadfastness of this Company in keeping with his good pleasure.” Louise de Marillac, Spiritual Writings, L.303B
It seems that St. Vincent had agreed to this devotional practice three years earlier but at this point he asked her to discontinue it. Even though St. Louise continued to believe that this was a devotion that Our Lady wanted her to practice – in holy obedience to St. Vincent she discontinued it.
She alludes to this in a letter: “I feel that I must tell your Charity that I was and still am sorry at having to abandon those little prayers because I believe that the Blessed Virgin wanted me to render her this small tribute of gratitude. But with her, I console myself by offering my renunciation to her and by resolving to please her in some other way and to serve her with greater fervor….” Louise de Marillac, Spiritual Writings, L.304
“They are a sharing in the mystery of the Cross, in which Jesus reveals the value of every person, and how life attains its fullness in the sincere gift of self. Over and above such outstanding moments, there is an everyday heroism, made up of gestures of sharing, big or small, which build up an authentic culture of life….
Part of this daily heroism is also the silent but effective and eloquent witness of all those ‘brave mothers who devote themselves to their own family without reserve, who suffer in giving birth to their children and who are ready to make any effort, to face any sacrifice, in order to pass on to them the best of themselves’.
In living out their mission “these heroic women do not always find support in the world around them. On the contrary, the cultural models frequently promoted and broadcast by the media do not encourage motherhood. In the name of progress and modernity the values of fidelity, chastity, sacrifice, to which a host of Christian wives and mothers have borne and continue to bear outstanding witness, are presented as obsolete …
We thank you, heroic mothers, for your invincible love!
We thank you for your intrepid trust in God and in his love.
We thank you for the sacrifice of your life …”
From: The Gospel of Life, Section 86
The Trutzhain Madonna. As a ‘Mater gravida’ she is the ‘pregnant Madonna’ with the infant Jesus under her heart.
“Our ailing sight, since the fall, was not able to look upon God to read in Him our duty; the Son of God, in making Himself a little child, has given us a salve wherewith to anoint our eyes and so enable them to see the divine majesty in the humility of our flesh, in order that we might conform our life to His.”
From: Christian Spirituality by Pere P. Pourrat, p. 232. Published in 1922, Burns, Oates and Washbourne, ltd. (London)
Click here to see a beautiful video called The Secret, portraying life in the womb
“Like all unborn babies in the womb, Jesus was physically active in a secret way, but unlike other unborn babies, He was spiritually active: His redemptive activity had already begun. The tiny, young Unborn Jesus had accepted the normal limitations found by infants in the womb and made those same constraints His own. He, however, did not stop loving with a divine love because He was Incarnate ‑ to have done so would have contradicted His divine nature, and defied the very purpose of the Incarnation. St. Peter Julian Eymard wrote that: ‘This love inflamed His Heart from the first moment of His conception until His last breath and, since His resurrection, has not ceased nor will ever cease doing so.’ “
‘Maria Gravida’-Institute of St. Philip Neri in Berlin ( It is a reproduction of the original in Malta) Click here to see the original.
In his book entitled The Soul of Elizabeth Seton, Joseph I. Dirvin (Ignatius Press) writes that St. Elizabeth Ann Seton had a devotion to the motherhood of Mary and the hidden life of Jesus in his mother’s womb. Here are quotes from his book detailing her devotion:
“The saint shared her delighted contemplation of the love of Jesus and Mary as he lay hidden in her chaste womb with St. Louise de Marillac, foundress with St. Vincent de Paul of the Daughters of Charity, whose Rule and spirit Elizabeth had chosen for her own community and who like Elizabeth was a widow and mother. It was an established devotion of both, nurtured by their motherhood, as Elizabeth bore witness in a note to Brute perhaps at Christmastime: “Blessed, it would please your so kind heart to know that this week past or more, our Soul’s dear Baby has been much more present to me than the beloved babies of former days, when I carried and suckled them. He, the Jesus Babe, so unspeakably near and close, hugged by His poor, silently delighted wild one!” ” (pg. 84)
“The maternity that united the Virgin Mary with Elizabeth Seton is especially strong in an exquisite meditation for the feast of the Assumption. “Jesus nine months in Mary, feeding on her blood- Oh Mary! These nine months”. Elizabeth wrote in remembrance of a like joy she herself had known in carrying her children. Now she was savoring it again in transcendent communion with the divine motherhood.” (pg. 83)
“Elizabeth also pursued her mother’s intuitions of Mary with her Sisters. As an outline of a conference attests. “We honor her continually with Our Jesus.” she told them. “His nine months within her” – the thought inspired a fresh spate of spiritual insights – “what passed between them-she alone knowing Him. – there was indeed a time when Mary alone of all mankind knew that the Messiah had come – He her only tabernacle…Mary full of grace, Mother of Jesus! Oh we love and honor Our Jesus, when we love and honor her.” “ (pg. 84)
“…she did not hesitate to close one letter (to her daughter) with these exalted words: “My Rebecca, we will at last unite in His eternal praise, lost in Him, you and I, closer still than in the nine months so dear when, as I told you, I carried you in my bosom as He in Our Virgin Mother’s – than no more separation.” ” (pg. 120)
I have always admired those on the front line. Compassionate heroes who counsel women at pregnancy crisis centers and courageous pro-lifers who week after week pray in front of abortion facilities. God has a special place in His Heart for all of these dedicated pro-lifers.
If you haven’t seen this video (click here) – you might find it interesting. It shows the great evil happening at the abortion facility in Rockford Illinois. But it also shows the grace of God (through the dedication of committed pro-lifers) that is being poured into this sad situation. Here is a blog detailing the efforts made to save lives at this abortion facility during the last 40 days for life.
Another wonderful witness for the unborn that just concluded is in an annual walk for life across the country called Crossroads. Every summer a group of young people walk across the U.S. giving witness to the humanity of the unborn. Along the way: “Each walker averaged over 1,000 miles and spoke to parishes and youth groups. They also engaged in “peaceful, prayerful” protests and sidewalk counseling at abortion (facilities).” Click here to find out more about this wonderful effort.
When we are discouraged we should remember what Saint Paul said in Romans 5:20, “…where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more”. In many cities and towns across our country there are good people who have started pregnancy crisis centers. At most if not all of the abortion facilities across our country – pro-lifers come out to pray.
Grace pours forth as each of us lives with love and dedication for the unborn – with prayer for them always in our hearts and often on our lips.
UNBORN WORD of the day 