Replies

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

On this day, I’d like to offer a special hello to the
40 Days for Life team in Dublin. Today, I’m going to
visit the 40 Days for Life campaign in Silver Spring,
Maryland.

St. Patrick is known for bringing Christ to a pagan
culture. In the midst of the festivities today, we
remember his faith and courage as a missionary of
the gospel.

It is faith and courage that similarly inspire us to
bring the hope and love of God to our culture at
abortion centers during 40 Days for Life.

Yes, we’re all Irish today. But let’s take a look at
the faith in Spain.

Frank in Madrid sent me some stories and pictures that
show the problem is the same all over the world. But
so is the solution.

40 DAYS FOR LIFE IN SPAIN

For Pilar, a psychologist in Madrid, praying for 40
days outside an abortion center reinforces her faith.
“The surroundings impress me, the contrasting realities
present in a very limited space: the Eucharistic temple
of St. Martin of Tours and the clinic in front of it ...
the coming and going of passers-by and the prayer group
like an island before that center where life is cut off.”

Frank, a New Yorker living in Madrid, says that each
campaign “shakes me out of my lethargy with the hope
of doing something important for God and the salvation
of souls.”

Sometimes people that see them praying on the street,
in front of the abortion facilities, say a word of
congratulations. Other times, they insult them or spit
on them or laugh at them. In the newspapers, they are
accused of “intimidating” the abortionists.

“The owner of the Callao abortion center in Madrid
called the police because eight of us were on the
other side of the street praying in low tone for the
end of abortion,” explains Candela, who works as a
television producer.

María Angeles, a professor at the University of
Seville, believes that “whoever has not seen the
empty eyes of a woman who has just aborted, whoever
has not understood the nervousness created at an
abortion center by the presence of some women ...
cannot understand the reality of abortion and how the
only hope springs from prayer.”

Francisco, who is retired, put it simply: “The remedy
is God. We must ask for it. Publicly.”

Nacho, a 33-year-old historian, prays in front of the
Triana abortion facility in Seville. “To pray humbly
and simply on the street is no merit of mine but of
the Lord, and if by this testimony on the street some
people are moved to stop for a second and think and to
give a second chance to the lives of the weakest, why
not do it?”

“Above all,” Fernando said, “we are convinced that by
praying, we are going to end abortion in Spain and in
the whole world.”

To see photos from 40 Days for Life in Spain, please
go to:

http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=2967

Day 26 - March 18

Intention:

Pray that we fully recognize in the unborn child our brother, our sister, and we recommit ourselves to care for them.

Scripture:

Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?" The Lord said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground."

-- Genesis 4:8-10

Reflection:

After Cain committed the first murder in human history, God asked him, "Where is your brother?" He replied by saying, "I don't know."

In 1973, the Supreme Court was asked the same question, and gave the same answer. Unable to admit that the unborn children are our brothers and sisters, the Supreme Court said in its Roe v. Wade ruling, "We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins." Boil all that down to three words, and it's, "I don't know."

The question, "Where is your brother?" will be asked at the final judgment. Each person will answer it and be judged by it. May we be judged to have recognized and loved all our brothers and sisters, born and unborn.

By participating in the 40 Days for Life, we have been answering that question each day, going to where our brothers and sisters are killed, and proclaiming that we have a responsibility to them. By all the pro-life work we will continue to do, we likewise answer that question which reaches from one end of human history to the other.

Prayer:

Father, today we hear your voice, and we respond to the question you ask each of us: "Where is your brother?" We recognize in the unborn child our brother, our sister, and we recommit ourselves today to care for them. Yes, Father, you have entrusted us to the care of one another. We rejoice that you have given us the grace to respond. As we work to renew our culture, we look forward to the great day of the coming of your Son, when every eye will see him, even of those who pierced him, and every knee shall bend, and every tongue confess, to the glory of God the Father, that Jesus Christ is Lord! Amen.

Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life and President, National Pro-life Religious Council