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Today’s email:

I’m going to keep the location a secret right now, but
please pray for an abortion center staff member that I
heard about recently.

This employee walked out the abortion facility and handed
vigil participants a slip of paper. “I thought you might
want this,” the worker said. It was the name and phone
number of a prayer volunteer.

The employee explained that this volunteer had called
the abortion center to apologize because she wouldn’t
be able to make her prayer hour in a couple of weeks.

The worker tried to explain to the volunteer that it
wasn’t the abortion facility that was organizing the
prayer vigil. But the volunteer seemed confused and
didn’t really understand what was going on.

The employee could have just hung up ... and certainly
didn’t have to deliver the message. “What a nice
gesture,” said the local 40 Days for Life coordinator.
“This shows the abortion center workers are not our
enemies.”

Keep praying for them!

Here’s a quick update with some pictures you WON’T want
to miss!

FORT WAYNE, INDIANA

More than 500 people showed up for a youth procession
to the 40 Days for Life vigil site in Fort Wayne.
Students from three different schools took part. “We
are blessed to have growing numbers of participants,”
said one of the local coordinators

While prayer volunteers noted that three lives were
lost to abortion on this particular day, that total is
considerably lower than the numbers witnessed during
the first 40 Days for Life vigil in Fort Wayne three
years ago.

To see photos of the youth procession in Fort Wayne,
please go to:

http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=1216

FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS

40 Days for Life vigil participants in Fayetteville
have been joined by a couple of protesters. Juliet,
one of the local coordinators, said one woman “held
her sign, which says ‘pray for safe, legal abortion,’
over one of our prayer volunteers, who was sitting on
the ground with her eyes closed in prayer.”

Juliet also noted that Planned Parenthood staff members
keep bringing food out to the protesters. “While they
feast,” she said, “we fast.”

To see photos of the Fayetteville vigil — and their
protester — go to:

http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=1216

LAKE JACKSON, TEXAS

Speaking of fasting, the 40 Days for Life team in Lake
Jackson posted a reminder about fasting on their
campaign blog.

“Fasting is most definitely scriptural,” said the report,
“and, in fact, Jesus makes it pretty clear that He
doesn’t only suggest that we fast, He EXPECTS us to fast.”

Fasting can also be something the Christian community
does as a group. “Fasting together for the same cause
encourages each individual to remain steadfast in their
own personal sacrifice.”

To see a picture of the Lake Jackson vigil, go to:

http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=1216

BEAUMONT, TEXAS

Incredible stories keep coming out of the first-ever
40 Days for Life campaign in Beaumont — including
another report about prayer and fasting.

An entire youth group from a local church has been
fasting on bread and water since the campaign started.
Eleven of them prayed at the vigil together one day
after school. In addition, several youth group members
persuaded a 16-year-old friend to reject the idea of
having an abortion.

“The witness of such energetic young Christians is
powerful to say the least,” said Eileen in Beaumont.
“May God give all of them the courage to keep doing
His work!”

Day 17 - October 8

Intention:

May all understand more deeply that the pro-life message is rooted in the two basic truths of life:

There is a God;
He isn't me

Scripture:

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

-- Genesis 2:7

Reflection:

From the beginning of the Bible until the end, the theme is echoed that God alone has dominion over human life. He made it; shared it; died to save it; will raise it up forever. The act of creation described in Genesis 2:7, and earlier in Genesis 1:26-27, is a sovereign act. God did not have to do it, and would have been happy forever without us. Yet without our asking for it or earning it, God brought us out of nothingness and into life, and sustains our existence at every moment. And He does so in Christ. "For by Him all things were created…in Him all things exist" (Colossians 1:16-17).

"You are not your own," Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 6. God alone owns us. While He entrusts us to the care of one another, He does not allow any human being to own another. A Southern California abortionist, James McMahon, once explained how he justified killing children after 20 weeks gestation by partial-birth abortion. He did not deny that this was a child, but rather asked, "Who owns the child? It's got to be the mother." The struggle over abortion is really a struggle over the dominion of God. The Christian individual, and the Christian Church, cannot sit idly by when others declare that God is not God.

Prayer:

Lord, we are yours. Thank you for breathing into us the breath of life. Thank you for claiming us as your own. May our words and actions in defense of human life proclaim to all the world that you alone are Lord of life and death, Lord of our freedom and of our choices. We pray in Jesus' Name. Amen.

Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life