[Salvation]

Email for Day 35 — I got behind, didn’t I?

I know there are many of you who would like to join
the prayers in front of the abortion center, but for
very good reasons you are unable to do so.

All of you praying are a very important part of this
campaign ... and I know your prayers are being heard.

“Thank you so very much, Shawn, for providing daily
coverage of the glorious happenings each day,” wrote
Katie. “I am 85 years old and handicapped, so I can
not go to Planned Parenthood clinics in my area; but
I do relay your message.”

Katie said she makes copies of the daily e-mails and
brings them to people at her church. “I know that
some of those wonderful people have been moved to go
to the Planned Parenthood clinic to pray and help
save babies.”

Mary Ann wrote to say that she doesn’t drive, but she
did have a friend take her to pray in front of a
Planned Parenthood facility. “The ten or twelve
people that we had was a grace from God,” she said.

“I go to church daily and you all are in my prayers,”
she added. “Please pray for my church so that we get
more pro-lifers so we can be more active — young
ones that can do what us oldies can’t!”

There are others who are great distances from the
nearest vigil — like Marcia in Kenya and Gabriela
in Argentina.

“I’m a missionary in Kenya,” wrote Marcia, “and from
here, the only thing that I can do is to pray. I would
love to be there to pray in front of those abortion
clinics, but I know that it doesn’t matter where we
are; the Lord hears our prayer.”

Marcia said she needs to remind herself that the
battle belongs to the Lord. “I feel that if I pray
more or fast, the Lord will shut down all those
abortion clinics. But His ways are higher than mine;
I always need to have that in my mind. And remember
that we are called to be faithful servants.”

“I really wish I could be physically present at one
of the 238 locations where all of you are praying for
an end to abortion,” Gabriela said. “However, I also
know that prayer is powerful regardless the
geographical place it comes from. God receives the
prayers from every single heart and distributes His
grace as He pleases.”

Margie prays at the 40 Days for Life vigil in her
community; but she also stays in touch with a friend
who is in a nursing home. On a recent visit, Margie
said one of the volunteers reminded her friend that
she is not far from a late term abortion clinic and
can offer prayers from right where she is.

The woman in the nursing home is someone who is used
to being on the front lines, “so this is a different
role in the abortion battle than what she is used to
taking,” Margie said.

“For those of you who can still get out there and
take a shift,” she said, “do it for pro-lifers who no
longer are able to get out to the clinics to pray.
Do it! Receive the courage and the grace to stand for
life today!”

[Salvation]

Day 36 - October 27

 

Intention:

We are the defenders of true freedom. May our witness unveil the deception of the "pro-choice" slogan.

Scripture:

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

--2 Corinthians 3:17

Reflection:

Norma McCorvey (the former Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade) used to work at an abortion mill named "A Choice for Women." She now realizes what a cruel irony that title was. She saw first hand, just as pregnancy resource center counselors see, that women don't get abortions because of freedom of choice, but rather because they feel they have no freedom and no choice. They feel trapped, abandoned, desperate and afraid, and have been led to believe that abortion is their only option.

As Frederica Mathewes-Green has written, no want wants an abortion like she wants a Porsche or an ice cream; rather, she wants it like an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg.

"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." That doesn't mean that the Spirit allows us to do whatever we want or to decide for ourselves what's right and wrong.

Rather, it means that the Spirit gives us the freedom to do what is right, the power to choose what is good, when we see it before us and yet feel pulled in the opposite direction. Liberty means that we no longer have to feel doomed to do what we know is wrong.

We are the people of the Spirit of the Lord, and when we take action on behalf of life, especially by being present at abortion mills, we are acting on behalf of true freedom, and imparting to those who are in bondage the power to do what is right.

Prayer:

Come, Holy Spirit. You are the Spirit of freedom, the source of all that is good, the power to do what is right. Fill us, and fill those who are in bondage today, feeling doomed to do what is wrong. Set them free, and help us to hasten them on the road to freedom, where your grace overcomes every temptation. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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