Posted on 09/01/2012 7:05:48 AM PDT by Mad Dawg
Here's what I said tonight:
Akeldama -- Meditation at the Beginning of the 40 Days for Life, 2012
· We are at the beginning of the end of what our Jewish older brothers and sisters call the Days of Awe - Yamim Nora'im. When the sun sets, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, begins.In the days of the Temple a holocaust would be offered, and blood would be poured out to make the temple and the people clean, fit for the company of the God of their Hope.
The shedding of blood: From Cain and Abel long ago to the streets of our cities this very evening, our history bears witness to our deep-rooted impulse to get what we want, what we think we need, by shedding blood. From domestic violence through street fights to wars we have tried again and again to slake our thirst with the blood of others.
It's not working. It has never worked.
The building before which we stand is a bricks and mortar testimony to the failure of shedding blood in pursuit of our desires. And yet it continues! Yet it continues.
How many millions of babies in this country alone? Fifty million? More? Somewhere between two and four per minute since Roe v. Wade?
And does ANYBODY have what he or she wants yet? Clearly not. The bloodshed continues. Yet we do not have what we want, what we think we need.
...
We are in the Days of Awe and on the brink of a day of profound repentance. And it is harvest time. "And I tell you: Lift up your eyes and see how the fields are already white for the harvest!"
Do not mistake! There are those who claim to agree with us, and will then commit murder that murder may cease! They blindly and disastrously seek to do good.
Likewise, in this building lonely, abused, and abandoned mothers blindly and desperately seek the only good they can see. In this building at least some of the staff, by a dreadful error, think they are doing the right thing. On both sides there is a nightmare of error and blindness -- perhaps self-inflicted blindness, but blindness nonetheless.
For we know -- who cannot know? -- that when the killing of a baby is held to be an answer to ANYTHING, something has gone dreadfully wrong, and vision has been lost. (Where there is no vision, the people perish.)
Do not let the scarlet blood blind you to the whiteness of the fields God makes ready for harvest! THESE are the people God sends us to serve. We prayed the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest. We prayed, and He looked at us and said, "Why not YOU? Why don't YOU go into my fields?"
So, we find that the field of blood is the field of the harvest. "For the Blood is the Life." Sprinkled in "the blood which speaks more eloquently than the blood of Abel", in the blood without the shedding of which "there is no remission", "washed in the blood of the Lamb," we find ourselves to be the laborers sent to harvest the lost and sorrowing, to end the killing, to gather home both victim and killer into the loving arms of the Lord of the harvest.
I will tell you a mystery: The Blood which flows from our Lord's wounds is like the water flowing from the east side of the temple. It starts as a trickle but becomes a mighty river bringing life and sweetness to all around.
You are washed in that blood.
You have bathed in that river.
YOU are called to walk into this scarlet field of blood.Through your love and your prayers God will make it glisten with life and glow with light. We may not see it in our time, but we will see it in HIS time.
The harvest is life, the sickle and the laborers are love. Then give yourself to Love, and put in the sickle, and reap the harvest of Life.
Here's the link for the FR 40 Days thread:
Welcome to 40 Days for Life: September 26 - November 4, 2012
Just wow.
And so Mad Dawg-esque!
Thanks so much for this.
From the G. A.:
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us —And from the 2ndIA:
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”Then I meditated for a week on the Days of Awe and on the field of blood/the field white for the harvest.
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in,...
And then I was so nervous I only could only eat an avocado until after the speech.
Thank you for this, jg!
One of the people present last night, an inquirer into Lay Dominicans, told me about this.
So we’re like the people who donate to a fund-raiser before the main campaign begins. We’ve gotten the ball rolling, and, again like the stream from the temple, it starts as a trickle and grows to a flood of life!
As we gathered in front of the abortuary last night, clouds came up and menaced -- thick clouds like folds of grey caramel.
I was so nervous that I just held one end of our huge sign with one hand and prayed a decade or two (agony, scourging) with my bedes in the other hand.
Rain began to fall and the sky threatened.
A Protestant minister offered a WONDERFUL prayer! People sang some songs. I spoke. One of our friars offered a prayer based around Isaiah 55. (Talk about building on a rock!)
And then we hung out. Only one car was nasty. Lots of supportive toodles of the horn and waves and thumbs up -- LOTS. I truly believe the tide is turning.
And then as we broke up, first one and then TWO rainbows, one coming to earth in a pillar of fire!
I said the the friar, "If this were a comic book, a caption balloon would come out of the rainbow saying, 'Take THAT, Satan!'"
Thank you for this Mad Dawg. Today begins the 40 days of power. :-)
Oh...and my rosary is done for today. Perseverance was, indeed, a good reflection for the 5th mystery.
EXCELLENT......just wonderful!
Totally Awesome!!!!
Amen it is so very true. I felt myself being led strongly by the Holy Spirit to start my prayer thread back in August. This has also led to me starting a fellowship where we pray together every week via teleconference for 1 hour. It is like preparing the battlefield for the main action.
DarthVader, SumProVita, Running On Empty:
I am a faithless fool who fears his own foolishness. Your kind words are VERY helpful to me. Thank you.
What great prayerful thoughts! Amen!
Wow! You are great witnesses! Amen!!
I love your thread! Do not be discouraged! The Holy Spirit planted it. Amen.
Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.
- St. Augustine
The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it.
St. Vincent DePaul
Thank you for this thread. May God help us in this country and world .
Let us pray. Then the burden of pride, the glorious cloak lined with lead, will be lifted from our shoulders,and in prayer we will climb more nimbly to the Light.
We must speak and act wisely and in charity. But if we learn nothing else from the Three Holy Days, at least let us learn that while the seeds are sown in tears, the sheaves are gathered home in glory and joy.
You are so right about this...and the way you word it is really poetic and strong. Thank you.
Rosary done for today. I broke my fast yesterday....but am back with it today.
A word from our fellowship prayer time last night:
Proverbs 29:16
16 When the wicked are in authority, transgression increases,but the righteous will look upon their downfall.
Read all of Proverbs 29 it is very compelling.
Thanks.
FR needs a like button.
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