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There’s a theme that ties together today’s update -- God hears your prayer ... and He answers.

Here’s what I mean….

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EUGENE, OREGON
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“I want to spread some very awesome news!!!”

That’s the email I received from Lynda in Eugene – complete with all three exclamation marks. The Bours Health Center – the abortion facility where faithful volunteers have prayed during EIGHT 40 Days for Life campaigns – has shut its doors.

Vigil participants watched as signs, drapes and banners came down. Later that day, “we rejoiced, praising the Lord and hugging and high-fiving during our 40 Days for Life meeting,” Lynda said.

The center’s web site announces its closing – and refers any potential clients to a Planned Parenthood facility in town. So, the Eugene team is planning to move its prayer vigil – to Planned Parenthood!

“God bless!” Lynda said. “And share the good news!!!”

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PLANNED PARENTHOOD CLOSURES
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One year ago this Friday, our national director David Bereit and I boarded a plane for Iowa – where it was quite frigid.

We were on our way to Storm Lake, Iowa – where a former Planned Parenthood manager, who was forced out of her job after 17 years, had prayed long and hard before deciding to do the unthinkable ...

… she led a 40 Days for Life campaign outside her former workplace!

As a result of this prayerful campaign and her leadership, Planned Parenthood was forced to close that location on March 1, 2012. The closure was an embarrassment for Planned Parenthood, which tried its best to downplay the impact of this courageous former worker.

Their plan was to just send their clients to their center down the road in Spencer, Iowa.

Not quite a full year after closing the Storm Lake facility, Planned Parenthood just announced they are now closing that location in Spencer!

In fact, Planned Parenthood has just announced its intention to close six of its facilities – Spencer plus another location in Iowa, as well as four others in Wisconsin.

These are not locations where 40 Days for Life vigils have taken place, but it’s certainly good news. It’s a huge blessing … and proof – to me and many faithful volunteers – that prayer is effective.

There have been numerous 40 Days for Life campaigns in both of these states, and these closures show momentum is continuing to build – momentum directly related to this movement of prayer and fasting for an end to abortion.

The former worker in Storm Lake is Sue Thayer. She is now a leading voice against the controversial new procedure known as webcam abortions, where an abortionist in one location “examines” a client over the internet before pressing a button that dispenses the abortion pill for the woman in a distant facility.

Sue’s courage and this controversial new abortion technique both challenge us to do more.

Her journey shows what God has done and acts as an invitation to us. Sue’s invitation to trust God is featured in Chapter 37 of the 40 Days for Life book.

http://40daysforlife.com/book

Randolph Sly, National Pro-life Religious Council

Intention:

May the mystery of the Incarnation increase

our zeal for defending life.

Scripture:

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor

with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a

Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son

of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.

And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there

will be no end.”

— Luke 1:30-33

Reflection:

“God has assumed Humanity, joining it with Divinity, and kindled in men’s

hearts new love of me.” These words were written by a Roman poet in the

Fourth Century. He spent his life finding ways to express the greatest mystery

of the world: the incarnation, in which God became man.

The womb has been referred to as the “first home of the whole human race.”

It is the place where life begins, where our stories start. In the womb the great

men and women of history began their magnificent march through life. In the

womb Divinity met humanity, and God the Son was born into the world.

As one of the Fathers of the early church, St. Leo the Great, declared,

“Within her spotless womb Wisdom built itself a house and the Word became

flesh.”

Recently, I was at the hospital for the birth of my fourth grandchild. Looking

through the nursery window at the rows of newly born babies, I began to

think of the great stories that would be written about these tiny lives.

During his visitation with the Virgin Mary, the angel prophesied to Mary

about the life of her child. Here in this hospital, I pondered, what would he

say about each of these? Would they meet the one who also came from His

mother’s womb to redeem the world and kindle our hearts afresh for God? I

thanked God for each baby alive and prayed for each story yet to be written.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, you have made the womb of each woman a very special place. Help us to hold fast to the sanctity of this first home of humanity, remembering the wonderful mystery, that God inhabited the womb of a young woman and came forth as the savior and deliverer of the world. We ask this in the Name of the one who came forth, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.