[Salvation]

Today's email -- Very different accounts!

Here's the latest video, a touching three-minute
report from the frontlines in Toledo, OH:

http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=464 

As we enter the final days of this 40 Days for Life
campaign, please keep in mind that God does not
always grant the blessing of seeing immediate results
from our efforts.

Such is the case in one 40 Days for Life community
where the campaign has been conducted several times.
Participants knew that because of their peaceful,
prayerful witness outside the abortion clinic, lives
had been saved from abortion. But what was really
going on inside that building?

One person found out in a most surprising way. This
person was not scheduled to pray at this particular
day and time, but stopped by the vigil following a
meeting. The clinic manager stepped outside to clean
windows, so the vigil participant saw an opportunity.
"I spoke kindly and introduced myself."

About half an hour later, the manager came out and
asked to talk -- "and invited me into the clinic!"

To say the least, what followed was an interesting
conversation.

The manager wanted to explain and justify what goes
on at the clinic, but it seemed like this clinic
staffer was offering excuses for being involved in
the abortion business. Furthermore, the manager
professed to be a Christian who was certain "in my
heart" that this was God's calling, and that what
goes on in the clinic is not wrong.

"I asked if the manager's heart had ever been wrong,"
said the vigil participant, "and did my best to
lovingly communicate my disagreement and the reasons
I am passionate about defending both the unborn and
their mothers. I said that Jesus cared for children,
and that it does not matter what anyone thinks about
when a fetus is a person or whether abortion is
wrong. What matters is what God thinks; what Jesus
thinks."

If not for 40 Days for Life, this vigil participant
would have been somewhere else, would not have spoken
to the clinic manager -- and would certainly not have
been invited inside for this discussion that planted
many seeds.

Is the clinic manager reconsidering the abortion
business? We pray! Or as the vigil participant said,
"Please pray that God would use my small efforts and
words to accomplish big things!"

And sometimes it does take time.

Again with today's reports, I'm not mentioning
locations because these are "works in progress," and
I don't want publicity to unsettle any hearts that
may be in the process of changing -- or give the
abortion industry a reason to threaten or pressure
workers who are considering quitting. Just pray!

At another 40 Days for Life vigil, the prayer team
has been praying specifically for a security guard --
ever since the first coordinated 40 Days for Life
campaign in 2007.

Last week, the security guard and a clinic escort
approached the local coordinator with a request -- to
pray that another pro-lifer, who was not associated
with 40 Days for Life, would leave. This particular
individual was described as "harsh."

"Well, you pray for everything else," said the
security guard, "so I thought maybe..."

The coordinator said praying for the person to leave
was out of the question, "but I could ask him to
reconsider the tone of his message, and we could pray
that he would say what God gave him to say. They were
actually happy with that response, and thanked me."

While the local coordinator took all this with a
grain of salt, they have been praying for this
security guard for more than two years now. "It comes
as a sign to me," the coordinator said, "and I am
overjoyed! A beginning is a beginning. Blessed be
God!"

[Salvation]

 

Day 36 - October 28

 

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