locations around the country about Planned Parenthood
offices and other abortion facilities closing early,
opening late, or not doing abortions on scheduled
abortion days during the 40-day vigils.
Praise the Lord!
Then we got this news from a 40 Days for Life volunteer
in Grand Rapids, Michigan:
"I am a member of the 40 Days for Life campaign in
Grand Rapids, Michigan. Our parish Eucharistic chapel
is one of the prayer sites receiving increasingly
more pro-lifers here for prayer during these 40 days,
many wearing the 40 Days t-shirts.
"I originally signed up to pray in front of our Fulton
clinic from 7-8 AM all the Mondays involved. Shortly
before the campaign started, I was asked to see if I
could involve my parish as there was a great need for
more people.
"I visited my chapel to pray and wondered how I could
possibly rally anyone in such a short window of time
(4 days). As I prayed, I saw another prayerful pro-
life friend. Outside the chapel, she suggested to
call our pastor, have a weekend sign-up after all the
Masses and see how many we could get for the Monday
that was only 5 days away.
"We connected with our parish Respect Life Chair. Our
pastor gave us permission, encouraged the people
to participate , and we had 39 people sign up
covering 7 AM - 8 PM every Monday.
"On the first Monday, October 1, the Feast of St.
Therese, the Little Flower, who became a Doctor of
the Church by following her little way of love, some
wonderful 'little' occurrences happened.
"At the 6pm hour our little flock of parishioners were
stopped by a Flint reporter who was passing through
the city. He took their picture in front of the
clinic and said he would e-mail his article from his
small Flint paper.
"At the close of the day a beautiful rainbow was seen
in the sky. The next day, the Grand Rapids Press
headline read: '$700,000 cut hits hard at Planned
Parenthood'. The article reported that 'Reproductive
health centers in White Cloud, Hart were closed
Monday, with plans to close centers in Grand Rapids,
Muskegon and Mount Pleasant by the end of the year.'
"CLOSING IN GRAND RAPIDS WILL BE THE KINDEL CENTER, AT
233 E. FULTON."
"Some parishioners who had been a little reluctant to
participate in this form of pro-life witness are now
eager to return to their prayer walk for life. In our
prayers we are also enlisting the prayers of the
little ones who have already preceded us to the arms
of the Heavenly Father. God bless you! -Mary Lou"
God really does answer prayer! Together, let's increase
our prayer and action, and expect many more miracles
like this in the next 26 days of 40 Days for Life!
Here's today's devotional from Fr. Frank Pavone,
National Director of Priests for Life...
*******************************************************
40 DAYS FOR LIFE: DAY 14, OCTOBER 9
Daily Devotional by: Fr. Frank Pavone
*******************************************************
INTENTION:
Pray that in everything, we do to others what we would
have them do to us.
SCRIPTURE:
"So in everything, do to others what you would have
them do to you." -- Matthew 7:12
REFLECTION:
This teaching of Jesus, called the Golden Rule, makes
it pretty easy to evaluate how we should treat others,
particularly others in need. Jesus tells us it applies
"in everything." That includes in pro-life strategy.
"Do to others what you would have them do to you." It
applies when the "others" are unborn children, living
and growing in their mothers' wombs, and scheduled to
be aborted. We are to do to them what we would want
others to do to us if we were in the same situation.
I once asked a pro-abortion person if he would prefer
to have been aborted. His response was, "I would not
have known the difference." And thus he avoided
answering the question, which was whether he would
prefer (now) to have been aborted (then), not what he
would or would not have known then.
Put another way, if you were in danger of losing your
life and could not rescue yourself, what would you want
others to do for you?
The answer for every sane person is that we would want
others to rescue us, to save us. According to the
teaching of Jesus, then, we have to do save and rescue
the unborn. "In everything, do to others what you would
have them do to you." Yet most believers in Jesus do
not follow this advice.
Were we in danger, would we want others to speak up for
us, even if they would face ridicule, opposition, and
accusations of being fanatical single-issue people? The
answer is yes.
Were we in danger, would we want preachers to sound the
alarm and rally people to come to our aid and protect
our lives? The answer is yes.
Were we in danger, would we want public officials and
candidates for public office to make an issue of saving
our lives, and restore to us the protection of which we
were deprived? The answer is yes.
If, then, we follow the teaching of Jesus, we know what
we have to do. "In everything, do to others what you
would have them do to you."
A lot of pro-life people lose time and sleep figuring
out how much risk they should take in their pro-life
activity -- how many people should they risk offending,
how many positions they should risk losing, and how
many legal entanglements they should risk incurring.
It's time to stop wondering. "In everything, do to
others what you would have them do to you." Just ask
the simple question, "If it were my life at stake, how
much risk would I want others to take to save me?"
PRAYER:
Father, you know the needs of each of your children
better than they do. Give us your heart and mind, that
we may put ourselves in the place of our brothers and
sisters threatened by abortion, and may do to them what
we would have others do to us.
Father, as you inspired your Son with the love that
brought him to the cross, inspire us with that same
love, that we may go to the abortion facilities, to our
communities, to our lawmakers, indeed to all the world,
and bring to the unborn the protection that we
ourselves cherish.
We pray through Christ our Lord. AMEN.
*******************************************************
Thank you for your prayers and effort during these
first two weeks of 40 Days for Life. I am honored to be
working alongside you in this important effort!
Yours For Life,
David Bereit
National Campaign Director
40 Days for Life
3515-B Longmire #316
College Station, TX
77845
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