Devotion for today: courage + prayer = change

Today our focus is on the protection of life in the womb. Let’s look at our role from two different angles.

Scripture for meditation: Psalm 119:28

My soul weeps for sorrow; strengthen me according to your words.

Christ tells us: Mark 9:17-18, 22-23, 28-29

“Teacher,” a man in the crowd replied, “I have brought my son to you because he is possessed by a mute spirit. Just now I asked your disciples to expel him, but they were unable to do so. If, out of the kindness of your heart, you can do anything to help us, please do!” Jesus said, “‘If you can?’ Everything is possible to a man who trusts.” The boy’s father immediately exclaimed, “I do believe! Help my lack of trust!” Jesus…reprimanded the unclean spirit by saying to him, “Get out of him and never enter him again!” When Jesus arrived at the house his disciples began to ask him privately, “Why is it that we could not expel it?” He told them, “This kind you can drive out only by prayer.”

Victor Parachin tells us in his book, Daily Strength (Liguori Press, 1995): When the first locomotive was invented, several “experts” agreed that if a train went at the frightful speed of fifteen miles an hour, the passengers would suffer from nosebleed. They also cautioned that people could suffocate when the train went through a tunnel. In 1881 the New York YWCA announced typing lessons for women. Protests were made on the grounds that the female constitution would break down under the strain. Shortly after the telephone was invented, Joshua Coppersmith was arrested in Boston for trying to sell stock in the company that would produce telephones. Authorities said that all well-informed people knew it was impossible to transmit the human voice over a wire. If you are struggling over an impossible–looking task, don’t give up just because others say it cannot be done. Continue on. Act on your convictions. Exercise courage and persistence in the face of resistance and opposition. Ask God to deepen your determination. Remember that almost every great idea or invention faced fierce resistance from authorities and experts, who said it couldn’t be done.

Prayer: Prayer for Trust in Jesus (St. Ignatius of Loyola)

O Christ Jesus,
when all is darkness
and we feel our weakness and helplessness,
give us the sense of Your presence,
Your love, and Your strength.
Help us to have perfect trust
in Your protecting love
and strengthening power,
so that nothing may frighten or worry us,
for, living close to You,
we shall see Your hand,
Your purpose, Your will through all things.
( http://www.beliefnet.com)

 My thoughts: The late John Cardinal O’Connor, Archbishop of New York, was very pro-life. He believed that, just like the demon in our Bible passage today, abortion could only end in this country through trust and prayer. He also had the courage to believe that change was possible. He marched in the National March for Life; he spoke often on the subject and was much criticized in the New York papers; he always wore a pro-life lapel pin; he started the Sisters of Life, and he himself counseled many pregnant women in need of help, offering to them the innumerable services he made available through Catholic Charities in his city. But he firmly believed that, above all, the only way to end abortion was to back all action with prayer. Victor Parachin shows us that people resist change; they do not want to believe new ways can be better. We can show society today that a world which loves life and offers mothers and fathers all the help they need to bring their children to life outside the womb is a world which is a far better place than one that supports death. Let us have the courage to work for that change, and the trust Christ tells us is necessary for a miracle to happen.  Remember, “Everything is possible to a man who trusts.”

Our prayer to God: There are so many ways to support life today. We can contribute and volunteer to Project Rachel and Project Gabriel (www.gabrielprpject.com) (www.project-rachel.net), found in every Catholic Diocese in America, to the Sisters of Life, based in Manhattan (http://sistersoflife.org), to the Paul Stefan Foundation, headquartered in Northern Virginia, which provides homes for mothers in crisis pregnancies (www.paulstefanhomes.com). We can write to legislators (NCHLA info@nchla.org), begging them to support pro-life laws and programs.  We should subscribe to LifeSiteNews.com and Priests for Life (www.priestsforlife.org) to stay informed on the issues concerning life. We can volunteer at pregnancy crisis centers. We can pray, pray, pray for the unborn and their parents, that they may see the light. As many Americans gather today in Washington, DC to march for life on this, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, let us have the courage to say, “I believe in life.”