Posted on 03/25/2009 10:03:08 AM PDT by Faith
40 Days for Life consists of 40 days of prayer and fasting for an end to abortion,
40 days of constant, peaceful vigil outside abortion centers and Planned Parenthood offices
and 40 days of active pro-life community outreach.
Your community may be participating in this prayerful vigil.
If so, please join others in your area
or unite with thousands across America
during the 40 days of Lent
in praying for an end to abortion in this nation.
We pray for the grace to be strong when others ridicule or oppose us.
SCRIPTURE
Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
--Luke 14:27
REFLECTION by Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life
To stand up for what is right means we stand against what is wrong, and that means that those who love what is wrong will oppose us, just as they opposed Christ. Taking up the cross means we continue speaking and standing for the right even when that opposition comes.
We experience this, in particular, when we are out on the streets, where people are not expecting the pro-life message and where they did not go to hear it. We must remember to never take the opposition personally.
When people ridicule or yell at us, we might get a guilty feeling or be tempted to think we did something wrong. We did not.
The insults are not being hurled at us personally, but rather at the truth of what we are standing for, and at the demands of the moral law.
There are many who are trying to run away from those demands, or who have managed to tuck the abortion problem away into a distant corner of their minds where it can no longer disturb them.
By standing publicly for the cause of life, we have short-circuited that denial and frustrated those efforts to ignore the issue. Therefore, some will be angry, perhaps not fully realizing why.
PRAYER
Lord, thank you for the grace of being pro-life, and of standing strong when others may ridicule or oppose me.
During this 40 Day campaign, may your peace fill my soul, especially when I may endure the opposition of others, and may I become more like your crucified and risen Son. Amen.
Holy God,
Help us to remember that standing for Your truths is never the popular or accepted way by worldly standards. Give us thick skin and hearts full of passion for You, that we may continue to stand strong in defense of that which is good and right, just and true. In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Prayer bump
'Praise be to God!' (Ps.68:35)
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