“The Love You Have Demonstrated for His Name” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)
God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name by having served and continuing to serve the holy ones. (Hebrews 6:10)
The Lord will remember his covenant forever. (Psalm 111:5)
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27-28)
Piety
May the tragic practice of abortion come to an end (intercession for today, the final day of the Catholic Church of the United States’ 9 Days for Life)
Study
And so we pray, today and every day, for the legal protection of unborn children. Many have prayed that prayer daily for forty-six years; for some people, that’s a lifetime.
I know women who had abortions. I can only think of one who, at least publicly at the time, didn’t seem to regard it as her only option, who treated it as nothing more than getting a tooth filled. Every single other woman I know still remembers the day and the place and how she felt, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Most have said they wouldn’t wish those feelings on anyone else. Eleven years after Roe v. Wade, a woman who would later become a friend, Vicki Thorn, started Project Rachel, a ministry to help women find healing after abortions.
I think we’d all agree that legal protection won’t eradicate abortion. But many of us believe it would help. So would not shunning or judging women who become pregnant, and instead of helping them through the pregnancy and beyond. So would encouraging women to believe in the love the Lord has for them and their children, unborn or born.
The U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops’ National Prayer Events for Life webpage has a beautiful quote from Cardinal Timothy Dolan: “Our prayers matter. Every prayer matters, and if you can’t start at the beginning, jump in when you can!” That’s good advice when it comes to praying for legal protection of the unborn—and anything else.
Action
Have you stopped praying about something because it doesn’t seem the Lord is listening? Start up again. Believe that His ways are not always evident to us.
Image credit:https://pixabay.com/en/abortion-hand-hands-protective-hand-3533963/; hhach.
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