Friday morning, while on the train to work, I cam across this news in Metro daily. It was such a joy to see the picture of Melinda Star Guido at 24 weeks. I believe pictures speak more profoundly than words. With the legal abortion limit at 24 weeks here in UK, its good to realise that at 24 weeks, the child in the mothers womb already has arms and legs and a face and above all a soul, which is irreplacable. Every human life concieved is a miracle, a miracle of Gods unconditional love and trust.
Below is a small sharing I wrote for Jesus Youth after we visited and prayed with the 40 days for life campaign in early October in Birmingham, UK.
Last Sunday, we (me and my wife) along with some of our friends, went along to the "40 Days for life" prayer campaign in Birmingham. We spend a good couple of hours in prayer outside the Calthorpe abortion clinic there.We also were fortunate enough to take part in the siege of Jericho prayer around the clinic that evening. It was a cloudy day, the mood was sombre. And my heart was heavy; probably the powers of darkness and evil in me were wielding too much power over there. During the Jericho prayer we walked around the clinic seven times, praying countless number of rosaries and divine mercy chaplets; praying for the walls of evil to crumble and fall; praying for the innocent lives of hundreds of unborn babies whose mothers have and would visit the clinic in future; but above all, praying for forgiveness, upon us, we, who have fallen to even greater depths and upon the whole world.
It was indeed a touching experience for all of us to have taken part in this huge witnessing of faith. As I walked around the clinic, with around 75 other people, both young and old, families with small children, priests, nuns and seminarians, I really began thinking "why I believe in what I believe". For this was a long cry from the beauty and majesty of the Holy Catholic Church of the World Youth Day and its joys. Now, all that I could feel in me was a lingering pain, a dizziness, a sense of abandonment, but I knew somehow that this was where the church wanted me to be; this was where my God needed me to be. No glory, no fanfare, but to be part of a cause, which the world considers to be madness at best and bigotry at worst. Am I willing to fight the losing battle? Would I trust and would I have faith? Oh yes, for there was plenty of faith on display there, faith that drives people like Isabel, Brian and Aline to stand and kneel in front of that clinic, day after day, hour after hour, praying the rosary, being ridiculed, mocked and verbally abused, yet only smiling, helping and blessing in return. And I could hear the words, "You of little faith".
Sometimes you see evil face to face and it frightens you, at other times it taunts you, many times it teases you, lures you, tempts you and over the last couple of days, I have seen and felt quite a bit the power of evil in and around me. I posted some updates on yesterday's prayer siege on my Twitter account and was surprised to see the amount of interest it generated from some pro-choice supporters from around the world. My comments were torn apart and I was bombarded with arguments and counter arguments, was pronounced a miserable thing, despicable. And I understood that sometimes courage alone is not enough to stand up against evil, faith and lots of it is needed. As St Paul says, Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen..
I was there only for a couple of hours and the abuse I endured was mostly online, I can only imagine the amount of abuse and taunts our brothers and sisters who would be praying outside the clinics around the world would endure. As the Siege of Jericho around the Calthorpe abortion clinic came to a conclusion yesterday, the following poem was read out, which for me summed up the whole experience.
MY LITTLE ONE
Today I think of you while I am weeping
And slowly count the lost and empty years;
If you had lived, it would have been your birthday,
Though every day, in truth, is filled with tears.
I try, of course, to think of other matters,
To dust and clean and wash away the pain
And yet the more I try to push you from me,
The deeper in my heart do you remain.
What colour were your eyes, your hair I wonder
Your little ears – what shape would they have been?
I want you, seek you, yearn so much to hold you
But in my searching mind you stay unseen.
If I had known upon that day the future,
If I had felt the torment I would bear,
If I had not then let them take you from me,
I would not now be slave to this despair.
Within that room of death and dark and coldness
The devil surely did exultant dwell,
For was it not indeed the very annex
Adjacent to the icy halls of hell.
And is it my imagining, I wonder,
When first you felt that sharp, satanic knife,
You cried to me in fear, “What’s happening, Mama?
I beg you, help me … help me … save my life”.
It is a world become malign and shadowed
Where forces cruel, depraved, demonic reign,
Where those who are most innocent and helpless
Are cast away like winnowed husks of grain.
They talk of “women’s choice” and “women’s freedom”
And claim the right to life is theirs alone;
They blind their eyes to those who still lie hidden
Within the womb that they, themselves, have known.
All joy, all hope, all human warmth must perish
When pity, love and trust are thus betrayed,
When frozen hearts and callous hands accomplish
A work that dares destroy what God has made.
And it is He, the Lord of Life, who formed you
And cherishes you now, my little one,
Who will, upon that day when all shall tremble,
Ask why it was this piteous deed was done.
Jesus, help and protect the unborn.....
Below is a small sharing I wrote for Jesus Youth after we visited and prayed with the 40 days for life campaign in early October in Birmingham, UK.
Last Sunday, we (me and my wife) along with some of our friends, went along to the "40 Days for life" prayer campaign in Birmingham. We spend a good couple of hours in prayer outside the Calthorpe abortion clinic there.We also were fortunate enough to take part in the siege of Jericho prayer around the clinic that evening. It was a cloudy day, the mood was sombre. And my heart was heavy; probably the powers of darkness and evil in me were wielding too much power over there. During the Jericho prayer we walked around the clinic seven times, praying countless number of rosaries and divine mercy chaplets; praying for the walls of evil to crumble and fall; praying for the innocent lives of hundreds of unborn babies whose mothers have and would visit the clinic in future; but above all, praying for forgiveness, upon us, we, who have fallen to even greater depths and upon the whole world.
It was indeed a touching experience for all of us to have taken part in this huge witnessing of faith. As I walked around the clinic, with around 75 other people, both young and old, families with small children, priests, nuns and seminarians, I really began thinking "why I believe in what I believe". For this was a long cry from the beauty and majesty of the Holy Catholic Church of the World Youth Day and its joys. Now, all that I could feel in me was a lingering pain, a dizziness, a sense of abandonment, but I knew somehow that this was where the church wanted me to be; this was where my God needed me to be. No glory, no fanfare, but to be part of a cause, which the world considers to be madness at best and bigotry at worst. Am I willing to fight the losing battle? Would I trust and would I have faith? Oh yes, for there was plenty of faith on display there, faith that drives people like Isabel, Brian and Aline to stand and kneel in front of that clinic, day after day, hour after hour, praying the rosary, being ridiculed, mocked and verbally abused, yet only smiling, helping and blessing in return. And I could hear the words, "You of little faith".
Sometimes you see evil face to face and it frightens you, at other times it taunts you, many times it teases you, lures you, tempts you and over the last couple of days, I have seen and felt quite a bit the power of evil in and around me. I posted some updates on yesterday's prayer siege on my Twitter account and was surprised to see the amount of interest it generated from some pro-choice supporters from around the world. My comments were torn apart and I was bombarded with arguments and counter arguments, was pronounced a miserable thing, despicable. And I understood that sometimes courage alone is not enough to stand up against evil, faith and lots of it is needed. As St Paul says, Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen..
I was there only for a couple of hours and the abuse I endured was mostly online, I can only imagine the amount of abuse and taunts our brothers and sisters who would be praying outside the clinics around the world would endure. As the Siege of Jericho around the Calthorpe abortion clinic came to a conclusion yesterday, the following poem was read out, which for me summed up the whole experience.
MY LITTLE ONE
Today I think of you while I am weeping
And slowly count the lost and empty years;
If you had lived, it would have been your birthday,
Though every day, in truth, is filled with tears.
I try, of course, to think of other matters,
To dust and clean and wash away the pain
And yet the more I try to push you from me,
The deeper in my heart do you remain.
What colour were your eyes, your hair I wonder
Your little ears – what shape would they have been?
I want you, seek you, yearn so much to hold you
But in my searching mind you stay unseen.
If I had known upon that day the future,
If I had felt the torment I would bear,
If I had not then let them take you from me,
I would not now be slave to this despair.
Within that room of death and dark and coldness
The devil surely did exultant dwell,
For was it not indeed the very annex
Adjacent to the icy halls of hell.
And is it my imagining, I wonder,
When first you felt that sharp, satanic knife,
You cried to me in fear, “What’s happening, Mama?
I beg you, help me … help me … save my life”.
It is a world become malign and shadowed
Where forces cruel, depraved, demonic reign,
Where those who are most innocent and helpless
Are cast away like winnowed husks of grain.
They talk of “women’s choice” and “women’s freedom”
And claim the right to life is theirs alone;
They blind their eyes to those who still lie hidden
Within the womb that they, themselves, have known.
All joy, all hope, all human warmth must perish
When pity, love and trust are thus betrayed,
When frozen hearts and callous hands accomplish
A work that dares destroy what God has made.
And it is He, the Lord of Life, who formed you
And cherishes you now, my little one,
Who will, upon that day when all shall tremble,
Ask why it was this piteous deed was done.
--- Michael Healy
Jesus, help and protect the unborn.....
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