40 Days for Life Kicks-off!

God is so GOOD! He blessed us last night with seven faith-filled, courageous priests, one amazing deacon, and many faithful laypeople who took part in our fall 40 Days for Life Kick-off Mass & Eucharistic Procession to Planned Parenthood. Fr. Joe’s homily was just exactly what we needed to hear. He gave us our marching orders for sure! I took notes while he was speaking, so that I could include it in this blog post…so if you weren’t able to attend last night, you can still be encouraged and inspired by his message. Scroll down to see photos and videos from the event, and to read my account of last evening:

Our wonderful priests (and deacon) process into the Church…

Fr. John Sweeney was the main celebrant, and encouraged all of us who have been in this pro-life battle for so long!

Many thanks to Fr. Jim Kurtz, Deacon John Corcoran, Fr. Dan Roberts, Fr. David Poecking, Fr. John Sweeney, Fr. Jason Charron, Fr. Joe Freedy & Fr. Jack Brennan for leading us in this spiritual battle!

FR. JOE’S HOMILY…

Fr. Joe Freedy gave the PERFECT homily…just what we needed to hear to motivate us to begin these 40 days!

The bottom line of Fr. Joe’s message was that GOD IS ON THE MOVE! However, this is not the time to celebrate. No, it is a time for SOBRIETY! It is a time to GET TOUGH! He talked about the spiritual movement for men called “Exodus 90“, which is meant to help men to “man-up” spiritually. He said that it is a sign of how soft we have become, that we even need something like Exodus 90. As he said, “LIFE” used to BE “Exodus 90”! He lamented the fact that on his bus to the March for Life in Harrisburg the day before, they had DONUTS! Imagine…on a trip to witness and pray to end abortion, when we should be doing penance…they were eating donuts! He added that he ate about six. (Much laughter ensued.)

So here are some bullet points that I want to share from his homily:

Satan has been defeated. The accuser has been thrown down, but he is angry. The devil has come down in great wrath, but his time is short. (Rev. 10)
He is prowling around like a lion, looking for souls to devour, but he’s worried right now! He is saying to himself, “I destroyed the faith of the last two generations…so why are young men now returning to the faith in droves??? He mentioned that he has brought more people into the Church in this past year that he did in his entire 16 years as a priest COMBINED!
The devil is asking, “Why is there now this chastity movement? Why is Erika Kirk FORGIVING her husband’s murderer in front of the entire world???”
The devil is not omniscient, as God is. He didn’t see this coming. His pride and arrogance has blinded him, and he has been taken off-guard and is furious that his kingdom is losing ground.
He is confused, desperate…and furious.
This is not a time for Christians to celebrate however. No, it is a time for great sobriety! Things in the Church and in the world are not going to get better. They are going to get worse. We will see persecution and collapse.
“Rise up, Oh men of God! Be done with lesser things! Lift high the cross of Christ!”
We are praying for revival, but there can be no revival without repentance. We have to change how we are living! A bad tree does not bear good fruit.
As Erika Kirk said on Sunday, “Charlie’s ministry is going to press on ten times harder than before“...That is what we need to do as well.
We need to stop our political obsession. We spend two hours every day listening to news, but don’t have time to pray a daily rosary?
We need to discipline our desires. Love those who are hard to love. Don’t give in to materialism, and instead fix our eyes on Heaven!
Life is short. Eternity is long.
He asked us to close our eyes and imagine ourselves in Heaven. We imagined ourselves looking down at ourselves right now. What would we say to ourselves? We would be urging ourselves to press on! Do the hard things! Life is short, we will be dead soon…don’t waste our lives on “lesser things”!
He closed by saying, “We are going to need so much courage in the times ahead…but do not fear. I have given you power to tread on scorpions...”(which by the way was the Gospel for the following day…Wednesday…Fr. Joe, did you realize that???)
Jesus, I trust in you. Jesus, I trust in you. Jesus, I trust in you.

Thank you Fr. Joe, for giving us these words to cling to during these difficult 40 days ahead, and beyond.

Seven priests con-celebrated the Mass, and faithful seminarians from St. Vincent’s Seminary came to serve.

LEAVING THE CHURCH…OUT INTO OUR CITY WITH OUR BLESSED LORD…CARRIED BY FR. JASON CHARRON…

God gave us a beautiful evening for the procession. There was a refreshing breeze, a beautiful sky above, and the rain drops ceased. As we walked, we prayed, our Lord leading us. Many people stopped to watch us, I am sure they were not used to seeing such a show of faith in the middle of downtown Pittsburgh. We truly set our lamps on a lampstand, so that our light could shine for all to see.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A SHORT VIDEO OF THE PROCESSION

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A SHORT VIDEO OF OUR ARRIVAL AT PP

Every time we arrive at PP with the Blessed Sacrament, and with a large crowd of believers, I can’t help but think of the verse, “The gates of Hell shall not prevail (against the Church).” I look at that foreboding, dirty and dark red brick building…which has stolen hundreds of thousands of precious human lives…and I see it as a gate that is going to one day break open by our continuous prayers. Each time we bring the Eucharist to PP, it is like a battering ram…which is weakening those gates. It is only a matter of time till they give way.