No Human Tie
In the Short Way of the Cross, used by the Franciscan Friars on their missions, the meditation on the Fourth Station (Jesus Meets His Mother) cuts deep.
“ O Jesus! May no human tie, however dear, keep me from following the road of the Cross.”
NO human tie? Sure, we can imagine not allowing any person to be an impediment to our carrying a cross, but what about the “human condition” types of ties? That human tie could be none other than me, myself, and I! Do I impede myself?
– Morning: How about a couple extra hours of sleep or settling back with a hot cup of morning Joe and a daily Sudoku?
– Noon: I really need that one item at the store or my hair definitely needs to be trimmed today.
– Late Afternoon: Dinner must be fancier than scrambled eggs or sandwiches, or I’d planned to watch that one program on TV.
We ALL have our happy little comfort zones. I seriously doubt any of them involve hanging out at the golden arch in front of 933 Liberty Avenue!
I invite you to push aside at least one creature comfort during this 40Days season. Put in its place a trip to PP where you can simply pray quietly during the vigil there.
God will bless you for your sacrifice. Your peaceful presence might impress the soul of a young mother and help to save the life of her child.
–Tracy
Joe, Tim, and David
(from Tim) The morning started very peaceful and then…
A man with a bike got off the bus and joined us in prayer. As a group of male joggers ran by us the biker called out to the them and loudly said something like “be men and join us standing up for the babies. They kill babies here.” Then a man walking behind us started yelling at us and swearing. We didn’t pay any attention until he grabbed the wrap around signs and started trying to jam them into the garbage cans. We started going towards him while saying. “Get your phones and get his picture”. He took off up the street.
As Divine Providence would have it, there was a police car parked across the street from the Little Lamb. We ran to the officer and told him what happened and pointed out the man. The man turned and approached us and the officer got out of his car.
He explained that he thought we were yelling at women, lost his temper and grabbed our signs. He was sorry and offered to pay for damages. The officer suggested we talk and decide if we wanted to press charges. Since he was from out state, the officer said he would be taken directly to jail until he was arraigned by a judge. It was our call. The officer suggested we all talk. We explained in detail how we were there to help women and to pray. He explained he misunderstood the situation and was sorry. He had regrets.
As disciples of Jesus and imitators of Erika Kirk, we said “I forgive you”. We shook his hand and the police officers shook ours.
He went back to the signs, retrieved them and reassembled them.
We all left in peace.
Judy, Ann, Nadine, and Friend
Dean, Chris, Nadine
Many people entered and all refused any of the support materials that were offered. During my last hour a woman who was exiting PP tried drawing Chris into an argument about the accuracy of the picture of the baby on the life at 16 weeks poster. She strongly wished ill will for all of us.
Billy, Karen, and Mary
(from Billy) Today Mary, Karen, and myself were down here praying today, it started out with Clinic workers outside in the circle. They began to go inside and we had a peaceful prayer time. Karen was exceptionally well at giving out resources to people and we had a lot of people giving us thumbs up and praising God for being down here. We also saw a couple go in Planned Parenthood. They just came out and it seems like the couple are on child number 3. Pray for them.