Be at Peace…

“…Rejoice, be perfected, be comforted, be of the same mind, be at peace; and the God of peace and love will be with you.” 2 Corinthians 13:11

This was the verse that I focused on yesterday…and an image of a field of grass, (similar to the one in the image above),came to my mind as I meditated upon it. I have not been spending enough time with the Lord in prayer lately, and not enough time in His Word. My “get-things-done” personality has been getting in the way. But yesterday, these words from scripture comforted me.

As we continue this now year-round prayer witness in front of Planned Parenthood, it can be mentally exhausting to keep track of the schedule and to reach out to volunteers…week after week, month after month…with no end in sight. So different from the regular 40 Days for Life campaigns, which always had an end, and after which life could go back to normal. This new normal is how things should be…we should be making it part of our regular prayer routine to pray at Planned Parenthood if we are able…just as we may make a regular time of Eucharistic adoration at an adoration chapel part of our weekly routine. There really is no difference that I can see. It’s funny, that once something becomes part of a routine…you don’t even think about it anymore after that. You just do it. The fact is, Planned Parenthood in Pittsburgh ends the lives of at least 60 human beings every week. As Christians, we should be there to witness to the value of every one of those lives in God’s eyes. It is just that simple. Simple as this field of grass. We are just doing what we are supposed to do. Just being Christians. Being of one mind with each other.

In St. Paul’s words quoted above…we are simply to “keep on keeping on”. As if we were all individual blades of grass…just growing as God has planted us. Together we make up a beautiful meadow, as long as we continue to do what we are supposed to do. As Christians, we are all the same. All in unity, just as this field of green grass. Not one of us stands apart from the rest. We are not looking to be noticed, or to be great, or set above anyone else…we are just here to witness our faith peacefully. To be of the same mind as one another…the mind of Christ. And we are to be continually perfected, as we grow in Him…together. When we do this, His peace and love will truly be with us.

If you would like to volunteer to be part of 40 Days for Life 365, please contact Jen at pghsaland365@gmail.com to become part of the team. Thank you and may God bless you!

Read below for two wonderful testimonies from last week:

From faithful sidewalk advocate Katie and Sue M…

And here is a beautiful account from Anita from her shift at PP last Saturday:

Just wanted to share something that really got to me Saturday morning. This was profound for me. It brought back intense memories that combined with the present day. Let me start from the beginning so this makes sense.

I was in college when Roe vs. Wade was passed by the Supreme Court. I was asked, by a friend, what I thought of it and I just shrugged. To top it off, many of my friends used their so called new “right” and exercised that new found “freedom of choice”. I thought to myself that is what I would do if I found myself in that situation. A few years later, I was in that situation, unmarried and pregnant. The father of the baby asked me not to have an abortion. He said it was wrong. I told him: “It is my body and my choice”! Boy, that is still be chanted till this day. He sent his friend to talk with me asking me not to do it. I told him the same thing. I had the phone in my hand ready to make that fatal call. When a voice inside of me said “Ten years later, will you have any regrets?” I knew I would at that instant and called the father of the baby and told him I could not go through with the abortion. The rest is history. We have been married for 44 years and we have a beautiful daughter and two wonderful grandchildren. Interesting enough, I never got pregnant again, even though we never used birth control.

Let’s go forward to the present. A truck pulled up in front of the book store down from PP. A young girl got out from the passenger side and of course the escort stationed there was right beside her. As they walked closer to PP the escort in front of the door started walking towards them as well as I. It was like time stopped. Usually, the escorts would surround the woman and talk to them so they cannot hear you. I said to the young women, “I have alternatives for you”. She actually stopped and took my card as they waited on her. She thanked me as they then hurried her along and whatever I said next fell on deaf ears. I was hoping they did not rip it out of her hand. This was the first patient of the morning. About 20 min to a half hour later, a young man was talking on his phone in a doorway and then came past PP and then stepped into a doorway behind Tim and myself. As we were praying, the young man noticed some literature that Tim had and he asked for some of it. We both went over to him. Tim started giving him literature and he said I’m having an abortion in about 20 min. He did not want her to do it. I told him he could go in there and told him he needed to go get her. He said he would not do that because then she would say…He did not finish his sentence but added she wants to get her GED. Tim offered to pray with him and lead us in the Our Father. He did join us in prayer but then he was distracted by his phone with texts and eventually was on it again. Tim supplied him with pamphlets and I did give him one of the cards and made sure he saw the resource for post abortion help on the back. I said she will need that. He said “Yeah, cause she will feel guilty”.  Once he was back on the phone, he walked away.

This episode really struck me. It was so close to home. Actually, I cannot get them out of my mind and heart and am lifting them up in prayer. That poor young man had no say. Just like my poor young man. How many young fathers go through this without any rights of their own. What about their right to choose. I remember one of my roommates in college went with a friend to Pittsburgh to have an abortion. While they were gone, her boyfriend showed up at the apartment where we lived and I was the only one there. He had flowers. When I told him he missed her, he went to her room and tore things up that he had given her. It was sad then and it is sad now.

This was a wakeup call for me. I always pray for the stop of abortion, the closing of the facilities, the mothers, the workers, the doctors and the fathers. But it never really hit me till now how awful it is for the other person in the equation responsible for creating those wonderful babies. It broke my heart. Let us continue to pray in the Spirit with supplications for these terrible heinous atrocities to cease and desist. Please dear Lord, have mercy on us and forgive us for we really don’t know what we do!

Anita

Also, from Herb, who is a faithful sidewalk advocate in Pittsburgh, and also executive director of Rehumanize International…requesting prayers from our pro-life family as they travel to Bethesda Maryland on Thursday to protest the inhumane and unethical fetal experimentation that is being done. Herb writes:

If you have been following our work you know that we have been calling attention to unethical fetal tissue research programs across the country for years. Just a few weeks ago we helped break the story that the University of Pittsburgh was recently conducting humanized rodent studies in which researchers harvested the scalps of 18–20 week old human fetuses from elective abortions and grafted them onto the skin of mice and rats.    You can read more about that horrific study on the Rehumanzie blog. Warning: that post does include disturbing images and descriptions of extreme abuse on unborn children’s bodies.    Not only is this cruel and unnecessary research being done on the trafficked body parts of aborted babies — you are paying for it.    Every year the National Institutes of Health gives universities millions of our taxpayer dollars to conduct research on victims of the extreme violence of abortion.   While it is still important to put pressure on the individual institutions participating in this violence, I now believe it’s time we go for the source. This Thursday 6/10 we will be protesting at the NIH headquarters in Bethesda Maryland to demand accountability and an end to all grants that require the continued destruction of innocent human life. Join us, Rehumanize DMV, our allies at Students for Life of America, and more to demand justice for the children abused for medical research.   We will be meeting at 11 AM outside the NIH Headquarters 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814. Look for our “ETHICAL RESEARCH NOW” signs.

Please consider giving today so that we can continue to shine a light on this grave injustice against the unborn members of our human family: www.rehumanizeintl.org/donate.   For Life, Herb Geraghty Executive Director Rehumanize International

Thank you for your prayers for this rally, and please spread the word and attend if you can.

Finally, you may have noticed that our blog now has a new look! Thanks to Laure Kline of Lime is Creative for donating our blog, which she created for us 11 years ago, and has now renewed it with a beautiful new look! We are extremely grateful for this gift from Laure! May God bless her and her family, and her family-owned company!