Brothers and sisters:
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.Finally, brothers and sisters,
Phil 4:6-9
whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious,
if there is any excellence
and if there is anything worthy of praise,
think about these things.
Keep on doing what you have learned and received
and heard and seen in me.
Then the God of peace will be with you.
This is one of my favorite passages of Scripture…I love when it comes up in the readings for Mass, as it did this weekend.
“Have no anxiety at all” feels like a personal and comforting message to me, a naturally anxious person. And the exhortation to focus on the good is a helpful reminder of the best way to live, a way that brings our hearts and minds back to God, allowing us to leave all our troubles and anxieties behind as we give Him thanks and recognize all He has done for us.
Sweet Barbara, who continues to give countless hours on the sidewalk, also gave many hours on the computer in her years of writing the Sunday reflections for this blog. She always included lovely artwork and music in her posts. It must have taken extra effort to find those pieces to share, but what a gift they were to us readers!
It can be more of a challenge to see beauty when we stand on Liberty Avenue, but it is there. Rays of sunshine streaming between the buildings, an adorable baby passing by in a stroller, warm words of encouragement from someone who stops to tell their story…let’s make sure to notice these things, thank God for them, and recognize that He remains with us and takes care of us no matter where we go.
-Jen
Stories from the Sidewalk
A cold but quiet morning on the sidewalk…just right for offering up a tiny bit of suffering as we implored God to end abortion. Vince, Marie, Rich, and George were in faithful attendance and Bill stopped by on his way to church. We were glad to see a beautiful group from Most Precious Blood of Jesus Parish gathering to pray with Ken and Pat as our shift ended.
Jen
A brisk day on the sidewalk for a fall campaign but the Most Precious Blood of Jesus Parish brought warmth with a large prayerful turnout. The Steelers are in town, so the sidewalks were busy for a Sunday. A few comments but they all seemed positive in nature. There was a young man pacing around whose actions led to our security guard asking him to leave. We are grateful for the security presence. We prayed fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, five mysteries in Latin, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and a respectable chanting of the Salve Regina. Also present were members of the faithful of the downtown Rosary walk.
Ken
Chris, a member of Most Precious Blood, and Mike, who kindly offered to fill in as shift manager.
During our two hours on the street at Planned Parenthood, things went smoothly. By definition it was a successful shift since we got two middle fingers from females to which we kindly responded, “God bless you and have a blessed day.”
Mike
We had a wonderful group from 11 AM to 12 PM. There was a really creepy guy hanging out, you can see him in the picture with the red shirt. He was either on some kind of drugs, or he was demonically possessed. He wasn’t threatening us, but was just staring at us strangely, and was seemingly fascinated with our rosaries and materials. He was definitely making everybody uncomfortable. After about 40 minutes of his hanging out with us, we began praying the rosary in Latin, and by the second decade he was gone. Our security guard helped him to move along and he made sure we were safe during the whole time. Thanks to everybody from Most Precious Blood Parish for coming out today!
Nikki
Right as the shift began, a passerby stopped to ask us why men in particular should have any say when a woman wants an abortion, especially if it is a man with no relation to her. Since we were saying the Rosary at this point, a couple of us tried to engage in fruitful conversation with him a few steps away while the others continued to pray. He believed that abortion was indeed killing a child (although he didn’t like that we kept bringing up this fact) but that it was justified in some cases for the “good” of the mother. The conversation lasted for quite a while and he left unconvinced by our explanations. Hopefully he will come to realize the complete relativism and insanity of his position. Besides Jim and Cathy, Canons Avis and Bourgeois from Most Precious Blood of Jesus came to pray with a number of their parishioners. It was nice to have priests out on the sidewalk with us.
Andrew