His Passion
We cannot go through Lent without thinking about the Passion of Jesus- His scourging at the pillar, the crowning with thorns, and the mocking by the soldiers; His carrying the cross to Golgotha and the nailing of His hands and feet to the wood of the cross. His willingness to take on all our sins, yours and mine, for our salvation.
His pain and suffering were unimaginable. We are asked to take up His cross daily, to walk the walk, in his footsteps. During Lent, a good way to take up your cross is to come to Liberty Avenue, to witness for the Truth- that human life is God-given, sacred, and begins at conception.
During this Spring Campaign, we strive to be His hands and feet on the sidewalk, to try and save the little lives in the womb from destruction. We pray for “saves” and sidewalk advocates approach pregnant women with a “passion” for them and their pre-born child.
Numerous free services are available in the local area to help women with a crisis pregnancy- free ultrasounds, housing, clothing, and adoption services. Local pregnancy resource centers are ready and more-than-willing to “walk the walk” of life-giving care for the pregnant mom and her child. And their care doesn’t stop after the birth of the child.
One suggestion during this Lenten season is to watch The Passion of the Christ– to appreciate the sacrifice that Jesus made for each one of us.
“If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” Matthew 16: 23-24
Chris
Read on for today’s sidewalk stories…
Greg & Joe
Very busy morning at PP, women putting their heads down in shame as they walked through the doors, rejecting our offer of love.
Lord have mercy on us!!! Joe
Kathy & Kim/Mary
(From Kathy) – Greg, Kim, and me covered this hour. I handed out a few brochures to passersby, much less than I normally do. Greg engaged in conversation with a young man as he exited pp. The young man, who was wearing a mask, demanded that Greg step away 6 feet from him. Although he conversed with Greg, it was clear that he did not want any help and told Greg to get away from his mother-in-law, a woman who had exited the building earlier and Greg and Kim offered lit to. I prayed that God would deescalate the encounter and eventually the woman left in a car and the young man went back into pp. As he passed by me, I called out that we can help him and he replied”can you help a 16 yo (who was raped)?” (not sure of the last part).
Another couple approached pp and I offered resources to them which the woman declined. Greg tried to reach out to the man but received a negative comment from him. Kim remarked how discouraged she felt by the absence of praying people during this vigil as compared to those past vigils.
Pat & Seamus
(from Seamus) – It was wonderful to have Mary stay with Pat and I from 11:00-12:00pm and Pat and I stayed until 1:00pm. It was for the most part the typical winter day on Liberty Avenue with bitter cold weather and hardened, bitter cold young ladies entering PP. In our two hours, not even one accepted a brochure either coming or going and that is a first for me. Quite often I read in the blog accounts about our helpless feeling and inability to reach mothers and fathers about making the ultimate tragic decision. A decision to willingly take the life of their own child and what a horrific choice that is. Their choice is a rejection we all find so hard to take. On top of that, we must deal with the vulgar, aggressive language from passersby. It is a trial that tests our faith every time we take a stand for life.
In the New Testament, James’ opening message addressed the issue head on:
“Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, or you know that testing your faith produces perseverance.” And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Sometimes, some wisdom is a necessary tool Our Lord gifts us to deal with the tribulations. Pat was kneeling and praying when approached by a young man who apparently had nothing better to do than harass and belittle Pat’s devout efforts. After briefly engaging with the young man, Pat knew he was being baited into an argument, so Pat wisely bowed his head and prayed while the young man continued he aggressive attempt to engage for another 20 minutes. Finally discouraged by a lack of Pat’s response, the man came onto my side of the sidewalk and started the same evil game with me and went on and on for 15 minutes. Other than my initial response that I was there to pray, he eventually moved on, realizing neither of us would take the bait.
Again form James: “But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it.” James 1:5Mary, Pat, and I stood in the breach. We prayed, we implored and we endured. In Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we stood boldly wearing the armor of God. And that same God, is one day closer to closing PP.
Dan & Joanne
(From Dan) – . Dan, Joanne and Beth. Sadly two couples walked out of PP with the brown bags . We prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplets as the weather seemed to warm up some when the Sun finally came out. One man with long purple hair looked at me and shook his head in disgust. Maybe he didn’t like my hairdo or something! Another man walking by later told us we were an embarrassment. ( too bad he missed the guy with the purple hair!) Sadly a fire truck and ambulance pulled up and went in PP with a doctor and stretcher. They came out later with a woman of about 30 years old on it. Please pray for her.
Patty & Virginia
There were flashing red lights in the vicinity of Planned Parenthood as I approached the area. Upon arriving at the PP building, the Emergence Medical vehicle was definitely parked in front of the building (PP). An ambulance with lights flashing then arrived and a stretcher was taken from the back and entered into PP. Shortly after, another ambulance arrived and the driver went into PP. After a few minutes, the door to PP opened and the stretcher with a young woman, laying on her side emerged. She was alert but appeared to be uncomfortable, was put in the rear of the ambulance and it quickly left. The other two vehicles left shortly afterwards.
We prayed several decades of the rosary for the next hour. There was lots of foot traffic, very few persons leaving Planned Parenthood during this time.
The security guard came out briefly at one point and reentered the building. One woman walking by gave us a very unfriendly wave with both hands, but no verbiage.
Five wonderful women were on this shift….Claire, Paulette, Kathy, Patty and myself.
This certainly was a Way of the Cross report from today. Thank you to all who stood in the cold and wind and prayed for the precious babies whose lives were ended this day and also for the misled persons who entered the Portal of Perdition and for those passersby who ridiculed and mocked and vilified you for doing good. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”