Day 28…Thanks to St. Peter Parish in Steubenville, St. Matthew Parish & our amazing team!

Evangelize like St. Patrick!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  The photo above is from St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Harrisburg, PA.  Many of you have seen this beautiful work in stained glass, if you attended the opening or closing Mass for the March for Life in Harrisburg in September.  The scene depicts St. Patrick at Tara Hill in Ireland, where he met with the Pagan High Kings of Ireland.  Patrick was there to be killed for lighting his Paschal fire, before the High King’s fire on top of Tara Hill.  Patrick prayed to God for guidance, and he used a Shamrock to explain our belief in the Triune God.  The rest, shall we say, is history, and Patrick’s Evangelization brought the Catholic Faith to the Island of Ireland, and beyond.  In fact, most of Europe, including Northern Italy, was converted through Patrick’s heroic efforts to spread the Gospel news to pagans.  Assisted by St. Bridget, Patrick constructed hundreds of seminaries across Ireland and Western Europe.

Sadly, many people today have forsaken their faith for the promise of convenience, success, or other forms of self-interest.  We see these people approach Planned Parenthood every day, in search of a solution to their problem.  They have been misdirected by the father of all lies to believe that their blessing from God is a problem, and the only solution is to condemn themselves through the intrinsically evil act of abortion.  Like Patrick, we need to pray to God that our mission to convert is successful, even if the way is crowded with pagans, non-believers, and distractions from antagonists.  The prayer of St. Patrick’s Breastplate is soaked with wisdom and inspiration for our prayer warriors and sidewalk advocates.  Here is an excerpt:

 I arise today, through God’s strength to pilot me, God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me, God’s eye to look before me, God’s ear to hear me, God’s word to speak for me, God’s hand to guard me, God’s shield to protect me, God’s host to save me from snares of devils, from temptation of vices, from everyone who shall wish me ill, afar and near.

The complete prayer is available at: https://www.ourcatholicprayers.com/st-patricks-breastplate.html

Larry

Keep reading for today’s sidewalk stories…

Bill & Tracy

(From Tracy) – Very cold this morning when Bill and I set up for the day. Unfortunately, it didn’t keep the clients away. There were a number of them. One lady was going in for a D&C. She’d lost her baby and evidently PP is where those without health insurance go for the procedure, not Magee? Anyway, prayers for her, please? This was her third unsuccessful pregnancy. 

One Mama Bear, all dressed up for St. Paddy’s Day, escorted her young daughter and the boyFRIEND into PP to procure services. It’s a sad to see how disconnected grandparents can be. Nine months from now, she could be gushing with love over a precious little grandchild.

Beth & Linda

(From Beth) – At PP today, cold outside and cold inside as lies were told and babies died. Bill and Tracy had everything ready; about the only traffic on Liberty Avenue was PP clients. Linda and I offered help with no observable success. But we’re still going to keep on trying . Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Dear St. Patrick’s, it’s said you drove snakes out of Ireland. Please help us drive abortion out of our world.

 Amen

Sheila & Barb

(From Sheila) – It was a relatively quiet day on the sidewalk on this snowy St. Patrick’s Day. Sadly, there was still a substantial amount of traffic in and out of the “clinic.”

As my shift was nearly over, an abortion worker, a black woman with a foreign accent, whom I had not seen before,  exited. I offered her verbal information about Abby Johnson’s organization. 

She became very defensive about all the “wonderful” services that P.P. provides and how shameful and evil of us to “harass” women who are simply trying to get care that they can’t get anywhere else.

I told her they can send the women to Catholic Charities. Of course, she wasn’t listening to anything I offered until I mentioned, “What about all the black babies killed by Planned Parenthood over the years.” She lunged at me with a pointed finger and told me, “Don’t you even speak about black babies.” 

I’m not sure if P.P. is having to import workers from other countries; we know that working conditions there are bad and they have a difficult time retaining employees. The encouraging thing is that, if Abby Johnson was able to eventually see the light, these workers can too!

Kim & Mike

(From Kim) – This is going to be a short report.  No picture as it was just Mike and I today. It was a slower day at PP and quiet on the sidewalk.  No one was  interested in taking a brochure and only one person spoke to us.  He said God gave us free will so women have the right to chose.  And I said God gave us the Ten Commandments that say thou shall not kill.  Of course he continued to walk down the sidewalk with no further discussion.  But most important, I wanted to let you know about a very disappointing development that will keep Sandy off the sidewalk for a while.  She took a stumble Saturday missing the final step on a staircase and broke a couple of bones in her ankle.  She is wearing a stabilizing boot and using crutches.  She will be to setting up appt with orthopedic.  We really missed her today. Just felt so off without her.  Like a three legged stool with a missing leg!  Wobbly and out of sorts.  But we prayed four mysteries of the rosary and a chaplet.  Prayed for Sandy’s healing 🙏 of course.  Hoping you all will add her to your prayer list!

Virginia, Bill & John

(from John) We had some white outs of snow. A quiet day with women coming out. Thank you Jesus. We prayed most of the time. We had some women yelling at us and try to remove some of our signs. Father John Sweeney got me involved in the pro-life movement. Let’s pray to his patron Saint. Saint Patrick, pray for us!