In less than two weeks…on March 2nd…40 Days for Life begins!
In 588 cities worldwide, Christians will be humbling themselves by praying in front of abortion clinics. They will be repenting from our nation’s sin of legalized abortion and will be pleading with God to hear our prayers. From March 2nd through April 10th, from 7am to 7pm each day…people will be praying in front of Planned Parenthood in downtown Pittsburgh. Won’t you come and join us? Sign yourself up as an individual for as many hours as you can at 40 Days for Life or contact Donna Goss at gdgoss620@gmail.com to have her sign you up. To officially “adopt” a time slot for your church or group, contact Fran Morrow at franmac98fmc@gmail.com.
Help us to kick off this powerful campaign on Tuesday, March 1st!
Here are the details:
Tuesday, March 1st at 7:00 pm – Mass at Divine Mercy Parish, Epiphany Church: Celebrated by Fr. Chris Donley, pastor of Divine Mercy Parish and concelebrated with many priests, including Bishop William Waltersheid!
8:00 pm – Eucharistic Procession to Planned Parenthood: Leaving Epiphany Church at approximately 8:10pm and arriving at Planned Parenthood around 8:30pm.
Following our time of prayer with the Blessed Sacrament on the sidewalk, a group of faithful men will be maintaining an all-night prayer vigil to keep the Holy Spirit present on the sidewalk until the 40-day vigil officially begins at 7am on Ash Wednesday! This is only the second time we have done this, and have only minimum coverage of two men per hour…so are in need of more men to join! Please email me at nbruni@40daysforlifepgh.com if you can help fill out the ranks of these faithful soldiers of Christ! I believe that God will honor the faithfulness and sacrifices of these dedicated men, and will bring much grace and blessing to our 40 days!
Another way to help us during these 40 days is to join our 40-day fast.
Sign up HERE to commit to fast (bread and water or liquids only) on certain days during the campaign. Our goal is to have at least 3 people fasting each day.
We are basically in Lenten “pre-season warm-up” time right now. Now is the time to begin to think about the ways you can fast and sacrifice during Lent. Get your game plan going now…and I will see you soon!
I will close with two short reflections to inspire you. The first is written by Barbara, a veteran 40 days for life shift manager, blog writer and year-round 40 days 365 participant. She wrote this after her shift on the sidewalk last Friday:
Dear Friends, Today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The sidewalk seemed awash in goodness. It accompanied Richard, Bill and me. A woman idled her car in the street just in front of the pp front doors. She remained a few minutes so I went over and leaned in. Her mother’s name was Barbara. She said she likes to stop by and visit for a moment with us. That was all she had to say … a lovely woman. A man stopped and asked if I was the person he had talked with before. We agreed that we didn’t know and it didn’t matter. He shared that he was an atheist. He believed in abortion. He was earnest. We have learned a little about the hearts of people who stop to talk. His heart is beautiful. He is moving in the right direction.
Staff arrives from 7:30. A “crowd” of women, abortion bound, begins around 8. It is agonizing. Contempt is what so many show us. You remember your more sinful days, how your heart is so out of love. And your heart goes out to them. You share what they will let you share. One of our regular passers by stopped and asked me to pray for him. He said because we witness for life we must be close with God. What a privilege to have him think that! We prayed the Our Father together. I promised to keep him in prayer. Maisie Ward was a heroine of mine. I never dreamed that one day I would have the chance to talk with people about God this way. It was one of the many things she and her husband Frank did. Barbara
And finally, the man who is in charge of scheduling men for our over-night vigil wrote this short insight that although brief and humble…gave me an image of the miracle of conception…which I confess, I have never really meditated on:
I must say that I’m excited about our men having the opportunity to actually plead to Our Lord about this vital matter. We all know that life begins at the moment of conception. I mean, when else could it begin? But I’m a biologist. And contrary to how most people view scientists, biologists use their imaginations to understand the miracle that is life. In my imagination I got a vivid picture of the egg and a sperm cell uniting. Wham! Right then there is life. Life! It is not of this world. We can’t just stand by and allow it to be killed! Dave from CMF