Musings of a Catholic Mom: 7 Quick Takes: The 40 Days for Life Edition

I don't have time for a blog post today. I have to run errands and make potato salad and do laundry and change beds and clean bathrooms and make phone calls, and in between all that go to work at the preschool and help throw a Halloween Party/Fall Festival. Don't ask me what we're having for dinner. I have no idea. I expect we'll order out. However, I do have some thoughts as we wind down the last days of the Fall 2010 40 Days for Life campaign, so maybe these takes will be quick!

1. Thank God we don't have an abortion facility in our town. The closest ones are 45 minutes to an hour's drive away. Instead we are blessed to have the 40 Days for Life founders living here, raising their kids here, attending church at my parish, and running 40 Days for Life from here. I first met David and Margaret Bereit a couple of years ago when I first learned about 40 Days for Life. They are very active in our parish, and I know Margaret through the mother's Bible study group I attend. And over the summer Shawn Carney and his family moved here from College Station, Texas, where 40 Days for Life began. I haven't met Shawn yet, but I got to chat with his wife Marilisa a few weeks ago and she's lovely. Someday I hope to stand side-by-side with all of them in prayer at a 40 Days vigil, or even a rally.

2. By the way, I'll let you in on a little secret: as often as I see David in church and attending parish functions, and hear his name mentioned quite a lot as someone who is very involved in church activities (I have stood with him more than once in our parish hall serving coffee and donuts after Mass), it surprised me when I learned that he isn't Catholic. Yet. I don't know the Bereits well enough to know where David is on his faith journey (but if you are familiar with the 40 Days for Life campaign you'll know he is VERY strong in his Christian faith) but I suspect that his crossing the Tiber at some point in the future is a very real possibliity. Will you join me in prayer for David and his family, that David will take that leap into the Catholic Faith? What a blessing for him and for the Church that would be.

3. Since we don't have an abortion mill in our area--Praise God, and hopefully we never will--I don't get to actively pray at one as often as I would like. (I do pray from home, though; at least offering my Rosary intentions for the unborn as often as I can--I'm making a pledge right here and now to make more of an effort to do this more diligently) It does take some planning to make the two-hour commute to and from Richmond to attend the one there. This past Monday my friend J. and I decided to go down together, even though it would be a quick trip since I had to be back at a certain time to go to work. I think God's hand was in the planning, because when we left the church parking lot, it was a little later than I had hoped, but we made good time, we were able to say all of the mysteries of the Rosary while we were there, and arrived back just in time.

4. I've stood outside this particular abortion facility before, trying not to think too much about the unspeakable horrors that take place behind the drawn shades in the windows. The building itself (I couldn't find any photos of it online to show you what it looked like) is an innocent-looking place that appears to have once been a home. With a pretty little yard and a big, shady front porch. I can't help but imagine, if a house had thoughts and feelings and memories, would this one long for the days when a family lived within its walls, where children were born and laughed and played? Would it weep for the children who are torn limb from limb on a regular basis, for the frightened mothers who are tricked into thinking that the "doctors" ripping their babies from their wombs are doing so to help them?

5. I wanted to find a picture of the facility, and when I put the name of the abortion clinic into Google images, this was one of the images that popped up:

It came from a website for an insurance program for pregnant mothers sponsored by the Florida Department of Health. But how ironic; this picture of a healthy baby and a happy mother is the absolute antithesis of what the abortion industry does.

6. When I looked at the abortion mill's website to get the address, I couldn't help but notice their slogan: "Over 30 Years of Caring." (Make that Over 30 Years of Killing.) "Our doctor is a Board Certified OB/GYN who is called on to train other physicians." (That's right; the abortionist teaches others how to poison and dismember babies still in their mothers' wombs.) "Your safety, well-being, and future fertility are our greatest concerns." (We'll take your money, kill your baby, and keep you coming back for more. We've got to stay in business, don't ya know.) "One fee covers initial ultrasound, counseling, procedure, follow-up exam, and lab work done in our office." (Pay us and we'll look at your baby--we won't let you see the ultrasound, of course, cuz then you'll know it really IS a baby we're about to kill--convince you that aborting your child is the best choice, kill the little brat, and before you leave we'll make sure we didn't leave any body parts behind.)

"30 Years of Caring." Right. If you don't believe the devil is a liar, just look at the whoppers the abortion industry tells.

7. J. and I prayed at the facility on a Monday, when no abortions are performed. It was just the two of us, praying together. We had an uneventful hour (click here to see my post about our more eventful vigil that took place there), although we did see a young woman walk up to the building as though she was going to enter through the front door (we stood by the back of the building, next to the entrance to the parking lot and the back door where clients normally enter.) A minute or two later she came back around the building and begin talking to a young man standing nearby. They walked away from the facility in opposite directions, and a few minutes later I saw the man walking back toward us, and the young woman then drove up in her car and the man got in and they left. Were they there to make an appointment? To pick up birth control? Did they leave because Monday is an "off" day? Or because we were there? We're not sure if she actually went inside since we couldn't see the front door from where we were standing. I offered up my prayers for this young couple.

As we were finishing up our vigil and preparing to leave, we saw a man and a woman loading boxes into cars, chatting happily and laughing. J, who used to work in a hospital, said they looked like medical waste containers. God forbid. Holy Michael the Archangel, pray for us. Maybe they were, maybe they weren't; but still I offered up a prayer for the innocent lives that are discarded through abortion, and for the conversion of those who facilitate their deaths.

That is what 40 Days for Life is all about.