For our President, members of Congress, and the Supreme Court, that they might renounce the death of the unborn, and imbue within our laws respect for all life from conception to natural death;
We pray to the Lord:
For medical researchers, that they may be inspired and strengthened by a love for every human person, from the moment of conception;
We pray to the Lord:
For all who have grown very old, that we might cherish their presence in our midst and drink deeply of their wisdom;
We pray to the Lord:
For those who pray before abortion clinics, who march for life, or who witness to the rights of all human beings: that God might strengthen and guide them;
We pray to the Lord:
For a spirit of repentence and conversion, that teh culture of death may be defeated by the power of the Cross of Jesus;
We pray to the Lord:
For the families of those condemned to die; that the hope of the resurrection and the truth of the Gospel of life might strengthen them in their time of need;
We pray to the Lord:
Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4/2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14/Luke 17:5-10
Do you ever get discouraged? Have you ever looked back on all the work you've done to end abortion, to protect every human life from violence, adn wondered why there are still laws which allow killing, mothers who abort, and people who die at the hand of the state? On those days, when you're feeling sorry for yourself, you have a friend in Habakkuk: "How long, O Lord?" he laments loudly: "I cry for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, 'Violence!' but you do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin: why do I look at misery?"
Habakkuk lived at a time when Israel was in exile and had to live among a foreign people who hated them. He and the faithful few tried to continue to do God's will against terrible odds, but sometimes became so discouraged that they thought that God was not doing his part. To Habakkuk and to us, the Lord responds:
"The vision still has its time!" Not my time. Not your time. but God's time. The day when all little babies will be safe in their mother's wombs will come! The day when no one is executed for any reason, will come! the day when old men adn dying women are cherished as God's most precious gifts, will come! The day when every human life from the first moment of conception to the last natural breath will be protected and nourished and respected--that day will come...God's day will come! "If it delays," God says, "wait for it. It will surely come, it will not be late."
Sometimes we get high and mighty, following our own agenda rather than trying to dscern God's will. But, Jesus tells us to remember that at the end of teh day we can have but one best boast: "we are unprofitable servants; who have done what we were supposed to do." Certainly we are called to work for the KIngdom of God with all our heart, sould, mind adn strength. Certainly we are to preach the Gospel of Life with every resource at our disposal. Certainly we are to "stir into flame the gift God gave us." But in the end, this great work of defending human life is not our work: it is the work of God!
God, give us the patient endurance to carry on! Give us the hope to know you will win the victory! And give us the faith to trust only in you, the author and keeper of the Gospel of Life.