My 12 Hour Prayer Marathon for 40 Days for Life
Spending a Friday on a street in the City of Cincinnati
The 40 Days for Life prayer vigil takes place in Cincinnati on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood on Auburn Avenue.
I had been anticipating this day for a long time. One where I made reparation for my own sins and the world’s. One where I prayed for the victims and, yes, the perpetrators of abortion, right in front of the place where it occurred. For my parish (I'm the pro-life coordinator there), I picked the day. For this October I decided we would participate in the 40 Days for Life prayer vigil differently than we had done it in the past. Instead of single one-hour shifts we usually took, this year we would do it for an entire 12-hour shift as many other parishes do it.
In the days and weeks prior to the day, eight of our core members of the pro-life ministry signed up, taking one-hour slots throughout the morning. I made a vow, however, that I would be there all day, taking breaks only when two others were present.
As I made my way there in the pre-dawn hours, I passed a homeless man asleep in a sitting position on a bus stop bench. I didn't want to disturb him, so I went by quietly. When I went by him later that morning, he was awake. I greeted him this second time. This appeared to be his spot for the day, but he was up and gone by 11.
When I first arrived, I was greeted by two men who were undertaking a new, even harder task than mine. That was of keeping the prayer vigil going non-stop by praying all during the night-time hours. I looked upon them with a silent reverence. Any more would have made them uncomfortable, I was sure. As I took their place one left giving his goodbyes, the other seemed to be lingering in the distance. One moment I could see him out of the corner of my eye and then he was gone, disappearing into the darkness of the predawn hours. Perhaps he was an angel in disguise, protecting the other man from the dangers of the night. Who knows?
As I thought it would be so, the first hour flew by. This was in stark contrast to my experience when volunteering for one-hour shifts. Those hours always seemed to slow as if seconds were minutes and so forth.
My first relief came from two men of my parish, who arrived at 8 a.m., and I took my first break. I went back to where I had parked my car for the day, an old, historic church that was a part of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. The parish had been closed a few years ago in a cost-saving measure due to a lack of parishioners. Yet from efforts by Catholic pro-life groups who every Saturday morning have Mass and Eucharistic Adoration and a procession to Planned Parenthood, the church has remained in use. Thank the Lord!
I took my break time to begin writing this very chronicle. When I returned to Planned Parenthood, the sidewalks had transformed. Along with the morning sun came more men to testify to the truth. If I had any sense of self satisfaction with "doing my part" for the cause, this was vanquished within me. There before me was a seasoned sidewalk advocate whose role it was to speak to anyone entering the facility to let them know there were good and moral alternatives to the grim procedure being conducted within. Others were busy standing up signs across the street with various sayings, some warnings, some condemnations, some with messages of hope.
One fellow stood clad in a large sign; his head drooped in sorrow. When he did not return my greeting, I was not offended. He was elsewhere in spirit.
We stood there testifying to the truth. We pray, we grieve for the lives lost and broken. We try to stop at least one other from making that life-altering decision. We pray for the victims but also the perpetrators. They know not what they do!
There is a moral blindness that is hard to account for. G.K. Chesterton pointed out in his biography of St. Thomas Aquinas that since the time of the Reformation, Europe and England in particular, had become at home with, or rather quite comfortable with, the paradox. But even more so, that parodoxy had become orthodoxy. A familiar English boast, he provided as an example, was that “they were practical because they were not logical.” Even worse, contradictions have cropped up into “modern,” abstract philosophy. Hegel and other modern philosophers, Chesterton noted, have propounded such things about reality as “things are only as we think them” or “everything is relative to a reality that is not there.” This is in sharp contrast with the common sense, reality-based views of St. Thomas, where as Chesterton quoted Father D’Arcy’s biography of St. Thomas: “it is impossible that contradictories should exist together, and again reality and intelligibility correspond, but a thing must first be, to be intelligible.” In other words, Chesterton pointed out, St. Thomas and anyone else with common sense would refuse to admit “that Hegel can both exist and not exist; or that it can be possible to understand Hegel, if there is no Hegel to understand.”
According to Chesterton, since the modern world began in the sixteenth century, “nobody’s system of philosophy has really corresponded to everybody’s sense of reality…” The point being is that many of us have become comfortable with contradictions in our world views, whether we know it or not. And I think this has negatively effected the thinking of many otherwise good people who cannot or will not see the contradiction that is involved with abortion.
The basic contraction, I believe, is this: you cannot claim to be a morally good person who values human life and at the same time condone the killing of an innocent human life. Either you value human life or you do not. You cannot have it both ways; either Hegel exists or he doesn’t.
All morally good people agree with the universal statement that all human life is intrinsically valuable, meaning that it is valuable in and of itself, not due to any external reasons or factors. This means that having the quality of intrinsic value is not conditional or subject to exceptions. Thus, if we truly value human life, we must value all human life at all times. This includes all races and creeds of men, slave or free, young and old, born and unborn. This means we may not for any reason murder another human being. This is especially true in the case of an innocent human being.
(By the way, if you place yourself in the unfortunate position of attempting to justify the murder of innocents because others justify killing in time of war or the execution of convicted killers, you have my sympathies. This is a ridiculously untenable position.
Even more, if you are trying to frame abortion as a form of self-defense for the mother, I would ask you why it would ever be needed to poison, chop up, or otherwise actively kill the child to save the mother? Granting this only for the sake of argument, would not the simple removal of the fetus suffice, as in the case of an ectopic pregnancy? (A thank you to Matt Walsh for that last thought—it was his, not my own.))
Abortion masquerades as a quick and easy solution to a fearful problem. But this is a lie. It may take away a trouble in the short term. The woman is no longer pregnant. But at what cost? Her child is now dead, and her soul is now darkened by what she has done.
They do not want to know what they do! This makes some of them angry. Especially those who pass by in cars screaming and flashing us with vulgar gestures.
My second relief, two ladies from our parish, arrived at 10 a.m. I decided to take another break to continue my journal back at the church. As I was leaving, two of the regulars asked me to return with coffee upon my return. I wasn't sure if they were kidding, so I returned later with drinks in a small cooler I had brought. I wanted to ask one what had motivated them to be here that day. But I decided not to ask a pointless question that I already knew. They were there for the same reason I was. Witnessing the truth.
When I returned at 11 a.m., the male sidewalk advocate was relieved by two women. One was stationed at the entrance and one at the exit. I was glad they were there in spite of the false mantra that men have no business protesting abortion because this was a women's only issue. First of all, I have it on the good authority of my own mother, that I myself spent nine months in a womb. I think that gives me some say. Secondly, but even more so, it is decidedly not exclusively a woman’s issue for a simple reason that we all know: a woman does not usually become pregnant unless a man was involved in a certain intimate way. To say it is her problem exclusively is to improperly exclude the man from that responsibility. No woman should be shunned as such.
Pro-lifers’ and in particular male pro-lifers’ motivations are also often called into question. One foul lie we are accused of is our wanting only to control what women do to their own bodies. As for my own motivations, if I wanted only to control what women did with their bodies surely I could find a more effective use of my time than standing on this particular sidewalk all day. And if I cared only about interfering with women's healthcare, then I would do far better by praying in front of the much larger, more busy Christ Hospital, just down the road. No, it’s not like a simple appendectomy was being performed in this place. Failing organs were not being removed. Lives were not being saved here. Lives were being ended here. That’s our motivation.
I took another break at noon with relief from two more ladies from our parish. (The pro-life movement, by the way, has far more women involved than men.) I had some lunch and continued this journal. At 1 p.m. with the long afternoon was ahead of me, I was half way through my day. Another lady from the parish joined me. Now we were flanked with other folks praying and advocating.
The peaceful siege continued. No one got in without an attempt to talk to them, or at least getting a glimpse of people praying for them. At 2 p.m., the old man across the street collected up his signs and his companions to end their day. I did end up speaking with two of them. One said he had been at this for 13 years. The other was also a long-standing member of the movement. (He asked me for bus fare to get home. I gladly gave him what I had.)
The afternoon shift of sidewalk advocates were young people, no older than late teens—two guys and a girl. They also flanked the entrance and exit. While we prayed silently as was our role, these young people addressed everyone they saw: those going into and out of the facility and passersby’s on the sidewalks. This included on separate occasions two obviously pregnant girls who were walking by on their way to other destinations (thank the Lord!). These girls were handed brochures detailing the services of local organizations, including pregnancy centers and many other free resources available to them.
On one of those occasions, a couple of local girls were passing by, one was visibly pregnant, the other not. The three young advocates converged on them gleefully to share the good news. The local girls, like most people we meet on the streets, were pleased to be stopped. I sensed they were happy to talk to people who showed a concern for their wellbeing. How could they not be pleased?
When the conversations were over and the local girls departed, I heard their story from the advocates. It was indeed providential to say the least. The young female advocate told us that she had already seen the two girls in the nearby Kroger’s bathroom. They had bought a pregnancy test and just found out that the non-visibly pregnant girl was indeed also pregnant. She was, obviously, still coming to terms with her pregnancy and was abortion-minded. This meant that she was thinking about it as an option. The sidewalk advocates presented her with information she would not get inside Planned Parenthood. This was the truth that she had options and support available to her should she decide to let her baby live. I prayed that she would make the right decision and not live the rest of her life with the regret that comes with abortion.
We often hear from certain celebrities of their lack of regret for their abortions. This is meaningless. Either they are have sociopathic personalities or have worked hard to swallow down their regret. And even if they didn’t feel it now, what about in five years, or ten, or 50? How about on their death bed? They cannot tell us that now. They would be lying if they did.
But even so, there is care and concern for those who have chosen abortion in the past. One of the signs set up gave that information—800-712-HELP. There was also information about changing your mind if you have already taken the first step to the abortion pill. There are resources available, as the literature states:
Call the 24-hour Abortion Pill Reversal Hotline at 1-877-558-0333 or visit the website (www.abortionpillreversal.com) to connect with a doctor who can guide you through the reversal process.
The wonderful young sidewalk advocates left at 4 p.m., but we were joined by another volunteer who stayed until 5 p.m. This lady worked in a nearby medical facility. At 6 p.m., I was again by myself. The abortion facility had already been closed for the day, and the gates were shut. That last hour, from 6 until 7 p.m., dragged as if it were three hours instead of one.
After praying for some time, I realized that good philosophy was not enough to solve this issue. It was really a matter of the heart. We needed to pray for people to find a place in their heart for unwanted, unborn children. Think of them, feel for them. Place them in your heart. The best way to do this is by taking loving and proper care of their mothers. Do not abandon them to the abortionist. Help them to love themselves and their own babies. Get them the help they need in a time of disparate trouble. That’s the solution to abortion.
Though the prayer vigil officially ended at 7 p.m., I was relieved by a man taking an over-night shift. Impressed by his dedication, I left for home.
My twelve hours of praying was over. I was wearied from the spiritual battle fought. Many Rosaries and Divine Mercy chaplets were said. The sign I wore that day, “Pray for the End of Abortion” was put away. I knew my prayers were heard and hoped that the ending of abortion would soon be accomplished.
All things are possible with God.