DAY 32: Pray for Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood often receives special focus during a 40 Days for Life campaign. It is the largest abortion chain in the United States, and according to its most recent annual report, it performed 305,310 abortions during a 12-month period.
During this 40 Days for Life campaign alone, there are vigils being conducted at 76 Planned Parenthood locations.
Two of those sites are in Houston, Texas. One is an office building that’s being refurbished into one of the largest abortion centers in the Western Hemisphere.
No abortions have been performed there yet — but already, a baby has been saved.
Fr. Carlos in Houston tells of a 17-year-old who showed up recently, telling vigil participants she was there for an abortion. “She didn’t realize the clinic was not open ‘for business’ yet,” he said.
Her boyfriend was pressuring her into an abortion. “She was going to go through with it,” Fr. Carlos said, “because she didn’t know what else to do.”
The Gabriel Project quickly rounded up support for this young mother and her child.
Members of a local church have already placed a billboard near the new Planned Parenthood mega-center. It reads, “Take my hand, not my life.”
Here’s a photo of that billboard:
The second 40 Days for Life location in Houston is a Planned Parenthood abortion center. It was there that Mikel Fair, a local video director, said he was inspired to put together a short feature on the 40 Days for Life campaign.
“It was a rewarding experience,” he said, “and I hope that this video will encourage other pro-lifers like myself to take a peaceful stand against abortion centers throughout the world, in a kind and loving way through prayer.”
There’s a 40 Days for Life vigil going on at another reported Planned Parenthood construction site in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The local newspaper reported on this campaign’s midpoint rally.
“Planned Parenthood makes teens believe that sex is recreational,” local volunteer Charles Gorski said. “They’re basically saying if you get pregnant by accident, just take care of it by killing your baby.”
Click here to read the full story:
The 40 Days for Life vigil in Canton, Ohio is at a Planned Parenthood center that does not perform surgical abortions. And that raises many questions.
A young woman, who was waiting outside the building, asked the prayer volunteers, “How much do you guys get paid to stand out here?”
“We do not get paid,” the vigil participant answered. “We stand out here in the cold and snow to save the lives of unborn babies.”
The woman responded, “They don’t do that here, do they?”
“This Planned Parenthood refers, suggests and counsels women to abort their baby,” the volunteer explained, “and a portion of every dollar spent for services in this facility helps to kill the unborn.”
“She was shocked and disgusted,” said Linda in Canton. “She thanked us and went back to the building to wait. A seed was planted.”
Here’s a picture of the vigil in Canton:
Today’s devotional is from Rev. Paul Stallsworth, president of Lifewatch (United Methodist Church).
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DAY 32 INTENTION
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May we come to know that divine life, in relationship, creates human life.
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SCRIPTURE
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
– John 1:1-3
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REFLECTION by Rev. Paul Stallsworth, Lifewatch
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“In the beginning” was God.
Always, before all times, there was God.
This particular God — the God of the Bible, the God of St. John’s Gospel — is different from all other gods. This God is alive and full of life.
This God is not the picture of deadness and death, aloneness and isolation.
This God is the picture of life, relationship, and unity. For within this God, within this one God, there are three divine persons who live, who love, and who work — together. This is the glorious mystery of the Trinity.
The Trinity means divine life. The Trinity means three, living Persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — who relate to each other. The Trinity means mutual love and service among three Persons.
The Word was always with God the Father. This Word was, is, and will be the Trinity’s second person. The Word is also the Son of God or, as revealed in time, Jesus Christ.
God the Father and God the Son live, love, and work for each other. As one, they create “all things” together: the Father creates all things, including all human life, through the Son.
So the Father, through the Son, creates all human lives. The little one swimming in his mother’s womb, the infant smiling in his father’s arms, the child crying in pain in a hospital bed, the energetic teen running another mile, the old man gasping for his last breath — all were created, at their beginning, by the Father through the Son.
No exceptions. Divine life creates human life.
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PRAYER
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O God, may we always be quick to call you Father. And when we call you father, let your Spirit remind us that we, and all people, from their beginning to their last day, are your children.
We praise you, Father, that you sent your Son to reveal to the world that all people are His brothers and sisters, that all people are your children. Through Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.
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PRINTABLE DEVOTIONAL
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To download today’s devotional as a formatted, printable PDF to share with friends:
http://40daysforlife.com/docs/spring2010day32print.pdf
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Yours for Life,
David Bereit
National Director
40 Days for Life
PS: How is 40 Days for Life changing your community? Your church? How is it changing YOU? Please reply below with your good news.
March 20th, 2010 at 9:40 am
How is the 40 Days for Life changing me? As the vigils go on, I find myself relying less on me and more on prayer. For the first time, I have consistently sought to have an offsite prayer partner working with me. I update her after each vigil. The results have been remarkably inspiring.
Yesterday, I returned to the sidewalk for a second shift to find myself broiling in the Sacramento sun with only one other man. Will God use me? Certainly. All I have to do is show up and be faithful. I had the opportunity to speak to the clinic director who came right over to me. We are developing some trust, some dialogue, some communication as time goes by. It becomes less and less about me and more and more about the women, the babies, the community. I may be the only bible some of these folks will ever read. We are a sign of contradiction. We are the gospel: the good news taken out into the world. Hopefully, it becomes an exercise in humility and hope. Most of all, my patience grows and my heart fills with the love of all I meet. This is the time we are given. Let us rejoice to be of service to our King.
March 20th, 2010 at 11:19 am
Our 40DFL family in Birmingham, Alabama wanted to share this bit of news with our entire 40DFL family. It concerns our local Planned Parenthood, the site of our vigil. On Thursday of this week, the accountant of 17 years at PP spoke to one of our volunteers and shared with him that PP had terminated her with two days notice. The woman said that she spoke to our volunteer because we had always been nice to her. She asked for our prayers and any help we could give her in obtaining new employment. Please pray for Christine.
This lesson has taught me that the employees of Planned Parenthood are NOT the enemy. These people are God’s children and deserve our prayers for their conversion to the culture of life.
March 20th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
I pray with my husband and four others at the Shaker Blvd site in Cleveland, Ohio on Sunday mornings. All is quiet and peaceful during our prayer times and usually we see very little traffic. Are we making a difference? During my prayer time this morning it occurred to me that our politicians today stand in Pontius Pilate’s shoes. Do they do cast their vote for justice or do they cave in to pressure, bribes, threats?! Pilate ignored his wife’s dream and his name today is said thousands of times everyday in the Apostle’s creed…
March 20th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.
Letter from Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Matthew 25: 40
” The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
Father, today we pray that the eyes and hearts of our nation would be opened to see that the injustice of abortion affects all of us. It is a human rights issue.
Under God’s law each one of us is valued equally. Every human being is endowed by God with the right to life. He has designed each one of us and prepared a plan for our life. Help us as individuals, and as a nation to return to being a nation that brings honor to you by honoring the life that you created. We ask these things in the name of your precious Son who died that we might have abundant life. Amen.
March 20th, 2010 at 6:48 pm
I read your letters and I am moved at the videos, the prayers, the faith and what power comes with prayer. Our God is with us as we fight this battle.
I am praying for the 40 days for life daily, and I am sure many others are as well. I have forwarded your e-mails to my pro life list of contacts. I think there are many who pray with the 40 days for life in their own homes and churches. Our nearest 40 days place of prayer is 2 and 1/2 hours away.
In January of 09, a website http://www.rosariesforlife.com was founded to help this fight for life. Please check this out if you interested. Thank you for all you are doing. May God Bless You!, Sally, Wisconsin
March 20th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
Hi, Just want to say that many Christian people are united to this cause and one of the places we called it “Hell’s Gate” in Bridgeport Connecticut “Summit Women’s Center” . I had the change to participate in several prayer mettings in front of this place, where I saw woman turning away and saved babies from abortions. Please unite in prayer for this slaughter to end and they will know the truth and the truth will set them FREE!
March 20th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
When I read that over 305,000 babies were aborted thru the PP in a year I was struck by the many families who want children. Could there be a new ministry side-by-side PP that ushered women “in” to adopt “out” their babies? Yes, 9 months of support to get “one” saved baby but perhaps “all of them.” Certainly, a benefactor could step forward in one area to see what it would take from a medical, legal and support position to do this. Nothing is too BIG for God, right?
March 20th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Let us all pray for an end to abortion in the world.
March 20th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
Thank you to all of you who are making such a difference in this world! My heart is pierced by your work in a mighty way. Only God knows the number of lives who have been saved by you allowing Him to work through you. Perhaps, one of God’s children will be raised up to be our nation’s President one day! In prayer with you.
March 21st, 2010 at 12:53 am
May the peace of the Lord be with you. Today, on this beautiful and sunny day we went to one of the Reproductive Clinics of El Paso, TX. We were about 22 people, but most of them young kids praying for the unborn babies. But this time we were especially praying for our senators and our President; we were asking Jesus to have mercy on them. Yes, we started at 3:00 pm. with the Novena to the Divine Mercy, then continued praying our Rosary. Les dije a los chicos que se pusieran una calcamonia del Espiritu Santo con una rama de olivo en su pico. Hoy deseamos que la paloma que trajo buenas noticias a Noe (Ark of Noa) despues de 40 días del diluvio lleve buenas noticias a nuestros representantes “Que escojan la Vida y no la Muerte” por consecuensia buenas noticias para nosotros. Tambien meditamos en la lectura de Isaias 49, 15 “Pero, Puede una mujer olvidarse del niño que cría, o dejar de querer al hijo de sus entrañas? Pues bien, aunque alguna lo olvidase, Yo nunca me olvidaria de ti”
God will never forget us! Thank you for your time, prayers, and fasting because we are saving lives and God is watching us.
March 22nd, 2010 at 1:54 am
I am 9 0 years old and we have no Planned Parenthood in our town. I am sure there is a place where they can get an abortion so we pray for an end to abortion. I forward all of my daily reports to our group of women who are for the ending of abortion and we all pray for all unborn babies. The poor women who are freightened and don’t know what to do when they are too young, have no money and have no idea how to get help. We have a Gabriel Project in our church to give help to any who will let us know they need help. We hope we are able to help them. God will bless all who try to help. Satan is so strong and wants to kill all he can. Don’t let him. Dorothy
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Thank you so much for your witness and willingness to pray for the end of abortion throughout the world. The change starts right here in our cities and the is what you are praying for and working to accomplish. I join in spirit and in my daily Mass and prayers. God Bless you, each one!!!
(signed) Sister Mary Luisanne Breen, S.N.D.
Chardon, OH