Prayers of Reparation, Prayers for the Unborn

I hear that Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando is going to lead a Mass of Reparation linked to Notre Dame's invitation to Obama, on May 3rd at 6:00 PM. I wish every diocese would do the same. I propose each of us in our own way pray for the unborn in danger of being killed; pray for an end of abortion; and pray for the conversion of Obama.

Here are some prayers that may be helpful to get us started:

Prayer for life by Pope John Paul II

O Mary, bright dawn of the new world,
Mother of the living,
to you do we entrust the cause of life:
Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers
of babies to be born,
of the poor whose lives are made difficult,
of men and women who are victims of brutal violence,
of the elderly and the sick killed
by indifference or out of misguided mercy.
Grant that all who believe in your Son
may proclaim the Gospel of life
with honesty and love to the people of our time.
Obtain for them the grace
to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new,
the joy of celebrating it with gratitude
throughout their lives
and the courage to bear witness to it resolutely,
in order to build,
together with all people of good will,
the civilization of truth and love,
to the praise and glory of God,
the Creator and lover of life.

~~ Pope John Paul II
Encyclical Letter "The Gospel of Life"
Given in Rome, on March 25,
the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord,
in the year 1995.
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Prayer for the Helpless Unborn

Heavenly Father, in Your love for us, protect against the wickedness of the devil, those helpless little ones to whom You have given the gift of life. Touch with pity the hearts of those women pregnant in our world today who are not thinking of motherhood.

Help them to see that the child they carry is made in Your image - as well as theirs  - made for eternnal life. Dispel their fear and selfishness and give them true womanly hearts to love their babies and give them birth and all the needed care that a mother alone can give.

We ask this through Jesus  Christ, Your  Son, Our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy  Spirit, one God, forever and ever,  Amen.

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A Prayer for Abortion Victims

Holy Mother of God and of the Church, our Lady of Guadalupe, you were chosen by the Father for the Son through the Holy Spirit. You are the Woman clothed with the sun who labors to give birth to Christ while Satan, the Red Dragon, waits to voraciously devour your child.

So too did Herod seek to destroy your Son, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and massacred many innocent children in the process. So today does abortion killing many innocent unborn children and exploiting many mothers in its attack upon human life and upon the Church, the Body of Christ.

Mother of the Innocents, we praise God in you for His gifts to you of your Immaculate Conception, your freedom from actual sin; your fullness of grace, your Motherhood of God and the Church, your Perpetual Virginity and your Assumption in body and soul into heaven.

O Help of Christians, we beg you to protect all mothers of the unborn and the children within their wombs. We plead with you for your help to end the holocaust of abortion. Melt hearts so that life may be revered!

Holy Mother, we pray to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart for all mothers and all unborn children that they may have life here on earth and by the most Precious Blood shed by your Son that they may have eternal life with Him in heaven. We also pray to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart for all abortionists and all abortion supporters that they may be converted and accept your Son, Jesus Christ, as their Lord and Savior. Defend all of your children in the battle against Satan and all of the evil spirits in this present darkness.

We desire that the innocent unborn children who die without Baptism should be baptized and saved. We ask that you obtain this grace for them and repentance, reconciliation and pardon from God for their parents and their killers.

Let there be revealed, once more, in the history of the world the infinite power of merciful love. May it put an end to evil. May it transform consciences. May your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of hope. May Christ the King reign over us, our families, cities, states, nations and the whole of humanity.

O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary, hear our pleas and accept this cry from our hearts!

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Protectress of the Unborn, Pray for us!

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Prayer of Reparation

God and Father of Life,
You have created every human person,
And have opened the way for each to have eternal life.

We live in the shadow of death.
Tens of millions of your children have been killed
Thanks to the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

Father, have mercy on us.
Heal our land
And accept our offering of prayer and penance.
In your love for us,
Turn back the scourge of abortion.

May each of us exult in hearts full of hope
And hands full of mercy
And work together to build a culture of life. 

We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

People perform a mass freeze in Grand Central Station, New York city

Sound of Music | Central Station Antwerp (Belgium)

High Tech Photographs Of Fetal Development

Life's for Sharing

You gotta see this:

See Deacon Greg's post. He has a link to the making of this video.

Pay for Performance Act

The Anchoress has a very important post. It starts:

I am going to look around more before commenting further, but if this is correct then we’re looking at something very bad, indeed.

…the democratically lead Congress has proposed the “Pay for Performance Act” which passed Thursday with even some Republican Congressman voted for it.
…
The scariest part of the bill is that while you’re serving as a “volunteer,” you’re prohibited from participating in worship and church activities, political rallies and being involved in a union. In short, your essential freedoms are gone.

That took less than 100 days.

See the rest here.

Protecting Conscience Rights

Please contact HHS and ask them not to recind the Conscience Rights.

From the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:

Protecting Conscience Rights in Health Care: Our Voice is Needed!

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is inviting public comment on a proposal to rescind an important federal regulation issued in December. The regulation implements and enforces three federal laws protecting the conscience rights of health care providers, especially those at risk of being discriminated against because of their moral or religious objection to abortion.

The Catholic community must speak out to protect Catholic doctors, nurses and hospitals.

Please go to: NCHLA to send an on-line message to HHS. Go here.

Where We are Now...A Sorry State

Browsing the various Catholic Blogs, I find a post by the Deacon's Bench reporting on an article by U.S. News and World Report commenting on a Gallup Poll on Catholic views on moral issues, concluding Catholics are as liberal or more liberal than non-Catholics. See the article here.

Now I'm not a reader of U.S. News. I gave up on them decades ago. I don't generally believe polls unless I know they are coming from a source without an agenda - difficult to find.

But the results here are startling. It shows that there are many Catholics who are Catholic in name only. I blame this in part on poor formation, poor on-going formation, the liberal U.S. Catholic Church, bishops and priests in general. We just don't hear true moral teachings from the Pulpit. We hear la-la feel good homilies.

These easily persuaded people in a liberal culture are weak. As Catholics we are called to be counter-cultural. We need to stand on rock and be true to our faith.

We have a tendancy to be silent, to not cause waves. But being so is so wrong. We need to be vocal and we need to act and stand up to our beliefs. We don't correct our brothers and sisters when they are wrong.

For example, abortion has been legal for over thirty years. There is a strong likelihood that we know someone who has had an abortion. If we care about them there is a tendancy to support them. To find an excuse. If we can't condemn them , we can't condemn abortion. That is exactly were we are wrong. We must hate the sin and love the sinner.