DAILY PRO-LIFE PRAYER
A Review by Fr. Jim Whalen
2001, Issue 3
Our prayer lifestyle is very personal and of utmost importance in pro-life commitment and service. Jesus prayed spontaneously at times, such as at the Last Supper, but always directed His His prayer towards His Father. Jesus, His mother, Mary, and the Apostles, associated their prayers with daily life.
"Behold the handmaid of the Lord". "My soul magnifies the Lord".
"They have no more wine". "Behold your Son… behold your Mother".
"Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit".
As pro-life warriors, we would do well to imitate their example.
Lord, give us the strength to persevere. Father; teach us how to change hardened hearts. Help us always to choose life. Grant us the graces to protect all human life today. Have mercy and forgive all who promote a culture of death. Lord, open the eyes of all to your truth.
Archbishop Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan draws our attention to the last stage of continuous prayer, when we become prayer. He points out Isaac of Niniveh’s description of one who lives this way: "Whether one eats, drinks, sleeps or whatever other thing one does, and even in the most profound sleep, the perfume of prayer rises without fatigue from one’s heart. The purified movements of the heart and of the intellect are voices full of sweetness with which men never cease to sing in secret to the hidden God" (Enarrations in Psalmos, 85, Testimony of Hope, p. 121).
He calls upon St. Augustine to reveal the whole essence of prayer, "Orat Pro Nobis Ut Sacerdos Nostros; Orat Un Nobis Ut Caput Nostrum; Oratur A Nobis Ut Deus Noster": "It is Jesus Himself who prays for us as our priest, prays in us as our head, is prayed to us by our God" (Enarrationes in Psalmos, 85, Testimony of Hope, p. 121). ¤
Recommended reading (Best Book of the Year): Testimony of Hope, The Spiritual Exercises of John Paul II, 2000, Pauline Books and Media, p. 223).