by Father Jim Whalen Priests for Life Canada Newsletter 2007 issue 3
Faith should compel pro-life disciples to not only "do what we have to do" but to "do all we can do". We start with prayer and follow it up with pro-life action. We need pro-life prayer warriors as never before. We have our own earthquakes with the deception of contraception and the horrors of abortion - with over two million surgical abortions in the last twenty-five years in Canada alone. The answer is to persevere in prayer, faith, and faithful action. We, as prolifers, are part of the struggle against the disorder caused by a contraceptive mentality. During the 1970s three main happenings disrurbed and caused people to worry:
1) They worried about population explosion.
2) They worried about the earth's limited resources.
3) They worried about the higher quality of life that science promised would be undermined by the growing population.
People abandoned long-held teaching that every human life had equal value, regardless of its stage, condition, or status. People pretended that contraception was acceptable, that abortion wasn't killing, and avoided the scientific fact that human life begins at conception and is continuous, whether intra- or extra-uterine, until death. As pro-lifers we are not overwhelmed by abortion. We pray and work to overwhelm it. We just don't denounce contraception and abortion. We pray and work to save babies. We pray and work to win parents away from the horror of contraception and abortion. We pray and work to bring about the realization of love, the kingdom of the Heart of Jesus. With harts like our mother, Mary, we pray and work to serve love and life.
One of our basic problems in the world today is that we do not pray enough. We do not persevere in prayer. Prayer depends on the liveliness of our faith. We pray as we believe. Prayer is the activity that will not be interrupted by death but will continue in heaven, never to end. The most sublime prayer, the most powerful prayer, is not petition or gratitude, it is adoration, recognizing who God is and telling Him we are pleased and grateful. So many ignore and defy God today. Mother Teresa was convinced that the real evil behind contraception and abortion is not mere selfishness, nor people who are preoccupied with their own interests as not to want children to stand between themselves and the pleasures they can enjoy. Behind the mania of contraception and abortion, she was convinced that in the leaders of society is a defiance of God. In the act of procreation, man denies God's right over human existence. God wants prayer warriors who adore in spirit and truth to make up for the blasphemy in untruth. Adoration is the primary duty of man as creature. It is a fundamental law of human existence. We are created to do homage to God, admire Him, and praise Him. Pro-lifers should live as we pray.
Mature prayer is inspired by love, based on faith, and fed by the word of God. Without scripture and spiritual reading, prayer starves. Pro-lifers must keep in mind in this age of martyrdom that Christ may be waiting for us over the next hill. The twentieth century has had more than one million martyrs, a fact we sometimes overlook. We want to be found ready and willing to use all our talents and gifts, uniting with His will, to be of service to Him in our pro-life commitment in our time remaining. Prayer keeps us faithful to faith. We feed on the truths of Christ until our minds, hearts, voices, and lives are in accord with Christ and His church. Whether it is in fixed prayer, a set prayer time to feed the soul, or fleeting prayer, or prayer of the moment, we seek to be pro-life prayer warriors