Masses were offered today for the protection of the unborn and an end to abortion in some parishes in Arlington. The readings of are providentially, perhaps even hauntingly, appropriate for the occasion. Excerpts appear below.
Lamentations 2:2, 10-14, 18-19
18 Cry aloud to the Lord! O daughter of Zion! Let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite!
19 Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.
Psalm 74:1-7, 20-21
3 Direct thy steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!Is the womb not a sanctuary of human life, the result of God sharing His creative power with humanity? If only it were treated as such always.
4 Thy foes have roared in the midst of thy holy place; they set up their own signs for signs.
5 At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes.
6 And then all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
7 They set thy sanctuary on fire; to the ground they desecrated the dwelling place of thy name.
20 Have regard for thy covenant; for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
21 Let not the downtrodden be put to shame; let the poor and needy praise thy name.
After the Masses a group of the faithful prayed all four mysteries of the Rosary in front of an abortion clinic in Alexandria. I spoke with a man who had been praying with the group for years. He said the worst thing is to see a father drive his teenage daughter to the clinic to procure an abortion. "What kind of sicko would do that?" he asked. "The man who gave his little girl life is taking her to kill her own baby." It reminds me of one of the many things Mother Teresa said about abortion:
"Please don't kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted, and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child, and be loved by the child. From our children's home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3,000 children from abortions. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents, and have grown up so full of love and joy!"
