Hi Everyone,
I had a really neat experience today and I just wanted to share. We recently got a new priest from the Companions of the Cross order and during our pro-life meeting he told us he would preach about abortion from the pulpit. Unfortunately my thoughts were "yeah that's great but I'll believe it when I see it". We have a few events we're trying to promote at our church including 40 Days for Life and Life Chain. I knew something was coming from contact I've had with Fr. Yves but I was not prepared for what. He dedicated his whole homily to the pro-life movement. I was in awe...shock and had such a profound feeling of awesomeness (D. felt similar things though I'm sure he'd use different words!). I didn't feel like I was in church, mass; I felt like I was at an inspirational prolife talk. And more importantly everyone else should be hearing what I was hearing! I believe (though I could be wrong), other than a few words slipped into a homily this is the first ever homily I've heard that focused solely on prolife matters. I'm getting excited again just writing this!
I couldn't possibly tell you all he talked about but a few things that hit home were that he mentioned that we the people have allowed this to happen. It's our tax dollars, our lack of laws. He mentioned partial birth abortion and the fact that our lack of laws has now led to infanticide. We have to speak out, and that includes voting (and he talked about the upcoming election for awhile). He talked about the change in society, how when he was a boy no one talked about abortion and we didn't know how many were done. Then it changed to abortions happening all the time because we were convinced the baby was just a "blob" of tissue so why not abort to today where we fully acknowledge that the 'fetus' is a baby and it makes sense scientifically but who cares because we want "the choice" to abort or not. He continually referred to Mother Teresa and her works. He even said "if she was here on Life Chain day, where do you think she'd be?" He said he himself would have rather taken a nap than go and a priest friend of his wanted to watch the football game but he too went. We all have to do something. He said someone came to him once and said they were afraid to attend Life Chain. His comment to us about this: "isn't it funny we live in Canada, this country that's known for being peaceful and tolerant, that people are afraid to go and peacefully stand on the side of the road praying, making a statement for what they believe."
He referred back to Mother Teresa and this quote a few times: "Any country that accepts abortion, is not teaching its people love, but to use any violence to get what it wants."
It's hard to share how great it was but I hope you were inspired just a little bit. I sure was.
Many blessings to you all (and all the good work you do).
Love to all,
T.
