Le blog de la Bergerie
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Le blog de la Bergerie
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Last year, in 2005, after doing my first Walk For Life, I wrote an article
about it trying to retrace both the exhilarating feelings of doing the right
thing and promoting something good and, at the very same time, trying to answer
the false accusations hurled at us by the angry protesters. I wondered about
all those protesters along the way, about all the ones taking a stand supposedly
"For Choice" but which is, in practicality "For Abortion" and why they were so
driven to be calling us names, screaming profanities and swirling insults at
us.
So this year, I took my camera with me and I took some pictures. When I came home, it occurred to me that I should start
praying specifically for each one of them, for all the people that were along
the route, staring us down with contempt or screaming frantically at us, and
that I should ask for God’s peace on them, for the Holy Spirit to come and soften
their hearts. I wanted to offer prayers as my answer to their protest and their anti-religion stand. The more
I thought about it and the more it looked to me as a good idea, as the correct
Christian thing to do.
I also decided to enlist a few intercessors to help me in this project and I
sent a letter with pictures to one powerful prayer group in a monastery outside
of California and to another one outside of the US, asking them to pray for
all the Walk For Life protesters! Our common prayers and God's grace will bring
blessings on their heads.
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I walked with the Pro-life group, of course, walking peacefully, pleasantly, singing, chatting, praying and steadfast in our goal: On one hand, to keep this Walk peaceful (thanks to the large presence of police and security!) and on the other hand, to take a stand today for Life, no matter what the protestors hurled at us.
The signs held up by the protesters said: “Hands off my body”, “keep your rosaries
out of my ovaries”, “abortion is a right not a choice”, “bigots go home” etc…
And many of them held up “hangers” as the ultimate statement to keep abortion
legal and on demand. Never once was anything mentioned about helping women throughout
their unexpected pregnancies with money, emotional support and practical services
or with alternative solutions like Adoption. This is why I want to pray for
them, for all these young women who are so driven to deny their own capacity
for motherhood. They have been fed tremendous lies - such as to put their own
freedom and comfort above another life – and they will have to live with the
consequences of these lies all their life. Although many young women were among
the protesters (some of them with very poignant sad faces), there were also
a few virulent older women and even some men in drag with signs about their
ovaries ... Contempt and anger dominated the ranks of the protesters.
Copyright©2005-2006-2023Michele Szekely