DAY 41+: Go onto the streets to proclaim a culture of life!

40 days for life London Autumn 2011

Greetings! ENORMOUS thanks for all your amazing prayers and support! Across all the 301 cities conducting a 40 days for life campaign, over 465 lives saved, including at least 8 here in London. Our vigil has truly been a place where death has been transformed into life OVER and OVER and OVER again!  Closing party 11th November: details here and here. Angela Coates from Forsaken in Taunton to speak and will be a great celebration! Please do come. We have a BIG announcement to make! Our next campaign starts in Lent 2012 on the 22nd February. Maybe God is calling YOU to start a campaign in your local community! We will have several events before the next campaign starts, including an art exhibition- details to follow. Here are 10 ways in which you can help to end abortion and build a culture of life between now and then. 1/ Pray, discern and ask God to show you a way that you can help to end abortion in our country. 2/ Read 50 ways to help unborn and their mothers. Accomplish as many as you can! 3/ Send you Priest/Pastor or Religious leader a copy of ways that Priests can end abortion (adapt if necessary). Also see bulletin inserts, preaching, liturgy and prayers.   4/ Read and pray the Pro-life examination of conscience. 5/ Participate in Prayer Vigils, volunteer for pro-life organizations and Go onto the streets to proclaim life! Helpers of God's Precious Infants, Good Counsel Network andSPUC good places to start. 6/ Get well formed with Pro-life arguments. read Randy Alcorn's Why pro-life, readquotes, magazine, endingabortion mp3s, ending abortion UK version as well as Priests for life. Know how to articulate your beliefs to give a voice for the voiceless.  7/ Encourage and promote the healing work of post abortion counselling and chastity education... give a talk or provide resources for your local school or parish.  8/ Make a film, tell a story, tell a personal testimony, tell all your friends positive and upbeats news that life begins at conception. "I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." Elie Wiesel 9/ Conduct community outreach - take a positive and upbeat pro-life message to all areas of the city through grass roots activism. Equip, inform, educate and inspire others to believe in a nation where no more babies die and no more women cry.  "...go out on the streets and into public places.. woe to you if you do not succeed in defending life.." Pope John Paul II, World Youth Day 1993. 10/ Write to your local community leaders, MPs, councillors showing how strongly you feel on the issue and what can be done to build a culture of life.

Day 41 - November 7 Intention: Pray that the witness of 40 Days for Life bears abundant fruit, and that we begin again each day to storm the gates of hell until God welcomes us into the gates of heaven. Scripture: On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. -- Matthew 16:18 Reflection: When we read this verse, we usually think that the Lord is promising that the church, which is His Body, will withstand all the attacks launched against it. Of course, that is true. But when we think about it more carefully, we realize that in a battle, the gates do not run out into the battlefield to attack the enemy. Rather, they stand still to defend the city from the enemy attacking it. So when the Lord says that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, who is doing the attacking? It is the church storming the gates! The church, all of God's people in Christ, is called to take the offensive, to run into enemy territory, and to gain ground for Jesus Christ. We do not wait for an invitation; we already have a command. We prepare, but we do not wait for circumstances to be perfect; we already have one who has gone before us. During these 40 days, we have stormed the gates. We have taken the offensive. We have pushed forward the boundaries of the kingdom. And we must keep doing so, in numerous ways. Indeed, the gates of hell will not prevail. The gates of falsehood will flee in the presence of truth. The gates of sin will melt in the presence of grace. The gates of death will fall in the presence of the church, the People of Life! Prayer: Father, we praise you. We have heard the voice of your Son, and therefore we can make our voices heard. We have done battle with the power of evil, and therefore we can have compassion on those still within its grip. We have been freed from the kingdom of darkness, and therefore we can bear witness to your Kingdom of Light. May the witness of all your people through these 40 Days for Life bear abundant fruit, and may we begin again each day to storm the gates of hell until You welcome us into the gates of heaven. We pray in the victorious name of Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. Fr. Frank Pavone National Director, Priests for Life and President, National Pro-life Religious Council

Let's continue to pray for a country where no more babies die, and no more women cry! Robert Colquhoun 40 days for life London