Devotional for Day 6

Intention:

That our support for 40 Days for Life may be rooted in love as witnesses to the world of the love of God for all humanity from conception to natural death.

Scripture:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Cor 13:1-3)

Reflection:

This is St Paul’s exhortation on love from his first letter to the Corinthians.  It is very popular at weddings and is often equated with romantic love.  But when St Paul speaks here of love, the original Greek version tells us that it is not romantic love he speaks of, eros, but rather agape, fraternal love or charity.  This love can be described as simply wanting to ‘will the good of another.’  It is a love that is associated not with any self-interest or personal gain; rather the sole motive of agape is to strive to reflect a fraction of God’s unfathomable love for all his people as we are all made in his image and likeness.

That is what we bring to our vigils and prayers for the unborn at all times and especially during these 40 Days for Life.  All our faithfulness to the Church and reasoned sensible arguments will stand for nothing unless they are rooted in love, that is; our desire to will the good of the women, their unborn children and the protestors and hostile passers-by that we may encounter; and that good is of course life itself.

Prayer:

God our Father, As we pray and witness to the sanctity of human life with our physical presence on the streets ensure our hearts remain firmly rooted in love for all those people we encounter. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen

Fr Graham Stokes

Our Lady of Grace and St Edward, Chiswick