Real Catholic Blog

Here’s part four of Father Frank Pavone’s series on praying to end abortion. For part three, click here, where you can also find the links to the first two parts. Each is less than two minutes and is well worth your time since when we pray to end abortion, we honor God by praying His will be fulfilled in saving the very lives He creates. 

On another note, please help the cause by sending this link to friends and posting it to as many social networking sites as possible. Prayer is our ultimate tool in ending the abomination of abortion. It truly is astounding: those who believe abortion is a “right” and that “government should stay out of it” feel a sense of outrage when pro-life people pray. If all they care about is keeping government out of the issue, why should they care about people praying? (Many are atheists, so they really shouldn’t care, should they? So their anger at Christian prayer tells me something.)

But take a look at the thread at one of Father Pavone’s videos on YouTube (here). It’s full of vile messages. It’s reflective of those who confront the prayerful outside abortion centers, with in-your-face obscenities.

What’s worse are the politicians who claim they despise abortion, but that the government can’t get involved. Yet these politicians never contribute to or help pregnancy resource centers or join pro-life rallies or do anything non-governmental to discourage abortion.

It all points to what we’re up against: hypocrites and radicals, many of whom are very powerful. Which brings us back to prayer. To learn more about the power of prayer, join Father Pavone at Pro Life Prayers.com or at Priests for Life, where he is the national director.

According to Father Pavone:

We pray to end abortion because we are praying for a stop to the killing of human beings. When the rich young man came up to Jesus and asked what he had to do to inherit eternal life, Jesus said, “You have to keep the commandments.” The first commandment He mentioned was, “You Shall Not Kill.”

There is hardly anything you can do that’s worse to a person than to end that person’s life. And we know what it means in the very depths of our being and in our culture to save a life. We pray all the time for people to recover from serious illness, for people to be protected from serious danger; we are praying for the preservation of their lives. Saving a life is considered one of the greatest things that anybody can do and, when we want to illustrate that we are not guilty of anything serious, we often say, “Well, at least I didn’t kill anyone.” The motivation to pray to end abortion is rooted in the deepest parts of our human nature, and therefore this has a priority over other intentions of prayer.

Our culture values life. That’s why we call those who rescue others “heroes” and pray for people who are sick. It’s also why we need to pray for the end of abortion — to save human life, because human life is the same whether it’s born or unborn, and it’s God’s will that it live to natural death.

Here is Father Frank Pavone’s third installment on praying to end abortion. Father Pavone is the National Director of Priests for Life. His first two videos, all of which are less than two minutes, can be found here and here. I highly recommend them and hope you will pass along this link to others. I will post part four sometime soon.

Praying to end abortion is an act of humility because, as Father Pavone says, “Every time a child is conceived it is an expression of the will of God. Praying to end abortion is another way of acknowledging He is God and we are not.” He sums up part three in this way:

We have already seen that prayer unites us with the will of God and involves us in the great plan of His that is unfolding throughout history. A key aspect of that plan was summarized by Jesus Christ when He said, “I came that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Human life is an expression of the will of God, so when we pray to end abortion, we’re worshiping God because we’re saying, “Lord, Your will for life needs to be fulfilled, and so the killing needs to stop.”

Every time a child is conceived it is an expression of the will of God. Praying to end abortion is another way of acknowledging He is God and we are not. When we pray to end abortion, we say “yes” to God. St. Paul says that Christ is the great Yes, the great Amen to all the promises of God. Abortion is the great No. It is anti-Christ, anti-God, anti-God’s plan. … So we pray to end abortion as a way of worshiping the God who says Yes to life.

Praying to end abortion shows obedience and humility to God, the Father. Because every conceived child is an expression of God’s will, praying for its life is another way “of acknowledging He is God and we are not.”

Here is the second installment of Father Frank Pavone’s series on how to pray to end abortion. Father Pavone is the National Director of Priests for Life and you can see his various commentaries on his YouTube page (here). You can see the see first in this series on the Real Catholic Blog, here.

According to Father Pavone:

“The Lord will destroy death forever!” This marvelous declaration from Isaiah 25:8 should sustain us daily in our pro-life efforts.

When we pray to end abortion, we are not just asking God to do us some favor or to grant a request. It’s much more momentous than that.

When we ask Him to end abortion, we are pleading for the fulfillment of the primary purpose of salvation history: the conquering of death. It was for this that Jesus Himself died and rose again; it is for this that every Church ministry exists.

Please watch the short video below (and the first one) and continue to pray for the end of abortion. I’ll post the third video in the near future. There are many tools that need to be used in the long and arduous task we have before us to end this horrid practice. Some we can do more readily than others and some are more practical than than others. But the one we must always put to use is prayer. (Feel free to share this link on other sites or e-mail to friends and family.)

Father Pavone: “When we ask Him to end abortion, we are pleading for the fulfillment of the primary purpose of salvation history.”

Father Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, has begun what he hopes will become the nation’s largest prayer group — and he’s doing it online through a series of videos on how to pray for the end of abortion. These brief YouTube videos will empower all of us to pray more effectively for an end to the slaughter of children.

In the first in the series, posted below, Father Pavone explains . . .

why we pray to God when God clearly already knows what He wants to do. In the Lord’s Prayer, He commands us to pray, “Thy Will Be Done.” Yet as God carries out His will, He wants us to be involved in what He is doing. His will is that our prayers and actions do make a difference in the building up of His Kingdom. Therefore, we who are pro-life are to pray fervently every day for an end to abortion.

Let us know what you think of this message. We will post as many in the series as we can.

God wants us to pester Him even has He alone accomplishes His will.

Regular readers here know I’m very interested in what Michael Voris has to say. Sure, he can be blunt, even negative, and some might say, “Way out there.” I’m aware of that and don’t disagree that he has a deeply held passion and love for Christ and the Church. But much of what he says is documented and true, and needs to be said. After all, someone needs to sound the alarm.

So it is nice to see him more upbeat and positive this week as he is reporting from the Vatican. He reports a first hand look at some of the changes Pope Benedict is making — a counter revolution as Mr. Voris terms it. It also is nice to hear him acknowledge that there is a movement of traditional Catholicism that has been afoot for some time now, something, that if I were to critique him, he does not exult enough, if at all.

He wisely recounts that in times of need Christ always raises up saints and he believes Pope Benedict is one. The changes going on now are not perceptible, just as when an aircraft carrier starts to turn. But once it picks up speed, watch out. For right now, though, please watch the short video below and let me know what you think of it.

Captain Saint Benedict? The Holy Father is turning the Church around, as a captain turns around a large ship, and doing so when Christ needs saints to save the Church.

Here’s a report from CNN on the Shroud of Turin. Even the reporter seems to be enlightened (see video below). Of course there are skeptics, but more and more are coming to believe. (It’s amazing how some people either purposely ignore the evidence or are truly ignorant of it and base their denials on old, outdated assertions.) The report was in advance of Pope Benedict’s visit last month and below that is a video of his adoration of the Shroud. We’ll have more about his visit soon. 

If a reporter can see the light . . . then hope truly is on the rise. 

Pope Benedict XVI praying before the Shroud of Turin. The Church believes the Shroud is a holy article to kindle faith. But many believe in a more definitive declaration.