Respect, dignity and love are foundation stones of our Catholic faith. They go hand-in-hand with each other, meaning practiced together they strengthen our relationship with God by following His will for us. And there is no one on this earth that we want to please more than our Creator, who gave us this miraculous gift of life.
Pondering that gift, we may realize that He broke the mold after creating each one of us so special because He desires to spend all eternity with each of His cherished Creation. But He gave us free will to make our own choice to want to be with Him. We must rise up out of the “pit of temptation and sin,” which always stands in our path, to choose Him and not the world. So if this is what we know in our hearts that we have always wanted, then how have we turned away from God in such great numbers?
If we honestly look back over the last 50-60 years, we will find the answers to what has changed in our society. The common thread through those decades has been the gradual loss of respect for the dignity of other people. Dignity is our inherent value and worth as human beings, which is our natural right to receive people’s respect as God’s creations. And therein lies one of the problems – countless numbers of people have turned their back on God, and many of them no longer see the good in others. We don’t value human life like we once did!
This change didn’t happen overnight in this country, but began with the decay of morality in our nation. We can point to the “hippie generation” back in the 1960s for triggering this moral decline. It caused mostly young people to decide that their pleasure was more important than maintaining any moral character among themselves, which caused them to lose respect for one another’s bodies and regard them as “pieces of meat” with little value. So what are the causes for our moral decline since then? There are many . . .
Here is a list of some of the causes:
· Families stopped praying together and going to church.
· Children reared without supervision, and with parents having no clue about their friends, activities and what they are learning in school.
· Pornography so rampant in society today, desensitizes us to the value of human life; so prevalent among our children now.
· Killing of God’s children by abortion without any conscience for ending human life.· Medically-assisted suicide and euthanasia provided by doctors.· Loss of respect for women in general, easy targets for abuse and human trafficking.
· Trained to enjoy death and violence through video games, music and movies.· TV shows with “anything goes” programming.
· Loss of respect for opinions other than their own, prevalent in politics, the media, Hollywood, universities, and radical groups.
· Broken families without a parent.
· Divorce mentality: If it doesn’t work, I’ll get a divorce and marry someone else.
· Premeditated killings, without remorse, in cities and schools.
· Road rage actions including shootings
.· Self-love as depicted in the unholy trinity (me, myself and I).
· Violence on passenger planes.
· Atlantic magazine article: Young people becoming depressed and suicidal because of uses of social media, personal devices and on-screen time.
· LGBT agenda and Woke ideology infiltrating our schools to indoctrinate our children.
· Cell phones becoming people’s god.
We would be kidding ourselves if we didn’t view this lack of respect for others as a cultural issue demanding our immediate attention to correct before it becomes progressively worse, but we can’t make changes alone. We need Heavenly help to overcome the seduction of the world by evil causing our loss of respect for the dignity of others.
This orchestrated, manipulation plan of Satan began decades ago, and we hear the devil’s own words that he spoke to his demons that Sr. Josepha Menendez heard, which are listed in her book “The Way of Divine Love”:
“Insinuate yourselves by inducing carelessness in them … but keep in the background, so that you are not found out … by degrees they will become callous, and you will be able to incline them to evil. Tempt these others to ambition, to self-interest, to acquiring wealth without working, whether it be lawful or not. Excite some to sensuality and love of pleasure. Let vice blind them … As to the remainder …get in through the heart … you know the inclinations of their hearts … make them love … love passionately … work thoroughly … take no rest … have no pity; the world must go to damnation … and these souls must not be allowed to escape me … Let them cram themselves with food! It will make it all the easier for us … Let them get on with their banqueting. Love of pleasure is the door through which you will reach them. …”
Now we know the reason people in this nation have been on a downward spiral in turning their backs on God, indulging themselves, and losing respect for one another. But there is still hope for us because we are His creations, and He has never given up on us. He knows every time we have turned from Him to things that deceive us and leave us empty. He is ready to renew His covenant with us, to forgive us and take us back to Himself every time we choose to return to Him. So don’t be afraid to take that step to reconcile with our merciful God, and return to His loving embrace and the true love, joy and peace that only He can give us.
What advice can we give for taking that step?
· PRAY (from the heart where our love for God emerges); encourage our family to pray.
· Seek God’s forgiveness for any past actions that offended Him. [Confession for Catholics]
· We can’t find God on our own; we have to go to church.
· Find a spiritual director to help direct our life if needed.
· Seek a prayer partner that shares our spiritual goals.
· Show love and patience to everyone we encounter (family, friend and stranger).
· Realize God is in control of our life; trust that His plan for us is the best one.
From John 3: “… the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.”
Judas betrayed Jesus, and Peter denied Jesus. They both experienced the darkness and deep despair over their actions. However, Peter went to Jesus and asked for His forgiveness and came back to the light, while Judas did not believe that he deserved to be forgiven for what he had done, and remained in despair and darkness. To keep Judas into the darkness, we know that Satan got into his head to tell him that he didn’t deserve to be forgiven for the wicked act he had done. So Judas hung himself without asking for forgiveness.
We see how the Devil works when we read what Sr. Josepha Menendez writes in her book, The Way of Divine Love, describing what she heard when she had been taken to Hell to suffer for Jesus:
“The evil one was bewailing the escape of a soul: ‘Fill her soul with fear, drive her to despair. All will not be lost if she puts her trust in the mercy of that …’ (here they used blasphemous words of Our Lord). ‘I am lost; but no, drive her to despair; do not leave her for an instant; above all, make her despair.’ 1
“I heard a demon, from whom a soul had escaped, forced to confess his powerlessness. ‘Confound it all … how do so many manage to escape me? They were mine.’ (and he rattled off their sins) … ‘I work hard enough, yet they slip through my fingers … Someone must be suffering and repairing for them’ ”
After hearing the words of this demon, we really know that we can save our family and friends from darkness and Hell by our prayers, sacrifices (sufferings) and reparations for them. In Luke 14:27, Our Lord tell us, “Whoever does not take up his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” Our suffering is the greatest prayer that we can offer to Jesus. Part of our mission on earth is to pray and make sacrifices, joyfully carrying the crosses that we receive, for all of our family and friends to get them into the Kingdom, especially those who have turned their back on God and don’t go to Church any longer.
Occasionally, we will meet Jesus’ Cross in some painful illness, an economic disaster, the death of a loved one, … , but more often our crosses are less severe, such as loneliness, ridicule, opposition, unkind words, and malicious gossip. Those are all crosses that are not our choice, but like St. Therese of Lisieux, we can choose little crosses ourselves that we want to offer to Jesus out of our great love for Him. Some examples of these efforts would be: skip a dessert tonight, don’t take that second helping at the dinner table, spend an hour at Adoration, visit a sick parishioner, pray a rosary or offer a plenary indulgence for the souls in Purgatory, assist in preparing or serving a meal at a soup kitchen, place additional funds in the Sunday collection for a worthy cause or something as small as saying a kind word or doing a small act of kindness towards someone when we don’t want to. We must remember that those acts of kindness that we do for others while on our earthly journey will benefit us the most at our judgment before Jesus.
We don’t ever suffer alone, Jesus is always within us, encouraging us to help Him save the souls of our families and friends. We have a merciful Jesus, Who hears our every prayer. Call upon His grace to help us through difficulties, which we certainly can expect as one of His disciples. Prayer group leaders that I have talked to, often tell me that they are immediately under attack when ever they do something good for the Lord. So we can expect to be under attack, either directly or through someone else, when we pull souls from Satan’s clutches by our efforts to save them. It is important to remember that the greater the cross that we carry for Jesus, the greater will be the strength that He gives us to carry it. We also remember to pray a Chaplet of Divine Mercy for all our family and friends who have been called from this short pilgrimage of life. We read in St. Faustina’s Diary of Divine Mercy:
“At the hour of their death, I defend as My own glory every soul that will say this chaplet; or when others say it for a dying person, the indulgence is the same. When this chaplet is said by the bedside of a dying person, God’s anger is placated, and unfathomable mercy envelops the soul, and the very depths of My tender mercy will be moved for the sake of the sorrowful Passion of My son.”3
1Sr. Josepha Menendez, “The Way of Divine Love,” Tan Books, 1981, 4752Ibid 4743Sr. Faustina, “Divine Mercy In My Soul –The Diary of Sister M. Faustina Kowalska,” Marian Press, 1987, [811]
From an early age, our society, through the media, has programmed many of us to embrace one of the big commandments of the world, which states: “Don’t make me suffer.” That is, everything in life should be comfortable, luxurious and pleasurable for oneself, family and friends. It’s that thought and feeling of being on a beach hammock in Hawaii with a tropical drink in our hand.
Well, that is not the reality of life in this world, which will always include some suffering. We must expect the suffering sand hardships that occur at almost every turn in our life. If we continually say YES to the Lord, He will give us the courage, strength and graces to carry these crosses, which, in turn, will allow us to receive the glory that He wishes for us to take into the Kingdom to unite with His glory. If we carry them unwillingly, then we create an extra burden for ourselves; besides we have to carry them anyway.
Suffering has many faces, and includes among them: physical pain, mental anxiety, tragedies ,humiliations, disappointments, betrayals, rejections, unwilling enslavements, and emotional issues that ride roughshod over our life. These are our crosses to carry many times during our life.
Since we know that life will include suffering, God prepares us by giving us smaller sufferings early in our life so that we can handle the bigger sufferings that occur later. God loves us so much that He prepares us for those later sufferings that we will experience in our lives. What does our suffering accomplish? God always brings a greater good out of our suffering for Him. What is that good? Probably, we won’t know in this life, but I bet some of it is associated with our families, and especially for those who don’t know the Lord. It might even be people that we offered up any suffering for during our time on earth. We must believe that we are being a powerhouse with our suffering, allowing God to cause miracles to happen wherever needed in our family, friends, church, country and world.
"I do not desire to die soon, because in Heaven there is no suffering. I desire to live a long time because I yearn to suffer much for the love of my Spouse."--St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi.
You will be consoled according to the greatness of your sorrow and affliction; the greater the suffering, the greater will be the reward. --St. Mary Magdalen de'Pazzi
For my heart is always with Him, day and night it thinks unceasingly of its heavenly and divine Friend, to whom it wants to prove its affection. Also within it arises this desire: not to die, but to suffer long, to suffer for God, to give Him its life while praying for poor sinners. --St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
Always remember to love your neighbor; always prefer the one who tries your patience ,who test your virtue, because with her you can always merit: suffering is Love; the Law is Love. --St. Mary of Jesus Crucified "The Little Arab"
I desire to suffer always and not to die. I should add: this is not my will, it is my inclination. It is sweet to think of Jesus; but it is sweeter to do His will. --St. Mary of Jesus Crucified "The Little Arab"
If God sends you many sufferings, it is a sign that He has great plans for you and certainly wants to make you a saint.--St. Ignatius Loyola
The road is narrow. He who wishes to travel it more easily must cast off all things and use the cross as his cane. In other words, he must be truly resolved to suffer willingly for the love of God in all things.--St. John of the Cross
One must not think that a person who is suffering is not praying. He is offering up his sufferings to God, and many a time he is praying much more truly than one who goes away by himself and meditates his head off, and, if he has squeezed out a few tears, thinks that is prayer. --St. Teresa of Avila
Blessed be He, Who came into the world for no other purpose than to suffer. --St. Teresa of Avila
Suffering is a great favor. Remember that everything soon comes to an end . . . and take courage. Think of how our gain is eternal. --St. Teresa of Avila
“Suffer patiently for a while, your winter will soon be over, and the spring that succeeds will blossom eternally.”--St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
"I always want to see you behaving like a brave soldier who does not complain about his own suffering but takes his comrades' wounds seriously and treats his own as nothing but scratches."
--Saint Therese of Lisieux, to her novices
Words on Suffering by St. Therese of Lisieux:
Jesus wishes to bring His kingdom to souls more by suffering than by brilliant preaching.
Trials help greatly to detach us from earth. They make us look to God, rather than to this world.
My joy is to love suffering. I smile in the midst of tears and receive with thanksgiving the thorns as well as the flowers.
Jesus has always treated me as a favorite child. It is true that His Cross has accompanied me from childhood, but He has made me love this Cross passionately.
Willingly would I remain all my religious life in this dark tunnel of spiritual dryness into which Jesus has led me. I wish only that my darkness may obtain light for sinners.
In God we trust and with Him in our life, we have no fear. No one can separate us from Him. They can take our bodies, but no tour intellect and will to remain close to Him.
Nothing is too great to suffer in order to win the palm of eternal life.
I value sacrifice more thanecstasy. I find my happiness insuffering, as I find it nowhere else.
Jesus gives me just what I can bear atthe moment, no more; and if in a moment He increases my suffering, He alsoincreases my strength.
“You have many trials today,” someonesaid to St. Therese. She answered, “Yes,but I love them. I love everything that the dear God gives to me.”
If I did not suffer from moment tomoment, I would not be able to keep patience, but I see only the presentmoment. I forget the past and take carenot to peek into the future.
Jesus wants to take completepossession of your heart. That is why Hemakes you suffer much, but Oh what joy will your soul know at the moment ofyour entrance into Heaven.
Suffering united to love is the onething we should desire in this valley of tears.
St. Therese’s last words before shedied were: “Well, all right! All right! Oh! I wouldn’t want to suffer less! Oh! I love Him … My God … I …love … You!”
Recently, a visiting priest at my church mentioned in his homily that half of the people in this country don’t have God in their life today, and I’m sure that many of us have family and friends that are part of that group. And we may or may not know that if we turn our backs on God in this life, despite the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we could lose eternal life. Without heeding the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we are prone to sin and sin again. However, we are all God’s children, and He created us to know Him, to love Him, and serve Him in this life so that we could be happy with Him forever in heaven, and thankfully He never gives up onus. We can’t give up on our family and friends because we want to share Heaven with them.
Jesus died on the Cross, and paid the ransom to save everyone in every generation. He did His part, now we are left to do our part. What happens to those who refuse His mercy and turn away from Him? Are they lost or is there still hope for them, even if we see that they are unwilling to change the direction of their lives right now? Yes, there is great hope, and it is called reparation.
Now what is this gift called reparation to save our family and friends? From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, reparation is defined as the act of “making amends for a wrong done or for an offense, especially for sin, which is an offense against
God,” and our amends can be for our family and friends. From our own experience, we could easily say that many souls are lost because there is no one making reparation for them. Reparation really works!
Even the devil and his demons know the benefit of reparation for sinners. “Confound it all … how do so many manage to escape me? They were mine (and he rattled off their sins). … I work hard enough, yet they slip through my fingers …Someone must be suffering and repairing [making reparation] for them,” which were the words that Sr. Josepha Menendez heard a demon say while she was being tortured in hell to save souls at the invitation of Jesus, as described in her book, “The Way of Divine Love.”
Reparation for the “sins of others” can be accomplished in different ways, primarily through prayer, adoration and sacrifice. We are not alone in our efforts, but we have heavenly weapons available to us: we have Jesus to help us; we have Mary, who has been given the power by God to defeat Satan, and be assured the enemy knows her power; we have the Communion of Saints to intercede for us.
Prayer: We know that Jesus, Mary and the Saints hear every prayer, and they will act on our behalf. We can say that the Mass is the greatest prayer offering we can make for our family members and friends, either praying for them while attending Mass or having a Mass said for them. We gift them to the Father in the chalice during the Consecration of the Mass. Novenas (including Mother Teresa’s Flying Novena) and many other types of prayers are beneficial.
St. Padre Pio held up a rosary, and said, “This is the weapon to defeat Satan.” Our Lady’s message at Fatima in 1917 was to pray the rosary every day because she knew its power to change the world. So we can place our family and friends in her care as we pray the rosary.
Adoration: A consecrated host in a monstrance is displayed on the altar. When we participate in Adoration, we worship in front of the true presence of Jesus. He is looking at us and we are looking at Him, and our presence greatly pleases Him. He will not be outdone in generosity, so it s a wonderful opportunity to ask His help in turning family members and friends away from the attractions of the world and toward Him for their salvation.
Sacrifice: As Catholics, we were always guided to “offer it up,” meaning that whenever we suffered through ailments and trials we could do some good in the world by offering it to God. Likewise, “offering it up” provides us a golden opportunity to use this approach to save the souls of family and friends, and it benefits our salvation as well.
Fasting is another form of sacrifice. It is a voluntary self-denial of usually food and/or drink as an expression of interior penance to atone for one’s sins or the sins of another. Fasting involves an attitude of trust and dependence on God. We trust that God will accept the intent of our fasting, and depend on Him to fill that which is being left empty. We accept the emptying of self in order to be receptive of something else, which can be the healing grace of God poured over family and friends for their conversion.
Losing money, job and health are great losses, but losing our most prized possession, our SOUL, would be the greatest loss of all. Matthew 16:26 says, “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?”
Sr. Josepha Menendez writes in her book, The Way of Divine Love, what she heard in Hell when she was taken there by Satan to suffer for Jesus:
“I heard a demon, from whom a soul had escaped, forced to confess his powerlessness. ‘Confound it all … how do so many manage to escape me? They were mine.’ (and he rattled off their sins) … ‘I work hard enough, yet they slip through my fingers … Someone must be suffering and repairing [making reparation] for them’ ”
After hearing the words of this demon, we really know that we can save our family and friends from darkness and Hell by our prayers, sacrifices (sufferings) and reparations for them. Msgr. John Sweeney, former pastor of Our Lady of Peace Church in Santa Clara, California, often said, “Many souls are lost because there is no one to pray and make sacrifices for them.” In my morning prayers, I offer up my day for all my family and friends.
In Luke 14:27, Our Lord tells us, “Whoever does not take up his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” Our suffering is the greatest prayer that we can offer to Jesus. In the early 90’s, I did pastoral care at Our Lady of Fatima Villa, a Catholic nursing home in Saratoga, California. Sometimes residents would say that they couldn’t pray because they were suffering so much. I would tell them that offering up their suffering was the greatest prayer that they could give to the Lord. As Catholics, part of our mission on this short pilgrimage of life is to pray and make sacrifices, joyfully carrying the crosses that we receive, for all of our family and friends to get them into the Kingdom, especially those who have turned their back on God and don’t go to Church any longer.
People often ask why God has given them their sufferings. God has His reasons, but a good guess is because the world is in such terrible shape and God knows that they can better serve Him by their prayers and the offering up of their suffering. How God makes our prayers more powerful when we suffer is a mystery, but He can turn the suffering into graces to be given wherever needed.
Jesus told St. Faustina, “You will save more souls through prayer and suffering than will a missionary through his teachings and sermons alone.” St. Louis de Montfort said, “There is always a reason for suffering. It isa priceless coin with which to purchase good things for one self and for others.”
Occasionally, we will meet Jesus’ Cross in some painful way, such as an illness, an economic disaster, or the death of a lovedone, but more often our crosses are less severe, such as loneliness, ridicule, opposition, unkind words, and malicious gossip. Those are all crosses that are not our choice, but like St. Therese of Lisieux, we can choose little crosses ourselves that we want to offer to Jesus out of our great love for Him. Examples of these would be: skip a dessert tonight, don’t take that second helping at the dinner table, spend an hour at Adoration, visit a sick parishioner, pray a rosary or offer a plenary indulgence for the souls in Purgatory, assist in preparing or serving a meal at a soup kitchen, place additional funds in the Sunday collection for a worthy cause, or something as small as saying a kind word or doing a small act of kindness towards someone when we don’t want to. We must always remember that those acts of kindness that we do for others while on our earthly journey will benefit us the most at our judgment before Jesus.
We don’t ever suffer alone. Jesus is always within us, encouraging us to help Him save the souls of our families and friends. We have a merciful Jesus, Who hears our every prayer. Call upon His grace to help us through difficulties, which we certainly can expect as one of His disciples. Prayer group leaders that I have talked to, often tell me that they are immediately under attack whenever they do something good for the Lord. So we can expect to be under attack, either directly or through someone else, when we pull souls from Satan’s clutches by our efforts to save them. It is important to remember that the greater the cross that we carry for Jesus, the greater will be the strength that He gives us to carry it. NOW, LET’S SAVE SOME SOULSFOR CHRIST!
Many of us may have concerns about family members and friends who are living a life style displeasing to God, and are wondering if they will go to Heaven when they die. Guess what? I have a sure fire solution for saving their souls. And what I am proposing in this writing is for each of us to save one soul a day. If we ever run out of family and friends to save, then we could save the ones that the Blessed Mother picks for us.
The solution is found in a book that a Catholic nun in Poland wrote in the1930’s. Almost 10 years after Sr. Faustina had entered a religious order, she began writing the diary that Jesus commanded her to write about His Divine Mercy. It is titled, “Divine Mercy In My Soul – The Diary of Sister M. Faustina Kowalska.” The contents of the Diary highlight praying for His mercy for ourselves and others, and repenting of our sins. Also, He wants us to extend His love and forgiveness for us to others. Lastly, He wants us to know that the more we trust Him, the more graces of mercy we will receive.
The Diary tells us to pray The Chaplet of Divine Mercy for the dying, which is so powerful because Jesus said that He would stand between the wrath of His Father and the dying person to save their soul. A Dominican priest once told me that since God is timeless, He knew that we would pray this Chaplet for a family member or friend at some point in our life, long after they died; he said that we can go back generations to save souls. So we should all start praying the Chaplet for family and friends who are dying or have died. It takes less than ten minutes. Again, since God is timeless and already has knowledge of all the prayers we will say during our earthly life, we can pray the Chaplet for the living (our children, family and friends) while we are still journeying on this earth, which we will call “praying it forward.” What a great gift to them and to us because then we will no longer have to be concerned about their eventual destination. How to pray the Chaplet can be found in the Prayers section on this website.
I personally have been praying Chaplets of Divine Mercy to save souls for many years. Walking to church, I pray one going and one returning. I no longer listen to the radio in the car, but I pray a Chaplet or two. I pray many Chaplets every day. Many years ago, I told my dear friend Theresa that I had decided to pray 10,000 Chaplets to save souls during the rest of my life. She looked at me, with her look, and said, “Why would you limit yourself?” And I’ve never forgotten her words. She was right. Since then, I’ve been trying to save as many souls for Christ as I can before I die, and I surely want to pray all my family and friends into the Kingdom. And I pray that this writing will encourage those reading it to take my request to heart, and begin saving souls of family and friends, one soul at a time. I invite you to join my unofficial Save a Soul a Day Club to help Jesus bring His children home.
It is fair to say that abortion is one of the most targeted topics that divide people in this country. It divides families, friends, religions, politics, states and others. One way we deal with it is to refrain from bringing it into a conversation. But a serious question with this approach is: Does our avoidance on this issue displease God? In honesty, the answer has to be YES because God wants us to take a stand on this issue and not put it out of our mind.
God wonderfully and lovingly created mankind on the sixth day of Creation, and He had a unique mission for each individual in every generation. So when children are aborted and not available for their missions, then God has to change His original plans. I remember a story about Saint Padre Pio, who spent countless hours in the confessional and people would travel from every part of Italy and elsewhere because he was gifted with being able to read souls. He was hearing the confession of an Italian woman, and when she was finished, he asked if she had anything else to confess and she said no. So he told her, what about that abortion you had, and your aborted child was destined to become a future pope.
At the moment we are conceived in our mother’s womb, we receive our soul, our will, and our intellect, which are eternal. Additionally, we receive our guardian angel to guide and protect us throughout our life. Every conception is part of God’s plan, and we certainly don’t have God’s wisdom on why He conceives a child in a woman that’s been raped or suffered incest. What a difficult decision for a woman conceived under such circumstances: do I abort or keep this child, even if I will eventually give it up for adoption? More than likely, the woman’s decision will be based on advice from family and friends and, hopefully, her relationship with God. But what choice would God want her to make? If you said life, then you are right!
Life is so precious in God’s eyes because we are His creation and His children, predestined to be saved in this life in order to share in His eternal glory. But there is a “catch” – we have to live a life according to His will, which means following the Ten Commandments. We are called to follow the Truth in our life, and that is Jesus Christ, and to be guided by the promptings of the Holy Spirit desiring to lead us through the valley of sin into eternal glory.
The Fifth Commandment states “You shall not kill.” That is exactly what abortion does, it murders God’s innocent children, which is the sin that grieves God the most. These children that God lovingly knew before He formed them in their mother’s womb(Jeremiah 1:5), that are brutally killed by abortionist’s hands or the morning after pill anger God. All those involved in abortions in any way will be held accountable because there is no compromise with God on this issue, either we are with Him or we are not. Despite our past actions, there is hope. With a willingness to change, God’s mercy offering forgiveness is always there, and no sin we have ever committed, including abortion, can alter His gift of mercy and forgiveness.
For the people that say that it is not a human being yet, science shows that life begins at conception and that a child in the womb is a distinct, developing, whole human being. There are abortion mills that tell the women that it is only tissue and not a baby yet. Don’t believe their lie!
For every abortion, there are two victims: the baby that dies and the mother who is wounded and possibly scarred for life. For some, they have to live with the emotional pain of not seeing their child grow up, especially if there were doubts about getting the abortion and were talked into it by a boyfriend, husband or parents.
After the abortion, there may be remorse and guilt that needs to be dealt with. Fortunately, there are organizations offering support to help women, and men too, through their guilt and pain. Two such organizations are Project Rachel and Rachel’s Vineyard, and there are many others.
I want to believe that the aborted children are taken by their guardian angels to the arms of the Blessed Mother who takes them into Heaven, where they gain full knowledge and begin to pray that one day they’ll be reunited with their mothers. This means that they are praying that their mothers will repent to God for aborting them and come to know God’s mercy. Now this would give tremendous hope to mothers who have aborted their children that one day they will be reunited with them. Now the burden is on these mothers to repent to God, asking for his forgiveness.
God’s mercy is so much greater than their sin of abortion, and He is waiting with open arms to welcome them back to a covenant with Him. We need to encourage them to make that decision to repent and ask for His forgiveness. Remember that God is all-knowing and already knows their sins, for which He died on the Cross to save them. He did His part, now they have to do their part, pushing through pride to humility in order to have the correct mindset to truly ask for forgiveness from the heart.
Likewise, every person with a heartbeat should be supportive of pregnant women, who could be feeling frightened, desperate, and alone, maybe soon to be homeless, thinking only about survival. We need to be encouraging and give them hope that they are not alone on their journey, helping them as best we can. God too will help them protect the precious life that they are carrying, and He will provide for them if they ask Him, trust Him, and surrender their child in the womb to His loving care.
I pray that whoever opens this book will be deeply touched by the Holy Spirit in the most profound way and that their life will be changed according to His will.