The Anti-Life Equation

For those of you who have forgotten, or who were never aware, today is a national day of penance and prayer for the besetting sin of our nation, the atrocity called abortion.

In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when January 22 falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life. The Mass “For Peace and Justice” (no. 22 of the “Masses for Various Needs”) should be celebrated with violet vestments as an appropriate liturgical observance for this day. (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 373)

To date, of the genocides of the modern day, that of Belgium in the Congo is in fourth place, of Russia under Stalin third, American under Roe v Wade second, and China under Mao first place in terms of millions of innocent human beings slain. The exact number of tens of millions you may look up for yourself, dear reader: the soul so soon grows appalled and desolate at the contemplation of the astronomical numbers.

Jew or Muslim or Orthodox or Protestant of any denomination is asked to join in the effort. The evil is beyond human power to cure, any more than cocaine addiction can be cured by a stalwart effort of will by the addict. Once a society tastes the blood of babies, and develops a taste for that blood, the paramount psychological drive in the culture, the mainspring moving everything else, is the craving for denial and self-justification. Whatever needs to be sacrificed of lawfulness, honor, chastity, integrity, or trustworthiness is sacrificed to the cause of selfishness, self-righteousness, and gross intellectual dishonesty: as the success of Political Correctness no doubt testifies.

Any agnostics, skeptics, or atheists of good will who are contemptuous of the cult of the irrational strangling society in its sticky meshes are asked to reflect upon the sources of that irrationality. I submit that the suicidal does not affirm unreason over reason until after he affirms death over life. Anti-life produces anti-mind. Nothing happens for no reason, and the reason which would cause rational souls to embrace unreason must be potent indeed. What other than guilt over destroying one’s own offspring? What other than treason against hope and life and future and everything children represent? Unfortunately, my friendly atheists, you are of no use in the spiritual battle, where the real war takes place. What little gestures can be done on earth, however, will be appreciated and admired joyfully.

For those of you who are praying men, here are some prayers to begin:

A prayer for the unborn

O Heavenly Father, Creator and Giver of all life, Author of justice, Source of love and mercy: Although it is deserving of thine anger and punishment, look with mercy on our nation, which has offended thee by condoning the killing of millions of innocent children, thy precious sons and daughters, who, like all of us, were created in thine image and likeness, but whose only offense was their very existence. Amen.

A prayer for Right to Life

O heavenly Father, strengthen us against the mounting forces of anti-life; enlighten those who walk in this deadly way that they may see the enormity of their sin and return to the generous observance of the divine law. We pray, too, for mothers, that they may prize the great privilege of motherhood; and that they may bring up their children in the holy love and fear of God, thus saving their own immortal souls and furthering the honor and glory of their Maker. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Pray for us, St. Gerard, protector of the mother and her unborn child,
that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ!

~~ from “Prayers for Today,” published by Leaflet Missal Co.

Prayer for Life by Pope John Paul II

O Mary, bright dawn of the new world,
Mother of the living,
to you do we entrust the cause of life:
Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers
of babies to be born,
of the poor whose lives are made difficult,
of men and women who are victims of brutal violence,
of the elderly and the sick killed
by indifference or out of misguided mercy.
Grant that all who believe in your Son
may proclaim the Gospel of life
with honesty and love to the people of our time.
Obtain for them the grace
to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new,
the joy of celebrating it with gratitude
throughout their lives
and the courage to bear witness to it resolutely,
in order to build,
together with all people of good will,
the civilization of truth and love,
to the praise and glory of God,
the Creator and lover of life.

~~ Pope John Paul II
Encyclical Letter “The Gospel of Life”
Given in Rome, on March 25,
the Solemnity of the Annunciation of