courage

One of my best childhood memories happened during a thunder and lightning storm. At the time, we lived in our house overlooking Lake Superior. My parents had renovated it to include huge picture windows on the lake side of the house. (The view was absolutely spectacular! This period in my life was probably very influential in developing my aesthetic side.) I was around 6 and scared of the thunder and lightning. My father picked me up and carried me over close to the window, all the while speaking gently to me. He told me I didn't need to be afraid because the storm was very beautiful. He pointed to the lightning as it flashed across the sky. We stood by that window until I began to believe him. This was another major life lesson for me. Through it, I learned to face my fears head-on. I remember another time when Dad took my little sister to his office building one Sunday so they could ride up and down the elevator because she was afraid of elevators. (I reminded her of this when we became adults and she joked she was now claustrophobic as a result!) Dad taught me in real ways to face my fears. He was one of the most courageous men I've ever known. He never seemed afraid of anything or anyone. I've often wondered if I'd been witnessing the Holy Spirit's gift of courage in Dad all those years. He had tremendous faith so it wouldn't surprise me at all. And, I am quite sure he was trying very hard to impart this courage onto his children. And, for me, he inspired my love of children and passion for the unborn. At 80 years old, he stood courageously and in much pain at the abortion clinic in his city, praying the rosary, handing out literature and entreating women not to go in. He forged the path for me to do the work I do.

We need courage in the work we do in pro-life work. Sometimes, people persecute us. Once, one of my clients threatened and screamed at me because I told her I didn't think I could help her. (I really didn't think I could...) A friend of mine was sidewalk counseling at an abortion mill when a boyfriend of a girl about to go in menacingly got right next to her and started swearing at her, physically trying to intimidate her. Blessedly, she stood her ground. (She told me, when it was all over, she went behind the building and cried.) Another dedicated man who regularly stands outside of the abortion mill was knocked unconscious there. As horrifying as they are, these aren't the worst things that could happen to us. What we fight every single day in our work is a spiritual war of gigantic proportion. Satan wants us badly. He wants us to quit; he wants us to fail...he wants us dead and in his clutches. He wants everyone who is contemplating having an abortion to go right ahead without any interference from us. This is the reason I receive Holy Communion every day and frequent Confession. I figured out a few years ago that, alone, I was no match for this kind of war. I needed spiritual armor. I knew it would only be by God's grace that I'd ever be effective. How blessed we are to have this wondrous daily Bread and the resulting grace to help us!

When I first began this work, I watched a 15 minute video of abortion. The entire video was of aborted babies...dismembered body parts, heads with the faces of little babies frozen in screams, blood everywhere. Carnage. I was so glad I was alone because I sobbed and sobbed; I couldn't stop sobbing. In a sense, I am STILL sobbing--silently to be sure, but those images have never left me and they spur me on to keep doing more and more to stop abortion.

Courage...I pray for this gift all the time.