Every month, we meet at Planned Parenthood to pray all twenty decades of the Rosary. It's long, it's tiring, sometimes it's cold or raining, but most often it's hot. Really hot. We stand there praying Hail Mary after Hail Mary. We kneel. We pray some more. Why do we do it?
Last summer, we had to change our regular schedule due to COVID concerns as we finally met again. In August, we met to pray the Rosary, but we didn't have a meeting. Some people were wondering, "If we can't have a meeting, why come at all?" To pray. Not just to pray, which we can all do from home, but to stand witness in front of Planned Parenthood. To show, that although much is still shut down, that although many are against us, that throughout these difficult times, we haven't forgotten. We haven't forgotten about the most vulnerable among us. We haven't forgotten about those who have no rights, not even the right to life. We will keep standing, we will keep kneeling, we will keep marching until every person, created beautifully in the image of God, has the right to live. The right to love. The right to be born so that they may do wonderful things in the world.
Sometimes, standing outside in witness at Planned Parenthood may not change a single person's life that day. Maybe the woman who saw us as she entered turned the other way, maybe she ignored us, perhaps she even looked at us with spite. If the people who see us standing in witness don't respond, then what's the point of witnessing? Why pray in the hot sun at Planned Parenthood if it makes no difference to those who pass? With every Hail Mary that we ardently pray, every minute of offering up the heat and tiredness, every person we smile at, even when they frown, we console the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Mother. In this modern-day world of division, hatred, and death, let us be that light of the world. Even when others ignore our light, when they flock away from us, when they try to snuff us out, the Blessed Mother sees us from heaven, and every little light of prayer consoles her wounded heart. Mary's own Son, Jesus, was taken from her, scourged and beaten, killed in front of her tear-filled eyes. Let us live our lives in ways that don't add to her sorrow, but console her with everlasting joy. Every child is Mary's child, and every unborn child that is killed is another daughter or son taken from her, adding to her great valley of tears. Therefore, pray every day to console Mary, and when you can, stand in witness. Pray outside of abortion clinics to show the world that the devil has not won. That we will prevail. That with St Michael, we will fight the evils of this world so that every person can be treated with dignity and afforded the right to life.