All of these clubs have either used our Pro-Life Curriculum, or had members attend our TeenSpeak conferences over the past few years — or both — and based on personal experience, I can assure you that they’re all doing great work!

You can read the article here.

These are just some of the comments that sum up the reaction of the more than 140 teens and adults who attended TeenSpeak 2012 on January 28 at the Doubletree Hotel in Oak Brook, Illinois—the largest crowd we’ve ever had at a TeenSpeak conference!

The day began with an engaging and enthusiastic talk entitled “Making Abortion Unthinkable: The Art of Pro-Life Persuasion,” by Right to Life of Central California’s Josh Brahm. Drawing from his experience as one of few pro-life speakers who has formally debated leaders from “pro-choice” organizations like Planned Parenthood and NARAL, Josh emphasized the need to “focus like a laser beam” on the humanity of the unborn child when talking with someone who sees nothing wrong with abortion.

The audience loved Josh’s talk. High school student Sadie Huddleston remarked, “It was so informative! This talk truly brought out the issue of abortion and clearly informed me of ways to approach and how to answer pro-choicers.” Shea Mahoney commented, “I really liked how he showed us a way to revert any argument back to the question: What is the unborn?”

The next speaker was Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood clinic director turned pro-life activist who shared her amazing story of conversion. She also advised the teens, “Never let anyone tell you that you are too young to be part of the pro-life movement,” and encouraged them to embrace the virtue of chastity.

Abby’s talk was very well received. Stephanie Luviano commented, “I was amazed at her bravery for sharing her experience and turning away from sin.” Taylor Pokryfke said, “She is an amazing woman! Her story inspires me to reach out to my pro-choice friends and help them see the truth. She also helped me find beauty in modesty.”

Following Abby’s talk, Josh Brahm gave his second talk of the day: “Nine Faulty Pro-Life Arguments and Tactics.” Joe Daly remarked that this talk was “enlightening and practical,” and Yong Jin Yi commented, “It gave me many tools I can use to persuade the opposition.”

Next, my co-worker Matt Yonke gave a short PowerPoint presentation in which he explained the principles of design that go into making a good pro-life bumper sticker. Matt’s talk served as a great jumping-off point for TeenSpeak’s Pro-Life Bumper Sticker Workshop. We’ve conducted similar workshops at the last three TeenSpeak conferences, and they’ve received tremendously positive feedback over the years. This year’s Bumper Sticker Workshop was no exception.

Attendees were divided into 20 groups, and each group was given two bumper sticker templates, a pencil, a set of markers, and 40 minutes to create their own pro-life button design. To ramp up the competition factor, the teams were told that the winning design would be turned into a professionally made bumper sticker by ChristianShirts.net.

Eric Scheidler and Matt Yonke selected the top four finalists, and the teens voted for their favorite among these: a clever design (see below) created by Emily Coronado, Taylor Marsh, Chris Crocco, Frances Crocco, Kelly Hayes, Matt Wanda, Margaret Schuhriemen, Clare Dempsey, and Mason Fiascone.

Last but not least, the TeenSpeak Essay Contest winners were announced: Second place went to Matalyn VanderBleek, a senior at Morrison High School, and First Place went to Warren D’Souza, a senior at Niles North High School.

We were thrilled that so many teens have given us thoroughly positive feedback on the conference and have said they’re really looking forward to next year.

So am I!

Related

• Order copies of the two talks given by Josh Brahm here.

The doors don’t open until 7, but even though I’m huddled in a group trying to stay warm and asking myself how much, if any, sleep I got on the six-hour bus ride from Steubenville, the general atmosphere on this wet morning is one of enthusiasm and energy. Teens shout out Pro-Life chants and cheers, and a yellow balloon imprinted with ‘LIFE’ is bounced back and forth like a beach ball.

The presence of the pro-life youth was remarkable. Not only was the Verizon Center, with a capacity of 20,000, teeming with pro-lifers, but another 10,000 teens and young adults attended the rally at a second venue, the DC Armory.

Concelebrating the Mass which followed the rally were roughly a dozen bishops and 180 priests, including the Vatican’s Apostolic Nuncio, who spoke to the youth on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. Furthermore, what I found to be encouraging was the vast number of seminarians present at the Verizon Center Mass, as well as those attending the newly inaugurated Blessed John Paul II seminary in D.C.

Following the youth rally, rosary, and Mass, I took off for the National Mall with the goal of meeting up with friends from back in Chicago. I got “adopted” into the group of students from UIC’s Catholic community, and marched and prayed the rosary with them.

But the March for Life is more than just the ‘march’. It’s the sacrifice that comes with it. It’s sleeping on a bus, then rolling into DC before 6am. It’s standing around, and then marching through the rainy and cold January weather. It’s also the spiritual aspect of praying the rosary, and going to Mass, and praying the rosary, and then praying another rosary!

Both the sacrifices of making the trip to the March, and the public witness it bears are keys to turning the tide and ending abortion. Already, the youth of our generation are more pro-life, and the tide is turning in our favor.

The crowd was enormous and excited about the coming year, as well they should be. 2011 was an amazing year for the pro-life movement, and the momentum only keeps going our way.

As the march wound through the streets of the nation’s capital, you could see groups from all religious traditions, all ages and races, school groups, church groups, colleges with huge banners—it was quite a show.

Crusaders for Life Steal the Show

But there was one thing that I don’t think anyone missed—the Crusaders for Life pro-life youth group from my parish, St. John Cantius in Chicago. The giant group came equipped with chants, huge yellow “LIFE” balloons, and portable platforms where they could carry some of their cohorts above the crowd to lead chants.

The most notable was the “Life Boat”, a platform with a boat and a giant yellow sail reading “LIFE”. When Joe Scheidler — the national director of our parent organization, the Pro-Life Action League — came by the group, they hoisted him into the Life Boat to cruise around on their shoulders. The crowd went nuts as Joe piloted the boat.

I got a sneak peak at the “Life Boat” last Thursday night, when I attended a pre-March meeting at St. John’s led by the parish’s tirelessly energetic youth director, Brother Chad McCoy. I knew it was going to be a big hit, but I didn’t know it was going to be that big!

Energized by this march, I’m looking forward to fighting abortion and spreading the pro-life message all year long.

Also, don’t miss Joe Scheidler’s interview with LifeSite News from the thick of the march, Andy Moore of AbortionWiki.org leading an Occupy-style “mic-check” on ending abortion, as well as a slideshow of our pictures:

Or which doctor to go to?

Or what kind of car to drive?

Or what foods to eat?

Or…well, you get the idea.

Quite obviously, we believe women should have the right to choose any number of things (just as we believe men should have the right to choose any number of things).

And yet, those in favor of keeping abortion legal frequently refer to us not as pro-life, but rather, “anti-choice” — as if we were somehow opposed to women choosing anything.

“Choice,” they claim, is what they support. But the term “choice,” as they use it, is meaningless. What is this “choice” that they speak of, if not a word for the immoral and unjust decision of one human being to kill another human being?

Ask Them What They Mean When They Say “Choice”

In response to Blog for Choice Day 2012, our good friend Jill Stanek is once again spearheading the Ask Them What They Mean by “Choice” Blog Day — and Generations for Life is happy to be a part of it:

The idea is simple. On January 22, any time you read pro-aborts spouting obscure “choice” rhetoric on a blog, website, Facebook, or Twitter, call them out on it. Ask them to explain what the “choice” euphemism means. Tweeters plan to use their #Tweet4Choice hashtag.

Do your part and join in!

On the other hand, two basic tenets of the “pro-choice” position are: (1) abortion does not destroy the life of a genetically distinct, whole human being; and (2) abortion is not psychologically harmful to women.

With this in mind, I was interested to read this recent post by Jill Filipovic at the “pro-choice” blog Feministe, in which she starts off referring to some “fun facts” from Jena Pincott’s book Do Chocolate Lovers Have Sweeter Babies?, as highlighted in the popular mom blog Mommyish:

Well here are some fun facts: Pregnant women’s bodies are basically swimming with the cells of their fetuses. And even when they give birth, some cells remain. By the end of the first trimester of pregnancy, cells from the fetus account for one in every 50,000 cells in the woman’s body. Further along in the pregnancy, it increases to one in 1,000. Six percent of the DNA in her blood plasma also comes from the fetus. Which is interesting given some standard pro-life arguments like this:

Here is the “standard pro-life argument” Jill linked to:

The fetus growing within her womb is a separate person with its own distinct genetic makeup. Abortion does not remove some part of the woman’s body; it destroys the body of a separate, unique individual.

That sounds familiar, I thought. Turns out it’s from the Q&A page on the website of our parent organization, the Pro-Life Action League.

Jill then concluded with this:

Unfortunately humanity and life and the human body and development are slightly more complicated than just cells or DNA.

I was left scratching my head. So I reread Jill’s post, and I was still left scratching my head.

It seems that what Jill is trying to say is: Who can possibly know how to answer the incredibly mysterious question about when human life begins?! It’s soooooooo confusing!

The Effects of Microchimerism

She’s going to have to try harder than that.

It’s madness to imply that because cells from an unborn baby cross over the placenta and stay in the mother’s body for years afterward (in a process called microchimerism), that means that an unborn baby is not a genetically distinct, whole human being.

As JivinJ pointed out:

… I’m struggling to see why she would think cells from Human Being A existing in Human Being B proves that Human Being A isn’t a distinct, unique human being. Transferred organs with the DNA of distinct, unique human beings live in other human beings for years. Does that prove organ donors aren’t distinct, unique human beings?

I’m not sure why Jill said anything about about fetal cells living in pregnant women’s bodies. These “fun facts” do absolutely nothing to advance the “pro-choice” argument that the embryo/fetus/unborn baby really is not a human being. In fact, they actually undercut it.

And what’s more, these facts also undercut the other “pro-choice” argument mentioned earlier: namely, the notion that abortion is no more psychologically harmful to a woman than having a tooth pulled.

The Mommyish blog post that Jill links to includes a link to a longer article by Jena Pincott in which she writes:

How many people have left their DNA in us? Any baby we’ve ever conceived, even ones we’ve miscarried unknowingly. Sons leave their Y chromosome genes in their mothers. The fetal cells from each pregnancy, flowing in a mother’s bloodstream, can be passed on to her successive kids.

Of course, “any baby ever conceived” includes those who have been conceived and then aborted. That’s why women who have had abortions can’t simply flip a switch and pretend they were never pregnant: because the cells of their children actually remain within them.

Vicki Thorn, founder of the post-abortion outreach Project Rachel, has spoken extensively about microchimerism and its role in contributing to trauma among women who have had abortions. I suspect that when Jill posted her original entry at Feministe, she hadn’t given any thought to any possible connection between the two.

But it’s a connection that’s awfully hard to deny.

Based in Cleveland, they’ve recently placed ads on the city’s buses as part of their effort to start the “long process of de-stigmatizing abortion in our society.”

Campaigns like this that set out to normalize abortion are doomed to fail.

Why? Because they’ve always failed. And there’s no reason to believe things won’t be different this time.

“I Had an Abortion” T-Shirts: An Idea That Never Caught On

Remember the “I Had an Abortion” T-shirts released in 2004?

If you don’t, you’re not alone. Even after a big publicity splash when they were introduced, they were — to the surprise of exactly no one — never very popular. (And, what’s more, the online store that once sold them is no longer accessible.)

Then, two years later, Ms. Magazine tried a similar campaign. It, too, was a flop.  As Joe Scheidler, the national director of our parent organization, the Pro-Life Action League, wrote at the time:

We understand the current issue of Ms. Magazine includes a list of over one-thousand names of women who are proud that they had their children exterminated by abortion. The editors of Ms. claim to have five-thousand such testimonials, too many to run in their quarterly magazine.

[I]t still says nothing of much significance since there have been more than 50 million abortions since 1973. Even if this list does include 5,000 authentic names, they represent only one “happy-with-my-abortion” woman for every 9,999 who are not boasting about their abortions—and who are living with who knows how much guilt and sorrow.

Then there’s Imnotsorry.net, which back in the day was quite the collection of women’s stories of abortion non-regret. It now appears to be defunct and only accessible via the Wayback Machine. Ditto for its blog. And no tweets in over 5 months.

Nobody Likes Abortion

It’s not by accident that even the most staunchly “pro-choice” politicians do whatever they can to avoid ever saying the word “abortion”. Instead, they say they’re advocates for “women’s health,” and they “support reproductive rights”, or “support women’s reproductive freedom” — but they typically don’t touch the word “abortion” with a 10-foot pole.

They’re not stupid: they can read public opinion polls, and they know that the vast majority of people are, at the very least, uncomfortable with abortion.

Abortion Stigma: A Sign of a Healthy Conscience

Abortion doesn’t have stigma attached to it because people haven’t gotten over their “hang-ups” about it. It has stigma attached to it because abortion kills a tiny, defenseless person. No amount of propaganda or public awareness campaigns that try to “promote a new dialogue” can change that.

Abortion stigma isn’t cultural. It’s moral.

When a woman feels guilty about having chosen an abortion—or when a man feels guilty about having consented to the abortion of his child—that’s actually the sign of a healthy conscience. It’s an indication that the person knows: I’ve done something wrong.

Those who have had abortions need the healing and forgiveness their hearts long for—not to be told that what they did was good.

They don’t need “My Abortion, My Life.” They need Project Rachel, or Rachel’s Vineyard, or any one of countless other post-abortion ministries that are ready to offer them true compassion and love.

Besides questions of, “Did you see the Pope?”, and “Did you meet any European men?” (both of which I have already been asked… yes, I saw Benedict XVI, and no, I have a boyfriend, thank you very much), I know I will be asked what I took away from my semester in Europe.

Throughout my excursions in Europe, one thing which has undoubtedly struck me has been traveling to so many places inhabited by the saints.

While in Poland, I visited Auschwitz and touched the door of the cell where St. Maximilian Kolbe gave his life in place of his fellow prisoner, Franciszek Gajowniczek. At the nearby camp of Birkenau, are the remains of the gas chamber where St. Edith Stein was killed.

We were told that Poland is made strong by the blood of the martyrs and saints. I won’t disagree. That same week, I prayed at the convent where St. Faustina received the messages of Divine Mercy, and walked the streets of Wadowice, where Bl. John Paul II grew up.

In Paris, I visited the chapel of the Miraculous Medal where St. Catherine Laboure received her apparitions of Mary. In that chapel were the incorrupt bodies of St. Catherine and St. Louise de Marillac, and down the street, the incorrupt body of St. Vincent de Paul.

In the nearby city of Lisieux, I visited the childhood home of St. Therese as well as the convent which she entered.

Assisi was my favorite city, particularly because I have a special devotion to St. Francis. It was unreal to walk inside the church of San Rufino and touch the baptismal font where both Francis and Clare were baptized. A five-minute walk from there took me to the church of San Damiano – and I prayed inside the very church where Christ spoke through the crucifix to St. Francis, telling him, “Go and rebuild my church, which is falling into ruin.”

The convent of St. Clare is built right up against San Damiano, and right next to the nun’s dining hall, I viewed the staircase which the invading Saracens came down before they were stopped by St. Clare holding the Eucharist.

Earlier this semester, my philosophy professor had a handful of students over at her house, and she asked me the question I know I will hear again and again: “What has struck you most that you will be taking back with you?”

It’s like the question of “What are you thankful for?” that you get at Thanksgiving. You can’t go with a generic reply because that’s what your fourth cousin twice removed just gave; you know you need a unique and clever response. So trying to make a good impression, I went on to vividly explain how real the saints had become to me, and how that aspect was missing back in the United States.

But then she asked me how I was going to address that. If I saw the need for saints in the U.S., what was I going to do? Of course, I danced around answering that question!

But over the next several weeks, that question stuck in my mind. I also realized that particularly in being a student at Franciscan University of Steubenville, I am exposed to so many graces. There is Mass every day on campus, multiple adoration chapels, confession, and so many opportunities for a richer spiritual life. And really, every member of the Catholic Church has access to these graces.

So much has been given to us, and as in the parable of the servants given the talents, much is expected.

Before I come off as sounding pompous or conceited, I am well aware that I can not earn or achieve holiness by my own merits. The absolute most I can do is cooperate with God’s call to holiness. And there is that universal call to holiness… we are all called to be saints.

Not one of us as Christians is called to be ‘average’ or ‘mediocre’. We were made for so much more.

In fact, I believe that we have no excuse not to be saints. There is no reason we should not be the saints of Steubenville, of Chicago, and so forth. It took me four month in Europe to really figure that out, but yes… that is what I will be taking home with me.

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from immorality… For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3, 7-8

The text reads:

I told my work that I will be attending an out-of-state funeral for a few days next week.

Im actually (quietly) having an abortion that only my boyfriend knows about it.

I’ve never felt so alone.

Reading this, I was reminded of these words spoken recently by Linda Couri, a former Planned Parenthood counselor who spoke at our TeenSpeak conference earlier this year. Linda herself had an abortion, but is now pro-life: “There is nothing joyful about abortion. Some women are complacent, but most just bare-knuckle their way through it.”

No Woman Wants to Have an Abortion

One of my most important responsibilities here at Generations for Life is to answer questions from students who contact us looking for information on abortion-related research projects. Recently a student sent us a list of several questions, one of which was, “How difficult do you think the decision of getting an abortion can be?”

I responded:

Very, very difficult.

No woman wants to have an abortion. Women have abortions because they’re scared, because they’re desperate, and because they feel they have no other choice.

Pro-life writer Frederica Mathewes-Green illustrated this when she once said, “A woman wants an abortion like an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its leg.”

It’s very important for those of us who are pro-life to remember this: women don’t have abortions because they’re evil, or because they’re monsters who want to kill their babies. Women have abortions because they believe that for their own sake, it’s the best choice — and often the only choice — they have.

The woman who anonymously wrote to PostSecret, “I’ve never felt so alone” is further confirmation of this.

She does have other choices available, but for whatever reason, she is not able to see that. If we as pro-lifers want to be able to reach women like her and meet them where they’re at, we have to put ourselves in their shoes.

We don’t know the name of the woman who sent the card to PostSecret. But we can still pray for her that even at this late moment, she will change her mind.

Leave a comment and tell us what you think!

This was our second time going to an NCYC, and we’re so glad we came! We had a booth in Victory Park, and we were thrilled at the response we got from everyone who stopped by.

Our “YOUR MOM Chose Life” pins were a huge hit! We gave away nearly all of them by the end of Day 2 of the 3-day conference, along with 500 “I’m Pro-Life. Ask Me Why!” buttons provided by Students for Life of Illinois.

We also gave out hundreds of pro-life stickers provided by Stand True, and pieces of pro-life literature provided by Human Life Alliance. We also had some great conversations with several teens who are interested in starting their own pro-life clubs.

We’re already looking forward to being at the next NCYC in 2013. And next time, we’ll know to bring a lot more buttons and stickers!

We’ll be at booth 267 in the Victory Park, and we’ll be giving away lots of pro-life literature, stickers, and buttons.

If you’re one of the 20,000+ teens who will be there, I hope you’ll stop by and see us!

This has got to be about the most creative—and inspiring—pro-life fundraiser I’ve ever seen. Last week, the four Carney brothers—Jack (9), Joey (7), Michael (5) and Christopher (3)—decided to pool their Halloween candy and see if they could raise some money to help the Pro-Life Action League (GFL’s parent organization) save babies and their mothers from abortion.

To set their creative plan in motion, the two oldest, Jack and Joey, went with their Dad, Chris, to his office in downtown Chicago. They gave away their candy to people at the train station and at the office, accepting donations for the League. In all, they raised $368.98!

What’s especially touching about the boys’ contribution to the League’s effort is that they’re all experienced pro-life activists. They’ve joined the League’s Face the Truth Tours in the past, along with their parents and sisters—a great pro-life family!

The Carney Brothers hope other pro-life kids will take up their idea next year. I hope so, too—because that’s what the Pro-Life Action League is all about: finding dynamic ways to fight abortion, and then empowering others to join the effort.

Chris and his wife Millie must be very proud of their sons. So am I!

It shows a scene of an abortionist in a counseling session with a young woman who wants RU-486. But this counseling session is very unlike the dishonest marketing and misinformation that was shown during Live Action’s Rosa Acuna sting. This is what would happen if an honest abortionist told a woman the truth about her embryo and what RU-486 would do to both her and her child. I’m sure pro-choice people will cry “propaganda” when they see this video, but there’s a documented medical citation for every single sentence the abortionist utters!

Here it is:

Make This Video Go Viral

Josh has a great idea: Whenever someone does a YouTube search for “abortion pill,” what if this was the first video that showed up?

At the time Josh published his blog post last week, a Planned Parenthood video with 114,000 views was the first video that showed up in a YouTube search. But just a week later, that Planned Parenthood video now comes up second, and another video with nearly 100,000 fewer views is first.

And, very encouragingly, the HDRC video shown above is already 7th on the list. With over 3,200 views, it already shows up ahead of another video that has nearly three times as many views!

While the number of views is important to making a video show up first in YouTube searches, it’s not the only factor that matters. Others include:

• Ratings
• Playlist additions
• Embeds
• Shares
• Comments
• Age of video
• Channel views
• Subscribers
• Inbound links (from external domains)

So after you watch the video, Josh offers some concrete suggestions for how you can make it go viral:

1. Rate the video (thumbs up or thumbs down)
2. Create a YouTube playlist and add this video to it. (You’ll need a YouTube account to do this.)
3. Embed the video on your blog or website
4. Share the video on Facebook and Twitter
5. Write a comment with your thoughts about the video, and/or reply to someone else’s comment.
6. Subscribe to the “Fact Not Opinion” channel.

Go to it!

1. The exploding pro-life youth movement
2. The expanding ties among pro-lifers internationally

These two dynamic forces are coming together next week at the first-ever International Pro-Life Youth Conference, November 11-13 in Los Angeles.

The conference is being hosted by Survivors, Ireland’s Youth Defence and Students for Life, with the sponsorship of such cutting-edge pro-life groups as Live Action, Stand True Ministries, Human Life Alliance—and Generations for Life’s parent organization, the Pro-Life Action League.

I’m proud to be one of the speakers at the IPLY Conference, along with such pro-life “rock stars” as:

• Lila Rose of Live Action
• Bernie Smyth of Ireland’s Precious Life
• Jill Stanek, the Queen of pro-Life bloggers
• Bryan Kemper of Stand True
• Troy Newman of Operation Rescue
• . . . and more!

Student registration is a mere $35 for the whole weekend, but registration closes November 9th—so act now if you want to attend. You can get more information here or go straight to the registration page here.

This historic conference will motivate, educate and equip pro-life youth to end abortion in their lifetimes. It is not to be missed!

The answer to these questions are yes, yes, and yes. Now, one more question:

Were you ever a “fertilized egg”?

The answer to this question is no.

It’s no more accurate to say you were once an egg than to say you were once a sperm. Once an egg is fertilized — that is, once fertilization (also called conception) occurs — it’s no longer an egg.

At that point, a genetically distinct human being is created, and this new life is properly called a zygote — a fact that, for what it’s worth, even Wikipedia recognizes:

In other words, there is no such thing as a fertilized egg.

Depersonalizing Terminology

Thomas Peters wrote this week at Live Action about the mainstream media’s latest incorrect use of the term “fertilized egg”. In this case, it was Fox News that characterized the Mississippi Personhood Amendment as an attempt to “declare a fertilized egg a ‘person’”. Even worse, an earlier version of the headline said “human egg” instead of “fertilized egg”!

This illustrates why the use of proper terminology is so important to the abortion debate.

It’s easy to think of a so-called “fertilized egg” as having little or no intrinsic worth or dignity, as the term is quite literally depersonalizing. After all, if abortion destroys that-which-is-not-a-person, then it’s merely the moral equivalent of having a tooth pulled.

Except, of course, it isn’t.

Who Knew That “Fertilized Egg” Was Inaccurate?

I’ll admit that up until several years ago, I myself used the term “fertilized egg” in conversations about early human development until a fellow pro-lifer plainly pointed out that once an egg is fertilized, it’s no longer an egg.

In my experience, I’ve also come across other pro-lifers who have also used the term “fertilized egg”, unaware of its inaccuracy, and I’ve had to explain to them what I previously had explained to me.

All this is to say that there is a need for us as pro-lifers to continually educate not only the general public, and not only pro-choicers, but also our fellow pro-lifers.

He and I were talking about various ways to fight abortion, and he remarked that one of the most important things any of us can do — no matter how old we are — is to strive for personal holiness in our everyday lives.  I couldn’t agree with him more.

My co-worker Eric Scheidler has talked in two recent posts on the Pro-Life Action League’s blog about the need for pro-lifers to be diplomats for our cause, and to always keep in mind when we’re talking with people who are pro-choice that our purpose isn’t to “score points” but rather to persuade them to agree with us about the value of life in the womb.

Occasionally, a single conversation with someone who is pro-choice may result in an on-the-spot conversion to pro-life. But I would guess that instances like these are more the exception than the rule.

Our Actions Speak Louder than Our Words

What’s more likely to happen is that someone arguing for the pro-life position will “plant a seed” in the mind of a pro-choice person, which may then lead to a change of mind gradually, over time. If this happens, it’s also likely that the pro-choicer will remember just as much about what the pro-lifer conveyed through his attitude — charity, genuine concern, willingness to listen, etc. — as through the words he spoke.

But on the other hand, if a pro-lifer conveys an attitude of hostility toward a pro-choicer, it probably won’t matter how intellectually airtight the pro-lifer’s argument is, because all the pro-choicer will remember is how obnoxious the pro-lifer came off in conversation.

This is where personal holiness comes in. If we want to convey charity and compassion and not pride and personal hostility, we can’t hope to do so if we do not first strive for holiness in our own lives. And for most of us, the virtue that we most need to develop if we genuinely seek to become holy is the virtue of humility.

Praying for Deliverance from…the Desire of Being Loved?

Last Thursday I was praying some of the prayers in our Life Witness Prayer Book at the 40 Days for Life site outside of the Albany Medical/Surgical Center abortion clinic near our office on Chicago’s Northwest Side. One prayer, the Litany of Humility, I found particularly hard to pray.

The first part of the prayer consists of several intercessions, each of which is followed by the plea, “Deliver me, Jesus”:

From the desire of being esteemed,
From the desire of being loved,
From the desire of being extolled,
From the desire of being honored,
From the desire of being praised,
From the desire of being preferred to others,
From the desire of being consulted,
From the desire of being approved,

From the fear of being humiliated,
From the fear of being despised,
From the fear of suffering rebukes,
From the fear of being calumniated,
From the fear of being forgotten,
From the fear of being ridiculed,
From the fear of being wronged,
From the fear of being suspected,

How many of us can honestly say to Our Lord that we really and truly want Him to take away our desire to be esteemed, loved, honored, praised, or preferred to others?

These aren’t your run-of-the-mill petitions, and it’s hard to give voice to them. But if we want to be holy, and therefore humble, we need to pray them sincerely.

The remainder of the prayer includes another series of intercessions, each of which is followed by the plea, “Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.”

That others may be loved more than I,
That others may be esteemed more than I,
That, in the opinion of the world, others may, increase and I may decrease,
That others may be chosen and I set aside,
That others may be praised and I unnoticed,
That others may be preferred to me in everything,
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should,

We chose to include the Litany of Humility in the Life Witness Prayer Book not only because it’s a beautiful and powerful prayer in itself, but also to remind ourselves that when we pray outside of an abortion clinic, or have a conversation with someone who is pro-choice, or take part in any pro-life activity, it’s not about us. Rather, it’s about God, and about submitting ourselves to His holy will.

It’s for this reason that our pro-life efforts will bear fruit only to the extent that they ultimately depend not on us, but on Him.

UPDATE, 11/1/11: Check out other pro-life blog highlights from October 2011 at Life Report’s Pro-Life Link Party here.

For one day, people all over the world will give up their voices in solidarity with babies who have had their voices silenced by abortion.

It’s a little over a week away, and already, students from over 1,300 schools—along with over 140 homeschools, 50 businesses & ministries, and over 460 individuals/non-students—in 47 countries have registered to participate!

Stand True Ministries, which sponsors the Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity, is dedicating this year’s Day to the memory of Students for Life of America’s Kortney Blythe Gordon and her unborn daughter Sophy, who were tragically killed in a car crash this past weekend.

Are you willing to give up your voice for a day for those who will never have a voice?

For more information and to register, go here.

A candle can only give light if it lets itself be consumed by the flame. It would remain useless if its wax failed to nourish the fire. Allow Christ to burn in you, even at the cost of sacrifice and renunciation. Do not be afraid that you might lose something and, so to speak, emerge empty-handed at the end. Have the courage to apply your talents and gifts for God’s kingdom and to give yourselves – like candlewax – so that the Lord can light up the darkness through you. Dare to be glowing saints, in whose eyes and hearts the love of Christ beams and who thus bring light to the world.

He also proclaimed a message that cannot be repeated often enough:

Dear friends, Christ is not so much interested in how often in your lives you stumble and fall, as in how often you pick yourselves up again. He does not demand glittering achievements, but he wants his light to shine in you. He does not call you because you are good and perfect, but because he is good and he wants to make you his friends.

Amen!

You can read the Pope’s entire address here.

From September 28th through November 6th, 40 Days for Life prayer vigils will be held outside abortion clinics in 301 locations in the U.S., Canada, Australia, England, Germany, Spain, and Argentina.

This will be the ninth ever 40 Days for Life campaign, and the results of the first eight have been amazing:

• MORE THAN 400,000 PEOPLE of all ages have joined together to
  pray and fast for an end to abortion
• At least 4,313 BABIES HAVE BEEN SAVED from abortion—and those
  are just the ones we know about
• 53 abortion workers have QUIT THEIR JOBS and walked away from
  the abortion industry
• 16 abortion facilities COMPLETELY SHUT DOWN following local 40
  Days for Life vigils

And this fall’s 40 Days will be the biggest one yet — more babies will be saved, more parents will be spared a lifetime of regrets, and more abortion workers will have their hearts touched and leave their jobs.

I hope you won’t want to miss the chance to take part in this historic pro-life prayer campaign. You can find the 40 Days site nearest you here.