By Alfred Hagen
Special to the Herald
The ecumenical spring “40 Days for Life” campaign of 2020 begins on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 26, and ends on Palm Sunday, April 5.
Begun in 2004, the 40 Days for Life campaign now is observed in more than 500 cities in 64 nations.
Since its start, 40 Days for Life prayer vigils, conducted semi-annually, has saved close to 16,800 lives, has led to nearly 200 abortion workers quitting, and 196 abortion clinics closing.
Simply put, the 40-day campaign aims to end abortion locally through prayer and fasting, community outreach, and peaceful all-day vigils in front of abortion businesses.
Prayer and fasting
We know from examples in the Bible that some issues can only be dealt with by prayer and fasting. We pray that God’s loving kindness will be evident to those who go to an abortion center and that they will consider alternatives listed on the flyers offered to them and, ultimately, that they choose life for their babies.
Constant vigil
The most visible aspect of 40 Days for Life is the people engaged in peaceful prayer outside abortion facilities. These prayer groups are friendly witnesses for life, sharing the truth of God’s love with those thinking of abortion. They carry signs, pray the Rosary, offer flyers with alternatives and, in some cases, provide sidewalk counseling.
Community outreach
40 Days for Life participants reach out to communities, churches and organizations inviting them to join the fasting and peaceful prayer vigils where God’s message of love for life inspires those contemplating abortion to choose life. Church Respect Life ministries promote the campaign through church bulletins, homilies, and at sign-up tables outside church doors after Sunday Mass.
No woman who has scheduled an abortion wakes up on the day of her appointment full of happy anticipation of having her baby aborted. Though she may have a steely resolve to go through with it, she’s most probably looking for any excuse to cancel or not show up. She might be thinking: Where is my husband, my partner, my mother, my father, my aunt, my uncle, my best friend trying to convince me not to go through with it, offering to help, to find an alternative? She proceeds to the abortion clinic and sees signs which read: “Pray to End Abortion,” “Cherish Life,” “Let Us Help You and Your Baby” carried by witnesses to life inviting her to find another way. Those people are praying, some on their knees, that they become that young lady’s excuse.
There are many testimonials of mothers with children in tow showing up at prayer vigils thanking those there praying, showing them the child that would have been aborted if it wasn’t for them praying in front of this abortion clinic.
A baby in Hawaii was saved from abortion because her mother lived near a house that had “Pray to End Abortion” signs posted in the front yard. She had contemplated abortion but, on seeing the pro-life signs day after day, had a change of heart. She gave birth to her “miracle” baby girl and is now a committed pro-life advocate.
Let us, too, be committed pro-life advocates. Sign up for the 40 Days for Life campaign through your parish’s Respect Life Ministry. Or register on the 40 Days for Life website, www.40daysforlife.com, and access the Hawaii campaigns by clicking on “Locations.” There you can find the location (usually a Planned Parenthood clinic) where the prayer vigils take place, sign up to pray in one-hour increments, and find additional advice and information.
If you can’t get to the prayer location, have a 40 Days for Life event at your parish. Churches are encouraged by the diocesan Respect Life Office to invite parishioners to pray for an end to abortion on their church property facing the street.
Paulette Vernay, the diocesan Respect Life director, said that peaceful public prayer sends a “powerful message.”
“A one-hour once-a-week prayer vigil during the 40 Days takes very little coordination and consists of sign waving and prayer in front of our churches,” she said.
“We are the visible sign of Jesus Christ alive in our communities,” Vernay said. “The presence of people in public prayer petitioning our Lord to end abortion sends a powerful message to passersby that can have far-reaching results, changing hearts and saving babies lives.”
“This spring campaign is during Lent. Time apart from social media, television and other distractions in order to pray for life is a pleasing sacrifice and awareness of the fragility of every human being,” she said.
“Every life is precious from conception to natural death
