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Tearfully, an elderly man approached a pro-life leader and related the following story:
"I lived in Germany during the Nazi holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. I attended church since I was a small boy. We heard the stories of what was happening to the Jews, but like most people today in this country, we tried to distance ourselves from the reality of what was really taking place. What could anyone do to stop it?
"A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we would hear the whistle from a distance and then the clacking of the wheels moving over the track. We became disturbed when one Sunday we noticed cries coming from the train as it passed by. We grimly realized that the train was carrying Jews. They were like cattle in those cars.
"Week after week that train whistle would blow. We would dread to hear the sound of those old wheels because we knew that the Jews would begin to cry out to us as they passed our church. It was so terribly disturbing. We could do nothing to help these poor miserable people, yet their screams tormented us. We knew exactly at what time that whistle would blow, and we decided the only way to keep from being so disturbed by the cries was to start singing our hymns. By the time that train came rumbling past the church yard, we were singing at the top of our voices. If some of the screams reached our ears, we'd just sing a little louder until we could hear them no more. Years has passed and no one talks about it much anymore, but I still hear that train whistle in my sleep. I can still hear them crying out for help. God forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians, yet did nothing to intervene."
On Holy Saturday, April 3, the Office for Family Life sponsored a morning of prayer to our Lord, through the intercession of His Blessed Mother. The prayers were offered for a change of heart in mothers who are about to abort their children, in those who are encouraging and supporting mothers to have abortions and in those who are involved in the abortion trade. Finally, the prayer focused on those mothers who have lost their children though abortion. Our merciful Lord is a forgiving Lord who gives us the opportunity, through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, to return to the state of grace.
Parishes organized rosary recitations at abortion clinics on Duke Street in Alexandria and on Broad Street in Falls Church or prayer in the empty church during the early hours of Holy Saturday. Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde led the rosary at both clinics during the morning.
Holy Saturday is a particularly significant day in the Church calendar because it is the only full day during the liturgical year that we find Christ in the tomb awaiting His glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday. A parallel can be drawn between death to sin and the grace of His Resurrection as it relates to the spiritual death of one's soul due to abortion and the glorious resurrection of that same repentant soul after receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Post abortive women constantly tell us of the saving grace found in our diocesan Project Rachel program, a post abortion healing ministry. They also tell us that they would not have aborted if only one person would have offered an alternative. Are we a Christian congregation who merely "sings a little louder" when injustice cries out; or will we stop singing, listen for the train, and unite in restoring dignity to all of God's people?
Copies of the brochure "Sing A Little Louder" can be obtained from the Office for Family Life at 703/841-2550. Project Rachel can be contacted by calling 703/276-0373
Bob Laird is with the Office for Family
Life of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia.
Copyright ©1999 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
This article was published in the Arlington
Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol 24, No 14,
dated Apr. 8, 1999, on page 5.
.
E-mail:
letters@catholicherald.com
Fax: 703/524-2782;
Editorial: 703/841-2590;
Advertising: 703/841-2594;
Circulation: 703/841-2565
A note from the Web Master:
It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion. Let us not forget that ordinary everyday run of the mill abortion is also murder. We must understand that aborting the life of a baby is murder no matter the method. Because one method of abortion seems to be horrible does not make the other methods less so. We should be horrified and sickened by any abortion regardless of the method. The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly:
"Thou shalt not kill."
A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul.
Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any abortion occurs. Please
contact both of your Senators and Representative, via letter or phone,
to let them know how horrified you are that abortions are legal and to
stop, once and for all, Partial-Birth abortions and all other abortions
as soon as possible.
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