I apologize for the hiatus in my blogging. I was overwhelmed by other commitments. Please always keep me in your prayers! I am pleased, though, to reboot my blogging with this prayer, which I had the privilege of delivering last night as the benediction for this year's Massachusetts Citizens for Life fundraising banquet. As chairman of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, I always want to recall to each person the centrality of the pro-life cause in the works of charity we are all called to undertake.
I asked the Spirit to give me words, and here's what came:
Blessed are You, good Father, benevolent Father, Father of the weak, Father of each child, woman, and man.
Speak, Father.
Speak Your Word, in the storm of history, into the maelstrom of human anguish, into our tired lives, into every home, into every society, into every dark place, into every abortion mill, into every end-of-life drama, into every slum, every plague-ridden village, every terrorized town, every suffering human heart.
Say something to us, Father. Say something simple. Say something overwhelming. Say something that changes everything.
Say Your Son. Say Jesus to each heart. Jesus. Jesus.
When we are exhausted, say Jesus. When we are desperate, say Jesus. When we are defeated, say Jesus. When history is a horror, say Jesus. When our life falls apart, say Jesus.
Whisper again, and yet again, the Word that justifies every one, that justifies the dead, the dying, the threatened.
Say Your one Word. Word of blessing. Word of hope. Word inspiring faith. Word of justice and solidarity. Word of majesty and wisdom and glory. Word of mercy, mercy, mercy. Word encircling, Word encamping, Word torn and broken, Word bleeding and rising, Word of Life, Word symphonic, Word wondrous and singing, Word blazing with the Spirit of love, Word that many waters cannot quench, reviving the embers of the world, the embers of our lives, strong as death, stronger than death, light of all light, source of all life, life of all life.
Speak, Father, the wheeling constellations above this darkling world, speak all the stars down to earth, the witness born by angels and by every poor servant that you have so gratuitously chosen. Say to each one here tonight: I love you. You I have chosen to bear My Word of love in the howling deserts of life. You I have chosen. You I have chosen to vindicate the victims of history.
Father, make us ever more grateful for the wonder and the burden and the glory of this election. And make us ever pray all things in the name of your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.