Last Saturday, February 25, I attended the Pro-Life March: Life Chain, organized by Pro-Life Philippines. I arrived at the assembly point quite late, and the participants had already left the venue. Fortunately, I was able to catch up and join the March.
Photo source: www.cbcpforlife.com
Frankly speaking, I almost didn’t want to go to the March. I almost wanted to skip it and spend the morning instead with my kids at my parents’ place, which is where we had slept for the previous night, since my husband was in Cagayan de Oro for the Couples for Christ MindanaONE project launch. I especially felt like doing so when I found out that none of my friends would be going to the March either (at least, no one that I’d already met in person, though a lot of my online “friends” from Filipinos for Life had told me they’d be there).
Believe me, I was tempted. Dare I say, perhaps, much like Jesus was tempted in the desert. But, by God’s grace, just like Jesus, I didn’t give in. The words “practice what you preach” and “walk your talk” came to my mind, and I knew, deep in my heart, if I am to call myself “pro-life,” then I should be willing to give at least a few hours of my time to the “fight for life.”
I was so inspired by the sight of this. I was actually supposed to bring my own son along, but he changed his mind about joining me. He said he didn’t want his sister to be “alone.” Photo source: www.cbcpforlife.com
So join I did. And walk I did. And, when we got to Christ the King Seminary, listen I did.
And I am so glad that I did what I did. I thank God for it.
I’m especially grateful that I got to hear fellow pro-lifer and Christian mom Kay Painter of Remembering SARA speak. She shared how she had an abortion in the guise of it being her “reproductive right” and the devastating effects it had on her and her family. She also talked about how God healed her and is now using her in the pro-life ministry.
Listening to Kay brought me back to the “Heart to Serve” Conference I served at earlier this month, where participants were taught the basics on how to deal with women who’d had abortions, or were thinking of having one, among other things.
As a mother of two, I sometimes wonder what could have led or lead other women to resort to “getting rid” of their own flesh and blood, of killing their own children through abortion.
God bless and save our beloved Philippines and our beloved countrymen, especially the “babies in their mommies’ tummies,” as my five-year-old son calls the preborn. Let’s take to heart and mind what our dear Blessed Mother Teresa said about contraception, abortion and the family:
"The way to plan the family is natural family planning, not contraception...This (use of contraceptives) turns the attention to self and so it destroys the gift of love in him or her. In loving, the husband and wife must turn the attention to each other as happens in natural family planning, and not to self, as happens in contraception. Once that living love is destroyed by contraception, abortion follows easily . . . And abortion, which often follows from contraception, brings a people to be spiritually poor, and that is the worst poverty and the most difficult to overcome."