‘Who is Missing and what have we lost?’

The stalwarts of the prolife movement continue the fight for life on many frontlines these days and yet we still don’t see the big picture.

I heard a discussion the other day which made me jump; it was not focussed on the numbers aborted or the horrifying array of methods or the blindness and callous hearts of the people involved. It asked the question ‘who is missing from our world?’ 

In every age and nation, God has always provided what (and who) was needed at any given moment in history. Whilst everyone has their own unique role, the destiny of some is far reaching in their impact. Scientists like Alexander Fleming who discovered Penicillin, social reformers like Florence Nightingale who formalised the nursing profession, or statesmen like Churchill holding back the tide of Nazism and of course our own Saviour.

There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that during a discussion between Hilary Clinton and Mother Teresa, the former asked why she thought there had been no female President of the United States; to which Mother Teresa responded “she was probably aborted”.  

Perhaps many of today’s problems remain unsolved, like cancer, AIDS, wars, etc. not because the solutions were not sent to earth but because the ones to provide them ended up in a bucket in an abortion clinic instead of fulfilling their destiny.

Whether we realise it or not, our societies are impoverished to an ever increasing extent; we have no way of evaluating it but we are all unknowingly suffering the consequences of it.

As Ireland stands on the precipice, with its abortion referendum looming, I hope the people will remember those who gave them the gift of life, the sacrifices they made for them, the love extended to them and vote to 'protect' the next generation, many of whom may otherwise not see the light of day.

Dying Embers

St Patrick had a vision of Ireland where he was shown the state of the Church in Ireland. At first he saw the whole land like a great furnace whose flames reached to the sky and he heard the voice of an Angel declare “such is now – the state of Ireland in the eyes of the Lord’ As the vision continued he saw it change as the centuries rolled by until eventually all that remained were a few live coals buried and burning deep in the earth. Patrick wept at the sight.

I am told that my maternal grandfather, at the end of each day, assembled his family in the living room of their farmhouse in Leitrim and they all knelt down and prayed the rosary together.

Whilst it is likely that this devotion was alloyed to some degree with obligation and perhaps fear; the discipline of that daily prayer, together as a family, kept them at peace with one another and on the straight and narrow. The house and each one in it was bathed in prayer and returning grace. Somehow, in those days this was enough to carry that generation through life and to eternity. 

The effect of that daily family prayer may not have been obvious as to its effect ; it only becomes obvious when it’s gone as in our day where families are splintered with misunderstanding, argument, separation, and divorce. Correlation between decline in family prayer and the faith underpinning it and an increase in broken families is clear enough. As most of the First World is in a similar condition perhaps we have seen enough to know it’s time to return to God and to prayer.

St Patrick’s vision did not end in unhappy defeat, in his vision after the darkness; a light arose and began to grow again until Ireland returned to its ‘first state of all-pervading fire’