A beautiful morning praying at Planned Parenthood in the rain
By Tom Quiner
Quiner and friends praying at Planned Parenthood as part of 40 Days for Life
It was cold … and wet … and heartwarming.
A group of us gathered at Planned Parenthood this morning and prayed. We prayed hard for life. All of us were Catholic, so we prayed the Rosary, all fifteen decades.
This prayer asks the Blessed Mother of God, Mary, to pray with us and intercede on behalf of preborn children, their mothers and fathers, and even the employees of Planned Parenthood … to intercede by changing hearts and saving lives.
It works. The power of these prayers are unstoppable.
We prayed as part of a larger movement called 40 Days for Life. Catholics, Protestants, and who knows what other faith traditions unite and pray the prayers they are comfortable with on behalf of the exquisite beauty of human life.
40 Days for Life is a sprawling and expanding international movement. Prayers take place at Planned Parenthood and other abortion locations in over three-hundred locations in 49 states, 7 Canadian provinces, Australia, England, Spain, Uganda and more.
Our group of seven men and two women changed the world, or rather our prayers did. I don’t know how and probably never will know for certain who was affected. But the Holy Spirit is at work in mysterious ways.
We had an affect on a couple of passing cars that we do know about. One gentleman pulled into the parking lot and walked over through the rain to give us $20. That will go to the Respect Life committee at my parish, Holy Trinity Catholic Church.
Another man and his young son pulled up and brought us two trays of hot chocolate from a local coffee shop.
Their gestures meant a lot to each of us, just as our prayer vigil in miserable rainy, cold weather moved them. I bet his son, who looked to be about ten, will never forget what they did for us.
I’ve never enjoyed miserable weather so much.
Tom, you always inspire us! We, too, prayerfully picket at our PP facility here in Dubuque. We are not sure just what has happened but like you, we trust in the Holy Spirit to work in response to many people’s prayers.
Thanks for the kind words and for your prayerful work in Dubuque.
Yay for prayer warriors …and those who support them with $$ and hot chocolate. Each one of you a testament to a heart for God.
Thanks so much.
Thanks for sharing, how do I learn more about the 40 days of life and how I can participate?
It’s a great movement. Here’s the website about it: http://www.40daysforlife.com/
The founders have even written a book. Hope you get involved.
God hears every single prayer, and responds in a Godly way. Those ways are beyond are understanding. Thanks for writing, Bob.
THat warms the heart, doesn’t it!!
“[A] study cost $2.4 million, and most of the money came from the John Templeton Foundation, which supports research into spirituality. The government has spent more than $2.3 million on prayer research since 2000.
Dean Marek, a chaplain at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a co-author of the report, said the study said nothing about the power of personal prayer or about prayers for family members and friends.
Working in a large medical center like Mayo, Mr. Marek said, “You hear tons of stories about the power of prayer, and I don’t doubt them.”
In the study, the researchers monitored 1,802 patients at six hospitals who received coronary bypass surgery, in which doctors reroute circulation around a clogged vein or artery.
The patients were broken into three groups. Two were prayed for; the third was not. Half the patients who received the prayers were told that they were being prayed for; half were told that they might or might not receive prayers.
The researchers asked the members of three congregations — St. Paul’s Monastery in St. Paul; the Community of Teresian Carmelites in Worcester, Mass.; and Silent Unity, a Missouri prayer ministry near Kansas City — to deliver the prayers, using the patients’ first names and the first initials of their last names.
The congregations were told that they could pray in their own ways, but they were instructed to include the phrase, “for a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications.”
Analyzing complications in the 30 days after the operations, the researchers found no differences between those patients who were prayed for and those who were not.
In another of the study’s findings, a significantly higher number of the patients who knew that they were being prayed for — 59 percent — suffered complications, compared with 51 percent of those who were uncertain. The authors left open the possibility that this was a chance finding. But they said that being aware of the strangers’ prayers also may have caused some of the patients a kind of performance anxiety. “