Our Pope has made a request that all Catholics join in the ‘Vigil for all Nascent Human Life’, to be celebrated in all dioceses and local parishes on November 27th 2010.
The Pope will lead the Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica on the eve of the First Sunday of Advent. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments and the Pontifical Council for the Family have worked together to make plans for the vigil. Options for celebrating the vigil for individual parishes include a schedule of Rosary and/or Evening Prayer and/or Benediction, and/or Marian Processions. Bishops the world over have been contacted in order that they may make particular plans for their dioceses. Fr. Lombardi, Vatican spokesperson said on Vatican Radio that the events will take place "in spiritual union with the Holy Father, to promote the commitment and the ecclesial witness for a culture of life and love."
A hat tip to Caritas in Veritate blog where Fr John Boyle tells us that Cardinal Di Nardo said the call for the Vigil was unprecedented and added: I heartily encourage all Catholics, whether at home or traveling over the Thanksgiving holidays, to take part in this special prayer, whose purpose according to the Holy See,” he said, “is to ‘thank the Lord for his total self-giving to the world and for his Incarnation which gave every human life its real worth and dignity,’ and to ‘invoke the Lord’s protection over every human being called into existence’.
For us Celts, November 27th is the feast day of important saints that brought the faith to our ancestors. November 27th is the feast day of St. Secundinus, the saint who was sent to Ireland to help St. Patrick evangelise the Irish. The centuries following St Secundinus’ mighty apostolate saw the Irish stay firm in faith. The faith has dwindled in Ireland, but there is still the commitment to pro-life laws and a complete ban on surgical abortion. St Secundinus, having had so powerful a role in converting the Irish from paganism to being followers of Jesus, may intercede for the Irish that they may continue to resist legalised abortion. November 27th is also the feast day of St. Fergus, the bishop known as ‘the Pict’ who helped spread the Gospel in Scotland.
Mary O'Regan
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