We are called Pray, Fast and Give Alms in Lent. This year, the money you save in Lent could help us to offer women the help they need to keep their babies.
Why not print off a clear copy of our Lenten Chart and use it to remind yourself what your fasting has helped you to save each day so you can send money to support our pro-life work?
Easy ways to donate are listed on the Chart.
Danni came to Good Counsel some years ago. She found us through heading past Buckhurst Hill abortion centre on her way to book an abortion somewhere else! As she walked past, a man called to her and said "Hey that man wants to speak to you!" Danni stopped and looked across the road where she saw Michael, one of the Helpers of God's Precious Infants, who were holding a regular vigil there.
She went over to him, not knowing who he was, or what he was doing. "That man told me you wanted to speak to me." she said and Michael said "What man?" they both looked around, the quiet street was empty. "I didn't see anyone. And I didn't tell anyone to call you." he said bemused. Danni was confused but they got chatting and he told her what he was doing there and showed her the help leaflet. He asked if she was there for an abortion. "Well, I'm not having an abortion here, but I am on my way to book one!"
Danni accepted Michael's offer of help. She came into our office and sat in our reception area with a Rosary beads- given to her by Michael - around her neck. Another young woman from a similar background was there too, she had walked in from another abortion centre after being offered help. She too had accepted a blessed Rosary and was wearing it around her neck too! They soon became friends!
After we helped her make a plan for herself and her baby, offering lots of support, Danni kept her baby. She told us "It must have been the Archangel Michael that called me over to speak to Michael". She also sent in more than one friend who kept their babies too. Several years later, she came back to us pregnant again, this time with a supportive husband, but with a disabled baby. "I'm keeping my baby." she said. "It's a life. It's a human being."
This is the work that is done outside abortion centres. This is the work that reaches out to mums in desperate situations and saves lives, like the 5 lives that we know of that have been saved in the Brixton and Ealing 40 Days for Life Campaigns this Lent. Make no mistake, this is the work that buffer zones are intended to stop.
You can donate to help us support our work here or here.
Today we are re-sharing a blog post from 2010 which showed us the power of Our Lady's intercession.
This lady, let's call her Monica, knew she could go elsewhere and get an abortion, but she had a certain trust in us. We had talked through all the risks of abortion with her. The dangers, possible side effects, the reality of what would happen to her baby in an abortion. We discussed why we thought it was wrong. All these things let her know we really cared about her health and wellbeing.
But they didn't "move" her in her resolve to abort one tiny bit.
If we got an abortion for her, she felt, it would be at least as safe as it could be. So she came to see us for the third time in the hope that, maybe, she could persuade us to arrange her abortion.
Monica had a toddler already and her husband has serious psychological problems. They have not been together for many months. She has separated from him for her child's welfare as much as her own. He has used physical violence against them before. His family think she is crazy for ever being with him. Her own family think so too. They say to her "It's lucky you only have the one child with him!"
This is the language women often use about their baby when they are victims of abuse, rape, violence, or other issues where they are left to feel - as Monica did - stupid, guilty, shamed, hurt and used.
The problem is with the father, not with the baby. But the problem of the father gets reflected onto the baby by the poor woman who carries the child of man who has wounded her.
Can I in the short time we have together diffuse all that hurt and anger and suffering? - I asked myself this as she sat before me. She was very hardened into her choice to abort. Had the doctor been standing in the room ready to abort the child she would have said "yes". I whispered a quick prayer and set about trying to crack the hardened heart. I hadn't spoken for long when suddenly something happened. I hadn't said anything striking but I felt the weight of a huge burden lift in the room. Suddenly she began to say "I think I should keep the baby, What do you think?" She watched a video showing the abortion process at her stage and she said "You know, I have seen this before but it made no impact. I have heard about what abortion does when I came here before, but while I heard the words it didn't affect me. But now, something has changed. All of it has just now become clear to me. It is all affecting me now."
We sat together for 2 hours talking about the help she would need making a plan together. It was light and joyful and suddenly - though she still knew raising this second child - alone - would be hard, she embraced the child as hers - a sibling of her beloved toddler and - she could admit it now - the second child she had always wanted!
After she left, I went to the chapel and afterwards I asked the other staff and volunteers "Who was praying here about half an hour after I went in to see Monica?" no-one they thought. I was mystified. I really felt the power of prayer at work.
I pottered round to Westminster Cathedral that afternoon to see the relic replica image of Our Lady of Guadelupe. It struck me when I arrived that the service of prayer before this image had been led by Archbishop Nichols exactly half an hour after my meeting with Monica started and I couldn't help but feel that it was very much connected. Thank you our Blessed Lady. Monica is now awaiting the birth of her child in April.
You can donate to help us support mums like Monica here or here.
Clare McCullough
I'm very grateful that we don't often need to make an extremely urgent appeal for funds. But today is one of those occasions.
We are able to make and plan
for the foreseeable, but so often in the lives of the women that we help the
unforeseeable presents itself.
A good example of this is "Lydia"
who spoke at the Brixton 40 Days for Life half-way event. She told us, “I
went to Brixton abortion clinic for a consultation and they thought I was only
carrying one baby when I arrived. They gave me a scan and told me there was
more than one heartbeat. I was totally shocked. They told me they thought it
was twins and I thought straight away at that moment I cannot go ahead with an
abortion. They said they could not proceed because I could sue them because I
was not mentally prepared to abort more than one baby so I had to have time to
think about it and return for the abortion at a later date but I had already
made up my mind that I was not going to return. I went for my first antenatal
scan at the hospital and they told me that I was expecting quadruplets. I
nearly collapsed. I was very shocked.” [You can read the rest of Lydia's talk
here]
At the moment our funds are as
low as they have been for at least the last 5 years. There are more than 20
women that we are currently providing ongoing help and assistance to, as well
as many others who we provide a range of support to. This week we have given
out almost £500 worth of food vouchers to women who have no recourse to
public funds. But we do not have the money to be able to do this or
anything like it next week.
It is Lent, a time of almsgiving, a time when Catholics are asked not just to
fast and abstain, but to use the money saved to help those in need. I would ask
you therefore at this time to please make a donation towards our work, so that
we can continue to help these mothers and their babies, who don't qualify help
elsewhere.
You can donate here or donate
through our Just-Giving appeal [Justgiving has started to ask for an extra bit of money to fund their website etc, but you can change the amount that they suggest to as low as zero] and we are now able to
take donations over the telephone 020 7723 1740.
Please join us for 9 days in saying this prayer to St Philomena, for help with our financial situation.
NOVENA PRAYER TO
ST. PHILOMENA
O FAITHFUL
VIRGIN and glorious martyr, St. Philomena, who works so many miracles on behalf
of the poor and sorrowing, have pity on me. Thou knowest the multitude and
diversity of my needs. Behold me at thy feet, full of misery, but full of
hope. I entreat thy charity, O great Saint! Graciously hear me and obtain
from God a favourable answer to the request which I now humbly lay before thee,
that Good Counsel will raise the funds they need and that as many lives as
possible will be saved through their work, [& add your own petitions.]
I am firmly convinced that through thy merits, through the scorn, the
sufferings and the death thou didst endure, united to the merits of the Passion
and death of Jesus, thy Spouse, I shall obtain what I ask of thee, and in the
joy of my heart I will bless God, who is admirable in His Saints. Amen
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