Mary's Prayers

Why pray the rosary outside abortuaries?...‘You’d be a lot more effective if you dropped using the pictures of the Virgin Mary and didn’t, you know,...move those beads around in your hand’
the lady said and gave me a sympathetic look.


I was standing outside a central London abortuary with a large poster of Our Lady of Guadalupe at my side, and white rosary beads in my hands. It was an unusually quiet day at the clinic, and no one had gone in during the past 45 minutes.
I gave her a friendly smile in return, and said, ‘thank you for your thought on the matter’.


I said ‘thank you’ because I could see that this blond lady had made this comment with good intentions.
‘Well, we’re Catholics, we believe that we’re invoking the Virgin Mary’s help.’
She sighed silently and said, ‘But how?...why do you need to get the Virgin’s help?...’
‘We have two choices when we are here, either we pray, which for us as Catholics includes seeking the Virgin Mary’s intercession, or we do not pray.' I said, and she raised her eyebrow but listened carefully.
I continued, ‘We’ve chosen to pray for the pregnant women, because we believe that even if we make no contact with them, that winning support from Heaven for them is important. Also, a lot of the pregnant ladies ask for a rosary to put in their purse or wear around their necks. When we do get to speak to them, some of them are Catholics and recognise the prayers, others know that by praying for them we mean well, and then others are delighted to have someone to offer them practical help.’


I showed her our leaflets and explained how we can help women.


‘Here’s a leaflet for you.’ I said, and she exclaimed ‘No, no, I’m not pregnant! I’m pushing sixty, I’m past my time for all that.’
‘Oh yes, but if you know of anyone who is pregnant and going through a bad patch, you might like to give it to them.’
‘Oh yeah, I suppose that’s an idea. It’s just that a lot of my friends have come to places just like this for terminations, and they’ve spent the rest of their lives mulling over what might have been had they kept it.’ She sighed heavily.


‘I just wonder if they would have stopped to talk to you had they seen the picture of the Virgin Mary.’

She opened up and told me the situations that her friends had been in, and how twenty, thirty, even forty years later she still was comforting them after their abortions. ‘They needed care, and none of us knew what to do...’
‘Well our praying here is a sign that we care. We may not know what’s going on in their lives until we speak with them, but praying here is a way of caring for everyone involved, primarily the pregnant lady, because the Virgin Mary herself was perplexed on finding out that she was pregnant. And we back up our prayers with action, we give appropriate help.’
I had to be very gentle at this next point, and delicately explained how we help girls who are going through the same predicaments as her friends were going through in the 70's and 80's.
‘Yeah, I grant you that’s impressive...you do the good works bit as well. And the praying - you’re doing what you believe in – I respect that - really I do.’
‘When I leave here, I’ll light a candle for you and say some for you.’ I replied.
To my surprise, she gave a bright smile to this, and said ‘thank you, I’m not religious, but that’s awfully kind of you.’
Monsignor Reilly always encourages pro-lifers outside the clinics to use ‘the intercessory power of the Mother of God’, that we cannot fight this battle alone, but need dynamic spiritual weaponry.

Mary O Regan

Absorbing Mum and Dad's Values

"When the news comes on at night, mum makes me go to my room. I’m not allowed to hear about the X girl. I heard mum say that the X girl should'a gone to England and not told anyone"
said a girl that I was at school with.

We were both seven, it was 1992, and the case of the girl called ‘X’ was storming the country. ‘X’ was a fourteen year old girl, pregnant (the father of her best friend was the baby's father)and while the Irish courts deliberated on whether they would give her leave to have an abortion in England, the story of X was splattered all over the newspapers and was the cause célèbre of Irish television. (Details of the court proceedings are available here: http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IESC/1992/1.html)
For us seven year olds it was like a hurricane cloud jostling above our heads – we didn’t identify with it – but I do believe that the attitudes our parents took towards the X case informed our consciences on abortion.
In total confusion, I asked my own mother ‘Well why they can’t let her go to England and have a holiday?’
‘She won’t be going to England for a holiday. She’s going to England because they want her to have an abortion’ said mum with such a grief-stricken, sorrowful voice that made me feel like someone was dying, even remembering this conversation has the power to make me numb. Then I was shown pictures of babies in the womb, and fully convinced of the personhood of the unborn from looking at the pictures I asked, ‘Well! I know! Why can’t they take the baby out now, and put him in another mummy?’ It was explained to me that in each pregnancy, there is a cord that links each baby with his mother. That you can’t take a foetus out without breaking this cord (the baby’s lifeline) and thus ending the life of the baby.
When the Supreme Court lifted the injunction preventing ‘X’ and her family from travelling to England, and ‘X’ did go to London, I did overhear a lot of discussion concerning what abortion would be performed. Books got left open, I saw a picture of the head of a foetus and there were heated phone calls where I heard my parents explain their position on why ‘X’ and her baby deserved better than abortion. This may not be the most advised way of educating a child on the reality of abortion – namely because it carries the risk of traumatising the child to the point where they might avoid all discussion of pro-life issues. But I do remember making a clear decision for myself – those who pushed the abortion debate had vested interests - I thought ‘they keep saying she’s a child and it’s dangerous for her to have her baby, but then if as they say, she’s a child, why is she being pushed through an operation?’
In contrast to the parents of my peers, mine didn’t accept that abortion should be viewed as an option in ‘The X Case’, instead they educated us as to the reality of abortion and why X’s unborn child was getting the full blame. I remember my parents spending long hours sitting with my two older brothers arguing against the pro-choice rhetoric that they had heard in school (yes – Catholic schools) and in the newspapers. If Hilary Clinton’s maxim ‘never waste a good crisis’ was put to the test, then perhaps how well my parents did is exemplified in that my two older brothers got involved in pro-life marches during the X case and one of them stood up to a pro-abortion teacher. All of this I absorbed in between looking up from my Polly Pocket dolls and learning to write my address. It was ironic that years later the girl who was at school with me, whose parents were in favour of ‘X’ going to England became pro-abortion.
It could be said that we took opposite directions - scarily in line with our parents' examples.

Mary O'Regan

Why I Pray Outside Abortuaries.

Left: One of our volunteers, Sr Chinedum Nwadike HFSN prays and counsels outside a Central London abortuary

I first came to pray outside abortuaries a few years ago when I went on a procession with the 'Helpers of God's Precious Infants', who as many pro-lifers know are a group of pro-life people dedicated to defending and upholding the dignity of human life. Their mission is to save the lives of unborn children via the spiritual conversion of their mothers. I was praying with the Helpers who do a regular monthly vigil at different abortion clinics around London and I had been going on the monthly vigil for a couple of months when one of the pavement counsellors approached me and asked me if I was able to do the counselling (normally one or two people counsel and the others pray, I had just been praying so far). I did not feel comfortable at that time to start doing the counselling, as I had not done any kind of counselling before and so I did not actually start the counselling on that day.
At a vigil later on in the year I was approached again by a pavement counsellor who told me he would stay by my side and give me some training so at that point I felt that God was calling me to help with this work for Him. I had seen the 'Counsellor Training video' regarding the pavement counselling by Monsignor Reilly who leads the vigils in America and they are very successful at saving many unborn children, through God's intervention, with their prayers and sacrifices.

I was a little nervous to start off with, but having someone who was used to it there to help me at my side made me feel better and I knew I needed to put my trust in God. I didn't get to say much that day to many passers-by probably due to my nerves but I managed to hand out some of our centre leaflets to offer help to the mums.
It was after this time that I thought about counselling at the nearest abortuary, weekly, which was about 25 minutes drive from where I live. At first I was not sure if I would get the time due to a busy family life, and I was often away, but the thoughts kept coming into my head that God needed me there so I decided I would make time on a Saturday morning, for a couple of hours, to help.

The first day I turned up I was very nervous as there was nobody else there when I arrived and so I asked Our Lady to help me. After a few minutes another counsellor turned up and the people who were helping by praying the rosary. With the leaflets to hand out to the people and with the prayers being said, and my experience working at the Good Counsel Network Centre, I managed to get through it ok.
I pray outside the abortuaries on a weekly basis because I want be there for God, for the mothers and their babies. I want to do what I can to help God to save the lives of the unborn, to reach out to the mothers and fathers and offer them help and also to offer my being there to God. I want to help the mothers and babies in need through prayer and sacrifice in this spiritual battle. Whatever the outcome, I trust in God that our sacrifice and prayers will be of great value toward saving lives of the unborn and for the conversion of the mums and dads who have chosen to abort their babies.
The people who pray at the same abortuary for many years revealed to me that one of the counsellors who prayed there regularly had only just left to live abroad and his last week there as a pavement counsellor was the week before I came.

Lorraine Coyne

A Golden Opportunity

Our new Tabernacle before and after refurbishment.

For a number of years now in The Good Counsel Network's Chapel we have been having regular Mass, Adoration and Benediction for the women we see and for the end of abortion and all threats against the sanctity of life. A number of priests have pointed out that our Tabernacle is too small. One priest very kindly gave us a larger old Tabernacle that needed to be re-gilded outside and in, because it had become very tarnished. This has now been done and will be fitted shortly. The overall cost will be a little more than £1,000 (far cheaper than a new tabernacle of this sort, which would cost over £6,000). If you would like to donate towards this expense, to honour Our Lord, help in the spiritual battle against abortion or perhaps just to make an offering in memory of a loved one for example, please send cheques made payable to “The Guild of Our Lady of Good Counsel” to P.O. Box. 46679, London, NW9 8ZT England, or via our website http://www.goodcounselnetwork.com/).

Stuart McCullough

Urgent Accommodation Request - Save A Life With Your Spare Room!

A young woman who is under a lot of pressure to have an abortion urgently needs accommodation in West London. If you, or anyone you know, can offer accommodation for anything from 1 month to 12 months, please get in touch with me on 0207 723 1740. Good Counsel will take full responsibility for this woman and will guarantee that she will move on at the agreed time.

Clare McCullough

Why I am Pro-Life 2

My path to the truth and to informing clients of the truth was far from easy, or straightforward. I still had difficulty in understanding why barrier methods of contraception were wrong. I looked at the needs of families, particularly the children and the women, many of whom were in violent, emotionally abusive, dysfunctional relationships and suffering great material poverty. I worried a lot, often torn between my conscience and my desire to help women. But I thank God for the group where I always had the opportunity to discuss, to seek advice and to pray.

I know now that I did not pray enough, did not trust in God enough and was arrogant enough for some time to think that I knew better than Church teaching . Gradually I saw clearly why the teaching of the Church, not only on abortion but on artificial contraception, is so right, so wise. If only I, we, listened always and complied with that teaching what a better place our world would be, how many of our social ills would never have occurred!
I also learned during this period about babies who are conceived artificially via for example invitro fertilisation, artificial insemination etc. where, again, the act of love is separated from life. I understand why this is very much against the teaching of the church and due to the destruction of extra unwanted babies which have been fertilised in the process, these fertility 'treatments' often involve aborting babies.

At the same time I discovered how difficult it is to adopt a small baby, due to the shortage of babies put up for adoption in this country. Babies are either aborted or kept, and usually the small number of children put up for adoption are those taken into care, due for example to parents neglect of their children due to alcohol or drug abuse.
I have often thought that if aliens visited the earth, they would consider us human beings to be completely mad. On the one hand we have hundreds of women killing their babies at all stages of pregnancy every day of the week. On the other we see women who try (mostly unsuccessfully) many artificial means of conceiving a child, or we have couples who are desperate to adopt a baby, but there are not enough babies available for that to happen. This happens because we flout God’s law by breaking the fifth commandment; 'Thou shalt not kill.'

We are children of God, and like all children we need proper rules and boundaries in order to be happy. If we break God’s law we do evil, both to ourselves and to others, evil for which we must suffer the consequences.
Many women thought, and think, that the right to artificial contraception and the right to choose whether to let their babies live or die has liberated them. But there is much evidence to show it has done exactly the opposite and I have seen this evidence for myself during the thirty plus years I have worked with families.
I have talked to teenage girls and young women many of whom have embarked in sexual relationships, not because they wanted to, but because they felt pressurised by their peers, the boyfriends who coerced them, and the pressure to conform to what is now seen as the norm in our society. Many women are afraid to say no because they have a boyfriend who threatens to leave them if they do not comply with their demand for sex. Contraception allows our society to see and use sex as a commodity which is separated from responsibility, commitment, the gift of life and true love. So much of the time it is coarsened, not looked on as sacred and a gift of God but is used for instant gratification and pleasure without responsibility. If life occurs as a result of this it is so often seen as an inconvenience, a failure of contraception, where no one is responsible least of all the father of the expected baby. It is left to the woman to deal with, her problem, as evidenced by millions of women who are rejected and kill their babies, and the millions of women who are lone parents struggling to bring children up without any support from the fathers of these children. Most women will tell you they have not chosen to be alone with their children
Where is their freedom? Where is their liberation.?
Most modern women with children are expected to do it all and most certainly are not able to have it all! The easy availability of abortion and contraception has helped socialise the modern male into the view that it is his right to have sex, but, if a baby is conceived the woman is responsible. Many men having decided it is nothing to do with them either force the woman to have an abortion or leave the relationship.
What has happened to the woman’s choice, freedom, liberation?
The woman has to deal with the consequences, the man can go off and form a new relationship whenever he wants.
The twin evils of abortion and contraception are clear violations of Gods laws. The evidence of the chaos and evil they have caused and continue to cause in our world, in the breakdown of our society is there for all to see if we want to see it.
If all men and women endeavoured to remain chaste, to have sex only within marriage, to be open to life, what a different society we would have, what different lives our children would lead. Life would be so much more like heaven on earth for all of us.

Ronni O'Gara

Why I am Pro-Life

There are many reasons why I am pro-life, some of which I will outline in my blog today and tomorrow.

I learned from my parents, and subsequently at school that God created the world and everything in it, that all of God’s creation must be valued and respected, but that human beings have a special place and function in this creation. Humans are of a higher order than the rest of creation because each one is created as a unique person, in the image and likeness of God, with a unique immortal soul which is to live for all eternity. I learned that each human being was created by God to know Him, love Him, serve Him and to be happy with Him for all eternity.
I did not know about abortion or contraception, as far as I remember, until I began my general nurse training. I became aware from study of anatomy and physiology and the church’s teaching that human life begins when the ovum is fertilised by the sperm. I decided that I would never do anything to help end a baby’s life.
The first time I had to make a decision regarding the protection of life was when, as part of my training, I was required to work in general theatre. I knew clearly from the fifth commandment, “Thou shall not kill” that abortion was murder and that if I helped it would be a mortal sin. I went to the hospital matron and explained that I would not work in general theatre where I would be required to participate in all surgery including abortion. I was allowed to work in a theatre which only dealt with ear nose and throat surgery.
The next time I had to confront this issue was during my midwifery training. The use of contraception was discussed routinely with new mothers by midwives, at some stage during the first two weeks following the baby’s birth.
As a student midwife I learned, and therefore thought I knew, how different forms of contraception worked, e.g. the coil or intrauterine device caused the fertilised ovum to be aborted and I was very clear that this was murder and that I could never advise or encourage anything which would cause a baby’s death.

I learned that were barriers to life for example the cap and the condom and I was taught that the various forms of pills worked also as a barrier to life by making the environment in the cervix or within the womb such that fertilisation could not take place. I was very shocked some years later to learn that contraceptive pills also cause abortion by not allowing the fertilised ovum to embed and grow in the uterus.
I thought that the forms of contraception which did not cause abortion were the lesser of two evils. I took the view that since most of the people I saw were already using contraception, that if I told them how the forms of contraception worked, they would be less likely to use the ones that caused abortions and thus there would be less abortion. I fully understood and agreed with the teaching of the Catholic Church that the sexual act should only take place within marriage. But I did not understand, as I now do, the teaching of the Church that the sexual act within marriage must always be open to life, but that couples can comply with that teaching while practising natural family planning in a responsible way. I practised as a midwife for a very short time and went on to train and practice as a district nursing sister, where I never had to deal with the subject.
Two years later I trained as a health visitor and, again, working with young families I was confronted by the subject of abortion and contraception. I saw the difficulties many families faced and decided for myself that the teaching of the church on contraception (of the type which did not cause abortions) was unrealistic. I resolved to avoid the matter as much as I could by not doing Family Planning training. However, in order to fulfil the requirements of my job, I compromised by informing clients of the existence of the family planning clinic. I later realised this was very wrong of me. At that time I thought I was truly pro-life.
Then my husband introduced me to a group where there were weekly talks from Catholic lawyers, priests, doctors, nurses etc. on the teaching of the church regarding many subjects, including abortion and contraception. I gradually learned and understood why all forms of contraception are wrong and against God’s laws. It was only then I began to learn what being pro-life really meant. I began to seek advice from the group and I did a Natural Family Planning course so that I was better equipped to teach families how to be open to life and yet able to control the size of their families so that they conceived the number of children that in conscience they could provide for spiritually, emotionally, psychologically and materially. Most couples had already used contraception and were adamantly not interested in natural family planning. Some were quite hostile. Health professionals and the public have been brainwashed into thinking natural family planning doesn’t work despite all the research which shows that not only does it work, but that statistically it is safer and much more effective at planning when to have babies than artificial contraception. Ironically it is used in the health service to help infertile couples to conceive! Of course there is much money to be made in the performance of abortions and in the sale of contraceptives. Couples who practice natural family planning learn how their bodies work, how to use that knowledge to plan their babies and how to truly love one another. The only cost involved is that incurred in teaching it. Once learned it is learned forever, no costs no profit for anyone!...Continues tomorrow

Ronni O' Gara

Support Today's Vigil, However You Can.

Please support our peaceful, prayerful Vigil today at Marie Stopes central London abortuary from 11am-1pm, see yesterday's post for full details. If you can't come you can support us with your prayers, sacrifices, fasting or offering up your sufferings. Please pray for the women going for abortions today, for the abortuary staff and that the advert due to be aired tonight won't be shown tonight or throughout the month of June, the month of the Sacred Heart, as Marie Stopes had planned.
If you haven't already done so please contact Jeremy Hunt MP, the Secretary of
State for Culture, Media and Sport, who has the power to stop this ad through his powers related to Ofcom. Contact him and ask him to prevent the ad from being shown. His department's telephone Number is: 02072216000 and his department's email is : enquiries@culture.gov.uk. See john smeatons blog for details: http://spuc-director.blogspot.com
Our Lady Help of Christians, Pray for us!

Prayer and Witness at Marie Stopes on Monday

On Monday 24th May from 11.00am-1.00pm we will be holding a peaceful, prayerful pro-life Vigil, following the method of Monsignor Reilly of the Helpers of God's Precious Infants at the Central London abortuary of Marie Stopes. This is to offer help to women going for abortions and to pray for them also. It is also a form of 'symbolic action' against the planned TV advert which Marie Stopes hope to show on Monday night.
Please attend and support this if you can.
The address is: Marie Stopes House
108 Whitfield Street
London
W1T 5BE
Nearest tubes are Warren St Station and Goodge St Station.
Frank Duff, the founder of the Legion of Mary, believed in 'symbolic action'. Symbolic action was a way of responding to any evil that you could not see any means of overcoming, and he applied it particularly to sinful situations in his society that were tolerated because people did not know how to fight them, e.g. Prostitution. The idea was that while praying about the problem, you would also take one action against it, even something tiny, which showed Our Lady that you were committed to ending this evil and willing to work towards it, but just awaited her directions. In Frank Duff's case, the initial attempt, a visit by a pair of Legionaries to a house in Dublin's red-light district, with the aim of inviting all the girls in it on a specially tailored retreat, resulted in the transformation of that area and of the lives of hundreds of prostitutes over the next 5 years. What success might Our Lady grant us if we applied this principle to the fight against abortion, and then followed-on taking each new little step Our Blessed Lady showed us?
Learn more about Symbolic Action in Frank Duff's book 'Miracles on Tap'.

Clare McCullough

Send us Labourers O Lord

I met Paulina a little while ago. She had gone for an abortion having approached several organisations for help in her pregnancy, but finding none. She went to an 'abortion clinic' as they like to call them. A briefer than brief consultation was done and, hey presto, she was given the first part of the 'abortion pill' (it is actually several pills given over two stages). No blood tests were done, despite the risks of the pill, no questions were asked.
Outside the abortuary a volunteer was giving out our help leaflets. Unfortunately she arrived just after Paulina. Paulina stopped to speak to her on her way home, desolate at her loss and inconsolable that she had missed the offer of help.
Then began her nightmares; her son appeared to her as a young boy, drowning or trapped in deadly situations from which she couldn't rescue him. She would wake screaming, crying, sweating. She felt like her existence was pointless.
Worse was to come, she found she had an infection and though at a return visit to the abortuary they said she was fine, she eventually ended up in hospital where they found she was severely anaaemic and something else was wrong. Did she have an ectopic pregnancy? Was it a cyst? Ne, eventually they decided it was 'retained products of conception' or baby parts inside her. This time a surgical abortion followed to remove her dead baby's remains.
Eventually she came back to see us, remembering the kindness she had received from to of our workers that she had met. She was so low she said 'I am not suicidal because I feel I am already dead.'
Friendship, advice and time have helped Paulina to heal, but the real turning points have been Confession and a Requiem Mass for her son. She is now passionately pro-life and determined to live a good life from this point on.
Please pray for her as she still suffers a lot physically and psychologically and pray for all those women going for an abortion who never get an offer of help or support to keep their babies because 'The labourers are few.'

Clare McCullough

David and the Armour of God

Everyone knows that David, barely more than a child, defeated Goliath with a handful of stones.
But as a young Deacon reminded us recently, the other thing that is extraordinary about his success is that he pointedly refused to put on the armour of this world and to use the tools of this world in his battle. Instead his armour and his tools were his total faith in God.
Today join us in fasting and prayer - God's reccomended armour and weapons - to defeat the Goliath of abortion.
If you get this message too late in the day please fast whenever you get it and pray that abortion will not be advertised on TV in the UK.
Stuart and Clare McCullough

Some kinds of demons... Part 2 URGENT UPDATE

You have probably heard by now that Marie Stopes (MS) the abortion providers will be airing an abortion advert on Channel 4 on Monday 24th May, Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians.

Despite a public consultation last year which ended with a decision not to allow abortion advertising, Channel 4 and MS claim that the ban does not apply to this advert as they are a 'charity' and do not make a profit from their services.

SPUC has replied to some of these claims here http://spuc-director.blogspot.com/

Where has our society sunk to when the mass slaughter of innocent human beings has become something to promote during a break in our light entertainment? Nations are being annihilated as Our Lady of Fatima warned and we cannot just shake our heads and say "Tut, tut!". The vulnerable young women watching this advert deserve better.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

In solidarity with millions of unborn babies who have been aborted, with millions of women who have been hurt by abortion and with the approximately two hundred thousand babies threatened by abortion in England and Wales this year, we can pray and fast to stop this advert being aired.

It is worth repeating Our Lord's own words, 'And He said to them; This kind (of demon) can go out with nothing but prayer and fasting'. Do we REALLY believe him?

Other groups are considering legal challenges, which we support, and we can support them particularly with our fasting and prayer. Good Counsel had already promoted a national day of prayer and fasting on Friday 21st May. Now we are asking you to join this fast day particular for the intention of preventing this tv advertising campaign and any future such plans.

Secondly, you can pass on a link to this blog to all your friends and encourage them to join you.

Since it is such an urgent cause, we are asking people to really do their best to fast as well as they can and to participate in some extra prayer. Maybe to say an extra Rosary, a whole Rosary, attend Mass or spend some time in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

There is Mass in our London Centre on Friday at 11.30am followed by a Holy Hour. If you wish to attend, please come to the side door or phone us for details if you don't know where we are; contact Gabrielle: 02077231740

Finally, watch this space for details of a peaceful, prayerful vigil at Marie Stopes on Monday.

Some kinds of demons

And He said to them; This kind (of demon) can go out by nothing but prayer and fasting. Gospel of Mark 9:29.

Since the 5th July 2008 The Good Counsel Network has organised monthly National days of prayer and fasting for life, the first was to prevent the passing of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. Although the bill was passed some of the more damaging anti-life amendments were not added to it, including an attack on pro-life counselling and the extension to Northern Ireland of the Abortion Act. There had also been 40 days of Prayer and Fasting in Northern Ireland to ensure that this law was not extended. This only confirmed what we already knew; it is clear from the work that we do at Good Counsel Network, advising women who are strongly set on abortion, that the struggle to end abortion is a spiritual struggle and not merely one of practical concerns or politics.

Friday the 21st May is the next National Day of Prayer and Fasting for Life, it is the vigil of St Rita, a patroness of hopeless cases. Please join us in fasting. You could fast from all food except bread and water for the day or fast from a particular food or luxury, e.g. chocolate, alcohol, cigarettes or tv. Fast from whatever you can given your state of health etc, but make sure that it is something that involves a sacrifice to yourself. We are asking people to say a Rosary (or an extra Rosary if you say it daily already). You could also offer an extra effort such as going to Mass, or an extra Mass, on the day, or going to Adoration.

And the people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least...God saw their efforts to renounce their evil ways. And God relented about the disaster which He had threatened to bring on them, and He did not bring it. Jonah 3:5,10.

For more information and a printable poster click here. Or if you have problems with this link go to http://www.goodcounselnetwork.com/ and find the Days of Prayer and Fasting page.

Stuart McCullough

No-one Knows the Effects of Our Prayers

The experience of praying outside an Abortion "clinic" can be very difficult or can be very encouraging. I have stood at Bedford Square, outside of BPAS's Abortion centre quietly saying my rosary for the souls of the babies and their Mothers who would be passing through the doors, which I was standing opposite to, on my own.
I have also stood outside Mattock Lane Abortuary in Ealing when the vigil was led by Monsignor Reilly where he was joined by more than 100 people.
I did not know if we had been successful in saving even one life on either of these days.
It can be discouraging to see women, young and old, sometimes with boyfriends, one after another going into the clinic. But I always remember when this happens, no one knows what effect my prayers and those around me have on each of those Mothers. No one knows what effect our witness has. No one knows what the sacrifice of taking one, or maybe two, or even more hours of our day to try to offer these women an alternative to killing their baby by offering the real support they need.
I remember that it is not my humble efforts that will change the mind of the women walking past me who are in such desperate circumstances, but God using me as His instrument to reach these women.
Let us take courage in the knowledge that God is working through us and remember that we have to take a leap of faith for God to be able to use us.
If you would like to come and pray, the Helpers of God's Precious infants have numerous vigils at London clinics please look at www.hgpi.co.uk for more information. Also, The Good Counsel Network organise a vigil at Bedford Square in Central London every Wednesday from 11am -1pm and often have extra ones during the week. Please go to http://www.goodcounselnetwork.com/ and sign up to get updates about when and where future vigils will be held.

Conor Carroll

Quick Father, Check Your Porch!

A young lady phoned us recently and asked for an appointment. We offered her a time and a day but she said she could not come at that time because she was going for an abortion that day. However, she said that she had really wanted to speak to someone beforehand if possible. We juggled our schedule and were able to see her later that day. She told us she had seen a poster in the porch of her local Catholic Church which said “Pregnant, Worried?” and which also had our phone number on it.

When he found she was pregnant, her boyfriend of 5 months informed her that she would have to get an abortion, as he had no intention of marrying her. His family back home were currently looking for a wife for him. She had first seen our phone number before realising she was pregnant. Having now booked an abortion under pressure from him and against her own wishes, she then decided to go back to her parish, make a note of our phone number and call us. By the Grace of God she has gladly accepted our offer of help and is now planning to keep her baby.
Every year thousands of women who go to Mass regularly also sadly go for abortions. It is vitally important that every Catholic Church’s porch has posters, leaflets and other contact details for women facing a difficult pregnancy. The parish newsletter should also have pro-life telephone numbers and websites (02077231740 http://www.goodcounselnetwork.com/ ). If your parish does not have posters, leaflets etc. please contact us and we will provide them. One Parish Priest in North London, unbeknown to himself, saved a Baby's life with a poster and four drawing pins!

Stuart McCullough

Can Pro-Life Politics Rest Now Until the Next Election?

What is the aftermath of the Election? We now have David Cameron as our Prime Minister and a Liberal/Conservative coalition in power. We now have many new Members of Parliament some of whom, hopefully, will have similar moral values to ourselves. Perhaps this will make some small difference to the laws which are passed in this country, but what now?
Do we now forget about politics for another 4-5 years? Or until the next local elections? Leave things down to the politicians, the majority of whom are far from pro-life, to make decisions on our behalf?
No!
Now politics should be as important an issue as it was during the election campaign for those of us who are pro-life. Now we must find the most pro-life candidate for our local area and do everything we can up until the next election to put them in a position where they have a real chance to be elected. They will be more than willing to point you in the right direction for doing this. We must also try to convince our sitting MP that he/she should be pro-life, show them that there is a strong movement in his constituency that is pro-life.
If you already have an MP who is Pro-life then you must do all you can to support them. Show them that there is support for their very noble convictions and give them the courage to stick by them when it matters in Parliament. Write and thank them when they witness for life. Show them how important their vote on life issues is to you.

Conor Carroll

What A Precious Gift!

Giving life and protecting life is a virtuous act. Christ exemplified this by His death on the cross. He died that He may give life to the world and it is that life that you and me are enjoying today. Any act aimed at giving life or protecting life is a wonderful adventure. It is a Divine act.

Gianna was thrown out by her boy friend when she was found pregnant. Gianna felt that terminating the pregnancy was the only way to retain their friendship. She booked an appointment for the termination of her pregnancy, but something stopped her from going in for it. She got re-scheduled for another appointment which she eventually kept to. On reaching the abortuary, she found a group of people praying. This touched her in such a way that when she was approached for counselling she could not resist listening to the reasons to give her baby a chance to live. This decision resulted in the loss of her accommodation and, eventually, her relationship. Consequently, a lot of confusion set up in her life.

But she Providentially found solace at the Good Counsel Network, where she was taken by the people she met at the abortuary. The Good Counsel Network is a Pro-Life Charitable Organisation in the Catholic Church that lives exactly by the work she professes to do. This Network gives holistic care to women with crisis pregnancies. The Network gladly offers to protect mothers and the baby - in the womb and after it's birth. The Network is an ideal Pro-Life group, both in words and in deeds. Gianna came under the care of this Network. As time went on, Gianna, as well as her boyfriend, were tested to have ‘AS’ genotype (making them at risk of having a child with Sickle-Cell Anaemia). A new pressure was mounted on her to terminate the baby, for fear the baby may be born with Sickle-Cell. Her tension became stronger than the one she had during the first trimester of her pregnancy. She was encouraged by the Network and the Nuns* to keep the child, and to trust in God who has the power to change every situation for the better; also, to talk to the baby in the womb always, that all will be well.

At the end of her pregnancy, she gave birth to a handsome healthy baby boy who was tested, after three months of his birth, to be ‘AA’ (free of sickle-cell); to God be greater glory and honour, Amen!

Gianna, with tears of joy, brought the baby to the Nuns to announce the good news and exclaimed: “WHAT A PRECIOUS GIFT I WOULD HAVE LOST!”

So many lives have been lost in this way. Ignorance, lack of a good sense of values, and more painfully, lack of love and respect for life, and lack of a belief in God, have cost a lot of innocent lives. This is very heart-breaking. Any charitable organisation that promotes life like the Good Counsel Network, or my own Religious Order, The Holy Family Sisters of the Needy, has to be encouraged and supported. We are all created by God in His own image and likeness, therefore, the right to live must be respected! It is God who gives life and, therefore, He is the only one who equally has the right to take life. It is an obligation to every created being to work towards protecting every life created by God. Let us appreciate our life, and God who gives it, by ourselves becoming protectors of every life.

Sr Mary Joseph Ogbuokiri HFSN

* The Nuns are the Holy Family Sisters of the Needy, a Nigerian order of Religious Sisters with a particular charism of pro-life work, of which the author, Sr Mary Joseph, is one. These Sisters run Good Counsel's Home for Expectant and New Mothers and their babies.

Many Modern Day 'Alfie's' Continue to Use and Abuse Women and Children

The old 60's flick, 'Alfie' (re-made in 2004 with Jude Law in Michael Caine's old role) has a storyline that is still played out many times every day in contemporary life. Alfie, a young Cockney bloke revels in the sexual revolution’s mores of ‘freedom’ and promiscuity. He has an affair with an older married woman, when her husband, ill with TB, is in a sanatorium. The married woman’s pregnancy is conspicuous; she decides to have an abortion because if her pregnancy is discovered, it will be known that she has been unfaithful to her husband. Alfie will arrange an abortion for her - and then forsake her.

Organising a friend to mind her children, and without telling anyone, she trudges to London, find Alfie’s flatand meets an eccentric man in a trench coat who warns that an abortion cannot be undone. Alfie starts to snarl that the abortion must go ahead; otherwise he will have to face the husband’s anger.

I have met ordinary people who are in the very same predicament that the fictional characters in the film faced. Emily was one such lady who had been having an affair with a Catholic man for seven years. Over seven years, she had had two abortions to ‘cover up’ for their affair. On each occasion, her ‘boyfriend’ Matthew, said the baby was ok with him, but if she didn’t abort, well his wife would beat her up! He would stand by, and let it happen. Emily took the abortion pill the first time and found it harrowing, she said,

‘You were just waiting for the baby to come out, and when he did come out, he was so trampled that he looked like a baby who had died in a mouse trap. The second time round, I insisted on having surgery. I didn’t see anything.’

She described how, after each abortion, she became more dependent on Matthew. She would cry for weeks on end, and needed his comfort and him telling her that she had done the right thing when she aborted his babies. She believed him when he said ‘when the time’s right, I’ll leave my wife for you.’

The third time that she became pregnant; she told Matthew firmly that she would not have a third abortion. His response was to leave her completely alone; he stopped taking her calls and did a disappearing act. Oh but just like before, it was OK for her to have the baby, but he wouldn’t help with finances, and his wife might get a bit rough... She remained set on having the baby, until the lead-up to Christmas when everyone seemed to be having such a good time, except her. Her friends pushed her towards having the abortion,

‘Why don’t you get it over with before Christmas? And anyway, do you want the child of a married man? You’re having an affair, you need an abortion.’

Rushing for her appointment at the abortuary, she bumped into an Irish gentleman who was praying the Rosary – a Catholic prayer. She stopped to talk to him, and told him that her boyfriend was a Catholic but had practically speaking, motivated her towards an abortion, because of his refusal to help her in any way. The man told her of the support she could receive at The Good Counsel Network, and that she could get an appointment very quickly. Thankfully she chose to get in touch and seek support to continue her pregnancy.

Mary O'Regan

Evidence of Answered Prayers, In The Flesh!

It's not always easy to see the results of our work straight away and therefore our faith is one thing that we must keep in mind at all times and never lose. A couple of incidents over the past few years have made me realise how God works in mysterious ways through our prayers, our work, fasting and our faith in Him. There have been times when I've wondered about the pregnant women who I've met outside the abortuary when giving them our leaflets, or those I've spoken to on the phone and whom I've asked people to pray for, but then they have not turned up for their appointments at our Centre.

There have been a couple of incidents when the women coming out of the clinics have told me they had not gone through with the abortion but that they would need help, but then they did not get in contact with our centre, and for some reason I had not got a chance to speak to them for long or get their contact numbers. So there's always that wondering what happened to the women and their babies in those cases. Wondering whether they have told the truth or whether they changed their minds again and gone ahead with an abortion.

We may never know the answers in this life. However, I noticed that a few women had come to our centre just by finding our leaflets on the street, or left in a church, or by friends or kind doctors or nurses that had given them information about us. We can be sure that this is God’s intervention through our prayers and sacrifices, that these are the people God has touched with His Graces and led them to get the help that they need instead of going for an abortion.

I was praying at the weekly vigil outside the abortion clinic recently when a young women passing stopped and came up to me with her young daughter.

“I came here to have an abortion over three years ago” she told me.

“I noticed there were people praying outside the clinic. I could not go in. This is my daughter and thank God I did not have the abortion that day” she told me with a smile.

“Thank God” I replied smiling at them both.

It has really taught me not to doubt and never to lose faith even when we don’t immediately see the results.

Lorraine Coyne

How I Came To Work For The Good Counsel Network

I came to work for the Good Counsel Network about 6 years ago.

Up to 12 years ago, unfortunately, I had been a lapsed Catholic since my late teens. I always believed in God but I had not been to Mass or confession in many years and did not really think it mattered as long as I believed in Him. My parents and a couple of my sisters were good practicing Catholics and they had been praying for me and my other two sisters who were lapsed. They would often give me prayer books including 'The Divine Mercy Handbook' and prayer cards. I didn't really take much notice I put them away in a draw and forgot about them.

There came a time in my life when I was very unhappy. My family knew I was troubled and kept praying for me. I decided to start going to church again when I was at my lowest. Two of my sisters invited me to go to a 'prayer house' not long after I had been to confession and started going back to church. At the prayer house I was listening to some speakers and they were strongly against abortion. I felt that the Holy Spirit was talking through them and that Jesus was calling everybody there to do something to help him and calling us to conversion.

During the talks I felt that I wanted to offer reparation to Jesus, I felt I had been very selfish for most of my life and blind to the truth and now the veil was being lifted from my eyes. Now I wanted to answer that call from God in some way and help others in need.

But what was it that God was calling me to do? As I left the prayer room that day I was not fully sure but it became evident within the next 20 minutes.

I picked up some leaflets and a booklet on the way out. One of them was from 'The Good Counsel Network' and the other was a booklet about abortion. When I read the articles in the booklet I was very sad for the aborted babies and I wanted to do something to help and to stop it happening. It was at that moment I realised God was calling me to fight against abortion. I had a full time cushy job at the time in beautiful modern building, just minutes from my home. I didn't want to carry on with that work; they were working alongside the pharmaceutical companies and testing new drugs around the world, including contraceptives. People were polite and friendly there but nobody even spoke about God there and it was like He didn't exist. That hurt me and it hurt me a lot. I didn't want that anymore, I wanted to be able to pray and be with people who loved God and work for Him instead. I had a strong urge to do this.

When I got home I wrote to the Good Counsel Network telling them that I would love to work with them. It was the week before they opened the new centre that I started work with them. I know that Jesus healed me since I started going back to Mass and receiving Him in the Holy Eucharist. I know that the prayers of my family brought me back to God and that He had answered them. I can honestly say I'm more content and a lot happier these days.

Lorraine Coyne