40 Days for Life Begins Lenten Prayer Campaign — the Biggest Yet
40 Days for Life, a pro-life organization working to end abortion, began its Lenten prayer campaign yesterday. Participants are fasting and praying for 40 days and holding peaceful protests outside of abortion clinics, reported The Blaze.
Shawn Carney, president of 40 Days for Life, told TheBlaze this year’s campaign will be the biggest in the organization’s 11 years, with chapters in more than 340 cities in 30 countries participating.
The vigil very deliberately coincides with Lent, a time when Christians repent and pray. “We use this 40-day time period because the one thing our nation needs is prayer,” said Carney. “So by doing it in conjunction with the season of Lent, we enter into a time when we reflect upon our own sin and our own dependence upon God, and also our culture’s need for God, and our culture’s need for his love and for his compassion.”
“And so, it’s a perfect season to be praying for an end to abortion, to be offering alternatives to women and men seeking abortion,” he added. “And also to offer alternatives to those who work in the abortion industry.”
Carney said that as a result of 40 Days for Life’s efforts, more than 12,000 women have decided against abortion, and those are “just the ones we know about.”
“It makes you feel like you aren’t helpless when it comes to the abortion issue, this is not just something tucked away in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “Abortions go on in our neighborhoods.”
Even so, participants in the Washington D.C. chapter protested in the rain outside a Planned Parenthood clinic Tuesday night. Jeanne Mancini, March for Life president, reminded participants of scripture: “The light came into the world, and the darkness did not overcome it,” she said, and thanked them for “being that light.”
“The darkness of Planned Parenthood will not overcome the light because you are here,” Mancini added. “I think it’s really important that we remember that love destroys evil.”
Arina Grossu, the director of Human Dignity at the Family Research Council, spoke on the importance of making their presence known. “This place is the gas chamber of our time,” she said. “We need to have a physical presence here. It’s not enough that we’re pro-life in the work that we do or how we speak to friends and family. That we’re present makes a difference.”
Larry Cirignano helped organize the D.C. prayer campaign. He said the events provide motivation for the pro-life activists to attend: “There’s no motivator like meeting a mom who comes up and thanks you for helping her to get a sonogram and turn around.”
For more information on 40 Days for Life, or where to find a vigil location near you, please visit their website, 40DaysforLife.com. And please pray for the continued success of this life saving, life affirming effort.