This Is My Body

J.M.J. +
I am posting at the request of many of you in regards to our next peaceful prayer vigil which will take place on Good Friday, the 21st of March outside Planned Parenthood (345 Whitney Avenue New Haven) from 8am until 12 pm noon, the hours which the babies are scheduled to be killed by abortion.
There will also be a prayer vigil, as usually scheduled, Holy Saturday on the 22nd of March which will take place outside Planned Parenthood (345 Whitney Avenue New Haven) from 8am until 12 pm noon, the hours which the babies are scheduled to be killed by abortion. Please make the sacrifice during this Holy Week to come out on either Friday or Saturday to pray for the Unborn and to join Our Savior at this modern day Calvary. Let us come out to pray and to console Him through His Passion and death.

As we draw ever closer to the Passion, death, and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ this Holy Week and especially ever closer to Holy Thursday I wanted to share this reflection written by Fr. Frank Pavone. Even if you have read it before it can become all the more profound meditating on it this week.

May God bless you and your families with graces this Holy Week bringing you ever closer to Our Crucified Lord who will soon gloriously rise!
Amen Alleluia,
Mike and Kerry
This Is My Body

By Fr. Frank A. Pavone

Did you ever realize that the same four words that were used by the Lord Jesus to save the world are also used by some to promote abortion? "This is my body." The same simple words are spoken from opposite ends of the universe, with meanings that are directly contrary to each other.
Scripture tells us that on the night before He died to save all people, the Lord Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, "This is My Body, which is given up for you." He was pointing to what would happen the next day, when He would give that same Body on the cross. He sacrifices Himself so that we may live. He gives up His Body so that He can destroy the power of sin and death. As a result, He welcomes us into His life, into His Kingdom. He makes us members of His Body!
On the other hand, abortion supporters say, "This is my body. So don't interfere with it! It's mine, so I can do what I want, even to the point of killing the life within it. All is secondary to my dominion over my body." In fact one abortion supporter has written, "I say their (pro-lifers') God is worth nothing compared to my body" (Michelle Goldberg, "Rant for Choice," in University of Buffalo student newspaper, 1995).
"This is my body." Same words, different results. Christ gives His body away so others might live; abortion supporters cling to their own bodies so others might die. In giving His Body, Christ teaches the meaning of love: I sacrifice myself for the good of the other person. Abortion teaches the opposite of love: I sacrifice the other person for the good of myself!
"This is my body." If, indeed, our body is ours, then let's ask the next question: Why? The answer is so that we can give our body, our life, ourself, away in love to one another and to God. Christ declares, "Do this in memory of me." He calls us to do what He did, and that is precisely how we reverse the dynamic of abortion. Mom and Dad must say to their child, "This is my body, my life, given for you," rather than, "This is my body, my life, so go away!"
Human happiness and fulfillment are never found by pushing other people out of the way. They are found when we push ourselves out of the way. Pope John Paul II says as much in Evangelium Vitae #51: He who had come "not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk. 10:45), attains on the cross the heights of love: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (Jn. 15:13). And he died for us while we were yet sinners (cf. Rom. 5:8).
In this way Jesus proclaims that life finds its center, its meaning and its fulfillment when it is given up.
At this point our meditation becomes praise and thanksgiving, and at the same time urges us to imitate Christ and follow in his footsteps (cf. 1 Pt. 2:21).
We too are called to give our lives for our brothers and sisters, and thus to realize in the fullness of truth the meaning and destiny of our existence.
"This is my body." It is no accident that the same words are used for such different purposes. A spiritual conflict rages here. We win, in our own lives and in the world, by living these words in self-giving, life-giving love.
http://www.priestsforlife.org/brochures/thisismy.html