Saturday 18 February 2012

Another life quietly saved

Anna founded the local pro-life group a few years ago.  It is small, but hard working.  Among other things, they have established a baby store, where they collect donated items like prams, high chairs etc and distribute them to mothers in need of support.

They have used this practical support to build bridges with the local midwives and Connexions people.  Recently (and not for the first time) one of these contacts approached them about a young woman who was 22 weeks pregnant and in need of support.  They put her in touch with a Life counsellor, and it became clear that she wanted to keep her baby, but was in a state of some distress for a variety of reasons.

Soon afterwards, her parents got in touch to say that she had changed her mind and was now booked in for an abortion in a few days' time.  They were devastated.

The counsellor got back in touch with the young woman and had a further conversation.  The day after that she received a text to say that she was keeping the baby.

There is an old story about two people walking along a beach, who came across a vast number of jelly fish, which had been left above the tideline by the receding sea, and which were starting to dry up and die.  One was overcome by the scale of the tragedy, but his friend picked one jellyfish up and threw it into the sea.  The first turned to him in frustration and, indicating with his arm the huge number of dying jellyfish on the beach, said 'What's the point: we can't make any difference!'  His friend picked up another jellyfish and threw it into the sea: 'I made a difference to that one,' he replied.

It can be easy, faced with the enormity of the abortion crisis in this country and the world, to fling up our hands in horror.  Or we can get on with saving lives, one at a time, whilst also trying to solve the crisis on the larger scale.

Please pray for the mother and her baby whose futures have just been saved, for all in similar circumstances, and for all who seek to help them.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Indeed!
Thank you.

Left-footer said...

Great news. Little by little.

God bless!

Unknown said...

This is not great news. Great news would be this Catholic agency also raised heaven and earth to arrange baptism and a Catholic education to this child. Our pro-life work is rotten without that.

Ben Trovato said...

Unknown

I disagree profoundly.

Of course we should try to do that too, but to save an innocent life at all is great news.

Mother Teresa did not convert every person she nursed: was her work rotten? I think not!

Someone said...

Ben,

This is one of the most significant posts you have written.

It may seem like 'another life quietly saved', but in heaven the sound of trumpet fanfares is deafening - the parable of the Lost Sheep tells us exactly how much each one of us is loved by God.

We work and pray that the law regarding abortion may be changed, but it is in our individual circumstances that true conversion happens, through the witness of our love for Jesus Christ - in our families, our work or study, our parishes. The grace of God through the work of the Holy Spirit will do the rest.

May God continue to bless your writing.