Hoc est enim corpus meum...

Yesterday evening, on Twitter, I saw a tweet forwarded by somebody to the effect that Abortion is the Devil's sacrament: that is why the slogan of abortion, in diabolic parody of the Blessed Sacrament, is 'This is my body.'

Initially I dismissed it as a fairly superficial, slightly artificial, construction.

But it lingered in my mind, and the more I reflected on it, the more truth I thought it revealed.

If we consider what the Blessed Sacrament is, then it does become apparent that abortion, in many ways, is the diametric, and indeed diabolic, opposite.

So the Blessed Sacrament is the sacrament of Faith: abortion, of unbelief;

...and so it goes on:

Hope: despair

Love that sacrifices self for the other: sacrificing the other for love of self

Truth: lies

Life to the full: death

Communion and charity: autonomy and self-centredness.

I think the analogy is sound.

That is not to say that I think women who have abortions, or even those who provide them, are diabolic in intent; rather they have been seduced, albeit unwittingly, by the Father of Lies.

But from Satan's point of view, abortion is right at the heart of his project.  He hates fruitful love, he hates innocent life, he hates the Woman…

This is above all a spiritual battle in which we are engaged: which means it must be fought, above all, with spiritual weapons: prayer and fasting; faith, hope and charity.

Sub tuum praesidium

confugimus,

Sancta Dei Genetrix.

Nostras deprecationes ne despicias

in necessitatibus nostris,

sed a periculis cunctis

libera nos semper,

Virgo gloriosa et benedicta.