Planned Parenthood is hurting from our prayer vigil

I'm writing to you from Battle Ground, Washington(great name for a place to visit during 40 Days forLife, isn't it?)Tonight I will be speaking at a banquet for a wonderful pregnancy center that has a strategic location in ashopping center next door to Planned Parenthood, andt hey share a wall with the abortion facility. As I prayed with the staff next to that wall this afternoon, I got a deep sense of conviction that Planned Parenthood's days are numbered.

Then when I checked my e-mail shortly afterward, I received the THIRD national e-mail sent out by Planned Parenthood about 40 Days for Life. Here's an excerpt: "We're coming to the end of a pretty amazing period at Planned Parenthood. As you know, in early October, I started sharing how I and other Planned Parenthood employees live and work with the picketers outside our clinics during their 40-day protest. Since my first blog post, a whole lot has happened. I've encountered more than 400 protesters, most of them trying their hardest to make it impossible for women to access health care. One hardliner U.S. senator specifically named Planned Parenthood in an amendment that would have limited funding for health centers like ours. A particularly venomous district attorney in Kansas filed 107 baseless charges -- including more than 20 felony counts -- against Planned Parenthood in court. An anti-birth control radical was put in charge of U.S. family planning policy."
Once again, the message goes on to ask for more money-- since apparently the $305.3 million they took from American taxpayers last year just wasn't enough.To me, the most amusing words in that message: "We're coming to the end..."After all of the miracles God has accomplished aroundthe country since September 26, they really think we'reall going to just "go away."That's OK, we'll let them think that :-)
We won't tell Planned Parenthood that when I was in Sacramento, California, yesterday, I learned that the 900+ local pro-lifers involved there in the 40 Days forLife vigil outside Planned Parenthood's newly erectedfence are committed to press on.To see a short video I filmed of some of the dedicatedvolunteers in Sacramento -- including an interview with81-year-old "Energizer" Bunny Collins who covers the2 - 4 AM shift everyday, visit the blog.

We also won't tell Planned Parenthood about the floodof e-mails we're still getting from all over the country, including these: "We must continue our prayers, sacrifices and devotion to the unborn." "Yes, I believe we should keep the momentum going. This 40 Days has been great. Much work to do!! All for the glory of God." "The only way to win this battle is to not stop, to not give in or give up. LET'S KEEP GOING UNTIL WE WIN!" "During this 40 Days of Prayer and Fasting, the Lord is inspiring us to continue on. We have momentum and can 'feel it in the air.'" "I don't think we should stop. I plan to continue and urge everyone I know to continue as well. I know that the only way to overcome hate is with love-the pure compassion of Christ. When we smile and offer a warm and trusting hand out to the women and workers of these clinics, the light of Jesus will penetrate the darkness slowly but surely. All glory to God." "With God guiding us, we won't stop until everyone lives."But before we all get ahead of ourselves, let's makesure to FINISH STRONG at the conclusion of this 40 Daysfor Life.Read the national press release that went out just a few hours ago with one way you can help.

Feel free to forward that release to friends, family members, co-workers, fellow believers, and media contacts in your community.First let's make sure that this coming weekend is the biggest weekend of unified pro-life activity in American history......And THEN we'll let Planned Parenthood and the restof the abortion industry know what's in store for day 41 and beyond!Here's today's devotional...*******************************************************
40 DAYS FOR LIFE: DAY 37, NOVEMBER 1
Daily Devotional by Fr. Frank Pavone*******************************************************
INTENTION:Pray that we may find true freedom by humbly submittingall our choices to God, and leading others by word andexample to do the same.
SCRIPTURE:Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wildanimals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman,"Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree inthe garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God didsay, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." -- Genesis 3:1-4

REFLECTION:St. John in his first letter sums up the mission of
Jesus by saying, "The reason the Son of God appearedwas to destroy the works of the devil"
(1 John 3:8).
What "works of the devil" does Jesus destroy? Jesus Himself tells us that the devil "was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks in character, because he is a liar and the father of lies"
(John 8:44).
In one and the same breath, Our Lord calls the devil a liar and a murderer. Lies and murder go together. The only way abortion can continue on such a horrible scale is for it to be covered in lies, sugar coated with denials and distortions of truth. Jesus has come to destroy the works of the devil. "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6). He is the way to salvation precisely because He is the Truth, shattering the devil's lies, and because He is theLife, undoing the devil's work of death. We see the devil act in in character with lies and murder from the first pages of the Bible. Adam and Evehad been told they could eat of any tree in the garden except "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.""In the day that you eat of it," God warned them, "youshall die" (Gen 2:17).
What is wrong with knowing good from evil? Aren't we supposed to know the difference between good and evil? Why, then, is this the one tree of which our first parents were not to eat? The answer lies in the fact that the "knowledge of good and evil" here does not simply mean "knowing." It means that Adam and Eve would think they could decide the difference between good and evil, that they would be the ones to determine what was right and wrong, that they would be the norm of morality. This is the original temptation. "What's right and wrong for me is up to me... What's right and wrong for you is up to you... Do not impose your morality on me... I will create my own values... I am accountable to nobody but myself."In other words, it's all up to my own personal choice.The original sin is to put choice above goodness and truth, to abuse freedom by trying to create what is right rather than submit to it.
Jesus showed us the way of submission to the Father, of obedience even unto death on a cross. That is why he was highly exalted. Following his example, and living in the power of the Spirit, we lead our culture from the self-exaltation of "choice" that leads to death to the self-sacrifice of obedience that leads to life.

PRAYER:Father, save us from the lies of Satan. Save us from the thought that we can be like you by becoming our own source of morality. Free us from the desire to exalt ourselves. Give us the Spirit of your Son, who humbled himself and was therefore highly exalted by you. May we find our true freedom by submitting all our choices to you, and lead others by word and example to do the same.
We pray in Jesus' name,
AMEN.