In this issue:
- Urgent Hours for 40 Days for Life
- Closing Brunch Announced for Sunday, 11/06/11, at noon!
- Personhood Amendment
- “365 for Life” to Resume
- Respect Life Retreat
Dear Friends,
By the grace of God and your generous responses to our calls for help, 40 Days for Life goes on. Please keep up your commitment to maintain a 24/7 vigil on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood. Let us not become weary but remain strong, strengthened by the Holy Spirit!
Urgent Hours for 40 Days for Life
Beginning tomorrow and into the weekend we have hours that remain unfilled. Can you help? Please sign-up online at http://vigilforlife.org/calendar/monthview or contact Laura Karlen at 608-445-2064 or laura@vigilforlife.org. Here are our needs:
Friday (10/28/11): 4 hours left to fill –almost there!
Saturday (10/29/11): 16 hours to fill –help!
Sunday (10/30/11): 15 hours to fill –we need you!
Monday (10/31/11): 12 hours to fill –lend a hand!
Closing Brunch Announced for Sunday, 11/06/11, at noon!
We are happy to announce that we are able to offer our courageous prayer warriors an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast as part of our Closing Brunch to celebrate the good the Holy Spirit has worked through all of us with 40 Days for Life! The Closing Brunch is Sunday, November 6, 2011 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish (5101 Schofield Road Monona, WI 53716). Come at 12:00 p.m. for brunch. Free will offerings will be accepted for the brunch. Otherwise, join us at 12:30 p.m. for the program, which includes a spiritual reflection by Fr. Bart Timmerman, pastor at Immaculate Heart of Mary. There will be time for fellowship too before we close 40 Days for Life at 2:00 p.m., in time for the Packers game! Contact Laura Karlen at 608-445-2064 or laura@vigilforlife.org for more information.
Personhood Amendment
40 Days for Life and Vigil for Life are not political organizations. However, all of us have a desire for abortion to end. Therefore, we want to share with the you the great news that State Representative Andre Jacque began circulating the Wisconsin Personhood Amendment for co-sponsorship in the State Legislature. If passed, the amendment would extend the right to life found in our state constitution to every human being at any stage of development, including pre-born children. As such, when Roe vs. Wade is overturned, Wisconsin babies would be protected as citizens under the state constitution. The Personhood Amendment will be formally introduced in the next few weeks.
If you feel so called, you can contact your State Representative and encourage him or her to co-sponsor this important amendment. You may use this link to look-up your Representative’s contact information: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/waml/waml.aspx. All the other information you might need is available at the new PersonhoodWisconsin.com web site. Click here: http://personhoodwisconsin.com/. The web site can give you the background you want about personhood and why this is the next step in the pro-life movement. There is also a petition that you can sign and circulate. No doubt, you will hear more about personhood in pro-life circles in the coming days and weeks. This is an exciting development, and we want you to be informed!
“365 for Life” to Resume
Although we may feel tired after 40 Days for Life, we cannot vacate the sidewalks in front of Planned Parenthood. This sends the message to Planned Parenthood that the workers, abortionists and administrators simply need to be patient, and, after 40 days, we’ll all go home. This cannot happen! God gives us the supernatural graces we need to be persistent.
While we do not plan to maintain a 24/7 vigil after Sunday, November 6, we do intend to be out for a while every day that Planned Parenthood is open, if not some time on Saturday and Sunday too. This is the simple plan of our “365 for Life” initiative. Can you make a commitment to be on the sidewalk one time per month? This seems like a small sacrifice compared to the number of hours many of you have spent on the sidewalk. But, we need your small sacrifices each month (or week!) of the year with the end goal of shutting down Planned Parenthood! We ask you to begin praying about what you can do as part of “365 for Life.”
Respect Life Retreat
From Friday, December 2, 2011 through Saturday afternoon December 3, 2011, the Servants of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Vigil for Life will be hosting the Fourth Annual Respect Life Retreat. This special Advent retreat will be held once again in the beautiful retreat center of
Durward's Glen (http://www.durwardsglen.org/) near Baraboo, WI. Our Retreat Master will be Father William Vernon from St. Christopher Parish in Verona. This event will offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, the Liturgy of the Hours, silent prayer and time for personal reflection. Anyone who is involved in work to build a culture of life is invited to attend.
Spaces for the retreat are limited, so please call now to reserve your room. The cost per person is $55, and checks may be made payable to "The Servants of Our Lady of Guadalupe." (Financial assistance may be made available for those in need.) Please call Jen Dunnett at 715-340-2779 or email her at vitapretiosa@gmail.com to reserve your place. Take time apart from your efforts to defend life to be strengthened by Jesus Christ, Who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life"(John 14:6).
This is a lot of information to digest, but there are many good things ahead for our Vigil for Life family! Please get involved and stay involved. All glory to God for the good things in Madison!
