Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

It is no secret that those who live and belong to this world think very differently from those who live in this world but consider it a temporary abode on their way to their eternal home, heaven. This is even more obvious when you read the recently posted article on RH Reality check by Eleanor Bader, “Stoking Fire: Sisters of Life.” http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/node/15016

Throughout the article, implications of what the author sees as negatives are really positive truths for those of us living our faith, and for the Sisters of Life, for whom the article unwittingly gives proofs that they are living the vocation to which they were called.

Having been around from the beginnings of the Sisters, I can still remember with a chuckle entrance day, when Mother Agnes’ mom warned Cardinal O’Connor that he had better take good care of her daughter because he was being given a great gift. Torrents of graces have happened since that day and I have been blessed to watch the community take hold and flourish through that grace of God, and I am sure, the prayers of Cardinal O’Connor from heaven, but, this is not really about The Sisters of Life at all, but what they represent to those whose who enshrine abortion and hate the Catholic Church. Although the sisters were not present at the New York City Council hearingon the legislation they are trying to pass for Crisis Pregnancy Centers, I have no doubt that this attacked came as a result of the those hearings where the Sisters were mentioned more than once by Councilman Halloran, as a place where pregnant women are aided.

For all her talk of “only a handful of Catholic communities growing”, Eleanor Bader is obviously feeling very threatened by this group of 64 women who attract bigger numbers to their fold each year. Young women, not “middle aged” like she was sure to label Mother Agnes.  Young, educated women who, unlike what she would wish, are not enshrining abortion, but have chosen to leave the world, and, who I am sure, she sees as a great threat to the pro abortion agenda. She is right, they are.

Ms. Bader goes on to state with obvious distain that abortion is the Sisters “sole raison d’etre”, but she is wrong.  While their fourth vow is to “enhance the sacredness of human life”, in the Constitutions of the Sisters of Life you will find the statement; “At the heart of the vocation of a Sister of Life is the call to love as Christ loves…a sister has an awareness that no one is excluded from Christ’s love…Both in prayer and apostolic activities she is a sign that “love cast out fear”(1 Jn 4:18)

I for one, am grateful to Ms Bader for reminding me of the tremendous gift of the Sisters. Working with them on a daily basis, it becomes easy to take for granted the great gift this community is to our faith. I am grateful that they choose to wear the habit as the spouse of Christ. I am grateful that they pray and fast for us and the world. I see the immeasurable value of their sacrifice in the work they do and in the growth of their community.  Having worked side by side with the Sisters for the past 15 years in our co-developed post abortion ministry “Entering Canaan”, I am grateful that the heart of their vocation casts out fear.. They are the sign they were called to be. A sign of God’s acceptance, support and presence to those who are pregnant and in need and a sign of God’s love and forgiveness to those suffering from a past abortion.

I still have the first Christmas card the Sisters ever sent out. Inside is a quote that Cardinal O’Connor chose as their “motto”, it is also on the back of the medal they wear around their necks.  “And nothing would again be casual and small”, (Rev John Duffy, C.S.S.R.); Nothing. Not those suffering from abortion, not the expectant moms, not the unborn, and certainly not The Sisters of Life.