Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Boy, can you get stuck here if you are post abortive! "Love yourself"?
But we must remember the first of these two commandments Jesus gave us

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.

It is in loving Jesus and transforming our lives that we learn to love ourselves. How can we not? It is through His suffering that we are saved…through His complete love and sacrifice for us. To reject this sacrifice or not to "love" ourselves would be to reject the great gift of His life Jesus gave us.

You may not feel like you love yourself…most people do not. We all have things we want to improve, things we wish we did nor did not do, but loving yourself does not mean liking everything any more than it does with others we love…it is instead, having respect, compassion, understanding, while we strive to allow Jesus to grow in us.

It is a life long process for everyone, and for those of us who are post abortive it can be tough, but we are called to this, and with His grace one day at a time, we can grow in the love He speaks to us of…
Today, decide to love yourself in spite of your abortion, or maybe because of it. Cardinal O'Connor, who I knew and loved said of Dorothy Day http://dorothydayguild.org/hercause.htm who is in the process of beatification in the Catholic church and also a post abortive woman :

"It is a well-known fact that Dorothy Day procured an abortion before her conversion to the Faith. She regretted it every day of her life. After her conversion from a life akin to that of the pre-converted Augustine of Hippo, she proved a stout defender of human life. The conversion of mind and heart that she exemplified speaks volumes to all women today on two fronts. First, it demonstrates the mercy of God, mercy in that a woman who sinned so gravely could find such unity with God upon conversion. Second, it demonstrates that one may turn from the ultimate act of violence against innocent life in the womb to a position of total holiness and pacifism. In short, I contend that her abortion should not preclude her cause, but intensifies it."

May our abortions do the same for us…

Jesus, we trust in You!