These beautiful words expressed by Pope Francis at his January 7th General Audience, speak to the tenderness and sacrificial love of a mother.

There is a saying in the pro-life movement; abortion does not take away the fact that you are a mother, it just makes you the mother of a dead child. It’s not an empty slogan, but a sad reality. As someone who aborted a child, at one time the Pope’s words could have made me despair. They are a reminder of all I was not: lacking self-sacrifice and committing an inhumane act that became a part of my life. But the beauty of our faith and the unfathomable love and mercy of God tell us that it is never too late to love. He is always there calling us to Himself, and restoring what we destroyed through sin.

As Pope John Paul II wrote in “The Gospel of Life” when speaking of abortion, “Nothing is definitively lost.” Why? Because of Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. Through His death, resurrection and ascension He has redeemed life and offered us the chance to love once again. He has allowed me to have a living relationship with my child Joshua, whom He wants me to claim as my own, as He intended.

Through my faith in His love and mercy, I am able, with confidence, to reclaim my child Joshua and become spiritually the mother that I failed to be physically.

The rest is here