Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

I believe we all have different struggles after having an abortion. For
me, I never believed that God had forgiven me or that I could ever forgive
myself. Anytime I would go to confession, I would confess my sins of
abortion until one day I started going to the same priest and he said to
me, "you don't have to confess that anymore…God has forgiven you." And
 even though this made me feel better, I couldn't understand how it was
 possible.

One of my biggest challenges was my pride. I would hear Theresa say it
 time and time again, "Do not let your pride stand in the way of your
 healing." My thought process was that I wasn't proud of what I had done,
 I  was embarrassed and ashamed. I would say to myself over and over, "I
 can't believe I could have done something like this…and not just once."

You see, I didn't realize it at the time, but by telling myself things like
 that it was as if I believed I was above sin, like, I was too perfect to
 do something as grave a sin as abortion. The truth is we are all capable of any
sin without HIs grace. It was hard to accept that 
this was in fact my pride.

 
 One of the greatest steps I took in this healing process was taking time
 each day to sit before the Blessed Sacrament. I have done this for the
 past 11 years and I can't even tell you the things that have been
 revealed to me about who God truly is and about myself. I remember the
 time I brought this whole pride thing to Jesus to try and sort it out and
 as I looked up at the cross and saw Him hanging there, I began to see it
so differently. There He was, after he had been beaten, humiliated, spit
 at nailed to a cross and hung there in agony for hours, and all I could
think about is how could that not be enough for my sins? As if I needed
 Him to do something "grander" than that for me.

 We all have our own struggles, but I believe we all carry the same shame,
 guilt and pride. But the good news is God's gifts of mercy and love are
 greater and bigger than any of those things. We just need to be humble
 and gracious enough to accept them.  -V