I don’t pray enough. There’s my confession for the day. I talk about prayer and while I do pray, I don’t pray enough. I’m guessing I’m not alone. We worry. We complain. We talk endlessly about things at times. We gasp and watch car crashes – political and otherwise. But imagine what a difference it would make if we actually dedicated some serious time to prayer. Not just when something catastrophic just happened to us but every day.
Ever since the Center for Medical Progress videos began being released, I’ve felt the need to pray more. We can investigate and defund Planned Parenthood and talk about the videos and keep David Daleiden out of jail and these are all good and worthy and necessary and important things. But I can’t help but want to pray more. And we need to. For the women who find themselves feeling ending the life of their own child is something they have to do. For the women grappling with that decision right now. For the women who watch or hear about these videos and have an avalanche of pain flooding back upon them. For the activists and abortion workers, that they only ever encounter radical mercy from pro-life folks. For anyone who has been touched by abortion in any way. Imagine what miracles might happen if we commit ourselves to pray more.
I bring this up so if I say it out loud I do it! But also because on Monday night in New York City there will be a holy hour of prayer at Holy Family Church. New York auxiliary Bishop Peter Byrne will lead an hour of Eucharistic exposition and Confession.
Thanks to occasional NRO contributor Fr. Gerald Murray, the pastor of the parish – the closest to the United Nations – for his hospitality. This will be the first in a series on the second Monday of every month through the end of what Pope Francis has designated a year of mercy in the fall (it began this past feast of the Immaculate Conception in December).
Please do consider joining us if you’re in New York City at 6 P.M. on Monday. More details here.
Holy Hour of Mercy in New York Monday Night