We are now well into the 40 Days for Life campaign at the Haworth abortion clinic; praying to end abortion. I arrive there late this morning, knowing that there will be abortions going on since it is a Friday. When I arrive on this beautiful sunny morning, it is the chaotic scene of spiritual warfare: people praying, sidewalk counselors standing at the ready and women and men going in and out of the clinic. There is agitation on the sidewalk as I step onto the grass: a girl who had walked away Tuesday, gone to the local crisis pregnancy center and had an ultrasound, had just arrived back at the clinic today to have an abortion. We are asked to pray for her, that she will change her mind. She is in there and all we can do now is pray.
I stand with a lady who has been there for a while. We start to pray together, a spontaneous prayer and then I tell her I would like to pray the rosary. I begin with the Apostles Creed: I believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried….while I pray these words, there suddenly seems to be a barrage of action going on around us: a sudden flurry of people are walking in and we can hear the sidewalk counselors calling out to them: Your baby’s heart is beating three weeks after conception, there is a clinic around the corner, it is free, they will show you a picture of your baby for free. Please, we are trying to save your baby.
This sudden flurry of people coming into the clinic and their verbal interaction with the sidewalk counselors distracts me and I start to stumble over the words, was crucified, died and was buried…He ascended into Heaven, no I mean He descended to the dead. He descended to the dead. He descended to the dead. In that moment, I cannot think of the next words of the creed. I am stuck on ‘He descended to the dead’. It hits me so hard, why we are there, how all those people just walked in without stopping to talk to the counselors and I just cry my little eyes out for a while. My sister in prayer stands with me silently. We just stand there. I cannot think of the next words. Only, ‘He descended to the dead.’
After a while, I pull myself together and my new friend says she has to leave. I am finally able to say the creed and start the rosary…..I pray as the cars go in and out, as the sidewalk counselors talk to the folks going in and out. An hour of this chaos going on around me. It is always tough to leave but it is finally time for me to go.
I look at the clinic and remember that I had a dream about it one time. I dreamed that I showed up to pray at the clinic and it was closed for good. It was a wonderful feeling, hard to even describe. I am trying to remember that dream. I think about what they can turn the building into after it stops being a clinic….after all, it’s a holy place, death is sacred. What will it be I wonder?
As I ponder in my heart my experience at the clinic today, I say to myself, what were those words I could not find in the creed when I was distracted by the battle was raging so hard around me? He descended to the dead, and on the third day He rose again.
I hope that I truly do never ever forget those words again.
