s much of the world focuses on the upcoming Mardi Gras celebrations, let us turn our sights to what Mardi Gras is supposed to introduce (but the world has forgotten): The season of Lent.

The English word Lent is derived from the Teutonic (Anglo-Saxon) phrase for springtime, signifying that Lent should serve as a period of spiritual awakening and lead to the blossoming of our conversion. It corresponds to the more technical Latin term quadragesima (and Italian quaresima, Spanish cuaresma and French carême), which mean the “fortieth day” before Easter.

The forty holy days of Lent begin with Ash Wednesday. This year, Ash Wednesday is on February 6.

Preparation

As Fr. George Rutler was wont to say, “There was a certain pastoral logic to the old custom of preparing for Lent by numbering the weeks leading up to it with elegant Latin numbering: Septuagesima, Sexagesima, Quinquagesima. It is hard to take a sudden plunge into Lent ‘cold turkey’”. Therefore, take the initiative to prepare and plan for Lent:

• Use the Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima weeks: The devil loves for us to make grand plans and resolutions only to give up prematurely out of despair. So consider this time as a “warm-up session” to plan what you’re going to do during Lent and to try out a few things before it officially starts on Ash Wednesday. That way, you’ll be primed to go and in the right mindset to take it seriously from day one.
• Do an examination of conscience: Pause to reflect on your achievements and struggles over the past year. Think about what you want to change. Reflect on your particular weaknesses (vices and sins), and make an affirmation to cultivate the corresponding virtues during this Lenten season.
• Schedule time to go to confession, and return frequently during this penitential season.
• Check the Ash Wednesday schedule at your local church.

Spiritual Reading

Spiritual reading is essential to cultivating spiritual growth. This reading, or lectio divina, as it is called in Latin, is the first step in the process of contemplative prayer: lectio (reading), meditatio (meditation), oratio (prayer) and contemplatio (contemplation).

The source of spiritual reading you choose is up to you, but it should be well thought-out. A wonderful place to start is holy Scripture. I have a particular affinity for the Passion narratives of the four Gospels, but truly you could choose any part, even at random, and have plenty to ponder.

Aside from Scripture, many Blessèds and Saints have written inspirational works that guide us on the journey of reflection and prayer. In past years, I have used two texts repeatedly, and you may want to consider them for your own use:

• Thomas à Kempis’ On the Passion of Christ: According to the Four Evangelists : Prayers and Meditations
• Fr. Gabriel’s Carmelite classic, Divine Intimacy

In his famous spiritual classic, The Imitation of Christ, the great spiritual writer and monk Thomas à Kempis reminds the reader that in order to become a follower of Christ one must imitate his life, and to accomplish this he adds:

“Let it then be our main concern to meditate on the life of Jesus Christ. It is impossible to imitate Christ without first knowing him, and the best way of getting to know him is by meditating on his life as it is described in the four Gospels.”

Thus, in his On the Passion of Christ, à Kempis presents profound, short reflections on Gospel passages about the Passion and death of Christ. In very much the same style as his Imitation, each chapter of On the Passion focuses on a specific aspect of the Passion of Our Lord, gives a prayer, a meditation and spiritual advice and closes with another short prayer.

Divine Intimacy has been with me, faithfully, for many years. Written to provide daily meditations for the entire (traditional) calendar year, its utility for this purpose became difficult with the changes in the calendar since Vatican II. (With the renewed availability of the traditional liturgy as the “Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite” following Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum, it can once again be used year-round.) For the main liturgical seasons and high holy days, Divine Intimacy is still unparalleled in its approach to how to reach intimate union with God through lectio divina, meditation, prayer and contemplation.

Click here for Lenten readings.

Prayer

Spiritual reading naturally encourages meditation of the texts, which itself engenders an inner reaction and drives us to prayer. Foster this reaction by setting aside time to pray each day. This is essential. A spiritual life requires time devoted to its cultivation.

Over the centuries, the Christian Church developed and prescribed a set of canonical hours for daily prayer, defined in the officium divinum (divine office) and Roman breviary. This practice stems from the Jewish practice of reciting prayers at set times of the day, as evidenced in Psalm 119:164, “Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws.”

While the breviary has been reformed several times, the current ‘Divine Office’ (or Liturgy of the Hours) focuses on three major hours (matins, lauds and vespers) and several minor hours:

1. Matins — the Office of Readings
2. Lauds — Morning prayer
3. Daytime prayer, consisting of one or all of the following:
   • Terce — Mid-morning prayer
   • Sext — Midday prayer
   • None — Mid-afternoon prayer
4. Vespers — Evening prayer
5. Compline — Night prayer

In its full form, each hour involves hymns, psalms, scripture passages, a hagiographical passage (e.g., an account of a saint’s martyrdom or a theological tract) and prayers. It is practiced by priests and religious.

An abbreviated form called the Little Office of Our Lady is modeled after the Liturgy of the Hours and is recited by many lay Christians, including tertiary order Carmelites.

This Lent, consider increasing the time you devote to prayer. You might not follow the full Divine Office, but I encourage you to try the Little Office of Our Lady. (A simplified online version is available, or purchase one of two beautiful (and affordable) bound editions: an easy-to-use English edition from Catholic Book Publishing Co. (via Amazon.com); or the superior English/Latin typesetting, complete with Gregorian chant notation, from Baronius Press.) While technically the Little Office follows the rubric of prayer four to five times daily, one may start by only reciting the morning and evening prayers. If you want to pause to pray in the middle of the day, add the Angelus at noon.

Meditation through Art

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a moving picture is worth a million. And what better way to remind you of the Purpose and Meaning behind everything than to watch The Passion of the Christ. Do this on Ash Wednesday and/or Good Friday. Include your family, and make time for prayer and discussion afterward.

On a related note, I hope you will profit from the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) that I prepared, using scenes from The Passion and verses from Scripture. I find it particularly powerful as a meditative tool because seeing the beautiful Caravaggio-like scenes allows me to re-experience what I was feeling while watching the movie. Quite powerful.

Fasting and Abstinence

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fast and abstinence. Fridays in Lent (and for traditionalists, year-round) are days of abstinence.

• Fasting requires that only one full meal be taken per day. Two smaller meals may be taken during the day to maintain physical strength, but these two meals together should not equal the quantity of a full meal. Fasting obliges all those aged 18-59.
• Abstinence prohibits the eating of meat on a particular day. It obliges those who have reached the age of 14 and continues to oblige throughout life.

Those not specifically obliged to fast or abstain are encouraged to join in these disciplines to the extent that they are able.

Almsgiving

Lenten regulations also include almsgiving. Historically, the tithe [n., < ME tithe < tighe < OE tegotha, ‘tenth’] is one-tenth of one’s wages. Alms should at least be equivalent to the price of a meal.

Fasting and mortifications are closely tied to almsgiving: As we fast from food and drink, or as we practice our mortifications, the money saved goes to works of charity and service.

Mortification

If there is one thing most people usually associate with Lent, it is that Lent is the time to “give something up.” This act of mortification — the willing abstinence from pleasurable activities, services or goods — is an important tool in cultivation of the ‘interior life.’

But how does one know what to give up? Some people start simple — giving up chocolate or the Starbucks coffee, not going to the movies, etc. However, these are really minor nuisances, not really sacrifices. (If one does these, however, I would recommend donating to the poor the money saved on not buying Starbucks or movie tickets.)

Truly, the best place to start is with mortification of unfruitful patterns of behavior that keep you from God: For example, staying up late (preventing you from routinely saying your nightly prayers); or watching illicit programming on TV (which engenders thoughts contrary to the Church’s teachings); sleeping late on weekends (such that you arrive late to Mass, leaving you frustrated and distracted and preventing you from entering into a contemplatively prayerful state during Mass); or not finding the proper balance between work and family life (which compromises quality time with your family). Aim toward remedying these imbalances and replace the fault with a corresponding good work: For example, if you like to sleep late, resolve to wake up at 6am to say your morning prayers; if you’re arriving late to Mass, resolve to arrive 30 minutes early so you can go to Confession and pray before Mass starts.

Whether an act of mortification is truly sacrificial is a distinction to be made by the Christian in prayer and by discussion with a spiritual adviser. The main criterion is that any sacrifice should be an impetus for prayer. It should be noticeable or bothersome enough to make him cognizant of his discomfort and to bring him back (repeatedly, throughout the day) to God and Jesus’ sacrifice for us. If one becomes habituated to any small sacrifice such that it no longer brings him to prayer, then that mortification is no longer doing its job — The Christian must recognize this and increase the sacrifice or find another one.

Reconciliation and Penance

The season of Lent is a special time for the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) and acts of penance. It is through our self-denial that we ask God to bless us and make this season holy.

Further Reading

• Liturgical Season: Lent & Passiontide

A paraphrased excerpt from the January letter by Fr. John Fullerton:

t this time of the year, it is not uncommon for people to take or at least consider taking New Year’s resolutions. Some do so to improve their physical health, others hope to overcome some weakness in their character, while still others hope to improve their surroundings. Some actually carry through with their resolutions, but many more find them too difficult and give up soon after starting. Nor is this an uncommon occurrence in life — Whether it be New Year’s resolutions, retreat resolutions or simply the promptings of conscience to lead a better life, we find them difficult to put into practice.

The reason why we have such difficulty is that the dispositions of our powers of intellect, will and passions are not properly ordered in relation to our human nature. We have allowed certain bad habits to form which have caused disorder among these powers, preventing them from harmoniously working toward the same goal. As habits they are difficult to overcome.

Because our tendencies have a character of universality, we are not only capable of, but need habits for, efficient action. Our mind seeks all truth but because we do not possess it as God does, we can choose which truth to seek. Our wills seek all good, but because we do not possess it as God does, we can choose which good, real or apparent, we will seek. Likewise, our sense appetite tends towards all the pleasures of the body. In order to act efficiently in the attainment of any truth or good, we require a certain ease in the direction of our powers. A child trying to be generous with his toys will look anxiously from the treasured possession to the other child, to his mother and back again, all the while struggling with the desire to keep it to himself. He hesitates, then slowly hands it over, and often as not, quickly snatches it back or begins to cry. If every free decision in life required as much effort it would be quite an intolerable burden for us. Habits help us to avoid being frequently frustrated in the face of the multitude of truths and goods that surround us by making our free choices easy.

Therefore, before we can efficiently choose to do good in any and all circumstances, we must acquire habits. If a farmer tried to irrigate his fields with a bucket, his efforts would not only be highly inefficient, but most likely his fields would never produce the abundant harvest he hopes for. But if his initial labors are spent digging a ditch or laying a pipe, he will efficiently provide a patch which will allow an abundant flow of water to his fields. Habits (specifically, operative or active habits) are like an irrigation ditch which easily directs the powers of our intellect, will or sense appetite to a definite kind of action. Thus, for example, if someone wants to tell the truth in any and all circumstances, he must acquire the habit of truthfulness.

Because habits are the key to efficient action, it is important to know what causes them. There are basically three causes of habits: nature, human activity and God.

Our human nature helps us to acquire active habits by either providing certain knowledge through our senses or by providing the beginnings of habits through our appetitive powers in the way of certain dispositions or temperaments. Good eyesight or hearing can help us to easily acquire knowledge. Specific temperaments may give inclinations to patience, purity or anger. Nature gives man his first push towards natural virtue.

Usually when we speak of God as the source of habits, we speak of the infusion of the supernatural habits of Faith, Hope and Charity, which elevate our natural powers to be capable of leading the divine life. But it is also possible to find natural operative habits which have been infused by God. Such would be the case of someone obtaining the intellectual habit of a particular language which they have never naturally learned.

The principal cause of operative habits on the natural level is human activity. Repeated acts of the same kind form habits. Each act is another shovel full of dirt forming the ditch which helps the power of our will flow easily in the right direction and difficult to flow any other way. A truthful man easily tells the truth but finds it hard to tell a lie. And just as the ditch can be widened or filled in, to increase or decrease th flow of water, so habits can grow or diminish. The former is done by more frequent and intense acts of the habit already established while the latter by either acting contrary to the habit or by ceasing to use it.

However, efficiency in action is not our only concern in life, since we can just as efficiently wreck our lives as make them useful. Habits differ in morality. If a habit inclines us toward a morally good action, it is called virtue. Virtue helps us to move efficiently towards God by properly ordering our powers of intellect, will and sense appetite. This perfects our humanity and increases our likeness to Him. If a habit inclines us towards a morally bad action, it is called vice. Vice wounds our humanity by putting disorder between our powers. This decreases our likeness to God and reduces us to the level of beasts.

Since we lose or attain our true happiness by our human actions, our habits and their morality are of great importance to us. We should take serious the formation of virtue in ourselves and in the children God has placed in our care. The apparent lack of virtue in today’s youth is evidence that many do not take it seriously (e.g., the lack of respect, responsibility and resourcefulness, to name a few). If we do not help our children to form good habits, the tendency will be for them to form vices, which will only help them to move efficiently away from God.

This formation must start from the cradle and continue throughout our lives. We should take the time to reflect on our activities and the habits being formed by them in ourselves and our children. Some people turn a deaf ear when the priest speaks against television, video games and modern “music” or immodesty. But what habits do these actions form in us? Can we truly say that they help us to form virtues that perfect our intellects and wills? Or that they help to bring our passions into control? Do they help us to move closer to God by helping us to become more God like? The evidence proves they do not and is the reason they are often spoken against.

If we wish to live a truly human life, virtue is necessary — on the natural level, to perfect us as men; while on the supernatural level, to perfect us as children of God and heirs to heaven. Because the world is built on truth and filled with goodness, we are offered innumerable opportunities for knowledge and love. Virtue allows us to use our human powers properly to embrace these, perfecting the same powers and enabling us to successfully act in conquering the world for ourselves and ourselves for God. This alone can lead to true happiness.

On 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his magnificent “I Have a Dream” speech.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

Read more »

The traditional liturgical calendar has today as Septuagesima Sunday. The three Sundays preceding Ash Wednesday are called Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima Sundays — meaning, respectively, the 70th, 60th and 50th day before Easter. These days are not part of Lent (the Quadragesima Sunday), but serve to call to mind this period that requires much preparation. (As Fr. George Rutler was wont to say, “There was a certain pastoral logic to the old custom of preparing for Lent by numbering the weeks leading up to it with elegant Latin numbering: Septuagesima, Sexagesima, Quinquagesima. It is hard to take a sudden plunge into Lent ‘cold turkey.’ ”) Fittingly, on these Sundays, the Gloria and Alleluia are omitted, and violet vestments are used. The Introit reminds us that Man is the victim of the sin of Adam and of his own sins:

In this week’s church bulletin, Father Rutler shares his thoughts on Septuagesima Sunday:

I

t seems that the Christmas decorations are coming down just in time for Easter. in the last three hundred years, Easter has been celebrated on March 23 [as it will be this year, in 2008] five times: in 1704, 1788, 1845, 1856 and 1913. It is almost as early as it can ever be, and it will not be on March 23 again until 2160, when all of us in our happy parish will, God willing, be celebrating in a more heavenly city. The only possible earlier date for Easter is March 22, and that happened last in 1818 and will not happen again until 2285.

In preparation for Ash Wednesday on February 6, it is right to begin now to examine our consciences and reflect on how we are growing in baptismal grace. Each one of us was baptized in obedience to our Lord’s command that his disciples preach the Gospel to all nations and baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The recent Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord was a reminder of the promises we made, or were made for us, at the font: to reject Satan and all his works and all his empty promises. As Christ wants us to believe in Christ, so the Anti-Christ does not want us to believe that there is an Anti-Christ or that his works are evil and his promises empty. Experience inevitably teaches otherwise, but we can live our lives most blessedly right now by saying to God at the start of each day: “I will serve.” The word Satan essentially means “the one who will not serve.” That Prince of Lies offers each soul many promises, and he has never kept one. Christ has never broken a single promise He made to His Church, and the greatest is that He is with us until the end of the world.

“As many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). That “sanctifying grace” perfects nature and does not destroy it. Physically, after baptism we are what we were before: We did not turn into anything other than a human being. But the intellect and the will, those two parts of the soul, are now freed from the original sin of pride which sets up a barrier to God. Like a clogged artery, original sin prevents God’s grace from reaching the heart and leads to the death of soul. Washing away original sin does not eliminate concupiscence, or the tendency of human weakness to choose our will instead of God’s. Individual sins result from that. But the baptismal grace does bestow the promise of eventual triumph over death and strength to resist actual sins. That is the glorious promise of Easter, which this year fittingly follows so soon upon the celbration of the birth of Our Saviour.

~ Fr. Rutler
Church of Our Saviour
New York City
Septuagesima Sunday 2008

There has been a lot of beautiful sacred music created over the past millennium, but a personal favorite is the treatment of Psalm 50(51), Miserere mei, Deus (after which this site is named), by Gregorio Allegri. This chant for five-part a cappella choir was composed c. 1638 and for the Sistine Chapel choir, where it has been sung during Holy Week every year since it was composed. The piece was considered so beautiful and sacred that its performance elsewhere was banned by a magisterial edict.

Below is a recording of the Miserere as sung by the Tallis Scholars.

Allegri - Miserere mei, Deus:

Leaving Mass today, I was handed a flyer by Catholics for Ron Paul. Now, I am by no means a Libertarian, but I do enjoy hearing Dr. Paul debate the other candidates. It is at the same time refreshing and humorous. He eschews political forked-tongue double-speak for clarity and purpose (as do Mike Huckabee and, to a lesser degree, John McCain). Leave it to the good doctor to prescribe some medicine for an ailing partisan-based political system. Whether one agrees or disagrees with Dr. Paul’s libertarian economic theory, quasi-Isolationist foreign policy, and Constitutionalist approach to national policy, one has to hand it to him for pressing the issues.

Perusing the information on the flyer and web site, I came across the following from a speech Dr. Paul delivered in April 2005, shortly following Pope John-Paul II’s passing, which serves to highlight Dr. Paul’s ideas regarding Church and State:

Members of Congress from both political parties outdid themselves last week [2005] in heaping praise upon Pope John Paul II in the wake of his passing. Many spoke at length on the floor of the House of Representatives, and some even flew to Rome for his funeral. I’m happy to witness so many politicians honoring a great man of God and peace. The problem, however, is that so few of them honored him during his lifetime by their actions as legislators. In fact, most members of Congress support policies that are totally at odds with Catholic teachings.

Just two years ago, conservatives were busy scolding the Pope for his refusal to back our invasion of Iraq. One conservative media favorite even made the sickening suggestion that the Pope was the enemy of the United States because he would not support our aggression in the Middle East. The Pontiff would not ignore the inherent contradiction in being pro-life and pro-war, nor distort just war doctrine to endorse attacking a nation that clearly posed no threat to America — and conservatives resented it. September 11th did not change everything, and the Pope understood that killing is still killing. The hypocritical pro-war conservatives lauding him today have very short memories.

Liberals also routinely denounced the Pope for refusing to accept that Catholicism, like all religions, has rules that cannot simply be discarded to satisfy the cultural trends of the time. The political left has been highly critical of the Pope’s position on abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage, feminism, and contraception. Many liberals frankly view Catholicism as an impediment to the fully secular society they hope to create.

Both conservatives and liberals cannot understand the Pope’s pronouncements were theological, not political.

He was one of the few men on earth who could not be bullied or threatened by any government. He was a man of God, not a man of the state. He was not a policy maker, but rather a steward of long-established Catholic doctrine. His mission was to save souls, not serve the political agendas of any nation, party, or politician. To the secularists, this was John Paul II’s unforgivable sin — he placed service to God above service to state. Most politicians view the state, not God, as the supreme ruler on earth. They simply cannot abide a theology that does not comport with their vision of unlimited state power. This is precisely why both conservatives and liberals savaged John Paul II when his theological pronouncements did not fit their goals. But perhaps their goals simply were not godly.

Unlike most political leaders, the Pope understood that both personal and economic liberties are necessary for human virtue to flourish. Virtue, after all, involves choices. Politics and governments operate to deny people the freedom to make their own choices. The Pope’s commitment to human dignity, grounded in the teachings of Christ led him to become an eloquent and consistent advocate for an ethic of life, exemplified by his struggles against abortion, war, euthanasia, and the death penalty. Yet, what institutions around the world sanction abortion, war, euthanasia, and the death penalty? Governments.

Historically, religion always represented a threat to government because it competes for loyalties of the people. In modern America, however, most religious institutions abandoned their independence long ago, and now serve as cheerleaders for state policies like social services, faith-based welfare, and military aggression in the name of democracy. Few American churches challenge state actions at all, provided their tax-exempt status is maintained. This is why Washington politicians ostensibly celebrate religion — it no longer threatens their supremacy. Government has co-opted religion and family as the primary organizing principle of our society. The federal government is boss, and everybody knows it. But no politician will ever produce even a tiny fraction of the legacy left by Pope John Paul II.

For more about Dr. Paul, see:

• RonPaul2008.com
• Catholics for Ron Paul

According to the traditional liturgical calendar, this year, the Feast of the Holy Family (the first Sunday after the Epiphany) and the Commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord (January 13) fall on the same day.

Reflecting on the significance of baptism, Pope Benedict XVI said,

T

he Baptism of Jesus at the Jordan is the anticipation of the baptism of blood on the Cross, and it is the symbol of the entire sacramental activity by which the Redeemer will bring about the salvation of humanity.

This is why the Patristic tradition has dedicated great interest to this Feast, which is the most ancient after Easter. “Christ is baptized, and the whole world is made holy,” sings today’s liturgy; “He wipes out the debt of our sins; we will all be purified by water and the Holy Spirit” (Antiphon to the Benedictus, Office of Lauds).

There is a strict relationship between the Baptism of Christ and our baptism. At the Jordan, the heavens opened (cf. Lk 3:21) to indicate that the Saviour has opened the way of salvation, and we can travel it thanks to our own new birth “of water and Spirit” (Jn 3:5), accomplished in baptism.

In it, we are inserted into the Mystical Body of Christ, that is, the Church. We die and rise with him, we are clothed with him, as the Apostle Paul often emphasized (cf. I Cor 12:13; Rom 6:3-5; Gal 3:27). The commitment that springs from baptism is therefore “to listen”to Jesus: to believe in him and gently follow him, doing his will.

Fr. George Rutler, of the Church of Our Saviour in New York City, adds his thoughts, which are à propos to both baptism and family:

O

n the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, the liturgical Preface says that Jesus was baptized in water made holy by his baptism. Jesus, who makes holy everything He touches, sanctified the water in which He was gratuitously baptized, for He needed no baptism, but entered the Jordan to show us that baptism is the gateway to salvation. Even babies may be baptized because Christ wills that all be saved. A baby is culpable of no actual sin, but inherits the consequence of man’s original sin, which is mortality. A soul has no size (we cannot measure its components, which are the intellect and the will), and so a baby ranks in dignity with the most powerful and senior in our world, and even outranks them.

Contempt for life is most luridly expressed in the claim that an adult has the right to destroy another life in its most innocent form. This is why Christ, through His Church, calls abortion a most grievous sin. The penalties for this offense against God’s image in man are not only in the next life; they wound our present culture as well. It has been conservatively estimated by the Human Life International organization that nearly 49 million babies have been killed in the womb in the United States since 1973: one-third of all infants conceived in that period. Based on the 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, using the ratio of professions to population, the odds are that in the last 35 years, the following people were destroyed:

Two U.S. presidents, seven Supreme Court justices, 102 U.S. senators and 589 congressmen, 8,123 judges, 31 Nobel Prize laureates, 328 Olympic medalists, 6,092 professional athletes, 134,841 physicians and surgeons, 392,500 registered nurses, 70,669 clergy, including 6,852 Catholic priests and 11,010 nuns, 1,102,443 elementary and high-school teachers, 553,821 truck drivers, 224,518 maids and housekeepers, 33,939 janitors, 134,028 farmers and ranchers, 109,984 police officers, and 39,477 firefighters.

If you have to wait to see a doctor, or complain that no policeman is on the corner, or wonder why no scientist has found a cure for cancer, or ask why we didn’t win the World Cup, or find the confessional empty, you may blame an abortionist now living in comfortable retirement in some warm resort cared for by an underpaid immigrant.

The same Lord who makes water holy by His own baptism said that it would be better to drown in the depths of the sea than to harm one of the least of His little ones. History will look back on our age’s moral coldness in astonishment, if consciences are still alive. And the Holy Church will shine for her voice which cried in the wilderness. Meanwhile, a good act of reparation would be to pray for an end to infanticide each time you enter a church and make the sign of the Cross with holy water.