These 40 Days...

Tonight at 7:00 there will be a rally at our usual spot (1200 N LaSalle) to begin an event called 40 Days for Life.* This is a pro-life event that spans every day from Ash Wednesday (Feb. 22) through Palm Sunday (Apr. 1, no joke) in the Catholic liturgical calendar (sorry, you let the Catholic write it, I use my preferred calendar). Though it's a bit late to use this as an advertisement for the rally, I do want to take this opportunity to discuss the broader 40 Days plan.

The main event was started several years ago by a pro-life group in Texas. The idea is to return to the biblical idea of uniting prayer and fasting to drive out demons. Since the bible constantly uses 40 as an appropriate length of time for prayer, fasting, preparation, and change (witness Noah on the ark, Israel in the desert, and Jesus in the desert as well-known examples, and the purification requirements of Jewish mothers after childbirth for a less well-known example), the founders sought to unite prayer and fasting into a pro-life vigil. However, abortion in modern society is more than a religious topic. Now it has become a political topic, meaning its scope is beyond mere prayer and fasting (though they are important!); consequently, the founders incorporated outreach, by which they intended to have people go door-to-door to make those who lived nearby understand just what abortion is and does to their community. These three aspects, then, comprise 40 Days for Life: 1) a prayer vigil, 2) fasting, and 3) outreach.

Each of these deserves its own post, and I would like to go through them over time and in separate, dedicated posts, but right now the prayer vigil is most pressing so I want to discuss that first. The prayer vigil is an on-site, 24 hour presence of prayerful and PEACEFUL witness to those who work and patronize an abortion facility. This means that starting at midnight tonight, there will always be at least one and preferably two people on the corner of Division and LaSalle praying for an end to abortion. That is a lot of work: a minimum of 960 man hours (preferably 1920). We break this down into hour-long commitments. However, not all hours are created equally. Specifically, while it may be easy to hit hours between, say, 6 and 10pm--you know, after work and before bed--it isn't easy to cover the hours between, say, midnight and 6am, when people tend to sleep. Hours during the workday are tough to fill as well.

What we need is for people to consider setting aside time to come to the vigil. It can be one hour during the vigil, an hour a week, an hour each day, or anything else you can spare. We need everybody and anybody who is willing. There are more details at the 40 Days website (address to come), but that is the essence of it. And while I am Catholic, the vigil is not--we have myriad inter- and non-denominational prayers, welcome personal recitation of favorite bible passages (I love playing Psalm roulette, where each person in a group chooses a number, 1-150, and the next person reads that Psalm before choosing for the following person. Pro-tip: pick Psalm 119 before someone else does it to you.), and support the honest and powerful approach of saying prayers from the heart, letting the Father through His Spirit put the words into your mouth and your heart. We don't care how you pray for an end to abortion, just that you pray for an end to abortion.

The website for our 40 Days vigil (there are many vigils throughout the country and the world) is here, and links from the page will help answer other questions you may have and will show you how to sign up for hours based on the vigil calendar (hint: check the menu bar above the cute photo of a mother and her child). Get involved; we need you.


*Full disclosure: the Prayer for Life at Division and LaSalle leadership team is also the Old Town, Chicago, 40 Days for Life leadership team. So this is self-serving. Like most of what I do.