Luminous Mysteries (for an End to Abortion)

Jesus Baptism

May all people hear the Voice from our Father as it tells us that all of His sons and daughters in the womb are His beloved children. The people who saw Jesus being baptized could not see His divinity. But He joins our humanity with His, and is washed with earthly water at the hands of a good man, his holy cousin John. May the mothers who are now carrying sons or daughters in their wombs see the beloved humanity within them that eyes cannot yet see. May those same mothers find good doctors, that is, good men and women who want to safely bring their babies out of the watery place they now live so they can continue their young, fragile lives in their mothers' embrace. May our Father show all mothers how pleased He is when we join in helping them, as we cry out in this desert where we live, saying that human life from the very beginning is eternally beloved. Because with all human life, God is well pleased.

Wedding at Cana

So many women who are considering abortion do not have loving, strong men in their lives who are willing and proud enough to say, “This is my child, too.” The perfect man is hardly around in their time of need. But Jesus is the perfect Man, and with Mary’s motherly direction, He can work miracles in our lives. May all pregnant women, married or not married, who are feeling empty at a time when they should be feeling the fullness of life inside them--may all of them find Jesus’ transforming power. With Mary’s help, may they see how God has filled them with the miracle of life, a life that is meant to be lived and shared with others--especially within families, and most especially between mothers and fathers as they both bring life into the world.

The Proclamation of the Kingdom

Any nation that allows abortion is hardly a powerful nation. Such a nation is the exact opposite of the Kingdom of Jesus, for His Kingdom will make princes and princesses out of the powerless and the least among us. May we proclaim our sadness for the millions of acts of evil perpetrated against the powerless unborn, asking our King for mercy, for healing, and for reconciliation. Our King came to save all sinners, and to satisfy our thirst for justice for all of the wrongs done to our little brothers and sisters. May the world see that all of us--from the very moment that our King elevated us to personhood at the time of our conception---all of us, everywhere, are destined to inherit the Kingdom he planned for us. He planned it for us--all of us--even before we were made in our mothers’ wombs. And in that plan, we are, we always were, and we always will be, made for that Kingdom.

The Transfiguration

Jesus is man. Our world wants us to think of Him only as man. But our world does not understand that something (or someone) can be two things at the same time. Jesus is man. But he is also God. A newly conceived thing is a collection of cells. But it is also a human person. May those who see only the lump of cells or tissue in the womb also begin to see that it is--at the same time--a brother or sister of ours. May they see the new, living, growing figure as it truly is: a dazzling and magnificent work of nature. But not a work just of nature. It is also a work of something (and Someone) far greater than nature. For our little brothers and sisters--and all of us, too--are works of the Divine. Two cells, once separated and alone, find each other in the womb where they are transfigured into a person. After Jesus’ transfiguration, he told us (as he told his disciples): “Do not be afraid.“ May all mothers be comforted by these words as they carry the awesome, new, transfigured life within them.

Jesus Gives the Eucharist

Jesus broke the bread and said, “Take this, and eat, for this is My Body.” Then He took the cup and said, “Take this, and drink from it, for this is the cup of My Blood.” With those words, He began His walk toward his crucifixion where He would die, just as all of us must die. Many of us die after experiencing years--sometime many years--in this world. But many--too many--of our brothers and sisters will die before they are born. When we go to Mass, and drink His Blood and eat His Body, we join with all of God’s children. And in His suffering, we join with the suffering experienced by all of the victims of abortion. The mothers, the unborn children, families, friends--all suffer from abortion. But the Sacrifice of Jesus is greater than abortion. May we pray for the day when all persons celebrate with joy the ending of abortion. Until then, may we receive Him--and all of the little ones--in hearts that are open to the sacrifices of love.