Praying and Fasting

 

After mass today, the priest asked a woman to come up to the altar to give her testimony. 

She said she was a lawyer, and over 20 years ago she had taken on the case of a woman who was terribly injured in an auto accident caused by a State of Michigan vehicle.  “The trial dragged on over 3 years,” she said, “from lower courts to supreme court and back to the lower courts.  It seemed endless --- and was costing us lots of money.  One night I was working very late on the case, when I stopped and prayed: Lord, You have heard my prayers for justice for this woman who trusts in you, as I do.  What more can I do?  Please answer me.”

Then, the lawyer said: “Then I felt an urging to pick up the bible that always sits on the corner of my desk.  It had been untouched for months, but I opened it and read: (Mk 9:29) ‘These kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.’  And the next day I fasted from all solid food.  On the following day I received a phone call --- the State of Michigan wished to settle the case.  God answered my prayer and fasting.  Months later, the case was written up, as case number 666, and later when published in a book of Michigan law, it appeared on page 666.”

“Since then, I have had many difficult cases, some I knew I could not win, but when I prayed and fasted I saw miraculous outcomes.  I have seen that God honors our prayers and fasting, and can defeat any evil.  Today, in Proposal 3, Michigan is covered with a huge evil.  I beg you, my brothers and sisters, to pray and fast with me for the defeat of this great evil.  And then, just trust in Jesus.”

That was a powerful testimony, and all applauded.

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I will be praying and fasting.  In our state, churches are being desecrated, a grandmother was shot while going door to door to talk about what Prop 3 means, and people quietly praying outside abortion clinics have been arrested.  There is a great evil in our state.  The proposed state constitutional amendment goes way beyond Roe and would eliminate any and all laws limiting abortion, including age, parental rights, necessity, medical and sanitary requirements, up to --- and after --- natural birth.  And the word sex is becoming almost meaningless, both in body and in action. You can almost feel the evil around us.  And many millions are being spent strongly urging us to vote for Proposal 3.   

If you are a reader of First Things magazine, there is a very good article by former U. S. Representative Daniel Lipinski.  He was run out of office by his Democratic party when he wouldn’t support abortion.  He compares our country’s position to that before the French Revolution, which displayed “contempt for compromise”, and his own position to that of Thomas More, who was beheaded for being loyal to the king, while refusing to deny his Catholic faith.  It is a good article, although not one which instills hope.