Jason, 8, and Lucy, 2, have attended the 40-Days rallies since Jason was a newborn. Before they began attending college, daughter Lauren, 19, and son Joshua, 18, came also. The San Diegos are parishioners at Our Lady of Good Counsel, Aurora. (Observer photo by Kathy Berkes)
AURORA—Kathy Berkes, pastoral care coordinator for the Office of Family Life and Evangelization, says the 40 Days for Life Aurora Kick-off Rally on Sept. 19 began at a “dark and dreary” 9 a.m. on land bordering East New York Street, close to Aurora’s Planned Parenthood Center.
But when Kingsley Kwayisi, graduate student at Wheaton College, began to speak, the sun came out and everything became “brighter and brighter,” she says. Ghana native Kwayisi was “on fire with the Holy Spirit” in his message, she adds.
What is 40 Days for Life? This campaign runs Sept. 23 through Nov. 1. There are three action items that people of good will are asked to take part in during these 40 days: �–�prayer and fasting �–�community outreach and education �–�peaceful prayer presence as part of the vigils held in front of abortion facilities. There are three on the borders of the Rockford Diocese. They are in Aurora, Ottawa and Dubuque. Parishes are encouraged to ‘adopt’ a day, with parishioners filling the one-hour time slots from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. or 8 a.m.-8 p.m. depending on the site.
Info: www.40daysforlife.com. |
As a woman who continues to heal and to mourn her own children lost to abortion, Berkes is sensitive to the difference between the darkness of sin and evil, and the healing light of Christ.
“The darkness needs to come out; the wounds need to be healed,” Berkes says, crediting the Blessed Mother’s help, the Project Rachel program and “a deep spiritual conversion” during her post-abortion journey.
She had to surrender, she says, and allow “my wounded, aching heart to be reconciled into the merciful, forgiving heart of Jesus.”
Kwayisi is a different kind of abortion survivor. At age 18, his mother, out of disgrace and shame, tried many times for several months to abort him, with no success.
“He lived to be a voice for the voiceless,” Berkes says. One Kwayisi quote that she made certain to write down is: “We have come to a place of battle in a fight against the kingdom of darkness. There is an army rising up to do battle. We have moved from cruise ship to battle ship. There is no more comfort in our own private little world.”
That battle cry for prayer and witness and the great love needed to win such a spiritual combat was expressed in various ways by the other three speakers and the around-75 people in the audience.
Berkes says that Steve Karlen, 40 Days for Life North American Outreach Director, noted that the root of the crisis of abortion is despair in a culture that doesn’t know Jesus Christ. Forty Days for Life is the type of hope needed to end abortion, he said.
Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League, insisted that the 40-day prayer and witness could achieve “something miraculous,” Berkes says. Her notes on Scheidler read: “This is a historic moment, and the moment is now. We have the power of prayer and are a witness to its power.”
Berkes recalls that Christian speaker Julie Roys, National Moody Radio host, said, “This nation is suffering an epidemic caused by abortion of pain, despair and suffering from ailments too numerous to mention. There is a movement of God that is happening now; we must move with it.”
The last couple of months before the Year of Mercy begins seems to Berkes to be a perfect time for the 40 Days effort.
“I just feel like it’s time to embrace mercy,” she says. “There is hope from despair.
“Love conquers all evil, one heart at a time.”