Looking to the month of September, the ninth day packs a punch. There are calls for prayer on September 9 for the feast day of St. Peter Claver, easing racial tensions in our communities, and children who are victims of abortion. 

 

In the 1600s, Spanish Jesuit missionary Father Peter Claver served enslaved Africans after their slave ships landed in Cartagena, Columbia, which was at the time the hub of the 100-year-old slave trade in South America. During 40 years of ministry, he prayed for and cared for slaves, lived among slaves, and baptized about 300,000 slaves. He treated the slaves with dignity and shared God’s love with them. 

 

Father Claver also spoke out strongly against the evils of slavery, racism, and discrimination. He called everyone to treat all, regardless of race, with the dignity we each deserve as children of God. Pope Leo XIII canonized Fr. Claver in 1888. 

 

The U.S. bishops have taken the feast day of St. Peter Claver as an opportunity to pray for an end to racism as an attack against human life. They wrote in “Open Wide our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love”: 

 

“The Church in the United States has spoken out consistently and forcefully against abortion, assisted suicide, euthanasia, the death penalty, and other forms of violence that threaten human life. It is not a secret that these attacks on human life have severely affected people of color, who are disproportionally affected by poverty, targeted for abortion, have less access to healthcare, have the greatest numbers on death row, and are most likely to feel pressure to end their lives when facing serious illness. As bishops, we unequivocally state that racism is a life issue” (p. 30). 

 

The National Day of Prayer for Peace in our Communities on September 9 aims to bring awareness to and understanding of the issue of racism and bring about peace and justice in our communities. The prayer for that day asks our Lord God to, “Fill us with your mercy so that we, in turn, may be merciful to others. Strip away pride, suspicion and racism so that we may seek peace and justice in our communities.”

 

To pray the complete prayer in English or Spanish, visit http://www.usccb.org and search for “Prayer for Peace in Our Communities.” 

 

September 9 has also been marked as the National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children. In doing so, the Pro-Life Society and the Pro-Life Action League and all those who join in prayer hope to humanize children who have been aborted. 

 

That morning, Bishop Malloy will lead a 10 a.m. prayer service at Calvary Cemetery in Winnebago (8616 W. State Rd), at the cemetery’s Memorial Tomb for the Unborn. This service is held in partnership with St. Bridget in Loves Park. The service is open to all. 

 

Parish-based memorial services that day will be held at St. Catherine of Siena in West Dundee, after the 8 a.m. Mass in their prayer garden; at Holy Angels in Aurora by the Knights of Columbus Cardinal Bellarmine Council #4849 at the Blessed Virgin Mary pro-life memorial, after the 8:15 a.m. Mass; and at St. Edward Church in Rockford, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. 

 

If you cannot join us at one of these locations, please add prayers for victims of abortion as well as for those grieving from abortion to your personal prayer that day. 

 

“Open Wide Our Hearts” quotes the following Scripture: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are” (1 Jn 3:1). This love “comes from God and unites us to God; through this unifying process it makes us a ‘we’ which transcends our divisions and makes us one, until in the end God is ‘all in all’ (1 Cor 15:28).”  

 

September 9 is a good day to pray for the marginalized and voiceless.