I am LOVING being back at school; the All Saints break was extremely blessed and fantastic, but it is so nice returning to classes, campus life, and all of my beloved brothers and sisters on campus :)
This weekend was really wonderful, though! I LOVE roadtrips, and 8 hours to Brooklyn is a nice length. We arrived at the Monastery at 1ish a.m. Saturday morning, so I was extremely sleep-deprived on Saturday. Actually, the whole break was pretty exhausting, because it was SO INTENSE, but it was fantastic!
Basically, this retreat is like a "Pro Life Boot Camp" of sorts. Msgr. Reilly went through the origins of both the pro-life and pro-abortion movements, he taught us how to counsel the women at the clinic, he taught us how to BE at the clinic (when we go to the facility, we are joining with Mary and John at Calvary. We should not be seeking to be seen, rather, we must be present and PRAYERFUL and peaceful. We make small circles, facing inward, up and down the sidewalks near the clinic, intensely in prayer the whole time. In fact, we should not even know, as prayer warriors, if any women are coming or going. That's for the sidewalk counselors to know.).
On this retreat, Msgr. Reilly kept bringing back a constant command: "Wake up and smell the flowers!" We have grown so lax in our culture and in our lives, and we need to WAKE UP and see the issue of abortion! There have been, according to the government, 400 ABORTIONS IN CHINA! We must be going to the facilities, praying NOT TO SAVE BABIES, BUT TO SAVE SOULS!
On this retreat, Msgr. Reilly kept bringing back a constant command: "Wake up and smell the flowers!" We have grown so lax in our culture and in our lives, and we need to WAKE UP and see the issue of abortion! There have been, according to the government, 400 ABORTIONS IN CHINA! We must be going to the facilities, praying NOT TO SAVE BABIES, BUT TO SAVE SOULS!
This retreat of epicness was held at Precious Blood Monastery in Brooklyn; there are 4 cloistered nuns (there used to be more, but they are dying off and passing into Heaven), and Msgr. Reilly is their chaplain.
Msgr. Reilly. OH. MY. GOODNESS! He's a SAINT!!!!!
This man has been around since the VERY BEGINNING of the Pro-Life movement; he was at the 1st prayerful protest in front of an abortion facility; he was a key organizer in the 1st March for Life, and he continues to go all around the world (he's been to 5 continents multiple times) spreading the pro-life message, especially with the Helpers of God's Precious Infants, an incorporated group that he started. Oh yeah. And he kind of knows everyone. As in, he was really good friends with Mother Teresa of Calcutta, he is friends with Fr. Benedict Groeschel (he calls the friars "Benny's Boys"), he knows the Pope, he knew Catherine Doherty, Dorothy Day....he recently returned from South Korea, where he had been meeting with the president there; Msgr. was at the 1st World Youth Day...basically, Msgr. Reilly is AWESOME! And he's so holy; so humble, so loving, so gentle. So I consider myself extremely blessed to have gone on this retreat! I could write on and on and on about all of the things that I learned on the retreat, but I have to run to Confession in a few minutes. So, I shall leave a few quotations from Msgr. Reilly, and I encourage all of you to look up the website (http://www.helpersny.org/index.htm). Enjoy!
"Knowledge is a gift from God to help you live wisely."
"God is love. He NEVER stopped loving you!" (especially used when talking to women post-abortion)
"You can't understand the creature properly apart from the Creator."
"An action should follow being."
"Roe v. Wade was not only the death knell for the unborn, but it was the end of Western Civilization, whose culture was founded on belief in God as Creator and was rooted in the principles of Judaic and Christian ethics. By that decision the quality of a person's life now became the absolute value, while ones right to life became relative to the quality of one's life as determined by others."
"A world without wisdom will perish."
"We are the clay, not the potter!"
"Everything works unto good in God's economy."
"If good people will do nothing, eventually we will all be enslaved."
"There is a joy and a mystery and childlike simplicity in living in the Providence of God. There is a great joy and a SUPRISE every day!"
"There is a joy and a mystery and childlike simplicity in living in the Providence of God. There is a great joy and a SUPRISE every day!"
"Don't be preoccupied with the devil. He's only a creature. Be careful--he['ll eat you up and spit you out! God has overcome the devil, death, and sin!"
"Glory should be given to God, not to you."
Now wake up and smell the flowers! Take a prayerful stand for life!
