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Luke 11:1-13

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

By: The Rev. Dan Kinkead

Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

How do we win this war against the “Culture of Death”? How will we see the end of abortion and euthanasia and the disrespect for the sanctity of life in our time? God has given us a way forward, in our Gospel reading today.

As we stand in vigil for the unborn, I encounter many who scream vile and hurtful things to the young women entering the abortion clinic, outside the very gates of Hell. Their tactic is to be as abrasive as possible in telling the women that their choices are sending them to eternal damnation. While they are fully versed in the law of God, they pay little attention to the Gospel that lovingly draws us to repentance
and right choices.

No, the battle will not be won with screaming and violence; the battle will not even truly be won in the court system. The truth we find in the appointed reading for today tells us that our battles are won on our knees. It is only in prayer, a prayerful peace while standing in vigil outside the clinic and in an unceasing plea to God for the lives of the unborn and those the culture of death has labeled as “unfit.”

We hear calls for “revival” in our land, a true turning back to God, where evils like abortion and euthanasia will be conquered by a culture of life and a respect for the sanctity thereof. But “revival” is not a time where the world gets right with God; “Revival” is a time for the Church to get right with God, and this takes prayer. So go out and compel the sinners to repent, call those so twisted by the culture of death to see the light and peace of God’s life giving salvation. But all of this is to be washed in prayer and taken to God for His power to follow. Because, just as in salvation, where we can do nothing in our own power to cleans our darkened souls, it is God whose light can brighten the darkness. Only He can bring about a change of heart and, in His power, we have hope for a day when abortion and euthanasia will have ended in our world.