40 Days For Life

Over at Doncaster again this morning for a couple of hours outside the abortion clinic. The number of people coming to the vigil is small (between 10 and 20, I gather), but has gradually increased during the first week. We prayed and at one point decided to do so silently. That for me was a wonderful half hour: I find that communal recitation of the Rosary or indeed any prayer becomes mechanical and too rapid for any meaningful meditation. Perhaps as a 'revert' who has struggled (and still struggles) with the great prominence of Mary in Catholic thinking and with the Rosary as a means of prayer I'm just not up to speed with its use. At all events I enjoyed the beautiful silence, which in view of the traffic on this very busy road might seem odd; but for that time I barely noticed it.

It was while we were in silence that a man came over and asked what we were praying about. I told him briefly, but had little chance to talk, as the policy seems to be to hand out a flyer with the website address and tell people to look at that and someone interrupted and did this. Which of course effectively closed the conversation down and also made it seem as though we don't want to talk to people, even reasonable and polite ones. Little contact otherwise: a couple of car horns, which could mean anything and a passing
'w-----s!'.

I've been going when I can (which is rarely, because of other parish commitments) to a series of talks at a local church on the Theology of the Body. Because I'm only dipping in, I find it all a little difficult to follow, likewise Christopher West's magisterial exposition, which I'm slowly making my way through. It's such an important topic, both for the Church and society at large, but it's barely filtered through  to the ordinary Catholic, not least because of the often densely philosophical language it's cast in. This is not John Paul II's fault: you can't expect Popes to teach at a level suitable for the average person (though Benedict XVI was pretty good at making things comprehensible for what used to be called the intelligent general reader), so where are the intermediaries? What have bishops done too encourage priests to pass the ideas on to the faithful? What have most priests done off their own bat? Nothing much, evidently. And yet it seems so clear that many of the problems of our society and age- the disintegration of the family, the marginalisation of fathers, abortion, depressed and suicidal children, discarded old people- arise because relationships between men and women have become dysfunctional. We can't return to Eden, the Pope seems to be saying, but with grace and a correct understanding of our male/female nature and our need to give and receive in love we can aspire to a true economy of love. More on this when I understand more!

Got my first view recently! No comment, but I like comments, so anyone who drops in... Just keep it reasonable. Critical is fine.