Dear 40 Days Reps and Friends,
We gratefully Thank God for enabling the organizing and completion of our 21st 40 Days for Life Campaign in Ottawa!
Thank you so much to our Lead Coordinator, Debbie Duval, for her 40 Days leadership in overseeing this campaign and obtaining the city’s necessary notifications about our events. Thank you to our 40 Days Committee members for their respective contributions, with special thanks to Wanda for her 40 Days Ottawa email communiques leading up and throughout the campaign, follow-up with church and ministry Reps regarding the outcome of their vigil days, and for updating our website calendar with this info. A very big Thank You to Jim for his visits to pastors prior to and into the campaign period, to Deacon Chuck for his suggestions and his opening campaign talk, and Lea and her helpers for organizing our closing reception. Also, to John for our website, Bernard for our Facebook page, and Chris for assisting with our campaign rallies. Thank you to a few very preserving prayer warriors out at the vigil site on a very frequent basis throughout the campaign, and for those who provided hourly participation numbers.
With heartfelt gratitude I thank all 40 Days Reps who took on this vital role in the campaign. Your efforts mobilize these campaigns and contribute to supportive coverage of prayer hours at the vigil site, as well as special prayer-in-church vigils undertaken in numerous parishes this year. A special Thank You to Couples for Christ, Catholic Christian Outreach, St. Clement’s Young Adult Group, Chesterton Academy, École Ste-Marie Mère de Dieu, and St. Monica’s Prayer Group for organizing downtown site vigils. Thank you especially to the priests, deacons and religious sisters that supported this campaign with your presence at the site. Thanks also to the Knights Councils that supported their parish’s 40 Days prayer vigil day in covering downtown public prayer hours, and to the pastors that informed their congregations in advance of their intentions to participate in their parish day. These complementary actions are a major enhancement and help to filling hours.
Overall, outreach to churches and ministry groups in the late summer resulted in 30 parishes, 2 ministry groups, 2 independent catholic schools, 1 Young Adult’s Group, and 1 Prayer Group committing to the downtown vigil. Our website’s parish vigil schedule identified 21 of the 40 days as committed prayer days at the vigil site, as well as in-church prayer days, comprising special Masses, Eucharistic Adoration, devotional prayers, and a Novena Masses for the intentions of the campaign resulting in the equivalent of 24 days. Which is similar to last year’s coverage.
God repeatedly nudges our hearts to persevere with these campaigns. Our 40 Days Organizing Committee needs helpers to complete the various tasks for these campaigns. I ask that you seek in prayer what help you can offer during the months of September and October, the peak period of these annual campaigns in Ottawa. The time commitment is minimal prior to the campaign comprising two short meetings prior to the campaign and then a wrap-up one following the campaign’s completion. Similarly, if your parish 40 Days Rep could use a helping hand in overseeing sign-ups for their church vigil day, start small and offer your help.
40 Days for Life is a worldwide movement in 71 nations, and by the grace of God has achieved an impressive track record of life-saving results since launching in 2007. It came to Ottawa through the facilitation of CLC in 2008. Across Canada this fall there were 18 vigil site locations participating of which 10 of the sites are in Ontario. It is expected that with this campaign close to 27,000 will be recorded of known lives saved since 2007. The final international results for this fall’s campaign will be rolled up in the coming weeks. As always, To God be all the glory!
As pro-life prayer warriors, we keep our eyes fixed on heaven’s requests for this cause, and our hearts secure in the hope that the day is coming when the genocide of the unborn and all resulting forms of attacks against human life will come to an end. May God bless you in abundance for all your efforts in support of these campaigns, for the least of our brethren!
Helena Szakowski
Church and Ministry Co-ordinator
Ottawa’s 2026 40 Days for Life Campaign
