Maureen's thoughts: 40 Days for Life Ottawa - Fall 2018

Thank you Stan for the information below

The 40 Days for Life Opening Rally took place on Sunday September 23^rd. 7:00 PM North West corner of Bank and Sparks Streets We were blessed by some wonderful talks, prayers, as well as moving hymns led by Sister Teresa Catherine Marie of the Queenship of Mary.

The first presentation click here was by Helena Szakowski , who does amazing work as English Church and Group Coordinator. Helena gave a concise overview of this year’s Campaign, both from an international as well as local perspective. She also provided powerful reasons for getting involved in these Campaigns, as well as their convincing effect in curtailing abortion (please see 1^st attachment)

Deacon Charles (Chuck) Fink is the Chaplain of our 40 Days for Life Campaign. He gave a very thorough presentation click here on the sanctity of human life in the context of the 50^th anniversary of Humanae Vitae. It is incredibly remarkable how prophetic this Encyclical by Pope Paul VI turned out to be in specifying the grave dangers of contraception all of which
(2^nd attachment), Deacon Chuck also provided us with PDF’s of the Encyclical itself as well as the Pastoral Message of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops on the 40^th Anniversary of Humanae Vitae. These will be found on the 40 Days Website: https://40daysforlife.com/local-campaigns/ottawa/ .

Sister Marie Madeleine of the Queenship of Mary Community gave a very informative talk on the Queenship of Mary Sisters click here , their remarkable prayer-life, charism and mission. It is amazing the number of ministries and initiatives these good Sisters support through their prayers and actions, including 40 Days for Life. They are a real blessing to Ottawa. Sister Marie Madeleine then gave her riveting personal testimony of how God’s love and protection guided her through a time of darkness to conversion, and eventually leading her to join the Queenship of Mary Community. In the 3^rd attachment you will find an expanded version of her personal testimony which ties in very well with Deacon Chuck’s talk on Humane Vitae. The talk Sister Marie Madeleine gave at the Opening Rally was an abridged version. The full talk will be given at the Divine Mercy Conference at St. Augustine’s Parish on Saturday October 6^th.

As indicated by Helena, based on our current online vigil calendar, Mondays Thursdays and Fridays are generally the most challenging days of the week to get commitment for a Parish Vigil Day. So if you can, please make an effort to be at the Vigil site on one of these days. To register, visit: https://40daysforlife.com/local-campaigns/ottawa/.