40 DAYS FOR LIFE: DAY 32

"OCTOBER 27Daily Devotional by: Fr. Frank Pavone***********

INTENTION: Pray that people of faith will have their strength renewed even in the face of the violence of abortion.
SCRIPTURE: "The favors of the Lord are not exhausted, his mercies are not spent. They are renewed each morning, so great is his faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.' The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait in silence for the saving help of the LORD." -- Lamentations 3:22-26
REFLECTION: In the Book of Lamentations, Jeremiah laments over the destruction that has come upon Jerusalem and all God's people because of the invasion of the Babylonians. He had warned the people of that invasion and of their ensuing exile. He told them it was going to happen, neither because of military blunders or political miscalculations or economic woes. The problem, instead, was spiritual. God's people were being unfaithful to the covenant. Scripture tells us that one of the ways the Israelites were unfaithful to the covenant was that they sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons in the fire (see Ps. 106:37-38; 2Kgs. 17:17-18; 24:3-4). Therefore, the Babylonians were being used by God as ani nstrument of his punishment. Jeremiah was considered a traitor because of prophesying in this way. Yet he was proven right. The Babylonians carried God's people into exile, and burned the holy city Jerusalem. This was like the end of the world! This was, after all, God's dwelling on earth, the Promised Land that God had given to his people! How could the enemy triumph in this way? The Book of Lamentations, a short book of only five chapters, contains some of the most poignant expressions of human grief. These verses are used in many Churches on Good Friday, since they can be seen to express a prophecy of the suffering of the Lord and the lamentation of his followers on that dark day. But in the midst of his grief, Jeremiah writes the verses quoted above. "The favors of the Lord are not exhausted..." It is a call to hope that no matter how much violence there is, life will prevail in the end. Why does he say, however, that God's mercies are renewed each morning? Because early in the morning, on the first day of the week, the women came to the tomb -- and they found that the events of that morning changed everything. Christ's victory over death came in the morning, and therefore each day we can renew our confidence that life has the final victory.
PRAYER: Lord, look kindly on your people who weep and mourn amidst the vast devastation that abortion has brought upon our land. We cannot even count the children killed, and the mothers and fathers wounded. We cannot measure the devastation and corruption abortion has brought upon the very fabric of our society. But we declare today that your favors have not been exhausted, your mercies have not been spent. They are renewed each morning. Give us new strength today in the resurrection of Christ your Son, that we may bear effective witness to the victory of life! In His name we pray, AMEN

David Bereit
National Campaign
Director40 Days for Life"