Trinity Heights to host National Night of Prayer for Life

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
December 2, 2004

Trinity Heights Queen of Peace in Sioux City will host a National Night of Prayer for Life on Dec. 8 - the Feast of the Immaculate Conception - to ask the Blessed Mother to help bring about a conversion of hearts for the people of this country.

This is the 15th year for this annual event that will prayerfully unite people from across the country in an effort to end abortion through Eucharistic adoration and prayers of reparation. It will be the fifth year that Trinity Heights has participated in this night of prayer.

Slated for 8 p.m. to midnight on Dec. 8 in the Marian Center of Trinity Heights, the date spans the Feast of the Immaculate Conception as well as Our Lady of Guadalupe's first apparition to St. Juan Diego that reportedly took place on Dec. 9, 1531.

Larry Walsh, a member of the spiritual committee at Trinity Heights, pointed out that the woman who started this event 15 years ago did so to bring people together in prayer to petition Our Lady of Guadalupe for a change of heart in the country's culture of death.

The service will begin with a procession and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Every hour, those gathered will pray one of the mysteries of the rosary. Song, reflections and time for silent meditation will also be included. Prayers will petition Our Lady of Guadalupe.

"It was Our Lady of Guadalupe, who in the form of a pregnant virgin, left her image on the tilma (cloak) of Juan Diego that was responsible for the conversion of eight or nine million Aztec Indians over a period of about 10 years," said Walsh.

Prior to this, they were a people that took part in human sacrifice.

He stressed the fact that 1.3 to 1.4 million babies are slaughtered every year in this nation through abortion. Just as the hearts of the Aztec Indians were converted through petitions to Our Lady of Guadalupe organizers hope to convert the hearts of people in this country.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is not only the patroness of the Diocese of Sioux City as proclaimed by Bishop Daniel N. DiNardo, former bishop of Sioux City, but was named the patron of the Americas by Pope John Paul II.

Walsh mentioned that Trinity Heights first participated in this evening of prayer after Bishop DiNardo, had asked if they wanted to become involved in this prayerful effort.

"Five years ago we jumped on it and were able to bring it off the first year with great success. We have expanded it and improved upon it with the help of the people who organize the National Night of Prayer for Life from out East," he said.

That first year drew about 120 people. The numbers have remained about the same each year.

Realizing that an event being held from 8 p.m. to midnight on a Wednesday evening can pose a difficulty, Walsh stressed that people are welcome to attend all of it or just a portion of the service.

"This is a sacrifice and it is meant to be a sacrifice of our time in prayer - petitioning our Blessed Lady to come and change the hearts of this nation," he said. "Perhaps these prayers of the last 15 years and five years here are beginning to have an effect because we have had a significant change in the pro-life possibilities in the last election."

Walsh believes that momentum in the pro-life movement continues to grow. This in part is evident in that more parishes than ever plan to participate in the National Night of Prayer.

"It is such a terrific thing to think about that people in New York City, Miami, Tennessee, Dallas, Texas; Denver, Hawaii and Alaska will all be on their knees praying that our Blessed Mother will come once again to change the hearts of our young people," he said.

People of all ages and faiths are invited and encouraged to attend.

"It was Eve, who after succumbing to the wiles of the serpent - regarding the apple - said to God, 'The serpent tricked me,'" said Walsh. "We feel the serpent is raging in our land again through pornography, abortion, euthanasia and birth control. We are convinced that our modern-day Adams and Eves have been tricked again to believe that these things offer the road to happiness. We are praying that the Mother of the Americas, the virgin of Guadalupe, will come once again to crush the head of that serpent."