National Night of prayer focuses on sanctity of life

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
Nov. 29, 2007

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception will bring people together for the 18th Annual National Night of Prayer.

A service will be held in the Marian Center at Trinity Heights in Sioux City from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Dec. 8. Trinity Heights has participated for eight of the 18 years of the event, which began in New York.

"The Immaculate Conception is when our Blessed Mother was conceived without the stain of original sin preparing herself as the temple for the baby Jesus many years later," said Larry Walsh, a member of the spiritual committee at Trinity Heights. "When Mary said, 'yes,' to the invitation from the angel and life for her son, Jesus began as a human being instantly. Out of the book of John it says, 'The word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.'"

The National Night of Prayer has spread to over 800 parishes, convents and monasteries all across the United States including Alaska and Hawaii.

"We are calling on the Blessed Virgin in her role as the virgin of Guadalupe to come back again as she did in 1531 and changed the hearts of this nation from one of human sacrifice - abortion, contraception, euthanasia. These are all sacrifices to the gods of convenience and self-gratification," said Walsh.

The prayers will be petitioned to Mary, he noted, because she is the "one that changed the hearts of the Aztec world."

The service is open to anyone. Walsh pointed out that people are invited to come and pray for as long as they can - one hour, two hours or the whole four hours.

The evening will begin with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. There will be prayer, the rosary, hymns and Scripture reflection. Every hour the mysteries of the rosary will be prayed with all decades said by the end of the evening.

Father LeRoy Seuntjens will be on hand during the evening to hear confessions.

"This nation has an abundance of prosperity like none other in the world. We feel we have a responsibility to help those who cannot help themselves - the most defenseless of them all the unborn and the elderly," said Walsh. "We feel that the political process is not the answer but certainly prayer is the answer."

He said that over the years human laws have made abortion, slavery and the denial of a woman's right to vote legal.

"It is through our prayers that we want to have these laws changed to God's law that says thou shall not kill," said Walsh.

There have been over 4,000 people that have been killed in the wars and battles in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last five years, he pointed out.

"Yet everyday in the United States nearly that many people - little people, elderly people, innocent people - are killed, murdered in the war against life through the acts of abortion and euthanasia," said Walsh. "That is 115,000 every month and 1.4 million every year for the past 35 years."

He recounted the story of Adam and Eve, when Eve said the serpent tricked her to eat the apple.

"We feel the same serpent is raging again in our land through pornography, abortion, euthanasia and contraception. We are convinced that our modern day Adams and Eves are being tricked again to believe that these things offer the road to happiness," said Walsh. "We are praying that our virgin will come again to change the hearts of this nation."

The service will conclude with Benediction.

"If you live too far from Sioux City to come in on a Saturday night, there is nothing to say that your prayers won't be heard if you pick up your rosary and pray each of the decades on an evening," said Walsh. "Ask God for forgiveness for the sins of this nation against life. We believe the prayers will be heard."