Public Prayer Makes People Angry

Yesterday, I said I was going to work through some of the questions in that post this week. God said, 'well this week starts today.' My response, 'Ha! Ok, I'm ready, I think.' So here is the first examination.

What is God doing in you? Are you embracing or resisting His work?

One of my Lenten goals is to deepen my prayer life. A week ago, on Monday, before Lent began, I met with my spiritual director and among other things we discussed what I wanted to achieve during Lent. As we discussed my desires, I said one thing that was on my heart was praying in front of the abortion clinic. I was a little surprised that that was the thing I mentioned because though it is true, the thought was there, to my conscience mind, it was a tiny idea. But God knows me and knows I need to commit in order to take any action. So I said it and thus it moved more firmly to my conscience mind. Now lets get back to this week, starting Sunday, I see a friend at church before mass started and in just saying hello I could see she was distressed.

(Incidentally, this is the same friend I told my spiritual director I talk to about finding time for this kind of prayer. Again God knows me and knows other things would fill my time and I'd forget to reach out always thinking I will talk to her when I run into her. He made sure I ran into her quickly.)

As I hugged her she said there were challenges with the campaign this year, and she said there were other things, and that God had put me on her heart to talk to, so we agreed to speak after mass. (I realize as I type this that it begins to sound a little 'twilight zone,' and this is where I lose some folks, but this is just how God has always worked in my life. I've learned to accept and believe.)

It turns out that people who usually pray are unable. As a result there isn't the proper coverage and there have been other challenges. So I say, 'Well, coincidently, I was going to contact you and sign up for a time slot, so lets just figure out a time now. When do you need someone?' As I open my calendar, I see the week is pretty full. But Monday is open, so Monday it is. I agree to meet her there and afterward we are going to get coffee and talk about a few other things. Well there is God making me do what I said I'd do without the delay that eventually turns into guilt. Best not to put off 'til tomorrow what you can do today.

Before I share the experience, let me make 3 quick points;

1. I have never done this before or anything like it,

2. I pray continuously all day but that is in my head, where I don't worry about being judged. I have always been uncomfortable leading a group prayer out loud, which is odd because I have NO FEAR of public speaking, just public praying.

3. I believe in life above choice, I realize that because I am Catholic it is more of a given but I have ALWAYS felt this way, so it is not doctrine that compels me. When I was a teenager (way before I had ever even encountered the Catholic church) I felt this way. Life is always a precious gift and there is no viable reason to extinguish that life. I know this as a TRUTH as sure as I know that blood runs through my veins.

Okay, now to the experience. Having never done this I didn't fully know what to expect. I didn't know how many people would be there, I didn't know the neighborhood, I didn't know anything except the address. I got there and parked following the directions I had received the day before. There were 3 women there at the time. my friend and then two other ladies, I quickly ascertained that those others had been there for the previous hour, and we were in fact relieving them. So they left, my friend gave me the lay of the land, and the rules we follow. Mostly we are just standing there and praying. If a car entered or exited then my friend would gently approach and wave and wait to see if they rolled down their window. Most kept their eyes averted and drove past.

We started a rosary, and used each decade to pray intentionally for those suffering, feeling desperate or compelled into this decision for any reason. We prayed for their souls and for the souls of the unborn babies. All the while we are there it is pretty quite and uneventful, a few people honked when they drove by and either waved, gave thumbs up or sometimes a rude hand gesture that made their opinions clear. Some supporters and some not, okay, expected. Usually you could tell the difference by the car horn. couple of taps on the horn usually accompanied a supporting gesture and laying on the horn usually was followed by the rude gesture. As we begin the final decade of the rosary, (I had been there about 45 minutes so far) a man pulls in and is rolling his window down. He begins to berate us for being there and telling us we are actually harming people by being there. He is shouting and asking us if we knew they did other things there besides abortions and my friend tried to engage him in peaceful conversation but he was not having it. He pulled farther in and turned his car around pulled back up beside us and rolled his other window down and he was now using awful language telling us Jesus had nothing to do with anything and we should keep our religion to ourselves. He spat out this part in utter disgust. By then he was blocking the driveway and another car was waiting to exit so my friend told he to keep going, This only angered him more then he started calling us foul names as he eventually sped off. I had said nothing during the whole encounter, but I felt a perfect peace, I was not alarmed or afraid but I was a little taken aback at the realization that he didn't actually have business there he just drove in to tell us off about how evil and unreasonable WE were. I have been praying for him ever since, something is wrong in his life which motivated him to come and lash out at us. I think belief and denial cause people to lash out, unbelief would not raise anger. If you did not believe, then what we are doing can have no affect at all but if you believe or something deep in you knows but denies, then you come out swinging.

That was certainly a remarkable event but that wasn't the end of it. I had signed up for two hours, in for a penny in for a pound. Another friend showed up at the noon hour we had just greeted one another, shared a few pleasantries and told her about our angry man visitor, then as we are about to start another rosary, someone driving by threw something at us.

Let me describe a bit better, the environment. This place sits on a fairly busy street but there are not a lot of businesses and the neighboring perpendicular streets are all dead in streets with a few houses but not highly populated. Like a throughfare. There are no traffic lights or stop signs, so people drive by at 50+ MPH.

An extended cab pickup truck drives by a great speed, as it nears us someone throws a water bottle full of water at us and it hits our friend who had just joined us, hard, in the upper thigh of her left leg. This bottle was thrown at fairly close range at a speed of at least 50MPH it severely injured her. The photos she sent later are horrible.

Let me paint that scene again. Three women standing and talking in a semi triangular formation, no aggression, not even waving signs or even looking at the traffic, caused someone to think we needed to be hurt and it was their job to attack. How does this make any sense?

We called the police and they came and made a report and said they'd try to see if there is a camera that caught it but that since they offices didn't see it, it wasn't assault it was a misdemeanor and would be us to the victim and the perpetrator (if caught) to take to court.

Turns out that my friend who got hit by the water battle has had this sort of thing happen before! Someone threw something else at her and hit her on a previous occasion. She also said on another completely different occasion, a man drove by with a green laser gun and tried to shine it in their eyes, in the hopes of blinding them. BECAUSE THEY WERE PRAYING IN PUBLIC? REALLY?!

So back to the question I am trying to sort through. What is God doing in you? Are you embracing or resisting His work? As for what He is doing, He is opening my eyes to things I try to ignore. He is showing me today's need for strengthened faith and unwavering courage. He is asking me to speak. Not just about this, but about many things in which we have become unhinged. I don't think I am a great and powerful voice believe me, and I think there is a whopping 12 people that will read this, but that is not for me to worry about. As for the follow up question, am I embracing or resisting, well, I signed up for next Tuesday. I try not to resist but my inner voice can surely talk me out of stuff. Like when the thought of making this the topic of today came to me yesterday, the follow up thought was that this is too controversial and you'll lose the few readers you have. But as you can see, if you are still reading, I pushed that thought away. It is not for me to worry about who reads it, it is just my job to write it, if God wants folks to see it they will! This blog is helping me sort out my thoughts, and see the whole picture, and find my place in it. So if you ARE still reading, THANK YOU! As always I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

My mind was reeling from the days activities, so for the soup I just dug around in the fridge and threw this soup together.

What's In The Fridge Soup

8 Chicken Sausages (Fully Cooked) Diced

1 Diced Onion

3 Sliced Celery Stalks

2 Sliced Carrots

3 Diced Potatoes

1 Diced Bell Pepper

8oz Sliced Mushrooms

3 Cloves Garlic minced

Salt, Pepper, Veggie Spice Mix

Cayenne Pepper (optional)

Flour or cornstarch

8 Cups Broth

Olive Oil

Heat pot with olive oil, when hot add sausage and cook 5-7 minutes allowing to brown slightly, then add onions, celery and carrots and cook for another 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Add the garlic and spices, stir and cook for 2-3 minutes allowing them to sweat and bloom, when spices are fragrant, add potatoes and cook another 5-7 stirring occasionally. then add peppers and mushrooms, stir and let cook again. if using flour add now, if using cornstarch wait until the end. Add broth (if using flour the add the broth slowly stirring to incorporate, if using cornstarch then you can add the broth all at once.) Cover and let cook 25 minutes. (if thickening with cornstarch add the starch and water mixture now.) Add cayenne pepper now if desired.

Serves 8