This Saturday (June 24) at 3 p.m., Alaskans will gather near the Denali Street bus stop in Anchorage – just outside the Loussac Library – to praise and thank God for the overturning of Roe v. Wade. We will also seek reparation for our nation’s ongoing culture wars, and petition God for a complete end to abortion.

A small group has met each Saturday for about two years for similar 40-minute vigils. This effort initially began as a prayer rally to counter the Loussac Library’s Drag Queen Story Hours. The first day we gathered to pray the Rosary and a Divine Mercy chaplet was the last day the library had drag story hour. Since then, we have gathered every Saturday to ask and thank God for his unfathomable Divine Mercy. All are welcome any Saturday at 3 p.m., but we especially appeal for support on June 24, because it is the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobb’s v Jackson decision, which overturned Roe vs. Wade.

By a truly amazing coincidence, the Dobbs decision landed on the date which Christians celebrate universally as the Nativity of John the Baptist. June 24, is exactly six months before Christmas Eve, and John was born six months before Jesus, in accord with Gabriel’s word to Mary at the Annunciation: “Elizabeth thy kinswoman also has conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month….” (Luke 1: 36)

The significance of this coincidence is too broad and deep to fully consider here, but even a sketch clearly indicates the hand of providence at work. Roe claimed a “right” to kill unborn children based on the absurd lie that such a “right” emanates from our Constitution as an implied “penumbra,” the outer region of a shadow. That imaginary shadow has become a real shadow of death over America for 50 years, but on June 24th of last year, we began to lift our eyes to the light via the Dobbs decision, on the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Baptist.

What date could possibly be more appropriate? The father of John the Baptist prophesied that his son was destined to give His People knowledge of salvation, “wherewith the Orient from on high has visited us, to shine on those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

While still in his mother’s womb, John was prepared for his mission by the Lord, also yet unborn, through the mediation of his own mother: “And it came to pass, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe in her womb leapt. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and cried out with a loud voice saying, ‘Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb! And how have I deserved that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, the moment that the sound of thy greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leapt for joy.’”

Furthermore, John’s mission continues through time; he is ever the precursor of the Lord, recognized as such from antiquity. As the great third century theologian Origen observed: “I believe that the mystery of John is still being accomplished in the world of today. Whoever is to believe in Christ Jesus, the spirit and virtue of John must first come into his soul and prepare for the Lord a perfect people, make straight the paths in the rough places of his heart and smooth the ways. Up to this day the spirit and virtue of John go before the coming of the Lord and Savior.”

How fitting then that these dates coincide; the dawn of salvation and the dawn of the light of Natural Law returning after a long night of ever-increasing darkness. 

Please join with us this Saturday for “Forty Minutes for Life.”

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)

The views expressed here are those of the author.

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