Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Baby Katie is in Heaven

This is an email I received today.

Dear Friends,
>
> From Fr. Ryan: "Thank you for all of your prayers. Unfortunately,
> I'm sending you the sad news that Hannah did have the abortion. She
> is not doing well. Please pray for Hannah and all involved, they are
> all hurting very much. Thanks, Fr. Ryan."
>
> I'm so sorry to have to pass this news on to all of you. There is no
> way I can express in an e-mail the sadness in my heart for Hannah and
> her family, or for Fr. Ryan who has been such a faithful and
> courageous priest in the face of terrible spiritual warfare. His
> trust in God's mercy has been incredible, and he is a witness to all
> of us of the power of spiritual, priestly fatherhood that loves to the
> extreme. Please continue to pray for him, as he will continue to
> minister to Hannah in the coming months and years.
>
> At a time like this it would be easy to think that God has not
> answered our prayers or to ask where the Lord was in all of this. To
> attempt an explanation for the dichotomy of good and evil is beyond my
> ability, but I feel that we have all been part of an extraordinary
> movement of grace in the last few days.
>
> On Thursday morning, Fr. Ryan called me asking for prayers for
> Hannah, along with the request to pass the prayer intention along. I
> passed the request on...and you responded with your own prayer and by
> asking those you knew to pray as well. All told, religious sisters in
> about 15 convents in several states and two countries, seminarians in
> 3 seminaries, consecrated women in the US, Italy, and England,
> priests, and over 1000 lay people have been lifting Hannah up in
> prayer. WE ARE CATHOLIC!!! In His mercy, God has united us from our
> different vocations and locations to pray for one of His children in
> her hour of need.
>
> Within one hour of the first e-mail being sent, four people wrote to
> me offering to adopt the child. It was not long before others echoed
> that offer. A woman offered her home as a safehaven for Hannah,
> should she need a place to stay. Others sent me information on
> counseling services and adoption agencies. Women who have had
> abortions offered to speak to Hannah, as did women who had seriously
> contemplated abortion during their pregnancies. All without knowing
> Hannah or anything about her. In a time of trial and crisis, God
> called for generosity and from your hearts you gave, from your hearts
> you responded in ways that could never be expected.
>
> Most of all, the grace of your prayers has been felt and God has used
> this as a moment to teach us all. A friend wrote to me: "Through
> praying for her I can say honestly that I love her, without knowing
> anything about her other than the painful situation she has found
> herself in. I hate the idea of her aborting this baby and then
> suffering for it the rest of her life. I want nothing more than to
> spare her that grief." In the face of hatred and death, God has
> called us to love. Abortion is hatred and it is hatred that leads to
> death. In spite of this, love has grown through the grace of prayer.
> The prayer has been constant and has come from all sorts. I received
> an e-mail that said simply "I have been praying since I opened my eyes
> this morning". From a 5 year-old in Nashville, Hannah's baby received
> a name. Knowing only Hannah's name was not enough for him, he wanted
> to know what the baby was called. Since no one had a name, he called
> her Katie. So Baby Katie became not a theory, but a real person in
> his eyes. On Monday afternoon, I began asking the children in
> religious ed here at St. Pius to pray for Hannah. A third grader who
> comes for class on Tuesday told me that her friend, who comes for
> class on Mondays, had sent her an e-mail after coming home on Monday
> telling her to pray for Hannah. THIRD GRADE!!!!!! A first grader
> asked why we were praying for Hannah, to which her classmate
> responded: "It doesn't matter why we're praying. God knows, and He'll
> take care of Hannah."
>
> I hope that this experience of prayer continues to bear fruit. More
> than that, this experience of prayer must not end here. Young Hannah
> still needs prayer and healing. There are thousands of Hannahs in our
> country and in our world, children living in fear and hopelessness.
> No one, at 15, should have to experience what Hannah is now enduring.
> This should convince us more than ever that abortion is the worst
> option available and that women deserve better. This should be a call
> to us to respond with generosity to those who find themselves in
> crisis, to those who find themselves alone. Jesus calls us to be
> instruments of His mercy and to bring the light of His love to the
> darkness and hopelessness of the culture of death. Today is a sad day
> because one life is ended, and another wounded, scarred and mourning.
> Today is a sad day because we all share in this loss and in this
> wound. In prayer, we have come to love Hannah and we are helpless as
> our sister, our daughter, suffers. But God is still at work and His
> project is not yet complete. He has called us together in prayer and
> He has called out of us a generosity that goes beyond our own desires
> and seeks the good of another for the glory of God. We can take great
> comfort in the promise God has given, that love always triumphs, that
> life is always victorious over death, that the light continues to
> shine in the darkness.
>
> Please pray for Hannah's healing. Let her broken heart be restored,
> Lord! Pray for her parents, for Tom and his parents...they suffer,
> too! Pray for Fr. Ryan, who is their father, friend, shepherd and
> priest. May he receive the grace he needs to protect them and bring
> them healing. May God work in his heart and words so that they see in
> him, not Fr. Ryan, but the face of Christ turning his merciful gaze on
> them.
>
> Peace,
>
> Fr. Sam

1 comment:

  1. Lauri, I read your blog post asking people to pray for Baby Katie the night before the scheduled abortion. We prayed for her that night and throughout the next day, too, so I was very, very sad to read this news. However, I loved reading Fr. Sam's email that is so encouraging, and I will continue to pray for Hannah. What a hard road she has ahead of her. I pray that God pulls her close to Himself and restores her heart to wholeness.

    Thank you for posting about this situation, because it allowed me the privilege of bringing this precious girl and her baby to the Lord in prayer!

    -Keri

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