ST. FRANCIS - PRO-LIFE and PRO CREATION

We have a guest blogger today. Arlene B. Muller (Arlene Clare Muller, OFS) is a lector and EM at St. Pancras Church in Glendale, NY, a singer in the choir at St. Margaret's Church in Middle Village, NY, a professed Secular Franciscan & Formation Director at St. Adalbert's Secular Franciscan fraternity in Elmhurst, NY & an itinerant speech/language therapist who works with preschool children with delayed language development. In addition to her ministries & work she seeks to promote the GOSPEL & the GOSPEL OF LIFE, especially in writing & frequently on FACEBOOK.

As we commemorate Sanctity of Life month, the annual MARCH FOR LIFE and DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE UNBORN on January 22, the anniversary of the Supreme Court's infamous Roe v Wade decision that legalized abortion on demand and that, thank the LORD, was FINALLY overturned by the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, using what we know about St. Francis and his total embrace of Our LORD JESUS CHRIST, Divine Revelation and the teaching of the Catholic Church,  let us use our spiritual creative imagination to consider how St. Francis would respond to the issues of abortion and the sanctity of all human life.

St. Francis was not a politician, and I think his experience with the military and government would not cause him to be inclined to run for political office or become a card-carrying member of any political party (options not available to him in his day but available in our present age) or to rely on government as the ultimate authority or key provider of resources. But St. Francis would be TOTALLY PRO-LIFE AND PRO CREATION. St. Francis looked to GOD as Creator and Author of Life and our Heavenly Father, and, therefore, every aspect of GOD'S Creation as his (and our) brothers and sisters. Thus, every unborn baby, as well as every elderly person and every animal are our brothers and sisters. St. Francis would be totally sad and appalled at the fact that unborn babies are being slaughtered in their mothers' wombs at ANY stage of pregnancy and especially even 

throughout pregnancy, as he would be at the abuse of elderly people, people with disabilities, sick people, and the abuse of animals.

What would St. Francis do in response, and how would he model what we should do as Secular Franciscans?

First of all PRAY: pleading for the lives of the unborn, for the women in crisis pregnancies, and for the conversion of all hearts from the culture of death to the GOSPEL OF LIFE! 

Second, without seeking any power or advantage for himself, St. Francis would seek the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and meet with people of various parties to appeal for the lives of the unborn and their mothers as he appealed to the Sultan and negotiate (without moral compromise) the way he negotiated with the wolf and the residents of Gubbio.

Third, St. Francis and St. Clare would find ways to provide a safe haven and provide for the physical/health, material, psychological, social and spiritual needs of women in crisis pregnancies, their babies--before, during and after birth--and their families, and even help them seek reconciliation with GOD and their families. I can imagine the Poor Clares and women in the Third Order getting actively involved in this ministry, using their own resources and begging alms to provide a model for wonderful organizations like GOOD COUNSEL HOMES and THE BRIDGE TO LIFE today.

Finally, St. Francis would preach--by both example and words--about the love of GOD for every one of His creatures, especially the most vulnerable, and about how every life is valuable, precious, sacred, and worthy of protection and loving care, from conception through natural death, because they (we) are created by GOD.