Day 1 The First Hour: Silent Night Holy Night

It is difficult to imagine on this six lane intersection, normally drowned during business hours in the hot din and rank smells of heavy traffic... the silence. It is difficult to imagine on this sidewalk outside Southwestern late-term abortion center, normally trafficked by those coming and going/to and from abortion... the holiness.

But it was the first hour of the morning... after midnight.... About ten or so gathered to pray.

Earlier in the evening, the crowd from 40 Days for Life-Dallas Kickoff Rally, which was held across the street at Harry Moss Park, had dispersed. A handful of folks drifted to a neighborhood eatery. The take-down crew traveled to the church to return the stage. Others went home to tend to family.

There was a call... a call from the Holy Spirit:  Come back. Come take the 1st hour. Come. Come Pray.

They came back.... about ten or so came back to that sidewalk outside Southwestern late-term abortion center... to pray.

The silence was broken only by an occasional passing car,  gentle chirping crickets, little singing frogs and:   "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name; Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven..." as a gentle cooling breeze occasionally stirred the trees, as sirens faded into distant night, as the midnight blue sky envelopeed them as a silent mantle of protection.

Together they prayed, on the first hour of the Feast of St. Winceslaus, martyr, patron saint of the poor, prayed for the poor helpless souls of their little brothers and little sisters in the womb; prayed for mothers, prayed for fathers, prayed for those participating in the deaths of those same little ones, prayed for families, prayed for priests, prayed for the youth, prayed for the aged, prayed...prayed... prayed... for mercy for the whole world.

They knelt on hard sidewalk... remembering the joyful birth of Our Lord, remembering the days He walked on this earth among men, remembering His passion and death, remembering His glorious Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven, committing all to Him and asking for the intercessions of His Blessed Mother Virgin Mary...

Silent night, Holy night ... Mother and Child, all is calm... with the dawn of redeeming Grace.

<><