A few moments of conversation

Volunteers who sign up parishioners to pray at the vigil often learn a great deal in just a few moments of conversation.  As she signed up, Maria shared encouraging news that her parish prays the Rosary for Life every Wednesday and Friday.  Theresa, a young mom, watched her daughter holding the 20-week-old fetal model, and tears started down her cheeks.  She reached out to caress the baby’s head and told us that she had lost her baby when he was 20 weeks old.  The memory was overwhelming.

A young couple stopped by the table to check on times that needed volunteers.  The woman, Rosa, started crying, silently but very powerfully, from a sorrow so deep she could hardly bear it.  Tomas, her husband, put his arms around her, and we could tell they both felt a great deal of pain.  Tomas explained, “We just don’t understand how anyone can do that to their baby.  We’ve tried to have children for sixteen years and lost five babies to miscarriage.  How can they do that?”

Sometimes volunteers can be surprised with a negative response.  One volunteer handed a flyer to a young woman leaving Mass with her husband and little girl.  The volunteer was describing 40 Days for Life and leaned over to the table to pick up a map.  When she turned back to the woman, the man had taken the flyer away from his wife and handed it back to the volunteer.  “We’re not interested,” he said. 

“Okay, well, will you please pray for us?”  “I already do,” he said brusquely, as he took his wife and child away.  Not a typical response, but we'll take the prayers and offer them up for him too!