Pro-Life weekend

I have to take a break from book club blogging to talk about my experience with the Pro-Life march.

This year's Pro-Life march took place on Monday, 1/24, but my experiences related to it actually began three weeks early. On the day before the march for life, St. Martin's was to have a Mass followed by a dinner followed by a concert, all in preparation for the Right To Life march the next day. What was making this extra special was that this was a pre-march rally for youth from around the country. 500+ high school aged kids and their chaperons were coming, not to mention the St. Martin's youth and families of the parish.

A team of men and women from St. Martin's was assembled about three weeks prior to this event in order to help plan and prepare. I was one of those asked to help.

In all my years, I never attended the march for Life. Sad to say, but I never really gave it much thought. All that was about to change for me this year.

I can't even begin to discuss the efforts that go into pulling something like this off. There's so much to do and coordinate, it could make your head spin. I had some very simple duties - I was to urge guys from the St. Martin's Men of Emmaus group to help sell dinner/concert tickets after weekend Masses and then get a crew of guys to help the day of the dinner/concert.

One of the things that left a lasting impression on me was the generosity of the people of St. Martin's. Watching the St. Martin's Pro-Life team in action was really impressive! I mean, these folks are committed to the cause! It was really inspirational. We were a diverse group; young, old, male, female, different nationalities, etc. It's amazing what a group like that can do when they work together towards a common goal. The whole experience was a bonding one and I will never forget it.

The guys from the Men of Emmaus really came through too. I have to give them their props. Many of these guys worked hard and never got recognized. I can't say enough about the guys in that group. They really give me strength! I could go on and on about them, but I'll save that for another blog post.

Headlining the concert was Tony Melendez and Steve Agrisano. Tony was born without arms and plays the guitar with his feet. I had the great pleasure of spending Friday night with them and the St. Martin's youth group, then again on Saturday morning with the Men of Emmaus, and then finally at their concert on Sunday night. Tony sang this song about '...if I could hold you in my arms...' that just made the tears well up in my eyes (I didn't really just admit that did I???).

Both of these guys are internationally know singers/musicians. It was a real honor to meet them and see them perform. It is wonderful to see people blessed with enormous talent be so humble and down to earth!

My Pro-Life weekend started on Friday night with the St. Martin's youth group. Talk about an inspiring group of young people. Man, some of these kids are MILES ahead of where I was spiritually at their age! The pressures facing kids just get tougher and tougher. Tony and his brother, Jose, came over and talked to the kids for a while and our youth minister, Beth, closed with a great message about the Pro-Life march.

Less than twelve hours later I was back at St. Martin's for our weekly Men of Emmaus meeting. Tony and Jose came again and Tony sang for us. Later that day, a group went to a nearby abortion clinic to pray and stand in protest of abortion. All this in the snow and bitter cold.

Oh yeah, the snow. It came and forced us to change our dinner/concert plans. All Montgomery county school activities where shut down because of it, so we needed to quickly shift the whole Mass/Dinner/Concert from nearby Gaithersburg High School to our very own St. Martin's elementary school.

I don't know what the event would have been like in Gaithersburg HS, but I cannot imagine it being better than how it turned out on Sunday at St. Martin's. The buses carrying kids from places like Michigan, Alabama, Illinois, Pennsylvania came rolling into St. Martin's on Sunday (1/23). Some of these kids had been traveling for 20+ hours!!

There was excitement in the air. Actually, it was probably more like the Holy Spirit. The school was jammed with people; in the cafeteria eating, in the halls waiting to go to confession or get into the gym for the concert. The concert was high energy. I stuck my head in a few times to take it all in before going back to my duties.

It was a huge success! After the concert was over and the Michigan kids tucked in for bed in the basement of the church, the Pro-Life team assembled at the priest's house for a late (10:00pm) dinner party. It was great to relax a little with the folks that worked so hard to make this whole thing happen.

At about 1:00am, we made our way to the chapel in their house, turned down the lights and prayed together for about 10 minutes. It was the perfect way to end our day...together, united in prayer with the Lord! During the party after the concert, I felt like our mission was accomplished. While praying, I realized that there is still alot of work to be done. In a few hours we would be boarding buses to march for Life!!!

So, I strolled into my house around 1:30 am, kissed my wife who, since Friday evening, had largely entertained my cousins from Pittsburg, my mom, dad, sister and our kids over the weekend. Like clockwork I woke up at 6:00 am (no alarm needed - conditioning from having two young kids) and was out the door for St. Martin's again by 6:45.

We packed 5 buses with food, drinks and kids young and old and made our way through DC area rush hour traffic to the MCI center for the Youth Mass. After a one and a half hour bus ride that included a rosary and much singing, we arrived at the MCI center in time for the 10:00 am Mass. Cardinal McCarrick said Mass to a packed crowd.

Something happened at the end of Mass that really warmed my heart. First, Cardinal McCarrick asked all the seminarians to stand so that we could see how many young men were on their way to becoming priests. Nearly all the guys on the MCI center floor stood up. After that, he asked that any young men and women considering entering the religious life to please stand. Now, mind you, nobody knew that Cardinal McCarrick was going to say this. It takes guts to stand up and admit to thinking something like that. There were guys and gals standing all over the place, even a few from St. Martins!!! Wow, that was special!

After Mass we exited the building, ate some lunch on a street corner then made our way to the Washington monument, where the March for Life was to begin. There was a sea of people already there with banners. Our group from St. Martin's numbered about 200. We marched up Constitution Ave saying the rosary and singing songs. When we got to the Capital I looked back to see a mass of humanity streaming from the Washington monument all the way to where we were. I have no idea how many people were there, but there were alot!

Our group marched over to a nearby church where we were greeted with drinks and food. Then our buses came and we made our way home through the snow that was falling that evening.

It was over, but I had a buz that lasted all week and memories that will last a lifetime.

Not to be lost in all this, is my wife Rene! Without her support I would never have been able to have this experience. Honey, I am so grateful for you! I hope that next year we can share this experience together!