Today is a day of recommended fasting and abstinence for the end of abortion in the United States and all over the world.
January 22 is the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal designates this anniversary as a particular day of prayer and penance “for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life and of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion” (GIRM 373).
While the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, handing control of the issue to the states, many states still allow abortion. The number of abortions annually is still more than 900,000 each year, the March for Life website stated.
How to Participate
Not sure how to observe this day of prayer and penance? Here are some ideas from the bishops. Or offer some other prayer or sacrifice that you feel called to do.
- Go to Mass
- Abstain from meat
- Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet
- Fast
- Pray a decade of the Rosary
- Give up TV and movies for the day
- Offer A Prayer for Life to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament
- Sacrifice some of your free time to do a small act of service for someone else
Read more about this day here
A Prayer for the Unborn
O Jesus, you came that we might have life—and have it in abundance. Together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, you form us in our mothers’ wombs and call us to love you for all eternity.
As your most precious gift of human life is attacked, draw us ever closer to your Real Presence in the Eucharist. Dispel the darkness of the culture of death, for you are the light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.
By the power of your Eucharistic Presence, help us to defend the life of every human person at every stage. Transform our hearts to protect and cherish all whose lives are most vulnerable.
For you are God, forever and ever. Amen.
