God is with Us: A Catholic Prayer for Reproductive Justice

12/1/2021 — Sunrise Service in front of the Supreme Court

I stand here today as
A cradle Roman Catholic,
and newly ordained Catholic Priest,
Invoking prayers of the saints,
Catholics for Choice,
And Jesus of the Gospels
who said,
“Where two or more are gathered in my name
I am with you.”

We pray together,
In the name of God Source of All Being,
Eternal Word,
and Holy Spirit

Loving God,
We are assembled
As interfaith messengers of
Divine Love,
Humans
Made in Your Image,
Co-creators in life,
And prophets,
Bearing witness to
The pain of Your people.
Your daughters and
Womb-bearing humans
have been lied to,
told they are
Less-than holy,
Because pregnancy, childbirthing, or motherhood
Is not,
or was not right for them.

Women ARE Holy!
People who have
had abortions are Holy!
Abortions discerned in difficulty,
In prayer,
With LOVE
respect for LIFE
for reasons
Only known to you, O God
And you hold them in LOVE.

We come to be a voice
For the voiceless
And hold their Truth
In this sacred space.

Too often,
we have been told
That God is “for”
Those who want to
Regulate our Bodies,
our Beings,
Our Present,
our Future.

Too often,
We have been told
That the Sarahs of today
Are more sacred than
The Hagars.

Sarahs,
wives of Abrahams,
Parents of patriarchy,
Who demand of Hagars:
“Give me children at any cost!”
(Born of your flesh, not mine)
Only to abuse and banish these forced
Mothers and children to the desert
In fits of jealousy and
Self-protected superiority;

Loving God,
Our churches rarely speak of
How You meet
Hagar in the desert!
How you provide for her
and calm her fears,
How she proclaims
and names You,
El Roi
“You are the One who sees me!”
Because You, God, ARE With Her.
We know Mary, Mother of God
Spoke her “yes”
Not as a submission to God;
But as
A bold declaration
To Co-create with You;
Her “YES” was meaningful
Because YOU, God,
would have respected
Her NO, or, not now, or not in this way.

To believe otherwise is to believe
Jesus was born of force and coercion!
And that is not our story.

You, God, give Women
a choice.
Just as Mary had a choice

Help us be like Mary
By partnering with the Divine
Help us to release one another
from bodily oppression

You know that it is not whether we birth babies,
But how we use the lives given to us,
For love and liberation,
In unity with the Holy Spirit,
That makes us like Mary.

I stand with my Sisters and Siblings today
As a witness
And an offering of hope
For those who have had abortions or will need abortions, and
Who have never heard this good news:
God is with us.

We bring ourselves
Body and being,
Into this circle of prayer
Asking for the Love and Protection of God
To Surround us
and the millions of
Cis women and girls and
trans and nonbinary womb-bearers
Whose lives will be impacted
By this Supreme Court.

Together, may we offer
holy sanctuary
On earth as it is in heaven
For the ones GOD sees.
In your name we pray.

Amen.