Tonight’s 8th grade track began with a “Family Game Night” hosted by Fr. Fallon. Teachers were pinned against the parents and the teachers came out on top for a Thursday night win. Games will resume tomorrow!

Witness: Catherine Adair

This evening, Catherine Adair, a former Planned Parenthood employee shared her story with us. At the age of 19, she found herself pregnant with her mother pushing her towards an abortion. For many years, she buried the pain that it had caused her and started to believe the lie that abortion helps women. Fast forward, she finds herself working at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Massachusetts. After immersing herself in this industry, her eyes were opened to how poorly these women and babies were treated. She then started to look at her own abortion and slowly began to realize that what she thought was just a clump of cells was actually a baby! It was a child that was created at conception for a purpose, and that was taken away from her because she had been lied to. The Catholic Church was the only place that reached out to her and offered comfort and truth that abortion is ALWAYS wrong. With a strong conversion to the Catholic faith, she now truly believed that abortion takes the life of a child and wounds the mother. It was through the Catholic Church that she found healing.

As we prepare our hearts, minds, and bodies for the March for Life tomorrow, Catherine reminded us that “Christ’s love is the kind of love that commands us to love one another. Regardless of who they are… the doctors performing abortions, the women choosing an abortion, people that disagree with us, etc.” Know that everyone has a story and as Christians, we have the power to convert hearts, souls and minds by simply radiating Christ’s love, not just tomorrow on the March, but every day. “Abortion will end because we follow Jesus’ commandment to ‘love one another as I have loved you.'”

Who is “the other”?

The teens then participated in a reflection activity. Fr. Fallon instructed them to think of who “the other” is in their lives. The other is someone you are having a hard time seeing Jesus in right now… a sibling, friend, parent, classmate, teammate, etc. When we are marching tomorrow and see people that have signs that are different than ours and disagree with us, we won’t only think about “the other” that we disagree with, but hopefully we will also think about the person whose name we wrote down tonight and reflect on how we can share the Gospel with them.

Fr. Fallon challenged us to be a witness. We are here tonight to see the goodness is every person, and to see Jesus in all the people we will see tomorrow. We ended the night with praise and worship led by our worship leader, Benjamin Jude.

And, tomorrow we march.