Last night I had dinner with a charitable group that helps support men who have been in jail, to ensure they stay on the straight and narrow. It was a church basement affair and my sister and I sat with four men we’d never met. It was almost impossible to tell who was a mentor and who was being mentored and amongst the four men I got to know, I wasn’t sure.
There is an element of internal tension for me in such gatherings. I don’t want to raise an awkward topic of discussion. So questions about work (if they don’t have any) and family (also if they don’t have any) are out.
I did at one point ask whether anyone had any nice Christmas memories from their childhood. Two of the men shook their head quite passionately, and another told how on St. Nicholas Day (December 6) he and his brother would leave their shoes outside their room and in the morning those shoes would be filled with a fruit and chocolate.
Later that evening, we sang some carols and concluded by standing in a big circle around the edge of the basement with candles. And one person lit the candle of the person standing next to them and so on, until it was a big, bright circle, while we sang Silent Night over and over. And then someone prayed for the whole group. It was quite moving, and this will now be part of a Christmas memory for me, as I hope it might be for those men who shook their heads in saying they didn’t have any Christmas memories from their youth.
Merry Christmas Eve.
by 
Thanks for sharing Andrea. Merry Christmas!
I think you might have hit on a HUGE reason why abortion given the silent treatment. Those of us who care deeply about this subject know just how common a procedure abortion is. If it really is true that one in three women will have an abortion(?), then if you have ten women over the age of thirty in a room, it is almost a statistical certainty that one of them will have had an abortion.
You’re not going to bring up the topic in a room full of people that you don’t know, for fear of bringing up serious and painful emotions in the women present. And you’re not going to bring up the topic in a room full of people that you know rather well, for fear of finding out something that you would really rather not know.
We won’t reduce the number of abortions in Canada until we start talking about abortion. And we won’t start talking about abortion until abortion numbers are reduced, and abortion becomes a more hypothetical and less personal topic.
Sorry about the depressing comment. I’m up early Christmas morning to finish the gift wrapping, and find myself in a rather melancholy mood.
But it’s Christmas, and so I need to find some hope to keep my spirits up. Thank you so much to you folks here at ProWomanProLife. You give us a forum to discuss this subject honestly, and facelessly. And I really do think that there is a bit of a prolife sentiment rising up in Canada, that the current laws on abortion are untenable, and that, sooner or later we pro-life folk will be seen in the mainstream ideology not as crazy, screaming nutcases who yell at women outside clinics, but as people who truly do care about women.
Merry Christmas.
thanks, Melissa, and may you have a joyful Christmas with your loved ones. I can relate to your feeling of melancholy, but the truth will prevail and for that, we should be glad.
Hey Melissa,
I totally get the melancholy, and unlike some other more chirpy types, I won’t tell you to “turn that frown upside down.” To everything there is a season, and more often than not, melancholy can come around at Christmas, I find. BUT there is a hope that is deeper than that on the abortion question in particular. And although this might be marginally depressing to some, we are called to be faithful, not successful… and faithful you are being. So thanks for being pro-life, for speaking truth, day in day out, and never underestimate your own effort in the struggle.
Hope Christmas went well, (and Merry Christmas to Julie and Clement too!)
Andrea
Thanks for the support, Julie and Andrea.