” . . . We know that whether we will live to see victory over abortion is not in our hands.
We also know that standing for truth, for mercy, and for justice is always within our power, and so we will keep doing it for as long as evil endures.”

The 40 Days for Life will begin at 3 pm, Wednesday, Feb. 13 at the prayer site on Perlman Drive near the Spring Valley Planned Parenthood office.  The vigil of prayer, fasting, and peaceful activism will continue around the clock, rain or shine, for 40 days, 9 am to 5 pm (and in the evening and throughout the night at the Eucharistic Chapel of St. Gregory Barbarigo on Cinder Road in Garnerville), ending on March 24.

Rockland participants in this nationwide campaign of prayer to end abortion give one hour of their time a week for the next 40 days to come to the Planned Parenthood site to stand and pray.

Why Planned Parenthood?

Although surgical abortions are not done at the Planned Parenthood Spring Valley facility, the parent organization’s own fact sheet admits to its having performed over 333,964 abortions in 2011. And although PP says these abortions amount to 3 percent of the services it provides, it has been estimated that abortion nevertheless accounts for more than 38% of PP’s income.

Vigil participants gather on Perlman Drive (across the road from the Spring Valley Marketplace)  to pray that women considering abortions will have a change of heart,  to ask for God’s help and guidance was they work to build a true culture of life, and to bring the attention of community of Rockland to Planned Parenthood as a nationwide abortion provider.

Rockland Right to Life  website will follow the progress of the vigil volunteers throughout the 40 days of this spring’s campaign.

For more information or to volunteer to pray for an hour each week, please call 845-492-6709 or email Rachelminister@aol.com.

For more information about the 40 Days for Life campaign, which will kick off at 261 sites across America on Wednesday, click here.

The quote above is from Abortion, An Enduring Wrong, National Review, Feb. 11, 2013

On Sunday, Nov. 4, the 40 Days of Life vigil came to a close. The organizers have prepared this tribute for all who came to pray for life this autumn.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.
Proverbs 3

Finally, Day 40 — God gave us a sunny, cold day to our  40 Day witness of prayer and fasting outside Planned Parenthood in Spring Valley. There are hundreds of people to thank.

So many prayers from the depth of our souls have been prayed.  Continue reading →

The closing ceremonies for the 40 Days for Life will be held Sunday, Nov. 4, at 3:00 pm, at the Planned Parenthood prayer site on Perlman Drive in Spring Valley.

Please join us, and thank you to all the wonderful prayer warriors who came during these 40 days to pray for the most innocent among us to be protected from Planned Parenthood.

The winds and waters of Hurricane Sandy bore down on Rockland County this week bringing death and injury, widespread physical destruction, and the disruption of everyday life we tend to take for granted.

Against such a force, what can you do? You try your best to keep going, to do the job that’s been given to you. Here’s what the 40 Days for Life volunteers did.

Through the storm, they prayed – not only for the unborn – but for all who were in danger, for the first responders, for their neighbors, for those who had lost their homes, for all who were suffering in so many ways.

They prayed at their homes, at the Eucharistic Adoration Chapel at St. Gregory’s and even at Perlman Drive on Monday,  in their parked cars or even out in the wind and rain at the vigil site itself.

That’s what prayer is for such times. Lifting up to God all who are frightened or hurting or broken and placing them in His hands.

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Day 1     Week 1     Week 2     Week 3     Week 4

Hundreds of cars pass by each hour where we pray — just off Route 59 across from the entrance of the Spring Valley Marketplace, one of the county’s major crossroads.

It’s a constantly changing audience for our 40-day vigil. And probably not many truly understand the stakes, the battle of life and death that goes on under what appears to be only a cluster of commonplace folks with Bibles or rosaries, praying by the side of the road.

So we show them our signs — so they’ll understand what it’s all about, and why we’re there.

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Please join us the prayer site on Perlman Drive in Spring Valley at any time from 9 am to 5 pm. If you can make a commitment of one hour per week, please email rachelminister@aol.com or call 845-492-6709.

Prayer continues overnight at the Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel at St. Gregory Barbarigo Church on Cinder Road in Garnerville.

“The killing of the unborn that occurs daily in this country goes overwhelmingly unnoticed. People who take a strong public stand against this killing are dedicated to keeping the issue alive: Abortion kills a human being.

“I have deep admiration for all those who, in conscience, participate nonviolently to oppose the killing of the unborn.”

— John Cardinal O’Connor
Archbishop of New York

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Please join us the prayer site on Perlman Drive in Spring Valley at any time from 9 am to 5 pm. If you can make a commitment of one hour per week, please email rachelminister@aol.com or call 845-492-6709.

Prayer continues overnight at the Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel at St. Gregory Barbarigo Church on Cinder Road in Garnerville.

The 40 Days for Life completes its second week. Those who hear the call to protect and defend the sacred gift of life continue to come to the prayer site.

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Please join us the prayer site on Perlman Drive in Spring Valley at any time from 9 am to 5 pm. If you can make a commitment of one hour per week, please email rachelminister@aol.com or call 845-492-6709. 

Prayer continues overnight at the Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel at St. Gregory Barbarigo Church on Cinder Road in Garnerville.

Shawn Carney, center, at the 40 Days for Life vigil in Spring Valley

Shawn Carney, the co-founder of the 40 Days for Life movement to end abortion, was in town yesterday to attend the 26th annual banquet of the CareNet Pregnancy Center of Rockland.

Before the event he came to the prayer site on Perlman Drive to meet the Rockland volunteers. With great enthusiasm he told the story of the founding of the 40 Days for Life project which began with an idea around the kitchen table and which has since expanded to prayer vigils in 450 cities in every state in America.

40 Days for Life is a national effort and community-based campaign to draw attention to the evil of abortion and its devastating effects on women and men.

Why 40 Days? In the Bible, God used 40-day periods to transform individuals, communities … and the entire world. From Noah in the flood to the disciples after Christ’s resurrection, it’s clear that God sees the transformative value of His people accepting and meeting a 40-day challenge.

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Please join us the prayer site on Perlman Drive in Spring Valley at any time from 9 am to 5 pm. If you can make a commitment of one hour per week, please email rachelminister@aol.com or call 845-492-6709.

Day 1

On Wednesday, Sept. 26, over 50 Rockland residents came to join in the beginning of 40 days of fasting and praying for a Planned Parenthood-free Rockland County. Monsignor McCabe from St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Haverstraw led us in prayer.  Continue reading →