BK Saturnino Foronda, PGK Manny Rodriguez, DD George Riddle, Chaplain Fr. Joe Jenkins
FS Porfirio Concepcion, PDD Romeo Paternoster, PGK Ken Zemrowski, GK Emmanuel Abongwa
PFN Jim Murry, PGK Roy Cobo, BK Larnell Johnson, PGK Mike Turner
Activity Directions – Lead your community in the spiritual fight to establish a culture of life in our nations. Knights and their families will come together in both public and private acts of prayer to promote the protection of life. Council participation in Novena for Life is required to qualify for the Columbian Award. The protection of life is a sustained prayer intention of the Church, and in particular of the Knights of Columbus. Knights remain firmly committed to defending the right to life of every human being – from the moment of conception to natural death.
Fr. Kidd Council Guidelines – To commemorate and bolster this important cause, the council will promote a nine day of sustained novena with an accompanying prayer service. The Novena Prayer was written by St. Pope John Paul II.
Daily Novena Prayer – O Mary bright dawn of the new world, Mother of the living, to you do we entrust the cause of life: Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers of babies not allowed to be born, of the poor whose lives are made difficult, of men and women who are victims of brutal violence, of the elderly and the sick killed by indifference or out of misguided mercy. Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel of life with honesty and love to the people of our time. Obtain for them the grace to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new, the joy of celebrating it with gratitude throughout their lives and the courage to bear witness to it resolutely, in order to build, together with all people of good will, the civilization of truth and love, to the praise and glory of God, the Creator and lover of life. Amen.—St. Pope John Paul II
The CHURCH Director must complete and submit all associated reporting forms to the Supreme Council Department of Fraternal Mission. The USCCB has encouraged a novena of both prayer and active outreach.
9 Day Novena: 2/18/19 to 2/26/19
Mass & Novena Service Date: 2/27/19 @ 7:30 PM
NOVENA PRAYER SERVICE
CELEBRANT:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
As believers we are dedicated to the Gospel of Life which promotes the sanctity of human life and the dignity of persons. Saint Mother Teresa appreciated this message in her many efforts for the poor. She said: “I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion because it is a war against the child— a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we can accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?” Were truer words ever spoken? If the child in the womb is not safe, none of us are safe.
READERS:
(1) Special Needs Ministry
Throughout the year efforts are made toward the inclusion of all God’s children in the life of the community and the Church. Many struggle with intellectual disabilities or with physical challenges. We support through our own Tootsie Roll Campaign the ministry at Holy Family Parish: Prince George’s Community Resources. We are also supportive of ARC, both through funds and the annual Bowling Bash. We and our Ladies Auxiliary have also done much to enable our local “special needs” champions through the Special Olympics. We believe that no one should be excluded from our table. Everyone has a precious and irreplaceable dignity. Saint Pope John Paul II has taught us: “In a world in which the most vulnerable are so often overlooked and disregarded, Christ calls us to embrace and uphold the unconditional dignity of every human life. In doing so, we help to build ‘a new culture of life, the fruit of the culture of truth and of love’ (EV, 77).
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
(2) Baby Bottle Campaign
Pregnancy Care Centers are an essential element in the fight for a culture of life. They are often the first contacts that expectant women considering abortion have as they struggle with their decisions. These centers provide counseling, comfort, and various physical and emotional supports that can help a woman choose to have her child. Yet, the PCCs often operate on shoestring budgets with volunteer labor. The annual Baby Bottle Project gives an opportunity for all our Knights and Parishioners to assist in their work.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
(3) Run/Walk for Life
The Run/Walk for Life is another annual event to support our local pregnancy crisis center. The council and parish sponsor a small delegation to literally go beyond “talking the talk” so as to “walk the walk.” The Run and Walk for Life is a simple “helping hands” effort to raise more funds. Successful again this year, $670 was raised by our team.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
(4) Forty Days for Life
The 40 Days for Life program is a focused pro-life campaign with a vision to seek God’s help through prayer, fasting, and peaceful vigil to end abortion. We seek God’s favor to turn hearts and minds from a culture of death to a culture of life, thus bringing an end to abortion. Knights of Columbus councils with their chaplains and churches participate in these prayer campaigns outside abortion clinics. We pray at the public sidewalk outside the Metropolitan Family Planning Clinic on Greenbelt Road.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
(5) Cemetery of the Innocents
The cemetery of the innocents is a display of 721 crosses, arranged in solemn rows and columns, symbolizing the number of children killed each hour by abortion in America every working day. There is also signage explaining the memorial. The display is installed on the grounds of our church or within the view of Woodmore Road. While the effort has its many supporters, it has also incited verbal rebuke upon us and vandalism upon the crosses themselves. Too many would reduce a basic human right to a partisan political issue.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
(6) Hosting the Student Marchers
The 46th Annual March for Life will took place on Friday, January 18, 2019. Several hundred thousand marchers from all over the nation were expected for this the world’s largest pro-life event. We hosted 163 college students from Marian, Purdue and Butler Universities. We gave them shelter and food in our hall. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament was offered on the night of the march and our pastor/chaplain heard three hours of confessions. Many of our Ladies, Knights and parishioners helped us with the hospitality and hard work needed. While some of our brothers attend to the march, this allows those who are unable to do so to participate through these young people.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
(7) Memorial to the Unborn
A major feature in the Mary’s Garden in front of the parish church is our Memorial to the Unborn Child lost in abortion. We have prayed in front of it. Most parishioners cross in front of it as they both come to church and leave. A parishioner volunteer tends the area with beautiful flowers. A statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary stands near it. The memorial itself was established many years ago by a local Knights of Columbus council before the establishment of Father Kidd. If others will not mourn, then we will grieve for the abandoned children. It is also a sign to invoke prayer. As Catholics we remember both the dead and the living.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
(8) Rosary for Life
Saying a Rosary for Life in our councils, memorials to the unborn and in abortion clinic protest is a longtime prayer activity of the Knights.
Our current State Chaplain feels that we should give specificity to the life cause in the mysteries and in the addition of an Our Lady of Guadalupe prayer.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
(9) Participation in the Ultrasound Program
Every year we sacrifice so as to make a donation to the Ultrasound Program, knowing that every dollar will be matched by Supreme. Some years it is more and others less, but we try as a small council to give at least $500 to the cause. Most who see the faces of their unborn children will choose life.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
Grand Knight Emmanuel Abongwa gives District Deputy George Riddle $500 for the Ultrasound Program.
CELEBRANT:
God has carefully, lovingly created every person—in His own image and likeness—to be in a loving relationship with Himself. From each tiny child knit within a mother’s womb, to every person approaching death, all are loved perfectly and completely by God. “It is therefore a service of love,” Pope Saint John Paul II explains, “which we are all committed to ensure to our neighbor, that his or her life may be always defended and promoted, especially when it is weak or threatened” (Evangelium vitae, 77).
RECITATION OF THE DAILY NOVENA PRAYER
Fr. Michael C. Kidd Council 14455 