Whitfield St Abortuary Vigil Re-starts for 2011

Now that the Christmas break is over, the Whitfield St abortuary vigil resumed today Monday 10th January 2011. I will be counselling outside of marie stopes abortuary, 108 Whitfield Street, London W1T 5EA every week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday between 9am and 1.30pm. The nearest tubes are Great Portland Street and Warren Street. I need people to come and support me in prayer at these times. If you are able to join me in prayer either email me at info@goodcounselnetwork.freeserve.co.uk or phone the Good Counsel office on 020 7723 1740. Please promote this vigil far and wide, especially to your friends. Without God's grace we cannot succeed and Mothers may not choose life for their babies.

During Advent the vigil took place and I know of at least one Mother who kept her baby. A friend of the Mother in question received a leaflet from one of our counsellors outside of marie stopes abortuary. The friend passed on the leaflet to her, and the Mother consequently came to our centre to receive help. If she hadn't received the leaflet she would have aborted her child.

On another occasion during advent when i was counselling outside of the clinic a man approached me and wanted to talk. He told me that his girlfriend some time ago had an abortion. I asked him whether she had received any post-abortion counselling. He said that he did not know as they were no longer going out. I asked him if he wanted counselling, he said he was ok but he would like a rosary if we had one. One of the prayer supporters at the clinic gave him their rosary and I told him I would pray for him. I also gave him a leaflet and told him if he ever felt he needed counselling to get in touch.

Please come to the vigil, and if you are unable to come due to work commitments then please at least offer the day for the intentions of people standing outside the clinic.

James Coulborn

Join The Regular Vigil at Marie Stopes, Whitfield St From Monday 29th November Onwards

Here at The Good Counsel Network, we are intending to increase the weekday pro-life presence outside Marie Stopes Abortuary, 108 Whitfield Street, W1T 5EA.The nearest tubes are Great Portland Street and Warren Street. The week commencing Monday 29th November 2010, I will be there pavement counselling from 9am-1.30pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. We hope to have prayer supporters, counsellors and Priests to cover all of these times.
The Holy Father has asked all the faithful to have a Vigil of Prayer for Nascent Human Life, during the first week of Advent. As we prepare for the coming of Our Saviour’s birth, and as we meditate on Our Lord developing in the womb of Mary, and recall His vulnerability and how He was born in the humble dwelling of a stable, the flight from Herod’s tyranny to Egypt, and the putting to death of the new born Innocents, I invite you to come to the abortuary and pray. What a wonderful opportunity to prepare for the coming of the Christ Child during Advent. Any turn around that happens outside an abortuary is due to God's grace granted through the peaceful prayerful witness of Priests and lay faithful.
If you can’t come for the whole four and half hours, I encourage you to do two hours.
Whatever time you can spare is much appreciated, and will help save many children, through God’s Grace from the tyrannical clutches of the new “Herod”, and save many Mums and Dads from anguish and despair.
If you are unable to come, due to infirmity or ill health, please find time even for a short while to pray, and fast if you are able, while we are there, so that hearts may be changed and despairing souls transformed and illuminated through the Merciful Heart of Christ.
If you can't stand for long periods of time, feel free to bring a fold up chair.
If you are able to come for the whole of, or part of the vigil, please email me at info@goodcounselnetwork.freeserve.co.uk or call me on 0207 723 1740. I look forward to seeing you there. Without your prayerful presence, mothers may not choose life for their children.

James Coulborn

Editor's Note: We still urgently need praying people to be there to support this Vigil on Monday 29th November

The Month of the Holy Souls

November is the month in the Church's calender dedicated to the Holy Souls. It is a time especially when we remember our deceased family members and loved ones. We can offer Masses and offer our works, joys, and sufferings of our day for them.

The Holy Souls in Purgatory intercede and pray for us, but are unable to pray for themselves, they rely on our prayers. Let's remember to pray for the Holy Souls, not just in November, but always throughout the year. They will be great intercessors for us during our earthly lives, at the moment of our death, and indeed when we are in Purgatory ourselves.

Our Lady, Mother of the Church, and Mother of the Holy Souls in Purgatory, pray for us!

James Coulborn

Blessings Outside the Comfort Zone at 40 Days for Life

I have found praying and counselling outside marie stopes abortuary during the 40 Days for Life, a very blessed and positive experience. Initially fear often sets in before I pray outside an abortion clinic. The fear is fuelled by uncertainty, and how passers by will respond. Praying aloud outside of a clinic certainly isn't what comes naturally, but when I find myself leaving my comfort zone, I'm often amazed by the peace and blessings that I experience.

I had some very positive encounters with passers by outside the abortuary, whilst I was side-walk counselling. On one occasion, a businessman was walking past me outside the abortuary, and I offered him an icare magazine. He stopped and told me he had already received a magazine which he had read and kept. He told me he walks past the vigil every day after work and told me to keep up this good work we are doing.

On another occasion, an elderly lady stopped by the railings, and was looking intently at the women praying and the 40 Days for Life signs. She came over to me and I offered her an icare magazine. She told me that she didn't need it, and asked me if I was with the people praying or with marie stopes "clinic". I told her I was with the people praying. She told me that it is good work that we are doing, and I asked her to keep us in her prayers.

On another occasion, I was counselling alone outside marie stopes, when some teenage girls came past, took the icare magazines and leaflets from me and without saying anything but laughing, they tore and ripped them to shreds, and threw them on the pavement, before entering the abortuary. I gathered up the ripped leaflets, and decided that confrontation would not convert them, but love and prayers. Not long afterwards, the girls came out of the clinic, walked over to where the 40 days for Life signs were, and stole three of them, running off in fits of laughter. It was pointless chasing after them, or getting angry, so I quietly prayed for their conversion.

St Thomas Aquinas said the first reaction to the Truth is Anger. The fact that they were reacting in this way, shows that deep down they know they are doing wrong. Often it is those who react with anger, who are the first to convert. We must pray for their change of hearts.

James Coulborn

God Must Increase, Through Our Witness, At The Abortuary

Our Lord asks us to stay awake praying at all times and on another occasion He asks us to remain with Him and that He is the vine and we are the branches. Unless we stay alert at all times praying and remaining in the presence of God in all that we are doing it will prevent us from falling away and sinning. If we become drowsy and distracted with the cares of the world we will slowly be ineffective as Christians. We need to hold on tight to Our Lord through prayer and daily Communion if possible so that it will no longer be our ego that the world sees but the light of Christ that will draw God's people back to Him and this is so necessary when we are outside the Abortuary praying for the conversion of hearts. St John the Baptist said "God must increase, I must decrease". It is through humility that God will change hearts through us.

James Coulborn

October, Month of the Holy Rosary

October is a month in the Church's calender dedicated to Our Lady's Rosary. The 7th of October marked the feast of Our Lady of The Rosary. If we want the world to come to it's senses and see the evil of Abortion we must fast and pray the Rosary. At the battle of Lepanto, Europe was being threatened by invasion from the Moors. It was through the Rosary that the Moors were defeated and Europe remained Christian.

Today,the 13th October is the anniversary of the final apparition of Our Lady at Fatima, where she came to remind us to pray the Rosary daily, to consecrate ourselves to her and to do penance.

We will not defeat Abortion without the Rosary. Let's take up our Rosary beads and Our Lady will present our prayers to her Son and He will ensure that Abortion is vanquished from the world.

James Coulborn

Inter-Religious Dialogue - Giving Reasons for the Hope You Have

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. 1 Peter 3:15
It seems a long time now since the Holy Father was will us, but the memory of his joyful presence is very much still alive in our hearts. I had a truly blessed time with my family watching Pope Benedict's visit on Sky News, and attending the Mass at Cofton Park, where John Henry Newman was beatified.
On my way back to London from Birmingham after the Pope's visit, I took a taxi from my parents home to the train station. The taxi driver was Muslim and he asked me if I usually make this early trip to the station. I told him that I had been visiting my family, and had come to welcome the Pope, who had been beatifying an Englishman called John Henry Newman. He was very inquisitive, so I talked for the whole journey about the Pope and Newman. I talked about Deacon Sullivan's miracle which was a result of Newman's intercession. He asked me lots of questions, enquiring what the miracle was, and what beatification meant.
It was a moment of mutual respect between faiths, a friendly conversation was exchanged between us both. I dont think he will neccessary decide to become Catholic from our conversation, but I enjoyed sharing my faith with him and the joy I had seeing the Pope in England beatifying Cardinal Newman.

James Coulborn

In A Moral Vacuum We Can Still Pray

Recently we celebrated the feast of St. Monica and the following day, the feast of St. Augustine. St Monica is a great saint, who never wearied in praying for the conversion of her son. St. Augustine, prior to his conversion was living with his girlfriend, and fathered a child with her. He was also vehemantly anti-Catholic, and had lost his faith.
St. Monica lived in a time not so disimilar to our own, where sexual immorality was rampant. Through her prayers, her son was converted, and is now venerated as one of the great Doctors of the Church. She also converted her pagan husband.
We live in a world, which has lost its moral compass; tossed by the tide of relativism, it has adopted a moral vacuum, where lawlessness and immorality rule. Young people are tragically losing their faith, barely having recieved the Sacrament of Confirmation; cohabitation has become more prevalent than the Sacrament of Marriage, and the abortions that have resulted because of this are numerous.
It is easy for us to despair if we look at the evil in the world, or see our own children lose the Catholic Faith we have taught them. However, let's take great courage and faith from St. Monica's example, who patiently suffered and continued to pray for her son's conversion, when from a human perspective all seemed hopeless. God hears our prayers and tears for those who have lost their faith, and are not leading good Christian lives, and He forgives His prodigal sons and daughters and there is great rejoicing in Heaven.
Let's pray the rosary every day for our loved ones who have lost their faith, and for all sinners, that Our Lady will wrap them in Her Immaculate Mantle of protection, and lead them to the Most Merciful Heart of her Beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

James Coulborn

Prayer Can Move Mountains

In a previous job I had, a work colleague came into the room where I was working. Quite out of the blue, she asked me what I thought about abortion. Surprised by the direct question. I replied by saying "It's totally out of the question. It's wrong". Not knowing why she had asked the question, I was careful with my response to her. Not long afterwards, she explained to me that she was pregnant, and that her boyfriend was wanting her to have an abortion. She was worried that when she told her parents, they would pressure her to have an abortion also. She wanted to keep her baby, but was feeling very alone. The pressure of her boyfriend's cold response and the assumption in her mind that her parents would equally be dismissive of her desire for motherhood, was clearly confusing and distressing her greatly.

I spoke with her at some length, feeling rather out of my depth to say the least.
Fortunately, I had met people working for the Good Counsel Network at a Youth 2000 retreat, so I asked them to send me pro-life literature for her, and asked them to pray. I gave her their number, and then asked as many people as possible to pray for her. Quite a few of us prayed a novena of Memorares for her. Mother Theresa was a great advocate of praying for things through Our Lady's intercession by praying a novena of Memorares.

When I came into work the next week, she turned to me in the company of work colleagues and told me she no longer needed the phone number I gave her. Later on, she explained to me that her boyfriend had apologised to her and told her he had been scared. He was now very happy she was pregnant and that they would be parents. She told her parents, who were very happy.

A lot of women we counsel here at the Good Counsel Network, want to keep their babies, but are being pressured by boyfriends, family and financial situations into having an abortion. The slogan " a woman's right to choose" is so incorrect as the majority of women are being pressured into making the "choice of abortion". The right to life of the unborn child is not considered in the equation of pro-abortion activists.

Prayer and fasting are essential if we are to destroy the "Goliath of abortion". Even though David had only a pebble, his faith enabled him to slay the Philistine. Let's take our pebbles of prayer and fasting, and with deep humility and trust in God; through Our Lady's maternal intercession, God will end abortion.

James Coulborn

The Assumption - She Will Crush the serpent's Head.

On August 15th, we have a great Marian feast in the Church's calender, The Assumption of Our Lady.

"A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown".

The first reading for the Mass on this day is from the Apocalypse. It strikes me for it's relevance for the pro-life cause. It describes a vision of a woman who is "pregnant and in labour and crying aloud with the pangs of childbirth", and the dragon who tries to eat the male child as soon as the woman gives birth.

The devil, the 'father of lies', hates all of God's creation, and attempts to destroy God's plan of creation, by attacking primarily the woman, and "the fruit of her womb". The sanctity of human life from the moment of conception is so under attack today through the evils of abortion and contraception. Many people today are blind to these evils. We must not lose hope, but trust in God's infinite mercy. God will destroy the lies surrounding abortion and contraception, through his Beloved Mother, the Virgin Mary. She is the new Eve, who "will crush the serpent's head", and who promised to the children at Fatima that "Her Immaculate Heart would triumph".

God has already won the Victory through His death on the cross and His defeat of death through His Resurrection. Let's take great courage from this reading, that God will destroy death forever through His Mother, and abortion and contraception will disappear from the world, because Our Lady will intercede and prevent the devil from causing anymore harm to God's children.

I invite you to entrust yourselves totally to Our Lord through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so that we can be instruments for God's light and love to shine through us, enabling God to work miracles and replace our culture of death will a culture of Life.

James Coulborn

Contraception and the Destruction of Love

The love a man and woman have, within marriage, needs to be governed by self-control. Each and every act of making love within marriage needs to be open to the transmission of creating life. Contraception, whether it is condoms, diaphragms, the contraceptive pill or other methods, are preventing life from being created, and are putting a block, a barrier between the husband and his wife, preventing an act of total self giving. Not only does contraception prevent life from being created, it causes a mentality that the husband and wife can choose when they can have a baby. This puts a block between the man and woman and indeed God himself. A married couple are called to cooperate with God’s plan in creating life. It is a beautiful and humbling thought that God desires such intimacy with the married couple, that God creates life through the love and openness that the spouses have for each other. This is why it is always wrong to use contraception and the act of making love is reserved for marriage only. Sex is beautiful and holy. Let’s not tamper with God's plan to create life.
Contraception actually hinders communication, intimacy, affection and tenderness between the spouses, creating an idol out of pleasure and self-gratification. The lack of fecundity and total self-giving in the use of contraception is contrary to God's plan, and it is no wonder that divorce rates, not to mention abortions, cohabitation and 'trial marriages' are so prevalent in the world, since the wide acceptance of contraception in the 60s during the sexual revolution.
There is also a very strong link between contraception and abortion. Not only do some forms of contraception cause an early abortion, and are thus abortifacients, they create a mentality, which is not open to life and to motherhood, and so the obvious result of an unplanned pregnancy is tragically, abortion.
Natural Family Planning on the other hand is a natural means of spacing children and as long as it is not used for selfish reasons, it strengthens the love between husband and wife. It differs from contraception as it allows for communication and love to grow. Contraception slowly erodes the couple's ability to love, and creates a disordered desire to make the act of making love primarily about pleasure, which destroys friendship and prevents self sacrificial love from growing and blossoming.

James Coulborn

On the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Friday 11th June marked the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and was also the day chosen by Pope Benedict to end the Year for Priests.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus embodies the heart of our Catholic faith. God shared our humanity in His Son, Jesus Christ. Our Lord suffered enormously during His earthly life. He took on our wounds and sins upon Himself, whilst remaining sinless, and died a most horrendous barbaric death on the cross, and rose from death three days later.

We are all sinners, wounded and broken, and yet Our Lord's death on the cross, and His defeat of death through His Resurrection, shows us His infinite love for us. God desires above all that we trust in His love and mercy for us, that despite our brokeness, our sins and wounds, inflicted by others and by ourselves, He will purify us and save us.

Confession, or also known as the Sacrament of Reconciliation is an invitation for us all to confess our brokeness, our sins and above all our inability to strive for holiness alone. Through confession, God embraces us with His infinite mercy. God loves us so much and His love is unconditional. No sin is to big for Him, even the sin of abortion. God takes away all feelings of guilt, hurt, betrayal, shame and fear, through this wonderful Sacrament. The slate is wiped clean, though our sins be as scarlet they shall be whiter than snow.

As it said in the Communion Rite on the Feast of the Sacred Heart:

"The Lord says: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me: whoever believes in me, let him drink, streams of living water shall flow out from within him. " (John 7: 37-38)

Let us take great courage and hope from Our Lord's words. He loves us so much. His Sacred Heart desires all of us to be saved.Our mother, whose feast day was Saturday 12th June,the "Immaculate Heart of Mary", will draw us ever closer to her Sons Sacred Heart so that we will have "streams of living water flowing from within us" and Our Lord through his Holy Spirit will draw all of mankind to Himself.

James Coulborn