CV NEWS FEED // Pro-life leader and President of LiveAction Lila Rose urged Catholics at the National Eucharistic Congress to pray “to have the gift of the spirit of the martyrs,” as St. Joan of Arc did in following God’s call to defend truth and life.
Rose recounted the story of her conversion from Protestantism to the Catholic Faith. She shared that when she received Confirmation, she chose St. Joan of Arc as her Confirmation saint, but her love of the saint dated back to when she was a 12 year old Protestant girl reading Joan of Arc by Mark Twain.
Joan’s story “captivated” her, Rose said from the stage to tens of thousands attending the Revival session in Lucas Oil Stadium on July 18.
“I was captivated by her spirit of the martyr that she held within her heart,” Rose said. “That she loved Jesus Christ so much that she was willing to not just live for Him, and for souls, and fight for her country, but that she was willing even to die for Him.”
Joan ultimately was burned at the stake for her Faith, refusing to recant her belief of what God was calling her to do.
Joan “gave herself entirely to God,” Rose continued. “She gave herself entirely to her Lord Jesus Christ. And so as a young girl reading about this saint, I thought, ‘At least I’ve got to do something. Jesus I want to live for You, how can I live for you?’”
Around this time, she learned about the reality of abortion, and said that she began to pray, “Jesus, Lord, use me. Use me to do something to save lives. Use me.”
“It’s a very dangerous prayer to ask God,” she continued, “to use us tiny little creatures for His will, because guess what, He will do it. He will allow us to be part of His plan. That is how good our God is. We give Him a little inch, a movement of our heart, and He will take a mile, and He will transform our lives.”
Rose emphasized the importance of praying for the grace to be used, in order to do great things for Jesus, and to have hearts that are “on fire” for Him.
“There are 50,000 people here in the stadium tonight. Imagine if each one of us asked our Lord, ‘use me,’” Rose said:
If we said, ‘do whatever you want with me, Lord,’ imagine what God can do. I believe that we can end abortion in this country, that we can build a culture of life, that we can transform our nation into one of life.
Having shared about her Confirmation saint, Rose later also shared about another inspiring woman named Joan, whose life has also “[echoed] the spirit of the martyrs.”
“The Church Fathers talk about two kinds of martyrdom: red martyrdom, and white martyrdom,” Rose said.
Red martyrdom is to die physically for one’s Faith, whereas white martyrdom is generally understood to suffer great persecution in life for one’s Faith.
According to Rose, Joan Andrews Bell, a 76 year old pro-life advocate, is currently “living a white martyrdom.”
“Joan,” Rose said, “as we sit here tonight, is in a federal prison.”
Joan Bell, a grandmother and mother of seven children, six of whom are adopted with special needs, has been a pro-life advocate for years, Rose said: She “physically goes into abortion facilities, peacefully, prayerfully using her frail body to obstruct the killing until she is forcibly removed by police.”
Joan Bell was sentenced earlier this year to over two years in prison for her pro-life work, according to Catholic News Agency.
Rose shared that during Joan Bell’s trial, she refused to lessen her sentencing with a plea deal, as “she would have to recant her position and say she would never do it again.”
Joan Bell’s response was, “to accept probation would be to accept the lie that I have harmed society by trying peacefully, prayerfully, and non-violently to save children from the brutal death of abortion.”
Similarly, when Joan of Arc was given the option to recant her belief to be saved from burning at the stake, she said: “[I]f I saw the fire, I would say all that I’m saying to you now and I would not act differently.”
“Joan Bell’s peaceful resistance echoes the spirit of the martyrs,” Rose said. “I believe that this sister of ours is living a white martyrdom.”
Rose also shared about facing trials in her own life when following God’s call to pro-life advocacy. In high school, she started the pro-life nonprofit LiveAction, and as a freshman in college began doing investigative reporting on abortion.
After completing her first investigative piece, she received an email to her student email address from Planned Parenthood, noting that she did not know how the corporation got her student email.
The organization threatened to sue her if she continued her reporting, Rose shared. At the time, she said, she had no money, no lawyer, and LiveAction was still “very small.”
However, Rose said, “I remember getting to my knees in my dorm room and saying, ‘Lord, I don’t know what I’m in for here, but I trust in You. Help me trust in you.’”
Since then, Rose said, God has multiplied LiveAction’s work, which has since “[reached] millions of people with the truth about not just the evil of abortion, but the truth about the beauty and the goodness of human life, of marriage, and of family.”
Also as a freshman in college, Rose shared that she was invited by a friend to Sunday Mass at a women’s center. Attending this Mass was “[t]he first time that I felt awe, awe in the presence of the Holy Eucharist,” Rose said.
Already from the start of the Mass, Rose said, her heart began “to be gripped… And when the priest held up the Holy Eucharist, there was an explosion in my heart, and I was hungry. I was hungry for Jesus.”
Less than two years later, Rose entered the Catholic Church and had her first Confession, the sacrament of Confirmation, and received the Eucharist for the first time.
Concluding, Rose said, “may we humbly ask our Lord together, to use us, to use us to stand up for truth, to speak the truth, to walk with love and to have the gift of the spirit of the martyrs. And may we ask our beloved Jesus in the Eucharist to give us the strength to follow His call.”
