Late last week, Mercy Missions founder Lauren Handy announced the forthcoming eviction – and, therefore, closure – of an abortion center just a few miles from Washington, D.C.

Handy told me that her group’s success came thanks to “sustained peaceful protesting” against the property’s owners, Peel Properties.

“….They owned the building Planned Parenthood is housed in. Through holding protests outside Peel Properties and calling Denise Peel, the owner, to live out her Catholic faith, the decision to cut Planned Parenthood’s lease was made.”

“We proclaimed the message, ‘we leave when Planned Parenthood leaves.’ The campaign is at its climax, to push along Peel Properties to move up the eviction date. 100 babies are killed each month at this location, and time is of the essence. This is a victory for the movement and most especially the babies.”

While the eviction has not yet taken place, the announcement is great, especially in light of Sunday being the 100th anniversary of the founding of Planned Parenthood. But it’s also spiritually timely, given Sunday’s readings about the important of persistent and faithful prayer.

From the Letter to Timothy:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power: proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.

And in Luke’s Gospel:

Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.’” 

The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

I asked Handy if she had a reaction to the readings, in light of her success with the eviction. “Oh, I love her,” she said about the widow. “Our action happened through prayer. We were the persistent widow to Denise Peal.”

Lauren does the hard work of protesting in front of abortion clinics and conducting sidewalk counseling to women considering abortion. It’s both easier and harder than my role in the movement, as a reporter and commentator: I don’t get to directly see the fruits of my labor, but I also don’t face police harassment and the disappointment of seeing someone walk past me to abort their child.

Unlike many pro-life advocates, I don’t think we’re winning the abortion battle. We’re also not winning the hearts and minds of the American people in a way that will end abortion. But Lauren’s example of tirelessly trusting God to act on His time is a good one, and it reminds me of my very first post here on The Register’s blog. Coming shortly after the 2016 March for Life, the post highlighted how a blizzard, a roadside Mass, and a little faith brought perhaps more media attention to the March than the event itself.

Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised. When the Israelites fought on their own in Sunday's reading, they lost. But when Moses (and those helping him!) kept his arms raised, “Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.”

We can’t win the fight for life alone. Our war today doesn’t involve swords and spears, but it relies on the same core weapon: God.