St. Benedict’s philosophy of Ora et Labora — pray and work — has served as the foundation of Catholic religious life for nearly 1,500 years.

We’d like to suggest it also must serve as the foundation for the pro-life movement as it girds for the challenge of a pro-abortion Barack Obama presidency.

The Register’s post-election issues will feature coverage of ways that pro-lifers can work most constructively against the culture of death. We’ll focus first on how to mobilize against passage of the abortion lobby’s deadly FOCA (Freedom of Choice Act) legislation, which Obama promised to Planned Parenthood last year to sign as his first action as president.

In this post, the Daily Blog would like to call attention to something even more important that Catholics can do on the prayer side of the Benedictine equation — participate in the Inauguration Day Rosary Novena.

The novena, an initiative sponsored by Rosaries for Life, is a 72-day novena that began yesterday and continues through to Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.

Let’s remember that Our Lady of Guadalupe is both Patroness of the Unborn and Patroness of the Americas, so we can be confident that our prayers to defend the unborn during the next American presidency will be especially pleasing to Mary.

And don’t worry about starting the novena a day late. Rosaries for Life suggests simply joining in the original novena now, or participating in an alternate rosary novena starting Nov. 15 that will conclude on Jan. 25, the feast of the conversion of St. Paul.

— Tom McFeely