Inner Healing for the Wound of Abortion

You have confessed your sin of participating in an abortion. You have repented and have received forgiveness, yet you continue to feel deep pain over the loss of your unborn child. You may have sought professional counseling for dealing with the psychological trauma of abortion and you may be part of support group of men/women who deal with the lingering pain. You may have even participated in a Rachel's Vineyard Weekend. Yet the feelings of guilt and shame, emotional pain, and deep sorrow continue to cling to you.

Abortion is a wounding experience for the woman involved that is intimately connected to the physical experience of the dying child within the womb. Women express this inner wounding in a variety of ways:
“It’s my soul that hurts.”
“I feel empty inside.”
“I feel like I lost all sense of myself.”
“A piece of my heart is missing.”
“I feel like a part of me never got off the abortion table.”
“I feel like a part of me died the moment my baby died.”
“I miss the person I used to be.”
“Will I ever feel whole again?”

How can we be healed from the deep wounds of this traumatic experience?

We do not heal ourselves, nor is it the counselor, the physician, or the priest who accomplishes this task. It is the Lord who pours out his tender love and mercy into our hearts to give us the graces we need to heal physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually.

Listen to the consoling words of Pope John Paul II:

"The Church is aware of the many factors which may have influenced your decision, and she does not doubt in many cases it was a painful and even shattering decision. The wound in your heart may not yet have healed. Certainly what happened was and remains terribly wrong. But do not give in to discouragement and do not lose hope. Try rather to understand what happened and face it honestly. If you have not already done so, give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance. The Father of Mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and His peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. You will come to understand that nothing is definitively lost and you will also be able to ask forgiveness from your child, who is now living in the Lord. "

~ The Gospel of Life

Frequent reception of the sacraments, (which are not just symbols, but a means of obtaining life-giving graces to nourish and cleanse our souls) especially the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist, are wonderful ways to receive the healing you need.

This Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday -- a time of miraculous healing -- a time when Jesus pours out life-giving graces from His fountain of Mercy upon all His children.

Trust in Jesus is the essence of the message of mercy. When we go to a public fountain we can draw water from it if we have a vessel or some kind of container to put the water in. If our vessel is small, we bring back 0nly a little water; if its large we bring back a lot. The water is there for us, and no one is excluded. All we need is a vessel. And so it is with with God's mercy. In repeated revelations to St. Faustina, Our Divine Savior makes it clear to us that the fountain is His Heart, the water is His mercy, and the vessel is trust.

He told her:
"I have opened my Heart as a living fountain of mercy. Let all souls draw from it. Let them approach this sea of mercy with great trust. On the cross the fountain of my mercy was opened wide by the lance for all souls -- no one have I excluded! I am offering people a vessel with which they are to keep coming for graces to the fountain of mercy. That vessel is this image with the signature, "Jesus, I trust in You." The graces of my mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is -- trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive.

He also revealed:
I am Love and Mercy itself. When a soul approaches me with trust, I will fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls.

Remember -- God loves you as you are. He came to heal the sinner, not the upright. Reflect on the words of Our Lord to St. Faustina: “The greater the sinner, the greater the right to My mercy.”


To learn more about the Divine Mercy Message,
go here.

Check your local diocesan schedule to locate the nearest Divine Mercy celebration in your area.

Comments

Blog Archive

Show more

Popular posts from this blog

The Spirituality and Miracles of St. Clare of Assisi

Saint Michael de Sanctis: Patron of Cancer Patients

Saint Gerard of Brogne: Patron of Abbots