Daily Prayer Intentions
For the Forty Days for Life
February 17 through March 28, 2010
Prayer Intentions for 40 Days for Life
February 17, 2010
40 days for Life, Day 1:
Prayer focus: Please pray that the Holy Spirit will descend upon our country, inspiring us toward a culture of life, and that we will be open to His inspiration.
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and enkindle in us the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit and we shall be created and You shall renew the face of the earth.
February 18, 2010
40 days for Life, Day 2:
Prayer focus: Please pray for all women who are dealing with a crisis pregnancy.
Forsake me not, O Lord;
my God, be not far from me!
Make haste to help me,
O Lord my salvation. (Psalm 38:22-23)
February 19, 2010
40 days for Life, Day 3:
Prayer focus: For fathers to love and respect their unborn children and to be supportive of the mother.
I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live. (Deuteronomy 30:19)
February 20, 2010
40 days for Life, Day 4:
Prayer focus: For parents of girls in crisis pregnancy to encourage their daughters to choose life.
Whoever welcomes one such child for My sake welcomes Me.
(Matthew 18:5)
February 21, 2010
40 days for Life, Day 5:
Prayer focus: For crisis pregnancy center volunteers, that they will be blessed and strengthened in their work of helping women and babies in need.
Blessed are they who show mercy; mercy shall be theirs.
(Matthew 5:7)
February 22, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 6
Prayer focus: For mothers to have the courage to continue with their pregnancies and choose life for their babies.
When a woman is in labor she is sad that her time has come.
When she has borne her child, she no longer remembers her pain
for joy that a child has been born into the world. (John 16:21)
February 23, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 7
Prayer focus: For those who work in abortion clinics, that they will see the wrong that they do and the pain that they are causing families and the world.
If today you hear His voice
Harden not your hearts. (Psalm 95:8)
February 24, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 8
Prayer focus: For our legislators, that they will make laws that respect God’s plan for His children and the culture of life.
Blessed are you, O Lord;
Teach me your statutes.
With my lips I declare
All the ordinances of your mouth. (Psalm 119:12-13)
February 25, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 9
Prayer focus: For our media, that it will report truth and show respect to those who are trying to follow God’s commandments.
The reason I came into the world is to testify to the truth.
Anyone committed to the truth hears my voice. (John 18:37)
February 26, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 10
Prayer focus: For all judges who make decisions on life issues, that they will show respect for human life from conception to natural death.
Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Pardon, and you shall be pardoned.
(Luke 6:36-37)
February 27, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 11
Prayer focus: For people involved in organizations that promote abortion and the culture of death here and throughout the world, that their hearts will be turned from hearts of stone into hearts of flesh that love and respect the lives of all people.
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of your mercy.
February 28, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 12
Prayer focus: For people to have the courage to speak up when they see or hear a lack of respect for human life in their families, among their friends and in their community.
You are the light of the world. Men do not light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket. They set it on a stand where it gives light to all in the house. (Matthew 5:14-15)
March 1, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 13
Prayer focus: For people who promote the pro-life cause, that they may trust in God’s strength and His victory despite the many odds that must be overcome in our society.
Now I know that the Lord has given victory to His anointed,
That He has answered him from His holy heaven
With the strength of His victorious right hand.
Some are strong in chariots; some, in horses;
But we are strong in the name of the Lord, our God. (Psalm 20:7-8)
March 2, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 14
Prayer focus: For unity among Christians as we work to defend human life in this culture of death.
Again I tell you, if two of you join your voices on earth to pray for anything whatever, it shall be granted you by My Father in heaven. Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in their midst. (Matthew 18:19-20)
March 3, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 15
Prayer focus: For our society to see each child who is conceived as a gift from God.
See that you never despise one of these little ones. I assure you, their angels in heaven constantly behold My heavenly Father’s face. (Matthew 18:10-11)
March 4, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 16
Prayer focus: For citizens to use their privilege of voting wisely to elect those officials who would defend human life.
God of my fathers, Lord of mercy, You who have made all things by Your word,
Give me wisdom, the attendant at Your throne;
For I am weak and short-lived
And lacking in comprehension of judgment and of laws. (Wisdom 1:4, 5)
March 5, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 17
Prayer focus: For doctors to use their authority and knowledge to defend human life from conception to natural death.
He forms men’s tongues and eyes and ears,
And imparts to them an understanding heart.
He has set before them knowledge,
A law of life as their inheritance. (Sirach 17:5, 9)
March 6, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 18
Prayer focus: For counselors to use the wisdom of God and to have respect for the value of human life as they counsel women in crisis pregnancies or women who are suffering after abortions.
Any learned man should make wisdom known,
And he who attains to her should declare her praise;
Those trained in her words must show their wisdom,
Dispensing sound proverbs like life-giving waters. (Sirach 18:28-29)
March 7, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 19
Prayer focus: For those who suffer persecution because of their public outcry against abortion.
Blest are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of slander against you because of Me.
Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven; they persecuted the prophets before you in the very same way. (Matthew 5:11-12)
March 8, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 20
Prayer focus: In thanksgiving for the conversion and repentance of all those who have previously worked in abortion and the culture of death. (continued)
I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent. (Luke 15:7)
March 9, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 21
Prayer focus: For women who are suffering after abortion.
In Ramah is heard the sound of moaning, of bitter weeping!
Rachel mourns her children, she refuses to be consoled
Because her children are no more. (Jeremiah 31:15)
March 10, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 22
Prayer focus: For women and men who have been involved in an abortion decision to reach out to God for His forgiveness and love.
Have mercy on me, O God, in Your goodness;
In the greatness of Your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
And of my sin cleanse me. (Psalm 51:3-4)
March 11, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 23
Prayer focus: For other family members who are in sorrow over the loss of a baby who died in abortion.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
And those crushed in spirit He saves. (Psalm 34:19)
March 12, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 24
Prayer focus: For those whose lives are in danger because of the attitudes fostered by the culture of death.
The desire of the afflicted You hear, O Lord;
Strengthening their hearts, You pay heed
To the defense of the fatherless and the oppressed,
That man, who is of earth, may terrify no more. (Psalm 10:17-18)
March 13, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 25
Prayer focus: For those elderly, sick and handicapped people who have been forgotten and abandoned by society.
Have pity on me, O Lord, for I am in distress;
My strength has failed through affliction,
And my bones are consumed.
I am forgotten like the unremembered dead;
I am like a dish that is broken. (Psalm 31:10, 11, 13)
March 14, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 26
Prayer focus: For those who faithfully care for those who are sick, elderly and handicapped.
Come, you have My Father’s blessing, for I was ill and you comforted Me.
I assure you, as often as you did it for one my least brothers, you did it for Me.
(Matthew 25:34, 36, 40)
March 15, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 27
Prayer focus: For marriages to be strengthened so that spouses may respect each other and God’s gift of life giving love.
A man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two shall become as one. Thus they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, let no man separate what God has joined. (Matthew 19:5-6)
March 16, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 28
Prayer focus: For the virtue of chastity to flourish in our world so that men and women will show respect for themselves and others.
Let us live honorably as in daylight; not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual excess and lust, not in quarreling and jealousy. Rather, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 13:13-14)
March 17, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 29
Prayer focus: For children to honor their parents.
Children, pay heed to a father’s right;
Do so that you may live
For the Lord sets a father in honor over his children;
A mother’s authority he confirms over her sons. (Sirach 3:1-2)
March 18, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 30
Prayer focus: For parents to teach their children by being good examples.
Happy are they whose way is blameless,
Who walk in the law of the Lord.
Happy are they who observe His decrees,
Who seek Him with all their heart,
And do no wrong, but walk in His ways. (Psalm 119:1-3)
March 19, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 31
Prayer focus: For the health of all babies in the womb and for their safe delivery.
For You are my hope, O Lord;
My trust, O God, from my youth.
On You I depend from birth;
From my mother’s womb You are my strength. (Psalm 71:5-6)
March 20, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 32
Prayer focus: For an end to obtaining stem cells from embryos and that no more human beings may be destroyed for research purposes.
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
Before you were born I dedicated you. (Jeremiah 1:5)
March 21, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 33
Prayer focus: For married couples who are having difficulty conceiving and bearing children.
Hearken to my words, O Lord,
Attend to my sighing.
Heed my call for help,
My king and my God! (Psalm 5:2-3)
March 22, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 34
Prayer focus: For women in crisis pregnancies who make an adoption plan for their children.
May you be blessed, my daughter, by God Most High! The trust you have shown shall not pass from the memories of men but shall ever remind them of the power of God.
(Judith 13:23,25)
March 23, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 35
Prayer focus: For those parents who have received the gift of a child through adoption.
I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with all my heart,
For you have heard the words of my mouth;
In the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
When I called, you answered me. (Psalm 138:1, 3)
March 24, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 36
Prayer focus: For parents who are caring for a sick or handicapped child.
Come to me, all you are weary and I will refresh you. Take My yoke upon your shoulders and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls will find rest, for My yoke is easy and My burden light. (Matthew 11:28-30)
March 25, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 37
Prayer focus: For God to forgive our world for all our attacks on the sanctity of human life.
O Lord, reprove us not in your anger,
Nor chastise us in your wrath.
Have pity on us, O Lord, for we are languishing. (Psalm 6:2-3)
March 26, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 38
Prayer focus: For there to be an outpouring of love for our neighbor among all people on earth.
I give you a new commandment:
Love one another as I have loved you. (John 13:34)
March 27, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 39
Prayer focus: In thanksgiving for God’s wondrous gift of life!
Truly You have formed my inmost being;
You knit me in my mother’s womb.
I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works. (Psalm 139:13-14)
March 28, 2010
40 Days for Life, Day 40
Prayer focus: For God to bless all people throughout the world!
May God have pity on us and bless us;
May He let His face shine upon us.
So may Your way be known upon earth;
Among all nations, Your salvation.
May the peoples praise You, O God;
May all the peoples praise You! (Psalm 67:2-3)