500 Crosses for Life London

Yesterday there was a great procession in support of life. It was an ecumenical march from Westminster Cathedral to Westminster Abbey covering both Lambeth Bridge and Westminster Bridge as well as the Houses of Parliament. The most touching part of the procession was the Mourning Session at Westminster Bridge where roses were thrown into the river Thames to remember those whose lives have been lost to abortion, as well as the mother’s who have been injured.

When we began at Westminster Cathedral each person was given a white cross to carry and we were introduced to the icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe (which I had the privilege of carrying J). This icon is very special as it shows Our Lady pregnant with Jesus (as signified by the brown belt around her waist).
We were told that this icon was chosen as it has been responsible for the most conversions in history (9 million).

During the procession we sang songs and prayed the Chaplet of the Precious Blood. This is a devotion to the shedding of Jesus’ blood. Each of the sheddings is followed by 5 Our Father’s and Glory be. The 7 blood sheddings are: 1) The Circumcision; 2) The Agony in the Garden (Jesus’ sweat turned to blood); 3) The Scourging at the Pillar; 4) The Crowning with Thorns, 5) The Way of the Cross; 6) The Crucifixion; and 7) The Piercing of His Heart

The mourning session on Westminster Bridge consisted of the reading of names symbolising those children killed by abortion as 50 red roses were thrown into the Thames River one by one to the sound of the funeral bell.

We also recited the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. It was a beautiful moment standing in Palace yard (across from Westminster Palace) at the analemmatic (“human gnomon“) sundial with it’s motto from Shakespeare’s Henry V: “To carve out dials quaintly, point by point, thereby to see the minutes how they run: how many makes the hour full complete, how many hours brings about the day, how many days will finish up the year, how many years a mortal man may live.”


What a great testimony it was. And as our MC put it: we were not there to make a political statement, we were there to witness through prayer.
We ended the memorial at the memorial to innocent victims of oppression, violence and war around the world. “All you who pass by, is it nothing to you?” it states very appropriately.