Novena to Stop the HHS Mandate Starts TODAY
Posted by Matt Yonke (March 17, 2014 at 2:59 pm)
With the Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood v. Sebelius cases coming before the Supreme Court on March 25, the Stand Up for Religious Freedom coalition is calling on people of faith to join in a Novena to Stop the HHS Mandate in the nine days leading up to that date, which begins today.
We fight for justice in government with many weapons. We use Rallies like we’ll hold on March 25, we use our power to vote, we use our voices and pens so our representatives in government know our concerns. But we must never forget that the strongest weapon we have is prayer.
Temporal rulers will come and go, but God is the great king over all, so recourse to Him is where our confidence must ultimately lay. It is well within His power to stop the Obama Administration’s pernicious HHS Mandate.
A novena is a nine day prayer sequence for a particular intention, in this case the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga cases and the defeat of the HHS Mandate. Though the devotion has its roots in Catholic spirituality, the prayers here are ones that people of any Christian tradition can pray.
We will be posting the prayers for each day here on the Stand Up blog for the next nine days leading up to the March 25 court date. Please join with us in this important prayer effort. Here is the prayer for today, March 17:
Novena for a Reversal of the HHS Mandate: Day 1
Lord God,
You are the Author of Life and Freedom.
In Your Spirit, we have the freedom of the children of God,
and in Your Name, we promote the freedom of all
to seek, embrace, and live the truth of Your Word.
In that freedom, Lord, we your people stand with Life
and reject whatever destroys life
or distorts the meaning of human sexuality.
In that freedom, Lord, we Your people live our lives
in a way that advances Your Kingdom of Life,
and we refuse to cooperate in what is evil.
At this moment, therefore, when our government has decided
to force us to cooperate in evil,
we pray for the grace to be faithful to You
and to oppose the unjust laws and mandates
that have been imposed upon us and our institutions.
We pray for the conversion of those in civil authority
who fail to appreciate the demands of conscience.
We pray for the complete reversal of all policies
that permit the destruction of life
or coerce the cooperation of Your people
in practices that are wrong.
Bring us to a Culture of Life.
We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.