b'NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE, continued2021 State Essay Contest Winners11th Grade Winner Shane Longtin10th Grade Winner Lidia Longo Council 9923 District 15 Council 9923 District 15For the past several months my Aunt and I haveBreaking Pointgone to a facility where abortions are performed.Placing ones trust in the Lord allows him to guide us throughout our Wegothereandgatherwithotherlike-mindeddaily lives in order to live according to Him. However, sometimes it takes people to pray for an end to the destruction of in- a person breaking down in order for them to see it and begin to trust nocent life which occurs inside. As a 17-year-oldcompletely in Him.male standing there on the roadside with a rosaryGrowing up as one of the middle children in a family of nine kids can in hand to pray in public is something I do becauseput the world into perspective quite quickly. As I grew up, I realized that, I know abortion is a great evil in our world but itin a way, my role in the family was to support without need of my own is not something that I particularly look forward to.support. I trained, studied, lived without needing to trouble my parents, Not everyone there is Catholic, but we are all tryingwho seemed to be constantly wrangling the younger kids into submis-to help the unborn and their parents with prayerssion or helping the older ones apply for college and put themselves out and trying to talk people out of getting an abortion. Iinto the world. And I soon came to realize that this also meant I felt like mostly just pray the rosary while my aunt and othersI was loved a bit less.do the hard work of talking to people. This activityIt seemed childish at first, the feeling of loneliness when I finished has been mostly in the heat of summer and we geta Cross Country race, gymnastics competition, or orchestra concert to stares, verbal abuse, and some honks and vulgarfind no one there to have seen my best performance. It felt stupid to gestures as well. become quite miserable eating dinner at an empty table when everyone In the current climate in our country and world,else had already finished. Yet those feelings never strayed too far from Iseeprotestingontelevisionandwherepeoplemy heart, and when my family moved to Georgia for the beginning of become violent and they throw things, steal, andmy eighth-grade year, the loss of all the friends and the closeness of my bum down buildings to make their point. I see thiscoaches and teammates that helped fill that emptiness inside me just as counterproductive. I even hear of people ki1ingadded to the burden. I became so bitter and angry at everything, to an others in the name of justice I think of a verse fromextent where I could not even find a legitimate reason for why I was so the Bible where it is says, Turn the other cheek.furious with the world, with my family, or with myself.It causes me to look this verse up and try.to un- At this point in my life I was preparing for my confirmation, practically derstand what is God calling me to do? The Biblebeing forced to attend confirmation classes, even though I was not even passage I am thinking is from Matthew, Chapter 5sure I completely believed in God. I felt as if there was no one who could and it reads. it was said an eye for an eye andpossibly understand my frustration and sorrow. And that led to a terrible a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you offer no resis- time when I believed I did not want to be near the lord because I could tance to one who is evil. When someone strikes younot :find the will . to trust of believe in him. on [your] right cheek, turn the other one to him asHowever, a certain confirmation retreat brought me to a building who well. Later in this teaching, Jesus says, . whenknows where, filled to the brim with the presence of the lord throughout you pray do not be like the hypocrites, who loveall the people there.Yet I never truly realized until I was sitting cross-to stand and pray in the synagogue and on streetlegged in a dimly lit attic area, the only sounds being the soft piano and comers so that others may see them. Back in theguitar melodies and the warm silence of the people gathered around me. Biblical times, people stood on street corners andThen, everyone in the room began to sing, spilling words of adoration prayed loudly and wanted to be seen by the crowdsinto the soft music. They sang without looking at words or papers, and and have it known that they were praying. But inas I listened silently, I heard emotions in the music flooding through the currentthe-oppositeistrue.Onehastohumblestuffy room.themselves to pray in public. It is especially hardAnd all of the sudden, I began to cry. I did not know why, or even how, for a teenaged boy to pray in public. However, I seebut tears began to spill from my eyes in an endless river. I could feel it as a calling_ and something that I can do with ahands on my head, shoulders, and back. I could feel hands grasping my purpose. own, and voices whispered to me, telling me I was loved so much, and I learned from my summer at the abortion clinic,that I mattered. It was as if everything I bad held inside, all the emotions that miracles do happen every day. I witnessed myI swallowed, was ~ bursting out from the seams.aunt and other adults helping mothers and fathersI cried more tears that night than I would like to admit. And afterword. decide not to have an abortion. With the grace ofI felt as if the heavy, pressing weight on my shoulders was lifted. It was God and our prayers, these people have been ablealmost 3S if there was someone beside me cradling my woes so I would to keep their babies alive. Thankfully, there are peo- not have to bear them on my own. It did not take me long to realize who ple who pray every day at this abortion clinic andit was. I left that retreat with a heart so light I felt I could fly. And from then are true warriors for the cause. My weekly visits toon after that, I could feel the presence of the Lord throughout the hands the sidewalk to pray with them hopefully providedof the church on me, through the songs that flowed from my lips, and some additional support and encouragement. Evenfrom the tears that: fell from my eyes. And dare I say I felt loved. I gave though it was very hot and sometimes even rainy,my trust and my life to God, and I couldnt fell that smothering weight the abortion providers never closed, so we cantof bitterness and sorrow resting on my shoulders. I became a happier stop either. person, and I knew that the lord was beside me always.89'