Feast of the Holy Innocents

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. We named the first child we miscarried (back in 1999) after the Holy Innocents. Anastasia Innocent would have been ten years old this year.

In this painting, Triumph of the Innocents, by William Holman Hunt, one can see the Blessed Mother carrying Baby Jesus while the Innocents appear walking alongside them. Some are still bearing the scars of their martyrdom; the child in the foreground center is inspecting his torn clothing as he walks along.

Nowadays, innocent lives are snuffed out through abortion rather than through the edict of a savage ruler. Please remember to pray for the end to abortion today.

There are other souls lost in the sin of abortion: the mother and father of these unborn children, the doctors who perform abortions, nurses, and all the other medical support personnel who participate in this great evil. Those people also need our prayers for a change of heart. It brings to my mind another painting by William Holman Hunt: The Awakening Conscience. The painting was mentioned in Evelyn Waugh's book Brideshead Revisited, when Julia Marchmain realizes she cannot enter into an illicit marriage with Charles Ryder. In the book as well as the painting, the characters experience a moment of conversion which hopefully will be permanent. Waugh's character Julia does change for the good; the fate of Hunt's woman in the painting is a matter of speculation.


All pictures courtesy of Wikipedia