Mass for Nellie Gray before this year's March for Life

The Paulus Institute has announced a Mass for Nellie Gray to be offered on the morning of the March for Life:

The Paulus Institute For the Propagation of Sacred Liturgy
Mass to Commemorate Nellie Gray
St. Mary Mother of God Church, 5th and H Sts. NW, Washington, DC
Fri. Jan. 25, 8:00 a.m., the Day of the 2013 March for Life

The Paulus Institute, an association of the Catholic faithful dedicated to the propagation of the Sacred Liturgy, is pleased to sponsor a Mass commemorating Nellie Gray, the ardent pro-life advocate and architect of the annual March for Life.

Fr. Alfred J. Harris, pastor of St. Mary’s, has graciously scheduled the Mass for the convenience of all who can attend. Fr. Harris celebrated Nellie’s Requiem Mass at St. Mary’s in the traditional form, a Missa Cantata, with Sean Cardinal O’Malley and Donald Cardinal Wuerl participating in choir.

The Mass will be in the extraordinary form (traditional Latin Mass), dear to Nellie’s heart. For years, she was a regular figure in the third row pew of St. Mary’s at the Sunday 9 a.m. traditional Mass. Recently, Nellie had desired a Mass for March participants to be arranged by The Paulus Institute at St. Mary’s.

The Mass will be a sung Mass (Missa Cantata), the Mass of the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, the patron saint of The Paulus Institute, providentially occurring on the date of this year's March.

“Nellie Gray was a saint right in our midst,” said Jonathan Terrell, a member of the Institute’s board of directors. “As a lawyer in her prime years, she answered Christ’s call, just as St. Paul did. Nellie left her career and devoted herself to correcting the gross injustice of Roe vs. Wade, and she unfailingly attended the traditional Mass. May she be an inspiration to us all.” Fittingly, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI spoke of Christian vocation, so clearly demonstrated by Nellie Gray:

“‘Come, follow me.’ (Mk 10:21) This is the Christian vocation which is born from the Lord's proposal of love and can only be fulfilled in our loving response. Jesus invites his disciples to give their lives completely, without calculation or personal interest, with unreserved trust in God. Saints accept this demanding invitation and set out with humble docility in the following of the Crucified and Risen Christ. Their perfection, in the logic of faith sometimes humanly incomprehensible consists in no longer putting themselves at the centre but in choosing to go against the tide, living in line with the gospel. … [W]e contemplate the Apostle Peter's words fulfilled: ‘Behold, we have left all things, and have followed thee’ (v. 28), and Jesus’ comforting reassurance: ‘there is no man who has left house or brethren, sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who shall not receive a hundred times as much, now in this time ... with persecutions, and in the world to come life everlasting.’” (vv. 29-30).

Homily Of His Holiness Benedict XVIVatican Basilica, Sunday, 11 October 2009 

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