The Siege of Jericho

You may already have come across a website called ‘The Siege of Jericho’. I saw a mention of it just a few days ago.

Established in 2007, through the inspiration of a nun in Birmingham (UK), the group organises a week-long ‘siege’ of prayer and action at an abortion clinic in that city. Those involved pray that as in the Biblical account of the actual siege of Jericho, the walls surrounding abortion will eventually come tumbling down in a mighty act of reaction to the evil of abortion.

The group taking part in the 'prayer siege’ will already have prayed consistently during the year for the intentions of the ‘siege’. They then gather together each day for one week and, starting with Mass at 3 pm, and accompanied by the Blessed Sacrament, hidden, they recite five decades of the Rosary as they walk once around a local abortion clinic. On the seventh day the group, ‘accompanied by the ringing of bells’, walks around the abortion clinic seven times, and – the local Bishop permitting it – with the Blessed Sacrament openly displayed.

The purpose of the siege is best described in the following aims:
* The conversion of hearts of those engaged in abortion and in the abortion industry;
* The reinstatement of the dignity of the priesthood in the eyes of the faithful.

As the website so aptly puts it: As the walls of Jericho came tumbling down so we pray that the walls enclosing the hardened hearts of those involved in abortion may yield to the promptings of Divine grace and human compassion.