We Are Marching

When I proudly proclaimed to a friend that I had caught up on my blog, I may have been exaggerating slightly -- I still have to cover the March itself.

Monday morning we woke entirely too early and headed into the city for the Catholic Youth Rally and the March for Life.  The night before, meteorologists predicted freezing rain, so the government was opening two hours late.  Translation: God moved rush hour back 2 hours for us, so we could make it into the city without any trouble.  We parked at the Basilica and metroed over to the Verizon Center, where we met 17 000 of our friends, including 500 of our best buds from Steubenville.

 While I decided I could take or leave (leaning toward the leave side) the music and entertainment, I had another profound moment during Mass.  All these people, converged together at this particular point in time, for one purpose: we eagerly awaited the moment our Savior would come to us.  In His word, in His body, in our lives.  I also had a very bizarre moment as bishops were introduced to cheering, applause, screams and shouts from their diocesan youth.  The bishops loved it and waved with love and joy to the crowds thirsty for the Church.

Then we followed a police escort to the cold and rainy National Mall where politicians politicked, throwing in some pro-life and some election-year catchphrases.  I met up with a good friend and W&M alum who had come from UVA grad school. Finally, after a long wait, we marched.  Through the rain and cold, from the Capitol to the Supreme Court, where women and men who are post-abortive gave testimonies to the value of life and the lie of abortion and a few angry counter-protesters held dripping signs.

After snapping a few photos of Shelly in front of the Supreme Court and saying a prayer for life, we headed to the craziness that was Union Station.  Rush hour getting out of town wasn't too bad (it helped having an HOV), but the fog we hit after a dinner stop was pretty brutal.  We wound our way slowly through the mountains, at last making it out of the fog and back at last to Steubenville.