The first plenary session on Saturday of the Life and Learning Convention featured Mother Agnes Donovan of the Sisters for Life. The title of her talk was “Witness to Truth: A Spirituality to Sustain Us.” Mother Agnes invited pro-life activists to invite the doubtful and the hurting into a relationship of love with Jesus, who can heal and help us become what God wants us to be.
The method she advocates is based on the writings of Fr. William Virtue and on attachment theory. In order to love others properly, we need first of all to become aware of and attracted to the good that is already within them, instead of focusing on their problems or their pain or their rebellion. Genuine love is caused by the other, whose good moves us. We then take action for his or her own good in response to having been moved. Once we seek to delight in the good that is in them, we can do the loving thing in response to that goodness that helps them move from darkness to light. Her advice is to “[b]e moved into the light with the good of another. Then be moved to delight.”