Spiritual Bouquet for Amy Coney Barrett: A Priest's Call for Prayer & Fasting for Protection of the Barrett Family

A Facebook friend, the wife of a Franciscan University of Steubenville professor, recently posted these troubling words online:

“We have friends who live in Amy Coney Barrett’s neighborhood and her house has been surrounded by police all night. Whether you think she’s a good choice for justice or not, please wish for the protection of her family.”

President Donald Trump chose Notre Dame Law professor and federal judge Amy Coney Barrett as nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In addition to being a brilliant legal scholar, accomplished teacher, and esteemed judge, Barrett is a devout, charismatic Catholic, the mother of seven children (including two adopted from Haiti), and a judicial originalist in the tradition of her mentor, the late, great Catholic justice Antonin Scalia.

If confirmed, Judge Barrett’s presence on the Supreme Court could profoundly influence the laws affecting our country for generations to come.

In her legal opinions, she defends religious liberty and calls abortion “immoral.”

As a devout Catholic, she has been attacked for her faith. One U.S. Senator notoriously told then-Professor Barrett, during her judiciary hearing to the federal appellate court, that “the dogma lives loudly within you, and that is a concern.”

We need to offer prayers and sacrifices for our Catholic sister, Amy Coney Barrett.

I have been offering Masses and rosaries for Judge Barrett, and will look to add and offer personal sacrifices for her as well.

I invite you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to offer daily prayers and sacrifices for Judge Barrett, for her protection and strength, and for the protection of her family.

Here are a few suggestions of meaningful spiritual exercises which we can offer daily for Amy and her family.

A holy Rosary
A Eucharistic holy hour
A Divine Mercy Chaplet
Offering one’s Communion during Mass
Prayer of the heart, speaking to Jesus and Mary spontaneously for intercession

And Jesus, of course, tells us in the Gospels that certain demons can only be removed through prayer and fasting. The discipline of fasting has a deep spiritual power that invites great graces from God, which can help fight against spiritual evil.

Thus, I offer the following recommendations to intercede for Amy and her family:

Fasting from meat
Fasting on bread and water certain days
Fasting from sweets
Fasting from technology

According to her colleagues, friends, and students, Barrett is not only a learned and talented person but also a very saintly woman.

Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman, who admits (as a liberal) to disagree philosophically with Barrett on almost every issue, acknowledges that she is one of the most brilliant legal minds he has ever met.

In his Bloomberg.com piece, he writes that to “add to her merits, Barrett is a sincere, lovely person. I never heard her utter a word that wasn’t thoughtful and kind — including in the heat of real disagreement about important subjects.”

Laura Wolk, a 2016 Notre Dame Law School graduate and the first blind woman to clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court, wrote a moving piece in First Things wherein she describes how, as a person with a disability, she overcame the difficulties of law school and excelled, against insurmountable odds, partly because of the generosity, kindness, and help of her professor, Amy Coney Barrett.

“I went on to succeed that semester and, by God’s grace, became the first blind woman to clerk on the Supreme Court. The warmth and compassion that Judge Barrett has shown me on so many occasions flows from the same wellspring of faith for which she is now so excoriated.

“The ease with which she donates her time and energy to serving others comes from years of loving the Lord with her entire heart, mind, and strength, and loving her neighbor as herself.

“And for a young, disabled woman like me struggling to find my footing and place in this world, that faith has made all the difference.”

When a friend or loved-one has an important event coming up—whether it is a wedding day, a priestly ordination, an anniversary or a birthday—one meaningful gift that can be given is a spiritual bouquet: prayers and sacrifices offered for the individual(s).

Judge Barrett has an incredibly important event coming up: Senate judiciary hearings for her confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court.

We live, unfortunately, during a time of great political and civil turmoil, a time of violence and hatred, wherein it is clear that Satan is raging and influencing human hearts in many ways.

Judge Barrett has been placed into the spotlight during a very dramatic and meaningful time.

Her appointment to the Supreme Court, if confirmed, can have lasting consequences, which may even save lives and offer protection for the most vulnerable in our society.

Let us lift her and her family up in our prayers and sacrifices, especially these next few weeks as attention around her increases and as her confirmation hearings begin.