January 3, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – When the Canadian Celtic family band Leahy debuted the new pro-life song written by their pianist Erin several years ago at a show in Colorado, it felt as if “chains were being released” from audience members, according to Erin.
And wherever else the band has performed the song, the reaction has been the same: women come up to them after the shows, she says, and “will just fall into tears.”
While Erin, like the rest of her siblings who are part of the band, has always been pro-life, she admits that she never gave much thought to the issue, with the result that, until relatively recently, she had “never actually felt the emotion” that goes along with the conviction.
It wasn’t until 2008, the year that Canadian arch-abortionist Henry Morgentaler was awarded the Order of Canada, that Erin took a close look at what actually happens during an abortion.
That year, at the urging of a pro-choice friend, Erin spent some time while on tour reading the website of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. What she found there disturbed her so much that she continued to research abortion.
“And that’s when it all hit me as far as how really sad the whole situation is,” she told LifeSiteNews.com during a recent interview.
One day, shortly after returning home from that tour, Erin was sitting at her piano, improvising, when a melody began to emerge that she found compelling. Without paying any attention, she began to sing the first words that came into her head.
Those words happened to be “calling all people to life,” the title of the song. Then, as she continued to sing, a second voice began to emerge, that of a pregnant mother, and then a third, of an unborn child.
“Mother, mother / Hold on to me,” this baby cries out in the completed song:
Give me the chance to be
All I was meant to be
'Cause there is a plan for me
For all of eternity
And when the days are cold
I'll be in your arms to hold
Then when your eyes grow old
I'll be the one to take you home
At no point, says Erin, did she ever decide to “write a song about this issue or this idea.” Instead the song emerged organically from an overflowing of emotion that had taken hold of her after looking abortion directly in the face and seeing it for what it is.
Even she finds it interesting that the unborn child’s voice became such a prominent part of the song.
“It’s intriguing that it happened that way, because it’s a voice that you don’t really hear,” she says. “We hear people speaking on behalf of the unborn child, but we don’t hear the unborn child’s voice. How can we? We can’t.”
Erin says she has no real expectations for what the song will accomplish. However, when pressed, she admits that she hopes that “people would listen to that voice [of the unborn baby].
“It’s not a voice that is really saying anything other than ‘I want to live.’ And there’s no judgment.”
Erin is considering releasing the song to wider release. But in the meantime it is available on iTunes, and is being played on Christian radio stations across North America.
To buy the song on iTunes, click here.
Read LifeSiteNews.com’s 3-part series about the Leahy family:
The complete lyrics of Calling All People to Life:
Calling all people to life
I am calling all people to life
Giving all people my life
To be loved by me
To be loved by me
Sharing the blood of my heart
I am sharing the blood of my heart
Giving the blood of my heart
To be one with you
To be one with you
Mother, mother
Hold on to me
Give me the chance to be
All I was meant to be
'Cause there is a plan for me
For all of eternity
And when the days are cold
I'll be in your arms to hold
Then when your eyes grow old
I'll be the one to take you home
Calling all people to life
I am calling all people to life
Giving all people my life
To be loved by me
To be loved by me
Mother, mother
Hold on to me
Look at the flowers grow
The colours are beautiful
But some seeds they never grow
They're buried in sorrow
Inside these walls of you
I am a part of you
I already love you
And I'd even die for you
I am alive
I'm breathing inside
Forever alive
Mother, mother
Hold on to me
Unveil the mystery
Of all that comes after me
For I do long to see
The children inside of me
The shape of my bones was formed
In heaven by my Lord
And I belong to him
From whom all life begins
So if you don't hear me cry
I hope you'll be by my side
And together we'll be again
Where life will never end