Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
You have probably seen the bumper sticker: God is Pro Life. As children of God, we celebrate the Right to Life. We are all called to be Pro Life. All life has an inherent dignity because we were created by God and for God. Our Lord reminds us of the sacredness of every human life… born and unborn. Catholics have always held and will always preach the value of human life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that:
“Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being.” (CCC 2258). And “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.” (CCC 2270).
Because Our Loving God has created every human being, we are sacred and precious – made in God’s image and likeness. We are a reflection of God. As a reflection of God, we have been entrusted from the moment of conception until our natural death with a unique mission and vocation in life that is life-giving. What is that mission? We are invited to bring others to this life-giving understanding of the love of God for each and every person.
At the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C, on February 5, 1994, Mother Theresa spoke about the right to life. Here is a bit of the text from her unforgettable address.
“But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.”
We will be praying as a parish for a deeper respect for all life, especially the unborn and for an end to abortion. This will take place in our Adoration Chapel throughout the night on Thursday January 21st and will conclude with Holy Mass at 6:30am and 8:30am.
To be continued…
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