Respect Life Sunday
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 5, 2003
Genesis 2:18-24/ Heb 2:9-11/ Mk 10:2-16 or 10:2-12
(LFM 140)


Preaching for Life
They Deserve Better

They deserve better. The young man and woman who have fallen in love. The world tells them to fulfill their own needs and care only for their own pleasure. They are encouraged to avoid commitment if it's inconvenient, to medicate their bodies against pregnancy and not to let a problem pregnancy get in the way.

They deserve better. They deserve to know that they are called to a noble vocation: to "a covenant in which a man and a woman set up a life-long bond with each other, a covenant which draws its force and strength and dignity from creation." They deserve the truth that they are called to be co-creators with the Author of Life!

They deserve better. The women who have just become pregnant and men who are expecting their first child. The culture of death tempts them to treat their unborn child as a dispensable commodity, a passing inconvenience. They deserve better. They deserve the truth that they are the guardians of the most precious of gifts.

"[They] deserve our love, our help, and our respect. Children waiting to be born deserve better than abortion, Lord: they deserve our protection and care. And this nation deserves better, Lord: it deserves laws which recognize the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." (Bishop Wilton Gregory, "A Prayer for Life")

Heavenly Father,
Source of all life and goodness.

You have gathered us together
in the shadow of the Capitol's dome,
to bear witness to your truth:
that the killing of an innocent child is evil
and that abortion is a sin against God and against man.

Women tempted by abortion deserve better, Lord:

Intercessions for Life

For all unborn children:
that our love for them may keep them safe
until the joyous day of their birth;
We pray to the Lord:

For expectant mothers and the fathers of unborn children:
that they might rejoice in the noble vocation
which God has given them;
We pray to the Lord:

For every little child:
that we might accept and preserve them
as a sign of the infinite love of God for us;
We pray to the Lord:

For all young professionals, especially doctors,
lawyers and those in public service:
that they might come to know and cherish
the truth of the Gospel of Life;
We pray to the Lord:

For all newly married couples:
that God might form them into an image
of his love for the Church;
We pray to the Lord:

For those who have grown very old,
especially elderly parents and godparents:
that the love and respect of their children
might sustain them and bring them joy;
We pray to the Lord:

For all who live in nursing homes,
and especially for those who are alone or in pain:
that we might cherish the gift of their wisdom,
and the perduring example of their faith;
We pray to the Lord:

For all who are about to die,
and for their families:
that God might gently lead them home;
We pray to the Lord:

For a growing respect for life among the leaders of our government:
that our laws might respect the right to life and liberty
of every human being from conception to natural death;
We pray to the Lord:

For all who work to defend life:
that God might reward them for their faithfulness;
We pray to the Lord:


Liturgical Prayers for Life

The Church's liturgical books provide us with prayers, both ancient and new, for victims of the culture of death and those who work for the Gospel of Life. Among those prayers are

Prayer of Blessing for a Married Couple (Book of Blessings [BOB] 103)

Lord God and Creator,
we bless and praise your name.
In the beginning you made man and woman,
so that they might enter a communion of life and love.
You likewise blessed the union of N. and N.
so that they might reflect the union of Christ and his Church:
Look with kindness on them today.
Amid the joys and struggles of their life
you have preserved the union between them;
Renew their marriage covenant,
increase your love in them,
and strengthen their bond of peace,
so that (surrounded by their children)
they may always rejoice in the gift of your blessing.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer for a Mother Before Childbirth (BOB 249)

Lord God,
Creator of the human race,
your Son, through the working of the Holy Spirit,
was born of a woman,
so that he might pay the age-old debt of sin
and save us by his redemption.

Receive with kindness the prayer of your servant
as she asks for the birth of a healthy child.
Grant that she may safely deliver a son or a daughter
to be numbered among your family,
to serve you in all things,
and to gain eternal life.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary for an Expectant Mother (BOB 250)
We fly to you for protection,
Holy Mother of God.
Listen to our prayers
and help us in our needs.
Save us from every danger,
Glorious and Blessed Virgin.


Prayer of Blessing of Mothers on Mothers' Day (BOB 1728)
Loving God,
as a mother gives life and nourishment to her children,
as you watch over your Church.
Bless these women,
that they may be strengthened as Christian mothers.
Let the example of their faith and love shine forth.
Grant that we, their sons and daughters,
May honor them always
with a spirit of profound respect.
Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.


Prayer of Blessing of Fathers on Father's Day (BOB 1733)
God our Father,
in your wisdom and love you made all things.
Bless these men,
that they may be strengthened as Christian fathers.
Let the example of their faith and love shine forth.
Grant that we, their sons and daughters,
May honor them always
with a spirit of profound respect.
Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Blessing Prayer for Those Who Are Sick (Pastoral Care of the Sick and Dying [PCSD 61A])

All praise and glory is yours, Lord our God,
for you have called us to serve you in love.
Bless N.,
so that he/she may bear this illness
In union with your Son's obedient suffering.
restore him/her to health,
and lead him/her to glory.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Blessing Prayer for An Elderly Person Who is Sick (PCSD 61B)

All praise and glory is yours, Lord our God,
for you have called us to serve you in love.
Bless all who have grown old in your service
and give N. strength and courage
to continue to follow Jesus your Son.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer for a Sick Child (PCSD 69A)

God of love,
ever caring,
ever strong,
stand by us in our time of need.

Watch over your child N., who is sick,
look after him/her in every danger,
and grant him/her your healing and peace.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer of Commendation for the Dying (PCSD 220C)

Welcome your servant, Lord, into the place of salvation which because of your mercy he/she rightly hoped for.

Response: Lord, save your people.

Deliver your servant, Lord, from every distress. R.

Deliver your servant, Lord, as you delivered Noah from the flood. R.

Deliver your servant, Lord, as you delivered Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees. R.

Deliver your servant, Lord, as you delivered Job from his sufferings. R.

Deliver your servant, Lord, as you delivered Moses from the hand of the Pharaoh. R.

Deliver your servant, Lord, as you delivered Daniel from the den of lions. R.

Deliver your servant, Lord, as you delivered the three young men from the fiery furnace. R.

Deliver your servant, Lord, as you delivered Susanna from her false accusers. R.

Deliver your servant, Lord, as you delivered David from the attacks of Saul and Goliath. R.

Deliver your servant, Lord, as you delivered Peter and Paul from prison. R.

Deliver your servant, Lord, through Jesus our Savior, who suffered death for us and gave us eternal life. R.


Remembering Life Throughout the Liturgical Year

The following dates provide the opportunity to recall the importance of the Gospel of Life in the course of the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries throughout the year.

2003

Dec. 8th    Immaculate Conception
This patronal feast of the United States of America is a perfect time for all who profess the Gospel of Life to beg God to make our laws just and protective of every one of our citizens from conception until natural death. Each year, the Holy Father places a wreath at the foot of the statue of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception at the Piazza di Spagna in Rome. Last year, as he placed the wreath, he prayed to the Blessed Virgin a prayer that we might make our own: "Watch over all families in a special way: may love sealed by the Sacrament ever reign between spouses, may children walk on the paths of goodness and true freedom, and may the elderly feel surrounded by attention and affection."

Dec. 12th    Our Lady of Guadalupe
She is the patron of all the Americas, through whom the faith was first brought to this land. She is, likewise, the patron of the Gospel of Life, through whom the weak, the poor, the forgotten, and the dispossessed may know love and the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. At the canonization of Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin last year, the Holy Father asked the new Saint, who brought the image of the Blessed Virgin to America, to intercede for this very cause: "Happy Juan Diego, true and faithful man! We entrust to you our lay brothers and sisters so that, feeling the call to holiness, they may imbue every area of social life with the spirit of the Gospel. Bless families, strengthen spouses in their marriage, and sustain the efforts of parents to give their children a Christian upbringing. Look with favor upon the pain of those who are suffering in body or in spirit, on those afflicted by poverty, loneliness, marginalization or ignorance. May all people, civic leaders and ordinary citizens, always act in accordance with the demands of justice and with respect for the dignity of each person, so that in this way peace may be reinforced." (Pope John Paul II, July 31, 2002)


2004

January 22nd    A Day of Penance and Prayer

In November, 2001, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved the following adaptation of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. Following confirmation by the Holy See in February, 2002, the following became particular law for the dioceses of the United States of America: "In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when the 22nd falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life. The Mass 'For Peace and Justice' (no. 21 from 'Masses for Various Needs') should be celebrated with violet vestments as an appropriate liturgical observance for this day."

The first option for the Opening Prayer from the Mass for Peace and Justice begins by recalling that those who work for peace will be called the children of God. The second sentence of the prayer reminds us of the words of Pope Paul VI in his famous address to the United Nations: "If you want peace, work for justice." The prayer asks God's grace to help us "to work without ceasing for that justice which brings true and lasting peace." The homilist might well reflect today on how we will never find true peace until God's justice prevails. True peace reigns only when every human being, especially the littlest and most defenseless among us, enjoys the blessings of that peace. The work of spreading the Gospel of Life and defending the right to life of the not yet born must be the unceasing agenda of each person who seeks to bring "the peace the world cannot give" to our day. The Prayer after Communion asks that as God has renewed us with the body and blood of his Son, so he might fill us with "the spirit of love." Thus, we might be strengthened for the work ahead: establishing among all "Christ's farewell gift of peace." When related to the opening prayer, it becomes clear that to establish this peace we must work for justice: a justice which recognizes the infinite value of every human life from conception until natural death.

March 25th    The Annunciation of the Lord
On this day we recall how the Angel Gabriel came to the Blessed Virgin Mary and told her that she was to be the Mother of God. The significance of this feast for the Gospel of Life was recalled by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae: "The one who accepted 'Life' in the name of all and for the sake of all was Mary, the Virgin Mother; she is thus most closely and personally associated with the Gospel of life. Mary's consent at the Annunciation and her motherhood stand at the very beginning of the mystery of life which Christ came to bestow on humanity (cf. Jn 10:10). Through her acceptance and loving care for the life of the Incarnate Word, human life has been rescued from condemnation to final and eternal death."


July 26th    Sts. Joachim and Anne
Saints Joachim and Anne were the grandparents of Jesus. Wouldn't this day (and even the preceding weekend at all the Masses) be a great time to bless families? The Book of Blessings provides the rites and prayers for blessing of families in chapter one (Book of Blessings, nos. 62-66). Joachim married Anne at Nazareth when he was still a young man. After some years they were ridiculed for remaining childless and legend has it that even Temple priest refused Joachim's offering of a lamb. Joachim withdrew to the desert and fasted for forty days to ask God for the gift of a child, while Anne wept beneath a laurel tree, fearing that she not only was childless, but had now lost her husband. It was then that an angel appeared to Anne and told her that God would answer her prayers and give to her and Joachim a child who would be praised throughout the world. Thus was the Virgin Mary conceived immaculately through the love and faithfulness of Joachim and Anne.

August 14th    Saint Maximilian Kolbe
Saint Maximilian Kolbe lived and died for the Gospel of Life. The story is told of how when he was forced to drag a cart filled with bodies to the ovens of Auschwitz he would quietly pray: «Et Verbum caro factum est... Holy Mary, pray for us». Even in this place of evil, the martyr knew the victory of life over death, a victory of faith and love.

Sept. 15th    Our Lady of Sorrows
Indeed, the Blessed Virgin Mary's heart was many times pierced with the sword of sorrow. Yet she who had nurtured within her womb the Word incarnate through whom all life came to be, remained faithful to the Gospel of Life at every turn. At the foot of the cross, in the face of death, she clung to the source of life. Is there any image of undefeated love and life as powerful as the Pieta: a mother's faithful love perdures as she anoints the murdered body of her son with her tears and her embrace? Mary knew the Gospel of Life and replied, "Let it be done to me according to God's will!"


Twelve Weeks for Life

On October 5, 2003, the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, we celebrate Respect Life Sunday. The following pages provide homily notes, intercessions and reflections for the following twelve weeks which lead us to the celebration of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. May these weeks leading up to Christmas be for each one of us a time to renew our dedication to protect innocent life and proclaim the Gospel of Life to the whole world.


October 12th    TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Wisdom 7:7-11/ Heb 4:12-13/ Mk 10:17-30 or 10:17-27 (LFM 143)

Preaching for Life
We Deserve Hope

Sometimes it is easy to get discouraged when the culture of death seems to be winning. Some days we can be tempted to despair when abortions abound, the elderly are forgotten, the prisoner is abandoned, and the littlest and the weakest are abused.

On such days we should remember the Lord who is with us always, until the end of time. The author of the letter to the Hebrews knew this week when he reminded us: "No creature is concealed from him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account." Thus the same Christ who commands us not to kill, to remain faithful in marriage, not to steal or lie or defraud, to honor our parents and to give all we have to the littlest and the poorest — that same Christ will return in glory at the end of time to judge the living and the dead.

Sometimes it is easy to despair, until we stop, and listen once again to the voice of the author of Life.


Reflections for Life
The Church, faithfully contemplating the mystery of the Redemption, acknowledges this value with ever new wonder. She feels called to proclaim to the people of all times this "Gospel", the source of invincible hope and true joy for every period of history. The Gospel of God's love for man, the Gospel of the dignity of the person and the Gospel of life are a single and indivisible Gospel.

— The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II, no. 2.

October 19th    TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Is 53:10-11/ Heb 4:14-16/ Mk 10:35-45 or 10:42-45 (LFM 146)

Preaching for Life
Deserving to be on the List

In just a few months, as the year draws to a close, magazines will begin making their lists of the most successful people. Included in their number will be the rich, the media savvy and the politically powerful of the earth.

The child who died last week of abortion in your town will not be on the list; nor will the aging mother whose children have forgotten her. The prisoner awaiting death for his crimes and the single mother abandoned by the father of her child won't stand a chance. The littlest, the weakest and the most vulnerable among us will never make those lists with their glossy photos attached.

But they will make Christ's list of the most blessed in the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the poor, the sorrowing, the disinherited and the despised! And blessed are you who defend them! Whoever wishes to be great, must be their servant, and whoever wishes to be first, must be the slave of all. Thus says the Son of Man, who "did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." And his is the only list that really matters.


Reflections for Life
In our service of charity, we must be inspired and distinguished by a specific attitude: we must care for the other as a person for whom God has made us responsible. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to become neighbors to everyone (cf. Lk 10:29-37), and to show special favor to those who are poorest, most alone and most in need. In helping the hungry, the thirsty, the foreigner, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned — as well as the child in the womb and the old person who is suffering or near death — we have the opportunity to serve Jesus. He himself said: "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" (Mt 25:40). Hence we cannot but feel called to account and be judged by the ever relevant words of Saint John Chrysostom: "Do you wish to honor the body of Christ? Do not neglect it when you find it naked. Do not do it homage here in the church with silk fabrics only to neglect it outside where it suffers cold and nakedness."

— The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II, no. 87


October 26th    THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Jeremiah 31:7-9/ Heb 5:1-6/ Mk 10:46-52 (LFM 149)

Preaching for Life
They Deserve Better

Standing in the rain in front of an abortion clinic praying the rosary, you have the right to wonder how this will all turn out. Decades from now, when our work is done, where will the Gospel of Life stand in our country? The answer to that has not been given to us.

But the answer of how it will all turn out in the end — that answer is proclaimed by the prophet Jeremiah today. On the last day, God will "gather from the ends of the world" the blind, the lame, those killed before their time, "the mothers and those with child," and all who departed this world in tears. He will console and guide them and lead them home.

Standing in the rain, it helps to know how it will all turn out.

Reflections for Life
At the end of this Encyclical, we naturally look again to the Lord Jesus, "the Child born for us" (cf. Is 9:6), that in him we may contemplate "the Life" which "was made manifest" (1 Jn 1:2). In the mystery of Christ's birth the encounter of God with man takes place and the earthly journey of the Son of God begins, a journey which will culminate in the gift of his life on the Cross. By his death Christ will conquer death and become for all humanity the source of new life.

The one who accepted "Life" in the name of all and for the sake of all was Mary, the Virgin Mother; she is thus most closely and personally associated with the Gospel of life. Mary's consent at the Annunciation and her motherhood stand at the very beginning of the mystery of life which Christ came to bestow on humanity (cf. Jn 10:10). Through her acceptance and loving care for the life of the Incarnate Word, human life has been rescued from condemnation to final and eternal death.

— The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II, no. 102. November 2nd    COMMEMORATION OF ALL THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED (All Souls)
Any readings taken from Masses for the Dead (LFM 1011-1016)

Preaching for Life
Death Does not Deserve our Fear

When the world sees death it trembles. Yet from that first early morning at the empty tomb, the followers of Jesus have rejoiced in the face of death.

That is why we celebrate the commemoration of all the faithful departed today. It is a day of the dead celebrated to remember the Gospel of Life. No child, no old man, no human person who has ever died unjustly will remain dead forever. Death is a fake — it does not last forever. On that last day when Christ returns in glory, each one of them will rise from the grave and stand before the Lord Jesus, who will reward the just with eternal life in his presence and punish the damned with eternal death apart from him.

We who work for the Gospel of Life, for the littlest and weakest and most forgotten among us, must never tremble, even in the face of murder and infanticide. For Christ is victorious over sin and death, and all will rise to stand before him on the last day.


Reflections for Life
The Lamb who was slain is alive, bearing the marks of his Passion in the splendor of the Resurrection. He alone is master of all the events of history: he opens its "seals" (cf. Rev 5:1-10) and proclaims, in time and beyond, the power of life over death. In the "new Jerusalem", that new world towards which human history is traveling, "death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away" (Rev 21:4).

And as we, the pilgrim people, the people of life and for life, make our way in confidence towards "a new heaven and a new earth" (Rev 21:1), we look to her who is for us "a sign of sure hope and solace."(142)

— The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II, no. 105

November 9th    DEDICATION OF THE LATERAN BASILICA IN ROME
Any readings taken from the Common of the Dedication of a Church (LFM 701-706)

Preaching for Life
Rejected Stones Deserve our Love

The Church is built of living stones. So when we celebrate the dedication of the Lateran Basilica, mother of all Churches, we celebrate the Church universal.

That Church is made up of living, breathing men and women, each endowed by God from the moment of conception until the moment of natural death with the dignity of the children of God. It matters not how big the stone, how strong or prominent the stone, it still makes up the Church.

Christ, the cornerstone, was rejected by the builders, and all who seek him will find him in the stones that everyone else has rejected. How blessed we are to be called to make up the household of God!

Reflections for Life
In fact, while the climate of widespread moral uncertainty can in some way be explained by the multiplicity and gravity of today's social problems, and these can sometimes mitigate the subjective responsibility of individuals, it is no less true that we are confronted by an even larger reality, which can be described as a veritable structure of sin. This reality is characterized by the emergence of a culture which denies solidarity and in many cases takes the form of a veritable "culture of death." This culture is actively fostered by powerful cultural, economic and political currents which encourage an idea of society excessively concerned with efficiency. Looking at the situation from this point of view, it is possible to speak in a certain sense of a war of the powerful against the weak: a life which would require greater acceptance, love and care is considered useless, or held to be an intolerable burden, and is therefore rejected in one way or another. A person who, because of illness, handicap or, more simply, just by existing, compromises the well-being or life-style of those who are more favored tends to be looked upon as an enemy to be resisted or eliminated. In this way a kind of "conspiracy against life" is unleashed. This conspiracy involves not only individuals in their personal, family or group relationships, but goes far beyond, to the point of damaging and distorting, at the international level, relations between peoples and States.

—The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II, no. 12.

November 16th    THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Deuteronomy 12:1-3/ Heb 10:11-14, 18/ Mk 13:24-32 (LFM 158)

Preaching for Life
The Day of Just Desserts

As the days of the Church year draw to a close, the Church reflects on the end of the world. It's not a bad thought for those who work to defend the Gospel of Life. Daniel reminds us that those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake to live forever. The Psalmist assures us that the Lord will show us the path to life, fullness of joy and delight at his right hand for ever. And Christ himself calls us to watch the signs of the times and be prepared for that day whose date "neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" knows.

Reflections for Life
The natural aversion to death and this incipient hope of immortality are illumined and brought to fulfillment by Christian faith, which both promises and offers a share in the victory of the Risen Christ: it is the victory of the One who, by his redemptive death, has set man free from death, "the wages of sin" (Rom 6:23), and has given him the Spirit, the pledge of resurrection and of life (cf. Rom 8:11). The certainty of future immortality and hope in the promised resurrection cast new light on the mystery of suffering and death, and fill the believer with an extraordinary capacity to trust fully in the plan of God.

— The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II, no. 67.

November 23rd    OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST THE KING
Daniel 7:13-14/ Revelation 1:5-8/ John 18:33b-37 (LFM 161)

Preaching for Life
The King We Don't Deserve

Christ is our King. But what sort of King is he who washes the feet of his subjects, spends his time with sinners, touches lepers and goes to an ignominious death? He is the sort of King, in his own words, who does not belong to this world. His kingdom is not here.

Which is precisely why we are called to work for the coming of his kingdom! Each morning and night and noontime we pray thy kingdom come! Do we mean it? Do we seek out the lost and bring them home? Do we liberate those imprisoned unjustly, defend those assaulted by evil, work to preserve the life of the unborn child?

His Kingdom will come. But our first duty is to announce with John the Baptist: Reform your lives! Prepare the way! For the Kingdom of God is at hand!


Reflections for Life
Man, as the living image of God, is willed by his Creator to be ruler and lord. Saint Gregory of Nyssa writes that "God made man capable of carrying out his role as king of the earth ... Man was created in the image of the One who governs the universe. Everything demonstrates that from the beginning man's nature was marked by royalty... Man is a king. Created to exercise dominion over the world, he was given a likeness to the king of the universe; he is the living image who participates by his dignity in the perfection of the divine archetype." Called to be fruitful and multiply, to subdue the earth and to exercise dominion over other lesser creatures (cf. Gen 1:28), man is ruler and lord not only over things but especially over himself, and in a certain sense, over the life which he has received and which he is able to transmit through procreation, carried out with love and respect for God's plan. Man's lordship however is not absolute, but ministerial: it is a real reflection of the unique and infinite lordship of God. Hence man must exercise it with wisdom and love, sharing in the boundless wisdom and love of God. And this comes about through obedience to God's holy Law: a free and joyful obedience (cf. Ps 119), born of and fostered by an awareness that the precepts of the Lord are a gift of grace entrusted to man always and solely for his good, for the preservation of his personal dignity and the pursuit of his happiness.

— The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II, no. 52


November 30th    FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Jeremiah 33:14-16/ 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2/ Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 (LFM 3)

Preaching for Life
Undeserving of the Gospel of Life

For whom is the Gospel of Life intended?

Is it for the humble? Yes, the Psalmist tells us that they will be led to justice and taught the Lord's way.

Is it for the just? Yes, for Christ tells us that when the Son of Man comes in glory, they are to stand erect and raise their head, for their redemption is at hand.

Is it for the unjust and those who would harm the innocent? Yes, for Christ warns them not to become so filled with the pleasures of this world that drowsiness, drunkenness and the anxieties of this world overcome them. Stay awake, and live the Gospel of Life, lest the day of his coming "catch you by surprise like a trap."


Reflections for Life
The Gospel of life is at the heart of Jesus' message. Lovingly received day after day by the Church, it is to be preached with dauntless fidelity as "good news" to the people of every age and culture.

At the dawn of salvation, it is the Birth of a Child which is proclaimed as joyful news: "I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Lk 2:10-11). The source of this "great joy" is the Birth of the Savior; but Christmas also reveals the full meaning of every human birth, and the joy which accompanies the Birth of the Messiah is thus seen to be the foundation and fulfillment of joy at every child born into the world (cf. Jn 16:21).

When he presents the heart of his redemptive mission, Jesus says: "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10). In truth, he is referring to that "new" and "eternal" life which consists in communion with the Father, to which every person is freely called in the Son by the power of the Sanctifying Spirit. It is precisely in this "life" that all the aspects and stages of human life achieve their full significance.

— The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II, no. 1.

December 7th SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Bar 5:1-9/ Phil 1:4-6, 8-11/ Luke 3:1-6 (LFM 6)

Preaching for Life
Deserving of our Prayers

Our hearts must ever be filled with joy, for we know that "those who sow in tears shall reap rejoicing." The mother who was persuaded to abort her child, cleansed by the tears of repentance, will rejoice one day with her child in the Kingdom of Heaven! All who repent of their complicity in the Culture of Death possess the sure and certain hope of Christ's mercy.

This is why we should make Saint Paul's prayer our own whenever we think of those who continue to live the culture of death: "We pray that that their love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value, so that they may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God."

May God grant us each the gift of repentance, to turn from evil and death and the selfishness of sin to, "prepare the way of the Lord and make straight his paths!"

Reflections for Life
O Mary,
bright dawn of the new world,
Mother of the living,
to you do we entrust the cause of life
Look down, O Mother,
upon the vast numbers
of babies not allowed to be born,
of the poor whose lives are made difficult,
of men and women
who are victims of brutal violence,
of the elderly and the sick killed
by indifference or out of misguided mercy.

— The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II, no. 105.

December 14th    THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Zephaniah 3:14-18a/ Phil 4:4-7/ Luke 3:10-18 (LFM 9)

Preaching for Life
Deserving an Answer?

Why is abortion still legal? Why are old men and women killed before their time? Why do we take the life of people because they have taken the life of other people? Why are the weak and the poor and defenseless among us exploited and made the victims of violence?

Answers sometimes lie only in the inscrutable ways of God. But this much is sure: our only hope for justice, for peace, and for living the Gospel of Life is in our radical dependence on the author of Life. We must trust on even the darkest days in the King of Israel, the LORD and know that he is in our midst and we have no further misfortune to fear.

With the Psalmist we boldly proclaim that our strength and our courage is the LORD, and he alone is our Savior!

Reflections for Life
The "woman clothed with the sun" — the Book of Revelation tells us — was with child (12:2). The Church is fully aware that she bears within herself the Savior of the world, Christ the Lord. She is aware that she is called to offer Christ to the world, giving men and women new birth into God's own life. But the Church cannot forget that her mission was made possible by the motherhood of Mary, who conceived and bore the One who is "God from God", "true God from true God". Mary is truly the Mother of God, the Theotokos, in whose motherhood the vocation to motherhood bestowed by God on every woman is raised to its highest level. Thus Mary becomes the model of the Church, called to be the "new Eve", the mother of believers, the mother of the "living" (cf. Gen 3:20).

— The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II, no. 103.

December 21st    FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Micah 5:1-4a/ Heb 10:5-10/ Luke 1:39-45 (LFM 12)

Preaching for Life
He Deserves Obedience

Who's really in charge? Too often we think it is us and that tomorrow will be determined by our timetables and plans and programs. But the way in which the Gospel of Life overcomes the culture of death has little to do with our initiatives and everything to do with the will of God.

From the dark days of the Diaspora, Israel cried out to God to save them. But while Israel was seeking to be saved from earthly conquerors and the misfortunes of war, God was seeking to save them from sin and death. Did he send a powerful earthly King, another David, to be their Messiah?

No. Instead he sent this prophecy through the prophet Micah: "when she who is to give birth has borne ... he shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the LORD, in the majestic name of the LORD, his God ... and he shall be peace."

And so through a Virgin, a baby, a cross and an empty tomb, God saved us from sin and death. How can we do anything, but seek his will? How can we do anything but be counted among those "who believed that what was spoken by the Lord would be fulfilled?"

Reflections for Life
The plan of life given to the first Adam finds at last its fulfillment in Christ. Whereas the disobedience of Adam had ruined and marred God's plan for human life and introduced death into the world, the redemptive obedience of Christ is the source of grace poured out upon the human race, opening wide to everyone the gates of the kingdom of life (cf. Rom 5:12-21). As the Apostle Paul states: "The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit" (1 Cor 15:45).

— The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II, no. 36.

December 25th    Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)
Vigil: Is 62:1-5/ Acts 13:16-17, 22-25/ Mt 1:1-25 or 1:18-25 (LFM 13)
Midnight: Is 9:1-6/ Ti 2:11-14/ Lk 2:1-14 (LFM 14)
Dawn: Is 62:11-12/ Ti 3:4-7/ Lk 2:15-20 (LFM 15)
Day: Is 52:7-10/ Heb 1:1-6/ Jn 1:1-18 or 1:1-5, 9-14 (LFM 16)

Preaching for Life
The Undeserved Gift of Life

"How can anyone be sad on the birthday of life?" Saint Augustine once declaimed. Joy is the only just response to God's unbelievable love for us, celebrated on this most sacred day.

Rejoice this day for the moment your life began, for the two people who conceived you in love. Rejoice this day for those who nurtured and protected you as a little child, cherishing your life and keeping it safe. Rejoice this day for all those whom God sent to teach you to love in the model of Jesus, his only Son. Rejoice this day for your spouse, through whom God has shown his love for you and with whom he has shared the miracle of new life. Rejoice this day for children, and grandchildren, signs to us of the endless cycle of God's eternal love. Rejoice for those whose old age show us the ripening love of God, whose wisdom is only revealed in weakness and whose strength is only experienced in our fragility.

Rejoice this day on the birthday of life. There is no excuse to be sad, for God has so loved the world that he sent his only Son that we might have life, and never fear death ever again!

Reflections for Life
The one who accepted "Life" in the name of all and for the sake of all was Mary, the Virgin Mother; she is thus most closely and personally associated with the Gospel of life. Mary's consent at the Annunciation and her motherhood stand at the very beginning of the mystery of life which Christ came to bestow on humanity (cf. Jn 10:10). Through her acceptance and loving care for the life of the Incarnate Word, human life has been rescued from condemnation to final and eternal death.

For this reason, Mary, "like the Church of which she is the type, is a mother of all who are reborn to life. She is in fact the mother of the Life by which everyone lives, and when she brought it forth from herself she in some way brought to rebirth all those who were to live by that Life."(138)

As the Church contemplates Mary's motherhood, she discovers the meaning of her own motherhood and the way in which she is called to express it. At the same time, the Church's experience of motherhood leads to a most profound understanding of Mary's experience as the incomparable model of how life should be welcomed and cared for.
— The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II, no. 102