Respect Life Ministry meets from 7:00-9:00 on the second Tuesday Night of each month in room 9 at the church. Please come and join us to say a Rosary for Life and help us plan activities in support of our Church's consistent life ethic.
Every human being, at every stage and condition, is willed and loved by God. For this reason, every human life is sacred. To deprive someone of life is a grave wrong and a grave dishonor to God. Because we are created in the image of God, who is Love, our identity and our vocation is to love. Pope Benedict has called this “the key to our entire existence.”
~ USCCB Respect Life Program flyer (2010)
The true measure of humanity is essentially determined in relationship to suffering and to the sufferer... A society unable to accept its suffering members and incapable of helping to share their suffering and to bear it inwardly through ‘com-passion’ is a cruel and inhuman society.
~ Pope Benedict XVI, In Hope We Are Saved, no. 38
Our caring parishioners responded with typical generosity recently when the Pro Vida group hosted a baby shower for four expectant mothers who had turned to our Gabriel Project for assistance with difficult pregnancies. Recently, this note arrived in the mail: “Thank you so much for everyone who volunteered for the baby shower. All of the diapers and clothes are greatly appreciated. This will mean a lot to my son, Brett Blessing, born 7/12/10, 8 lbs. 13 oz."
Pope Benedict’s first message to young people, he taught with great conviction that if “we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed.”
~ Megan Breen & Samuel Vasquez, “The Promise of Pro-Life Youth,”
USCCB Respect Life Program (2010-2011)
This Week’s Word of Life
Weekly Reminders from the USCCB regarding the Dignity of All Life
As Catholics, called to reflect the light of Jesus in places of great darkness, we must speak out and work tirelessly on behalf of our brothers and sisters in captivity. We must educate others on what we can do to eradicate the deplorable trade of women and children for profit. And we must pray for the rescue and restoration of victims, for the redemption of traffickers, and for the protection of all human life.
~ Diane Bayly, “Sex Trafficking: The New Slavery” USCCB Respect Life Program (2010-2011)
Weekly Reminders from the USCCB regarding the Dignity of All Life
Mercy brings healing that is impossible on a merely human level. Divine Mercy can restore hope, because it flows from the heart of the Risen Christ who, once and for all, has vanquished the finality of death. The deep truth that faith teaches is that only in the context of mercy—God’s Mercy and our own forgiveness and mercy—can we, as wounded individuals, find healing and hope. ~ Bishop Robert Finn, “Divine Mercy and the Death Penalty,” USCCB Respect Life Program (2010-2011)
This Week’s Word of Life
Weekly Reminders from the USCCB regarding the Dignity of All Life
For the very reason that God is love and man is his image we understand the person’s profound identity, his vocation to love. Human beings are made for love; their lives are completely fulfilled only if they are lived in love.
~ Pope Benedict XVI, to Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko at the 10th International Youth Forum (March 20, 2010)
Lenten Pro-Life Prayer
Father of all mercy, we thank you for this season of grace and light. We know that sin has blinded us. Draw us ever closer to you, in prayer and penance. Since you, O God, are light itself. Give all your people a clearer understanding of what sin is, and what is virtue. Grant in particular that we may see, as never before, the profound dignity of every human life, including the vulnerable unborn children. Give us grace to defend our brothers and sisters in the womb by our prayers, our words, and our self-sacrificing actions. We pray this through Christ our Lord. Amen
Gabriel Project Updates
A great big “thank you” to parishioner Doreen Quinones, who has agreed to take over as coordinator of our Gabriel Project. There also are needs for additional volunteers to act as “angels” by working with pregnant moms to determine what their needs are and how our parish can help get those needs met. Contact Doreen if you are interested: dquinones53@gmail.com.
In other Gabriel Project news, we are happy to inform you that our program has reached out to several women in the last couple of months. Thanks to your kindness and generosity, formula, clothing, diapers and furnishings have been delivered to four families experiencing crisis pregnancies.
