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Faithful Citizenship Weekly - 10.6.20

Living the Gospel of Life

We invite you to reflect on this message from Bishop Joseph Hanefeldt:

There are many challenges to the dignity of the human person in our society today. From the moment of conception until the time of death, life is being assaulted in countless ways. Violence seems to be the common answer for everything: the violence of abortion, the violence of human trafficking, violence against immigrants, the violence of racism, the violence of suicide and assisted suicide, the violence of rioting and the destruction of property, the violence of Planned Parenthood selling aborted fetal body parts for profit, violence from those who will not tolerate the freedom of religion. Living the Gospel of Life challenges us to present a different way of living to our violent, broken world.

Each of us must look within our own conscience and consider how we think of others and notice how we treat them. What we say and do to them, and what we say about them to others, comes from the deepest recesses of our hearts. Consistently living the gospel of life requires a deeper conversion, beginning within our own hearts. We must repent of any disregard we may have had for the dignity of others. We must adhere to the gospel of life at all times, seeking God’s mercy for the times when we have not lived by the Golden Rule.

Read the full message here.


Catholics protect human life and dignity

Watch this short video from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops about how Catholics can honor every person’s dignity.

Let us pray

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.


Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel of life
with honesty and love to the people of our time.
Obtain for them the grace to accept that Gospel
as a gift ever new, the joy of celebrating it with gratitude
throughout their lives and the courage to bear witness to it
resolutely, in order to build, together with all people of good will,
the civilization of truth and love,to the praise and glory of God,
the Creator and lover of life. Amen.

 

Words from the saints

“Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being’s entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign.”

St. Teresa of Calcutta

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