Tribulation Times
October 23, 2013
(Jer 1:4-5) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations.
POPE JOHN PAUL II: “…we are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the ‘culture of death’ and the ‘culture of life.’
CRISIS MAGAZINE: God, Man, and Abortion: A New Summons to Hope
VIA Anne Lastman: Broken Branches Issue 95 for October/November, 2013
THE CATHOLIC SUN: Life after abortion: Mother finds hope and healing through Church
USCCB VIDEO: Call To Prayer
ARCHBISHOP CHARLES J. CHAPUT, O.F.M.CAP.: Living the Gospel of Life
Exactly 15 years ago this fall, America’s bishops issued a pastoral letter called Living the Gospel of Life. Even today, with the passage of time, this remains no ordinary Church text. I believed then, and I believe now, that it’s the best document ever issued by the U.S. bishops on the priorities of Catholic engagement in our nation’s public life. In writing it, the bishops sought to apply Pope John Paul II’s great encyclical Evangelium Vitae (“The Gospel of Life”) to the American situation. The heart of their statement, paragraph No. 23, stresses that:
This is why the right to life is not merely one among many urgent issues, but rather the foundational one. It provides the cornerstone for a whole architecture of human dignity. Nothing has changed in recent months or years in Catholic thinking about the sanctity of human life. Nor can it. As America’s bishops have stressed so many times, we have an obligation to work for human dignity at every stage and in every circumstance of human life. Here in Philadelphia, our Catholic social ministries model that dedication to the poor and disadvantaged in an extraordinary way.
But when we revoke legal protection for unborn children – when we accept the intimate violence abortion inflicts both on women and their unborn children; when we license and sacralize abortion as part of what Pope Francis calls a “throw away culture” — we violate the first and most important human right, the right to life itself. And once we do that, and then create a system of alibis to justify it, we begin to put every other human and civil right at risk.
October is national Respect Life Month. It’s a good time to remember the preciousness of all human life, beginning in the womb and continuing through natural death.
There are really two tragedies in every abortion: the killing of an unborn child; and the killing of an opportunity to love. God made us to be better than that.
Prayer request? Send an email to: PrayerRequest3@aol.com
October 23, 2013
(Jer 1:4-5) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations.
POPE JOHN PAUL II: “…we are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the ‘culture of death’ and the ‘culture of life.’
CRISIS MAGAZINE: God, Man, and Abortion: A New Summons to Hope
VIA Anne Lastman: Broken Branches Issue 95 for October/November, 2013
THE CATHOLIC SUN: Life after abortion: Mother finds hope and healing through Church
USCCB VIDEO: Call To Prayer
ARCHBISHOP CHARLES J. CHAPUT, O.F.M.CAP.: Living the Gospel of Life
Exactly 15 years ago this fall, America’s bishops issued a pastoral letter called Living the Gospel of Life. Even today, with the passage of time, this remains no ordinary Church text. I believed then, and I believe now, that it’s the best document ever issued by the U.S. bishops on the priorities of Catholic engagement in our nation’s public life. In writing it, the bishops sought to apply Pope John Paul II’s great encyclical Evangelium Vitae (“The Gospel of Life”) to the American situation. The heart of their statement, paragraph No. 23, stresses that:
“Opposition
to abortion and euthanasia does not excuse indifference to those who
suffer from poverty, violence and injustice. Any politics of human life
must work to resist the violence of war and the scandal of capital
punishment. Any politics of human dignity must seriously address issues
of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing, and health
care. Therefore, Catholics should eagerly involve themselves as
advocates for the weak and marginalized in all these areas. Catholic
public officials are obliged to address each of these issues as they
seek to build consistent policies which promote respect for the human
person at all stages of life.
“But being ‘right’ in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life. Indeed, the failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the ‘rightness’ of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community. If we understand the human person as the ‘temple of the Holy Spirit’ — the living house of God — then these latter issues fall logically into place as the crossbeams and walls of that house. All direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house’s foundation. These directly and immediately violate the human person’s most fundamental right — the right to life. Neglect of these issues is the equivalent of building our house on sand. Such attacks cannot help but lull the social conscience in ways ultimately destructive of other human rights.”
“But being ‘right’ in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life. Indeed, the failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the ‘rightness’ of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community. If we understand the human person as the ‘temple of the Holy Spirit’ — the living house of God — then these latter issues fall logically into place as the crossbeams and walls of that house. All direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house’s foundation. These directly and immediately violate the human person’s most fundamental right — the right to life. Neglect of these issues is the equivalent of building our house on sand. Such attacks cannot help but lull the social conscience in ways ultimately destructive of other human rights.”
This is why the right to life is not merely one among many urgent issues, but rather the foundational one. It provides the cornerstone for a whole architecture of human dignity. Nothing has changed in recent months or years in Catholic thinking about the sanctity of human life. Nor can it. As America’s bishops have stressed so many times, we have an obligation to work for human dignity at every stage and in every circumstance of human life. Here in Philadelphia, our Catholic social ministries model that dedication to the poor and disadvantaged in an extraordinary way.
But when we revoke legal protection for unborn children – when we accept the intimate violence abortion inflicts both on women and their unborn children; when we license and sacralize abortion as part of what Pope Francis calls a “throw away culture” — we violate the first and most important human right, the right to life itself. And once we do that, and then create a system of alibis to justify it, we begin to put every other human and civil right at risk.
October is national Respect Life Month. It’s a good time to remember the preciousness of all human life, beginning in the womb and continuing through natural death.
There are really two tragedies in every abortion: the killing of an unborn child; and the killing of an opportunity to love. God made us to be better than that.
7.
Jacob said, 'Like a lantern giving light in a dark little room, so the
fear of God comes into a man's heart and enlightens it, and teaches him
all that is good and all the commandments of God.'
21.
A hermit said, 'If it were possible to die of fear, all the world would
perish with terror remembering the coming of God after the resurrection.
What will it be like, to see the heavens opened, and God revealed in
wrath and fury, and innumerable companies of angels gazing on the whole
human race gathered together? Therefore we ought to live our lives as
those who must give account of each action to God.'Prayer request? Send an email to: PrayerRequest3@aol.com
This month's archive can be found at: http://www.
