Respect Life Month

October is Respect Life Month!  This means that we should take some extra time to pray and reflect upon what it means to have life, to care for life, and to honor all life as a gift from our creator!  This month we will look at the different ways Catholics have been taught by Christ to respect life.  We will take some time to think about how we respect human life from conception until death, and all the life we are meant to enjoy, protect, and share on our planet.

Christ taught us something special about the sanctity of human life in his own birth, growing up, dying, and rising from death.  All of this showed us that life, from the start, is joined to God, and that God is with us at every stage.  Human life is endowed with a special dignity.

The responsibility to nurture all living belongs to everyone.  We must remember that respecting life means not only that we all do our part to bring the unborn into the world, but that we create an environment of love, compassion, and mercy for those who have already been born. Our society is overloaded with stories of pain and stress.  God has given us instructions to prevent and ease such suffering, and so we must examine our conscience each and every day, asking if we are being what Christ asked us to be for one another.  Do we, in our actions, attitudes, and words, create a life that makes it easier for a person to bring a child into the world?  Do we place blame and cast judgment, or do we instead offer assistance?  Do we do our part to end violence (in our language, our entertainment, or our attitudes) so that we are signs of God’s love and instruments of peace?  Do we make the world a welcoming place for the newly born, the child, the middle-aged, the elderly, the sick, the lonely, the outcast, the prisoner, the poor?  Respecting life begins in the womb and extends to the world, which is the home of human life until it meets eternal life.  Therefore, all stages of life must be treated with dignity and care, so we can ease the difficulties of our existence and help each soul meet its destination in God.

Jesus gave us all we need to know about caring for one another, and our Catholic tradition helps us understand it for our time.  The foundation of Catholic Social Teaching is to promote human dignity.  

We encourage you to reflect this month on how we as Catholics have a special role in promoting the dignity of life at every stage.  How do we make a society that welcomes, loves, and supports the life brought into the world?  How do we ensure the dignity of those that are born, and ease the burden for those who have difficulty providing for their own or their children’s basic needs, such as food, education, and health care?  How do we follow Christ’s commands to care for someone in need?  How do we encourage loving families who support and strengthen one another?  How do we demonstrate that violent words, actions, or forms of entertainment hurt our image of life’s dignity?  How do we encourage a holy view of the human being, so that we do not treat humankind simply as physical objects with no value, but as beings who are made in the image and likeness of God?

Ideas for reflection and action:
1.  Reflect on and make a habit of doing the Corporal Works of Mercy:
Feed the hungry
Give drink to the thirsty
Clothe the naked
Shelter the homeless
Visit the sick
Visit the imprisoned
Bury the dead

2.  Reflect on how our society does things that promote life.  Make a commitment to aid efforts that allocate society’s resources to meet all people’s basic human needs, such as food, love, education, and medical care.   

3.  Practice the spiritual works of mercy by praying for those who have not learned what a relationship with Christ will do for them, and by helping others recognize God’s love and mercy.

4.  Be a sign and instrument of peace, of love, of mercy, and of joy.  These are gifts from God to be shared!

5.  View all human life as a reflection of God’s likeness.  We are called to be Christ’s body, which we celebrate at the Eucharist.  Let it transform us so that we always share Christ’s life-giving gifts to everyone.  

6.  Consider what the dignity of human life means.  Show that you value others, whether they are strangers or family, and decline the temptation to participate in activities that devalue the dignity of the human person.

This month, we will be collecting items for the poor, such as food and clothing, as usual, and we will also be taking donations to women’s centers of assistance, so please donate any baby-care or maternal-care items throughout the month.