Today, the first Sunday of October, we celebrate Respect Life Sunday and the beginning of Respect Life Month. During the month of October, Catholics in 196 dioceses across the United States will gather in prayer and thanksgiving to give public witness to the unique and priceless value of every human life. This year's Respect Life theme is, “Life: Our Sign of Hope.” This theme reflects the ongoing Jubilee Year of Hope. Through the gift of our Baptism, Our Lord Jesus Christ calls us to be a member of his body thereby, demonstrating the invaluable dignity of the human person. This mystery invites us to be witnesses to the hope of the resurrection by promoting and defending the precious gift of life
The world we live in is a violent place. Our modern society seems to revel in violence and the culture of death. We can't escape it. Like the prophet Habakkuk in today’s first reading, we could cry out, “’Violence!’ but you do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery”? Although we may not personally experience violence, we are confronted with it in films, on television and radio, in our newspapers and in the music, we listen to every day. If we were to believe what we see and hear, we could conclude that Life, which the gospels teach us to cherish, is cheap and readily disposable to the rest of the world.
As Catholics, we believe that all human life is sacred. We believe in the dignity of each and every human being without exception. Every day each of us has to decide if we will live the Gospel message of love. And then we have to put that love into practice in our homes, schools, workplaces, and in public.
I invite all of you to pray every day that God will transform our culture from a culture of violence and death to a culture that cherishes life.
A Prayer for Hope
Heavenly Father, in the sacrament of Baptism,
you have given us the gift of new life.
Through your son our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit,
you have made us your own.
Help us to recognize the gift of human life as a sign of hope in our world.
Reveal to us the places where your precious gift of life
is most in need of protection
and strengthen us to defend life in all stages and circumstances,
from the child in the womb to the elderly and dying.
Guided by your Holy Spirit,
guard us from discouragement
and give us the grace to be messengers of hope,
filled with confidence that nothing can separate us from your love.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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