Celebrant: God reconciles everything to Himself in Christ. This gives us confidence now to bring our prayers before him.

Deacon/Lector:

That the Church may always call her people to live in concrete ways the great commandment of love, we pray to the Lord...

That world leaders may acknowledge Christ, for whom and through whom all nations and peoples exist, we pray to the Lord...

That our laws may protect the institution of marriage, created by God as the union of one man and one woman, we pray to the Lord...

That we may be Good Samaritans to those who are in danger of death, such as criminals on death row, homeless people lacking food and shelter, and children scheduled to be aborted, we pray to the Lord…

That all who are ill may be comforted by God's grace and assisted by His people, we pray to the Lord...

That all who have died may have eternal rest and peace, we pray to the Lord...

Celebrant:

Father, 
Your Word is near us,
In our hearts and on our lips.
Through that Word, fulfill our needs
And keep us faithful to You.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Pope Francis: Abortion is a Betrayal of our Vocation!
 
“To extinguish life voluntarily in its budding is, in any case, a betrayal of our vocation, in addition to the pact that binds the generations among themselves, a pact that enables us to look ahead with hope.  Where there is life, there is hope! However, if life itself is violated in its beginning, what remains is no longer the grateful and amazed reception of the gift, but rather a cold calculation of that we can dispose of. Then life is also reduced to a good of consumption, to be used for ourselves and for others, or discarded. How tragic this vision is, unfortunately, widespread and rooted, and how much suffering it causes the weakest of our brothers!” - Holy Father Praises Work of Italian Pro-Life Movement, 41st National Pro-Life Day in Italy, to be held Sunday, February 3, 2019

Dt 30:10-14
Col 1:15-20
Lk 10:25-37

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Today’s readings provide a powerful foundation for preaching on the call of God’s people to be the People of Life and to take concrete action to defend the lives of the unborn.

As Moses said, the law of God “is not too mysterious and remote.” Often people complicate the Church’s pro-life teaching unnecessarily. In reality, it is simple. We are called to love people, not kill them. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” as the Gospel indicates. It seems that the scholar of the law thought the teachings were “too mysterious and remote.”

But they are not. “Love your neighbor” does not have distinctions, limitations, or exclusions. It includes our unborn neighbors. And to love them “as yourself” means first to recognize them as a person like yourself. The “pro-choice” mindset is, ultimately, just another form of prejudice, this time directed at the people still in the womb.

Both the first reading, with the exhortation, “You have only to carry out,” and the Gospel passage, with its concluding command, “Go and do likewise,” call us beyond being pro-life in attitude to becoming pro-life in behavior. It is not enough for us to “believe” abortion is wrong; we have to intervene for those in danger of being aborted. The man who fell in with robbers, and in danger of losing his life, is also the unborn child. Many pass along the way and do nothing. They let them die. The priest and Levite knew the words of Moses in today’s first reading. They failed, however, to carry out those words.

The reason may be that they were afraid that this was a trap. Maybe the robbers were around the next curve of this road from Jerusalem to Jericho, which had come to be know as “The Bloody Pass,” and were ready to attack anyone who would stop to help the victim. The mistake that the priest and Levite made was that they asked, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” The Samaritan reversed the question, as we are called to do, and asked, “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” And so we must ask in regard to the unborn. Stop counting the cost and calculating the risk to yourself; start thinking about the risk to them.

All of our pro-life activity flows from our union with Christ. The second reading today is actually a commentary on the first few words of the Bible, “In the beginning, God created…” Paul shows us that this “beginning” is Christ. He is the source and purpose of all life, of all creation. To stand with him, then, is to stand with life, and against all that destroys it.