This afternoon I received an important challenge from one of our brothers. October is an important month, because it’s Respect Life Month. There are also other important events happening this month.
Today, the Extraordinary Synod on the Family began in the Eternal City of Rome. On October 19th, Venerable Paul VI will be become Blessed Paul VI. I don’t think that any of this is a coincidence.
Some people have narrowed down and boxed in pro-life ministry to fight against abortion. There is probably no greater fight than the fight for human life, but we must not limit ourselves to life in the womb. We must extend our concern to all people from conception to natural death. We must protect life at all stages of development and in all conditions: 
healthy, sick, poor, rich, male, female, old and young, with special attention to the voiceless.
But where does life flourish? Where should life find its first home if not in the family? Today’s family is under attack, maybe no more than families in the past, but certainly by different kinds of demons. The enemy is resourceful, if nothing else. He can find different ways of tearing apart the fabric of the family by war, poverty, disease, bigotry, politics, infidelity, heterodoxy, apostasy, atheism and secularism. The key is not how creative the enemy can get. The key is how smart we are.
Human life, outside of the context of family life, is very difficult to defend, much more difficult to protect. To defend means to defend the dignity of human life. Man has a dignity that is inherent to his roots, which are found in the hand of the Creator. This dignity must be defended from those who would reduce man to an unexplained accident in the cosmos, making him expendable because he has no justification for his existence; therefore, no inherent value.
Any footb
all player will tell you that the best defense is a good offense. Translated into Gospel terms, human life must be protected from the culture of indifference which is a culture of death. The best way to protect man and preserve him for the Kingdom is to push back against the economy of sin. Sin can no longer be allowed to be the currency that rules our lives as individuals, families or nations. When sin governs our lives, man despairs and the message of Christ is smothered by the cries of angst . . . . Man looking for gods, rather than Go
d.
Pope Paul VI foresaw this coming and tried to warn us in his now famous encyclical Humanae Vitae, on the transmission of human life between husbands and wives in the intimacy of marriage and the shelter of the family. It is probably the Holy Spirit who has inspired Pope Francis to beatify Pope Paul VI at the end of the Extraordinary Synod on the Family. Immediately following, on October 22nd is the first feast day of St. John Paul II, the author of Gospel of Life.
We be
lieve that this is a good month to do something together that is open to other members of the Catholic and pro-life community. The Franciscans of Life encourage everyone who reads our blog to organize an activity for this special month on life and the family. It can be something as simple as an evening rosary between several families, a night of praise and worship, a penitential service in atonement for those who destroy instead of build the human family. You may want to organize a meal with several couples to celebrate traditional marriage and family. The demon that afflicts human life and weakens the fabric of the family will only be evicted from our lives with prayer and fasting. A family or community day of fasting and abstinence is always
good option.
Please post your ideas in the comments below so that others who read this can take some ideas back to their families and their parishes. Remember the words of Sacred Scripture. “Do not be afraid.” Through the prayers of the Immaculate Christ is slowly, but surely conquering the kingdom of darkness. He will not leave us orphans.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/us-bishops-invite-faithful-to-pray-for-family-synod-35304/ (more…)
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Franciscans of Life 
