What You Can Do

Nobel Prize winner, humanitarian, and foundress of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcultta, India, Mother Teresa has often said, “Of all the diseases I have known, loneliness is the worse.” So how do we, as people of pro-life conviction, battle this epidemic of loneliness? How do we live out our pro-life conviction in the midst of a crisis requiring us to love one another by separating ourselves physically?

If you have family members that you do not see often, you know the routine: a lot of hugs, a lot of laughs, a lot of discussions, no sleep, and leaving feeling like you could’ve spent a whole week with those people. It was no different for the Executive Team’s meeting this past month. As a former long-time missionary, this sentiment does not stay at the level of the Executive Team but penetrates throughout the entire organization and it is this Christian family model that makes it possible for each missionary to cross the finish line in St. Louis every year.

As a Canadian, born, raised and now living in the Nation’s Capital of Ottawa, I get to witness the many dimensions of the pro-life movement. Just as the matters pertaining to Life in Canada are complex and multifaceted, to change this current, involves multi-faceted approaches too, guided by the Holy Spirit.

When I look into someone’s eyes, either a student mom at our weekly family dinner or a stranger I pass on the sidewalk, I experience an invitation to see the other as someone to behold, no matter who they are. Every day I’m presented with countless opportunities to choose to gaze at their humanity and be moved by it, or to choose comfort and passivity.