Do you know the names of the people around you? It really is an amazing gift we can give people this time of year: to feel known and loved. Especially in 2020 when giving hugs and handshakes is currently frowned upon, let’s acknowledge the power of our words and call each other by name, just as God calls us by ours.
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?
It is time for the “maybe” generation to say “yes” and mean it. It is what Christ asked of His earliest disciples and it should not shock us that He is asking us the same thing now.
This Christmas season, I am so grateful for the gift of counselors, medical staff, and volunteers at pregnancy resource centers who help moms find support and resources to answer their immediate “hows.” My heart is filled with joy at the thought of women being able to put aside significant fears and concerns in order to enjoy their pregnancy because of these centers.
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.
Through the many circumstances of my years in those maternity homes, I was given the privilege of being continually drawn out of my comfort zone, experienced incomprehensible joy, was brought to deep sadness, felt sheer exhaustion, and found the deepest sense of God’s faithfulness and redemption.
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.
While the Celebration of Life is about welcoming and congratulating the missionaries, it is about so much more than that. It is about growing a community. You know how they say it takes a village to raise children? Well, it takes a village to truly “renew the culture of life!”
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.
It’s possible you have or are facing a “delay” in your life plans today. Trust in God and His plan. At times it may be difficult, but God is working in all our delays and troubles. The end result will be better than you can imagine!
In this first period of formation, the young adults:
With eyes now opened to the need and Christ-centered solutions of problems, these young adults are sent forth as “missionaries” into the rest of the formation program and into the rest of their lives, committing to live with the truth of the Gospel of life as the lens through which they see every relationship, every decision, and the world at large.
In this second period of formation, the missionaries
In this last period of formation, after the National Ride, missionaries
