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!
Everytime we allow our hearts to be moved and act on it, we take one step closer to becoming like Jesus. We take one more step toward holiness. We take one step closer towards being the worldchanger God calls us to be. There are so many ways God might invite you; you just have to be willing to let him.
We have all heard the adage, “If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans.” Oh boy, is that ever true for my life. God has taken me down a path that I could never have dreamed up on my own. And along the way, I have had moments of kicking and screaming because I wanted things to go my way. Does this sound familiar to you? Have you told God your plans and He did nothing short of the opposite?
We too are tested when it comes to sharing the Gospel, particularly the Gospel of Life. There is opposition, there is hatred, and there can so much rejection from those who do not respect life. We are convicted in God’s power to transform hearts to cherish the sanctity of every life. But IT IS HARD. Keep fighting for good. Through His strength alone can we persevere and have victory over evil. Because after all, what shall separate us from the love of Christ? Nothing.
Whether you enjoy spring despite seasonal allergies or would rather go back to the cozy sweaters and football-laden weekends of the Fall, there’s multiple ways to integrate this idea of “new life” into your everyday walk through the metaphorical (or literal) daisies. Remember, B4B is all about living life to the fullest, and living each day as the gift it is. Whole life, pro-life!
Christ died for us and for our sins, and Lent provides an essential reminder of how much we need Him. But how many of us cast the first stone, automatically, and judge another for the way they look or live? We are the body of Christ, and the more we set aside judgement and actively search for ways to empower others, the healthier the body will be.
The most important thing our support crew members do is they are present. When our riders are suffering, they are right there physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Being a support crew member is exhausting on so many levels because they take on the suffering of our riders without being able to take their suffering away. That is their mission, to be present and to cultivate communion on the ride. Tell me a more dire mission than that right now in the pro-life movement. Imagine a world where during every hardship a woman ever had to go through, they had their own “angel” to cry with.
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
