Men and women of good faith are each and everyone of us, who, to our capabilities, are looking to be witnesses of the Gospel of Life.

Visit an elderly or handicapped person, smile to a homeless person, not mind your own business and discuss with a person thinking about ending a pregnancy or euthanasia, help an overworked mother, invite a lonely acquaintance, listen to a suffering colleague whose child is using, donate to a charity of conscientious objectors... there are many things that you can do daily to defend life, even if they seem superfluous. The smallest gesture can change the world.

Extract from The Book of Matthew

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
- Matthew 5: 13-16

Extract from Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) N°79

We are the people of life because God, in his unconditional love, has given us the Gospel of life and by this same Gospel we have been transformed and saved. We have been ransomed by the "Author of life" (Acts 3:15) at the price of his precious blood (cf. 1 Cor 6:20; 7:23; 1 Pet 1:19). Through the waters of Baptism we have been made a part of him (cf. Rom 6:4-5; Col 2:12), as branches which draw nourishment and fruitfulness from the one tree (cf. Jn 15:5). Interiorly renewed by the grace of the Spirit, "who is the Lord and giver of life", we have become a people for life and we are called to act accordingly.

We have been sent. For us, being at the service of life is not a boast but rather a duty, born of our awareness of being "God's own people, that we may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called us out of darkness into his marvellous light" (cf. 1 Pet 2:9). On our journey we are guided and sustained by the law of love: a love which has as its source and model the Son of God made man, who "by dying gave life to the world".

We have been sent as a people. Everyone has an obligation to be at the service of life. This is a properly "ecclesial" responsibility, which requires concerted and generous action by all the members and by all sectors of the Christian community. This community commitment does not however eliminate or lessen the responsibility of each individual, called by the Lord to "become the neighbour" of everyone: "Go and do likewise" (Lk 10:37).

Together we all sense our duty to preach the Gospel of life, to celebrate it in the Liturgy and in our whole existence, and to serve it with the various programmes and structures which support and promote life.

"That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you" (1 Jn 1:3): proclaiming the Gospel .

The Virgin Mary and St. Joseph

Virgin Mary was offered to us as our mother. Her whole life was a answer to God's infinite love, a yes to a fiat said without reservation and without condition. Let us receive her as our mother and guide us to preach the Gospel of Life our whole life as in our own vocation, to our family, at work, to our friends... Joseph stands by Mary, he is a man of silence. He did not always understand God's plan but he fully committed to it. Let the man who protected the son of God and his mother guide us to live according the Gospel of LIfe. 

Let us pray for one another, that we become the light of the world and the salt of the earth. With the Virgin Mary, and St. Joseph, let us pray that we become people of good faith, believers or laymen, and that we become happy, inventive, brave apostles of life. That life be protected and respected, from its beginning to its natural end, that the dignity of each person, regardless of who they are, be respected and recognized.

Final Prayer

Press "Pray" to load the community prayer, ending today's devotion!