Table of Contents:
WordBytes on Respect Life and Other Social Justice Issues

We live in an evil age. The world’s unraveling. We have no memories of a more immoral and problematic time than today. We wish Jesus would hurry up and return in his Second Coming with the promised new heavens and new earth where only righteousness dwells. Since that doesn’t seem to be happening yet, what should we do? … To live in a time of increased evil is to live in a time of increased grace. Something’s going to change: Either Christ will soon return in his Second Coming or he will come in power through us, for we are his body and we are already here. (Excerpt on the calling to participate in social justice, in Bringing Christ into an Evil Age)

• A vision of the power of love for aborted children
  In the early 1990s, my parish held its first Mass for the Unborn, during which the Knights of Columbus dedicated a Tomb for the Unborn that they had set up next to the church. As it started, I asked Jesus to bring to the Mass every aborted child of every parishioner. What happened next felt like an inspired vision.

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• Our Three Angels
  How God worked through our babies who died: A story about how God works through respect for life. Because our babies died shortly after birth, I have gone through a lot of grief, but I feel very blessed, because God has given us three angels who are praying for my husband and me every day. I call them our angels because they lived on this earth for such as short time, and while they were here, they truly served as God’s messengers.

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• Living in a Time of Major Crises and the Impact It Could Have on Pro-Life Issues
  People have been looking for the Second Coming of Christ, expecting it to happen soon, wishing it would happen very soon to rescue our world from the evil-doings of multiple major crises. Where is Jesus? When is that “last hour”? When is he going to rescue us from all of this?

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• Is there anything we can do to stop massacres?
  Massacres are happening all too often. Increasingly so. The December 14, 2012, murders of twenty 6- and 7-year olds, and the six adults who tried to protect them in the Newton, Connecticut, shootings remind me of the massacre of the Holy Innocents that took place around the time Jesus Christ was born.

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• Social Justice: The Calling of Every Christian
  A meditation based on 1 Peter 5:5b-11. “Beloved, Clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another.” It is not humility that keeps us silent when we see injustices, abuses, and the mistreatment of others. It is selfishness. It is the desire to protect ourselves from the Way of the Cross….

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• Who says there’s no persecution of Christians in America?
  Freedom of religion, here in a nation that was founded on freedom and worships freedom, is only an illusion that looks nice in principle but does not exist in practice. Freedom of religion does not, in actuality, translate to tolerance of religion. Those who chastise Christians for not being tolerant* are themselves intolerant of Christians. The persecution of Christians has been underlying our society and is harming our daily lives.

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• Bringing Christ into an Evil Age
  We live in an evil age. The world’s unraveling. We have no memories of a more immoral and problematic time than today. What should we do? To have the Lord as our refuge amidst evil requires that we look to him, keep our eyes on him, and listen for his voice. There’s no reason to fear evil.

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• How the Light of Christ Always Conquers Darkness (video podcast)
  What are you concerned about because darkness seems to have taken over? Whatever it is you’re worried about, there is darkness there. But John 1:5 assures us that “Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.” The Light of Christ is always victorious! The Light of Christ always conquers darkness!

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See also our WordBytes on Lay Ministry >>