January 16th

Dear Friends,

Praying for the sick is a work of mercy, and parish bulletins generally list sick members of the community so that others can pray on their behalf. Sometimes these lists get so long with names of people who remain indefinitely, and the sheer length of the list means that few people ever notice when new names are added. Sometimes people on the list recover or die, but their names remain on the list because no one realizes it. Some names were added by friends or family, but no one remembers who added the name or how to follow up. To help focus our prayer, we are going to start a new list from scratch at the beginning of February. If you would like your name or the name of a friend or loved one who is sick listed (make sure you have their permission), alert Wanda or Kathy in the offices, and we’ll publish their names for four weeks or so, and then remove it. If you/they would like the name to stay on the list longer, just let us know as that four week period ends. This will hopefully help to keep our sick list up-to-date, as well as keep its size manageable so that we can better hold before us in prayer those who are ill.

Next Saturday, January 22nd, marks the 49th anniversary of the Supreme Court Roe v Wade decision that paved the way for the high level of abortion access available to women in most of our country. As you know, we live in a State which has enacted laws ensuring continued access to abortion even if Roe v Wade were to be overturned at the Federal level. In fact, according to the Chicago Tribune, Illinois has some of the least restrictive abortion rules in the nation. I think we all realize that the goal of disciples of Jesus is to persuade, not to force… to draw towards conversion, not to ramrod our viewpoint down others’ throats. That said, the blood of innocent children cries out for response. And as Christians, we are obliged to call out evil when we see it, especially the evil of the direct taking of innocent human life. We are also called to work for the legal protection of the most vulnerable among us. Drawing our society into a deeper appreciation for a moral conviction based upon divine revelation: this is our challenge. And so we need to remain humbly reliant upon the Holy Spirit to guide us, so we can respond as God’s instruments, as we work to soften the hearts and open the eyes of those who do not see God’s gift of life where we do.

May your week reflect the encounter with Christ We experienced at Mass today!