January 24, 2016

Dear Community,    
On January 22nd, the Church invited all of us to a day of prayer for the legal protection of unborn children.  As part of that day of prayer, many pilgrims traveled to Washington D.C. for the March for Life.  I have had the opportunity to go to the March for Life three times, twice as a seminarian and once as a priest.  That event not only enriched my spiritual life, but helped me to minister as a priest to those who seek forgiveness after realizing the great evil that abortion is.  We hope to gradually see the fruits from this annual day of prayer and sacrifice.          
We pray and hope that with the March for Life, the prayers and the sacrifices of all good people, we will be able to awaken a new conscience in society at large.  We hope that this new conscience will put to rest the evil of abortion.  It is hard for us to understand that society thinks of abortion as a right.  In what way can something which harms human life be a human right?  And that is precisely why we concentrate our prayers and efforts to fight and eradicate this evil.   
We hope to build a new conscience in which human life will be seen as a gift from God, the Creator, and we humans as recipients and stewards of that gift.  We hope to create a new conscience in which every human being clearly understands the respect and responsibility he/she has with every human life.  We hope to create a new conscience in which we all care and protect the suffering human life, the forgotten human life, the abandoned human life, the conceived human life.  
Finally, we give a special thanks and words of gratitude for those who represented St. Patrick Parish at the March for Life in Washington last week.  God bless you for your sacrifice and prayers on behalf of the unborn.   
                             Fr. Lopez