October 25, 2015

​​Dear brothers and sisters, 
 
Several good things are happening during this month which we are about to conclude.  We prayed for and are expecting to see the fruits of the Ordinary Synod on the family.  We also renewed our commitment with the promotion and protection of human life at every stage and all circumstances. 
Allow me to share with you Bishop Malloy’s reflection on the protection and promotion of human life. He wrote: 
 
“Life is a gift, a gift given to every person in existence and every person who has ever existed by our Creator.  Life has been given to each of us, not by chance or happenstance, but because the Author of Creation has a purpose for each of us.  At every moment, through every season of life, each of us is being held in existence by God’s love.  Because of this we can be assured that as long as there is life, God has an intentional purpose for that life.  However brief, however long, every life has value, every life has purpose, and every life is worth living.”
“As we witness the natural world around us change with the seasons, we can also recognize that there are different seasons throughout life.  The joys of spring time and the glory days of summer are not separate realities from the fading days of autumn and the darkness of winter, bur part of cyclical nature of creation, each season having value and purpose.  So too, each and every life is worth living in the seasons of joy and happiness, and also in times of suffering and even pain.”
“It is in these times of hardship, pain or suffering that we might be most tempted to take control of life, to take control of existence itself, in ways that violate the dignity with which God has created us.  We witnessed this earlier this month, as tragically, California became the fifth state in our nation to make assisted suicide legal.”  
“Experiencing pain or watching another suffer can be very difficult.  But we know that because we are held in existence by God’s love that even in these moments, life has purpose and life is worth living.  Even when one’s health deteriorates quickly, when a person is not seen as a ‘contributing’ member of society by the world’s standards, when an unborn child receives a diagnosis indicating he may not live for much longer – even in these seasons, life is a gift that has a purpose and is worth living” By Bishop David Malloy.
 
I encourage you to subscribe to The Observer, the official newspaper for our diocese, and read Bishop Malloy’s reflections and much more every weekend.
God bless St. Patrick.       
 
                                                   Fr. Lopez

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