Bulletin Reflection - 29 September 2019 - Celebrating October 2019 as Respect Life Month and Extraordinary Missionary Month

      We come to the last weekend in the month of September, anticipating the month of October that begins in the next few days.  In the month of October, we recognize Respect Life Month.  I love the theme for Respect Life month this year:  "Christ Our Hope: In Every Season of Life".  Indeed, the respect for human life has many aspects for us as Catholics, as we are called to respect human life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death.  It includes not only issues such as abortion, euthanasia, and stem cell research, but also the protection of the environment, access to basic health care, mental health care, war, terrorism, genocide, the unjust distribution of resources, the death penalty, the protection of vulnerable adults and children, and prison reform.  Just this past week, I was at a prayer service in front of the abortion clinic in Jackson at a vigil kicking off the 40 Days for Life with other Christians from the Jackson metro area.  Respect for Life month reminds us that the many rights and responsibilities that we takes for granted in our country are currently under attack in many ways.  

         Also, Pope Francis has set October 2019 as Extraordinary Missionary Month, calling the faithful to foster greater awareness of Church’s missionary identity and to animate the missionary transformation of Church life and pastoral activity.  So often, we have envisioned missionaries as those who go to foreign lands to bring the Gospel of Christ to the people there.  However, all of us, in our lived reality and in our everyday lives, should see ourselves as missionaries.  All of us are called to claim a missionary spirit as disciples of Christ.  As we grow in our own encounter with Christ on our journey of faith, as we hear stories of the missionary saints from the history of our Church, and as we learn more about our own Diocese’s and our own parish’s missionary efforts, we are called to think about how we can be more missionary in spirit, spreading the Gospel in our own corner of the world.  

     So, as we celebrate October in our Church in a special way through these two special themes, let us hear the call to be disciples of Christ, being missionary in spirit and proclaiming the Gospel of Life.