Follow Me ‘Every life is a gift to be treasured’ By Bishop Terry R. LaValley

Jan. 18, 2017

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

The Psalmist proclaims:
For it was you who created my being,
Knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you for the wonder of my being,
For the wonders of all your creation.

Already you knew my soul,
My body held no secret from you
When I was being fashioned in secret
And molded in the depths of the earth.
(Psalm 139: 13-15)

These words are particularly inspiring when we reflect on the gift of human life. The sentiments of the Psalmist are clearly those of gratitude: I thank you for the wonder of my being, for the wonders of all your creation.

Do we believe every human life is a wonder-filled gift?  When I don’t embrace human life as a gift, then I need not treat it with any special dignity or respect.  The body becomes merely an object that I can do with as I please.  Enter: pornography, euthanasia, abortion.  If I don’t believe that every human life is precious, my heart risks becoming hardened towards the sufferings endured by others who are vulnerable: the refugee, the homeless, the immigrant.

Back in 1995, Pope John Paul II, in Evangelium Vitae, wrote: “Every individual, precisely by reason of the mystery of the Word of God who was made flesh, is entrusted to the maternal care of the Church.  Therefore, every threat to human dignity and life must necessarily be felt in the Church’s very heart.”

The Church’s heart continues to suffer the wounds inflicted by our nation’s Supreme Court Roe v Wade decision, when it decided, forty-four years ago, that human life in a mother’s womb was not a precious gift from God to be protected and nurtured.

Again this year, tens of thousands of people from throughout our nation, including faithful pilgrims from the North Country, will join together in the annual March for Life in Washington, DC.  Although the media gives this event scant attention, our legislators will see the large numbers of their constituents who care deeply about the right to life from conception to natural death.  The message is clear and compelling: with grateful hearts, every human life is a gift to be treasured, not discarded.

Thank you for your generous support of this year’s collection that supports our many local efforts to help form consciences to embrace the gift of human life at all its stages.  Let us continue to pray that minds be opened and hearts softened.

Faithfully yours in Christ,                                                                              

Most Reverend Terry R. LaValley
Bishop of Ogdensburg