You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. – Psalm 139:13

       The verse above is taken from one of my favorite psalms. It tells of how God made each one of us, how much He loves us, and how He will never leave us, even if we try our hardest to run from His love.

       It’s also one of the verses that many pro-lifers like to quote when talking about how each baby is precious — a gift from the Lord. The verse after it says, “I praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! My very self you know.”

       Sadly, many people in our world today say otherwise. They claim that babies are mere “blobs of blood,” bearing no human characteristics at all, and so there’s nothing wrong with “getting rid” of them. According to the Bound 4 Life website, 46 million babies die from abortion worldwide every year. That’s approximately one baby being aborted every two seconds. Horrifying, right?

       I urge you today to say a prayer for the babies in their mothers’ wombs — “wanted” or “unwanted” — that people will see that each body is “knit” by Him in the womb.

     Mama Mary, pray for us! Tina Santiago-Rodriguez (tina@trulyrichmom.com)

Reflection: Do you uphold the sanctity of human life and, if need be, defend it to the best of your ability?

Jesus, help me to be a voice for the voiceless — including all unborn babies. Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Unborn, pray for us!

St. Mother Theodora Guérin, pray for us.

Job is quite clear about his place in creation. He knows that he is not in command of all that happens. Even if God has commanded that he suffer, Job still does not see any reason to rebel against God as it is He who has the power, and he has no hope in usurping it. Job is ultimately calling for calm and reason to be applied to his situation so that a defensible answer is worked out. However, most people often want full understanding. Unfortunately, the nature of suffering often does not allow this.

1 The Lord addressed Job out of the storm and said: 12 Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning and shown the dawn its place 13 for taking hold of the ends of the earth, till the wicked are shaken from its surface? 14 The earth is changed as is clay by the seal, and dyed as though it were a garment; 15 but from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm of pride is shattered. 16 Have you entered into the sources of the sea, or walked about in the depths of the abyss? 17 Have the gates of death been shown to you, or have you seen the gates of darkness? 18 Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell me, if you know all: 19 which is the way to the dwelling place of light, and where is the abode of darkness, 20 that you may take them to their boundaries and set them on their homeward paths? 21 You know, because you were born before them, and the number of your years is great! 40: 3 Then Job answered the Lord and said: 4  ehold, I am of little account; what can I answer you? I put my hand over my mouth. 5 Though I have spoken once, I will not do so again; though twice, I will do so no more.

R: Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.

1 O Lord, you have probed me and you know me; 2 you know when I sit and when I stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. 3 My journeys and my rest you scrutinize, with all my ways you are familiar. (R) 7 Where can I go from your spirit? From your presence where can I flee? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I sink to the nether world, you are present there. (R) 9 If I take the wings of the dawn, if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall guide me, and your right hand hold me fast. (R) 13 Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. 14 I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful are your works. (R)

Jesus invites us to take hold of the opportunities we are given and, thus, not miss the graces of repentance and conversion. We have limited moments of such grace in our lives. It would be a shame to miss or abuse them. Let us be grateful for the graces God gives us and use them well so that on Judgment Day we will not have a difficult time accounting for any of them.

If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

13 Jesus said to them, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. 15 And as for you, Capernaum, ‘Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.’ 16 Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

think:  Let us be grateful for the graces God gives us and let us use them well.

READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Ecclesiastes 1-4

POPULARITY OR TRUTH?

We preachers are sometimes bugged by the so-called “chronic niceness” syndrome. We occasionally get carried away by the pull of political correctness. And not a few of us feel the pressure of the popular expectation that we should always focus on the positive and to “let sleeping dogs lie,” figuratively speaking.

       Truth to tell, the temptation to do so is ever present. Who wants to talk to an audience where individuals raise their eyebrows just as soon as you open your mouth? Who wants to go on “telling them like it is” and face the disapproving looks of the very people who invited you in the first place?

       Every public speaker knows this — without audience sympathy, it is an uphill climb for the speaker. But experts tell us that, in the desire to get precisely that much-coveted audience sympathy, speakers resort to antics and ruses that ironically blow it away — things like apologizing, pinning the blame on the traffic, confessing one’s unpreparedness or lack of preparation time, and the like. Such ruses succeed in showing one and only one thing: the speaker’s position of weakness!

       I read no such weakness on the part of the Lord today. No dancing palsy-walsy with people’s expectations. No attempt to sugarcoat what is basically a hurtful, though liberating, truth.

       The Lord tells them like it is, and how! He minced no words with regard to Chorazin and Bethsaida, which showed no audience sympathy of any kind at all. They saw and heard all the beautiful, marvelous things — the mighty deeds, as the Lord called them. But they wouldn’t listen. They simply wouldn’t care.

       It is hard to be a preacher and a priest now. I saw it firsthand when we took an unpopular stand about the sanctity of life two years ago. Those of us who did were called all sorts of names.

       The temptation remains. Is it popularity or truth? Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

REFLECTION QUESTION: What is the easier thing for you to do — tell the truth or please people with half-truths or lies?

Grant me, Lord, the courage to always speak the truth even at the risk of being unpopular or rejected by people.