Women's March in Gulfport, FL  

 

   As I walked with over 300 people in the Women's March in Gulfport, FL, I could feel the presence of my deceased grandmother "Nana Ford" with me. She entered my spirit and we walked together in the Women's March. Nana Ford helped me understand that I was walking not only for the living, but also for our ancestors, to make a difference in God's world, which they helped to develop and nourish with their love.  

- Margaret Mary Foley, OSF

 

   As I participated in the Women's March in Gulfport, I, too, felt that I was walking in the company of women present, past and future. I felt a true solidarity with women who were speaking out for justice at many levels: equality for women in the workplace and for equal pay for equal work, for women who are victims of abuse of all kinds, for all people who are oppressed by unjust structures in government and society, and for the urgency of caring for our home on earth. Let us continue to pray and work for justice that is born of love and compassion for all people in our world.  

-  Jeanne Williams, OSF                                         

 By: Connie Cooper, Communications Coordinator, St. Elizabeth Mission Society   

   Help the Jubilee Sisters "Celebrate Their Journey" with a special Jubilee Mass enrollment card from the St. Elizabeth Mission Society. As members of the Mission Society, their intentions will be remembered at Masses celebrated throughout the year in the Motherhouse Chapel. As always, they will also share in the prayers and good works of our Sisters in Brazil, Bolivia, Jamaica, and the United States.

  All Sisters will receive an order form in the mail in January or simply click HERE to access and review the available cards.  

  As a sponsored ministry of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, the St. Elizabeth Mission Society shares in its spiritual aims, one of which is to advance the awareness of God's love. Donations given for the cards are used to support the ministries of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany who work to educate, heal, clothe and feed those who are desperately poor in Jamaica, Bolivia, Brazil and the United States.

  Special Jubilee cards as well as various other enrollment cards may be ordered online at  www.FranciscanHope.org. Others may wish to call the St. Elizabeth Mission Society office at (716) 373-1130 or e-mail the staff at steliz.pubications@fsallegany.org for more information.  

 

By: Judith Terrameo OSF, Chair of the Franciscan-Clarian Spirituality Committee

 

   The Franciscan-Clarian Spirituality Committee is developing a webpage that will provide resources on the Consistent Ethic of Life. This webpage will be located in the Spirituality section of our Congregational website. A notice will be sent when the webpage is available. In the meantime we share the following:

 

   What is "a consistent Ethic of Life?"

   The  consistent life ethic , or the  consistent ethic of life, is a [life stance] that opposes  abortion ,  capital punishment ,  assisted suicide , and  euthanasia . Adherents are opposed, at the very least, to  unjust war , while some adherents also profess  pacifism , or opposition to all war. The term was popularized in 1983 by the Catholic Cardinal  Joseph Bernardin  to express an ideology based on the premise that all  human life is sacred  and should be protected by law.

   What does the Church say about the consistent ethic of life?

   Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or willful self-destruction; whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are supreme dishonor to the Creator.

Gaudium et Spes 27 | The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World of the Second Vatican Council

 

   ARTICLE: A Consistent Ethic of Life: An American-Catholic Dialogue

Gannon Lecture, Fordham University by Joseph Cardinal Bernardin December 6, 1983

To access article, click on website listed below or copy into webpage search.

https://www.hnp.org/publications/hnpfocus/BConsistentEthic1983.pdf

 

 

   Prayer:

   Gracious and Good God, the beauty and dignity of human  life   was the crowning glory of your creation. You further ennobled that  life   when your Son, Jesus Christ, became one with us in his incarnation. Help us to realize the sacredness of human  life   and to respect it from the moment of conception until the last moment at death. Give us courage to speak with  truth   and love and with conviction in defense of life. Help us to extend the gentle hand of mercy and forgiveness to those who do not reverence your gift of life. To all, grant pardon for the times we have failed to be grateful for your precious gift of life or to respect it in others. We ask this in Jesus' Name. AMEN.

https://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=1350

 

 

   Visit the page for information about our Shifting Gears Project and other updates.