Amos 7.12-15; Eph 1.3-14; Mk 6.7-13

• St. John Paul II echoed Our Lord’s sentiment in the Gospel when he wrote, “The Church does not impose; she only proposes.”

• As Catholics living in a culture hostile to the Christian faith, a culture which sees the Gospel as oppressive and freedom-denying, it is up to us to proclaim the Gospel of Life in all its liberating, transforming, and life-giving splendour.

• We can do this by first remembering who we are. And as St. Paul says in the Second Reading, we are blessed, chosen, made for holiness, destined for adoption, redeemed, forgiven of sins, informed of God’s will, destined to live for God’s glory, marked with the Spirit, and God’s own people.

• When we defend in the public square the Church’s teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, even when we are rejected, let us persist in preaching the truth in charity all the while remaining cheerful and joyful, for like the twelve, we too have been sent.

Pro-Life Intercession

That the Church may compassionately preach the need for repentance from all sins against life and point the way to a new reverence for those who are poor, weak, unwanted, and unborn, we pray to the Lord...