frfrankpavone

Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, reflects on the Sunday readings for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A and their message about abortion. For more information about what the Sunday readings, and the whole Bible, say about abortion, and for resources for your Church, see https://www.ProLifePreaching.org. You can order there the book “Proclaiming the Message of Life,” which contains these reflections for all the Sunday readings in the lectionary. Is 25:6-10a Phil 4:12-14, 19-20 Mt 22:1-14 or 22:1-10 (Further info at www.priestsforlife.org/preaching) The readings assigned for today speak about the banquet to which God – in the old and new covenants – calls his people. The homilist can point out that this is a banquet of life. The prophecy of Isaiah tells us that God is in the business of destroying death. “On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all people, the web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever.” This is the same mountain on which he will provide the choice foods and wines. God did not make death; rather, he destroys it. He does so in Christ, for whom the wedding banquet (the marriage of Christ the Bridegroom with the Church his bride) is celebrated. To stand with Christ is to stand with life, and to stand with life is to stand against whatever destroys it. Nothing destroys more life than abortion. We are on the holy mountain now – in the Eucharist, where the Church, and each of us individually, renew our vows to the Lord, and receive (not simply recall) his victory over death. It remains for us to “proclaim, celebrate, and serve the Gospel of Life” (as John Paul II put it in Evangelium Vitae), to apply that victory to every sector of society.

Join me in Praying to End Abortion

Join me for Our Daily Scripture Reading and Reflection

Today is Patriot Day!

Today, Prolife Leader Frank Pavone, in a live Sunday time of prayer and Scripture reflection, speaks about how the Word of God commands us to warn sinners to repent while there is still time. Follow us @FrFrankPavone

Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, reflects on the Sunday readings for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A and their message about abortion. For more information about what the Sunday readings, and the whole Bible, say about abortion, and for resources for your Church, see https://www.ProLifePreaching.org. Is 5:1-7; Phil 4:6-9; Mt 21:33-43 Overview: The First Reading and Gospel passage assigned to this Sunday talk about the vineyard of the Lord, and the fact that those to whom the vineyard was entrusted did not properly respond to the Lord or yield the fruit for which he was looking. Instead, they broke his covenant, killed his prophets and eventually his Son, and had the vineyard taken away from them. Reflection: God entered into a covenant of Life with his people from of old, and the prophets spoke untiringly of the demands of that covenant, both in regard to what the people owed God and what they owe one another. Those who worshipped God were to help their neighbor; those who believed in the God who rescued them were bound to care for and rescue one another. The failure to do this led to such rebukes as are found in Isaiah 1. The theme carries over into Isaiah 5, today’s first reading. The Gospel parable refers, historically, to the history of God’s people killing the prophets, who urged them not to worship false gods or make covenants with death. A good summary of the history of the people’s rejection of the covenant is found in Psalm 106. God’s people, having inherited the Promised Land, still had to do battle with the foreign nations around them. They were told not to adopt the practices of those people, for they did not know the true God. God’s people, however, did mingle with these other nations and even joined in their rituals. The most grievous of the sins of God’s people was when, in imitation of the pagan nations, “they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons and they shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters” (Ps. 106:37-38). Rather than bearing the fruit of life, rooted in true worship, they bore the fruit of death, rooted in false worship. True worship, instead, would have led the people to embrace the prophets’ admonitions to “do justice, redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow” (Is. 1:17). As James puts it, “Looking after orphans and widows in their distress…makes for pure worship before our God and Father” (James 1:27). Those most defenseless in our midst today are the unborn. Application: This line of thought can then be applied to us, first and foremost in that we are entrusted with a vineyard, too, which is the new and everlasting Covenant in the blood of Christ. That covenant is renewed at the Eucharist, where we resolve to bear good fruit for the Lord, as his life-giving Body and Blood are given to us. We will not betray the covenant with which we are entrusted. As of old, so today, that covenant gives us obligations to one another. As John Paul II explained in Evangelium Vitae 76, “The Creator has entrusted man's life to his responsible concern, not to make arbitrary use of it, but to preserve it with wisdom and to care for it with loving fidelity. The God of the Covenant has entrusted the life of every individual to his or her fellow human beings, brothers and sisters, according to the law of reciprocity in giving and receiving, of self-giving and of the acceptance of others. In the fullness of time, by taking flesh and giving his life for us, the Son of God showed what heights and depths this law of reciprocity can reach. With the gift of his Spirit, Christ gives new content and meaning to the law of reciprocity, to our being entrusted to one another. The Spirit who builds up communion in love creates between us a new fraternity and solidarity, a true reflection of the mystery of mutual self-giving and receiving proper to the Most Holy Trinity. The Spirit becomes the new law which gives strength to believers and awakens in them a responsibility for sharing the gift of self and for accepting others, as a sharing in the boundless love of Jesus Christ himself.” The vineyard we have here in the United States, in particular, entrusts us with profound gifts of freedom. We can shape our own culture and government. God asks us to bear fruits of life rather than to abuse our freedom with perversions of “choice” that end up taking life. Additional Context and Elements: Priests for Life recommends certain standard elements in a pro-life homily: alternatives to abortion, healing and forgiveness after abortion, and responses to common slogans. These homily elements are outlined in the suggestions we give at www.PreachingOnAbortion.com. The congregation should be called to embrace practical action for the defense of life. Joining a parish pro-life committee; Participating in daily prayer (see www.PrayerCampaign.org). Suggestions on our pro-life bulletin inserts found at www.priestsforlife.org/bulletin.

Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, reflects on the Sunday readings for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A and their message about abortion. For more information about what the Sunday readings, and the whole Bible, say about abortion, and for resources for your Church, see https://www.ProLifePreaching.org. You can order there the book “Proclaiming the Message of Life,” which contains these reflections for all the Sunday readings in the lectionary. Is 55:6-9 Phil 1:20c-24, 27a Mt 20:1-16a The contrast God indicates between his way of thinking and ours (First reading) is exemplified in the Gospel passage, where the landowner’s (the Lord’s) generosity to those who started late astonishes those who worked all day. Those who come late to the Kingdom of God (the Gentiles, and those yet in our midst who are far off) can still enjoy its full benefits. The emphasis on “thinking right” that these readings convey goes to the heart of repentance. “Metanoia” is a change of “mind”, of “thinking.” Elsewhere, Paul writes that “we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). This is at the core of the battle between the Culture of death and the Culture of Life. John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae 8 writes, “At the root of every act of violence against one's neighbor there is a concession to the "thinking" of the evil one, the one who "was a murderer from the beginning" (Jn 8:44). As the Apostle John reminds us: "For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, and not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother" (1 Jn 3:11-12).” Either life has priority over choice, or choice can be used to destroy life. But both ways of thinking cannot co-exist, and when one thinks according to the Culture of death, a true “metanoia” is needed, in which one heeds what the Lord says in today’s first reading, and recognizes the need to begin thinking God’s way about the relationship between life and choice. The readings also put a strong emphasis on mercy and forgiveness, themes that always accompany our teaching about abortion, and impel us to invite to reconciliation those who have been far from the Church because of past involvement with abortion. Not only do we invite them to reconciliation, but we invite the rest of our people to think in God’s way about those who have had abortions, that is, not with thoughts of condemnation or punishment, but with eagerness to welcome and console.

Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, reflects on the Sunday readings for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A and their message about abortion. For more information about what the Sunday readings, and the whole Bible, say about abortion, and for resources for your Church, see https://www.ProLifePreaching.org. You can order there the book “Proclaiming the Message of Life,” which contains these reflections for all the Sunday readings in the lectionary. Ez 18:25-28 Phil 2:1-11 or 2:1-5 Mt 21:28-32 People, indeed, can convert. God himself asks us to believe that through today’s readings. The son who first said no can later say yes (Gospel); the wicked one can turn from his wickedness and still find life (First reading). This proves true in the pro-life effort; in fact, the flow of conversions is in the direction of life, not death. Norma McCorvey, the former “Jane Roe” and plaintiff (and winner) of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, became a pro-life Catholic and worked for the rest of her life to end abortion. The same is true of Dr. Bernard Nathanson, one of the chief engineers of the abortion rights movement. And there are so many others that an international society of ex-abortionists has been formed, called the “Society of Centurions.” But even more common is the testimony “I Regret My Abortion” from the women of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, the largest mobilization in history of those who have had abortions and now speak out against it. “I Regret Lost Fatherhood” is the message that the men of the campaign offer, as they grieve the children they lost to abortion. The Church is called by today’s readings to welcome these individuals back, and to learn from their experience. The longer form of the second reading suggests the pro-life theme that we shared for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14), and we repeat that reflection below. “Pro-choice” is an exaltation of self; the cross is the denial of self. “Pro-choice” is the assertion of oneself; the cross is the emptying of oneself. “Pro-choice” says we can lift ourselves up; the cross says that we are obedient and that God lifts us up. The war between the culture of life and the culture of death did not begin after Roe v. Wade, although it did enter a new chapter at that point. It is a cosmic struggle, with its origins at the dawn of human history and, in fact, in the history of the angels. In Revelation 12:7 we read, "War broke out in heaven." War is a terrible thing on earth. What must it mean that war broke out in heaven? This war involved some angels who rebelled against God and became devils. What was it that caused an angel to become a devil? What was the Devil's mistake? In Isaiah 14, we read a rebuke to the King of Babylon. The passage also has a deeper spiritual meaning and is a glimpse into the thinking of the evil one. It reads, "How you have fallen from the heavens, Oh Lucifer! ... You said in your heart: 'I will scale the heavens; above the stars of God I will set up my throne ... I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will be like the Most High!"' (Is. 14:12-14). There is the Devil's mistake. He thought that he could be God! This is why the angels who fought him in heaven were led by one named Michael, which means, "Who is like God?" Michael and his angels won, but the war did not end there. Satan and his legion "were cast down to the earth" (Rev. 12:9), and our troubles began. The solution to the thinking of the evil one is the thinking of the Holy One. As Isaiah lifted the veil to show us the mind of Lucifer, so St. Paul in today’s second reading lifts the veil to show us the mind of Christ: "Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at. Rather he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave. It was thus that he humbled himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a cross. Therefore God highly exalted him" (Phil. 2:6-9). This attitude, which St. Paul says must be ours, counteracts the attitude that we exalt ourselves by our own choices. Rather, our exaltation, our freedom, and our fulfillment come from a humble acceptance of and obedience to a truth that we did not create. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil marks the limit of our choices. True freedom is the power to choose what is right, and to love as Christ did, by embracing the cross and giving ourselves away for the good of the other person.

Will Scotus Bump Trump?

Exposing the Biden Corruption

Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, reflects on the Sunday readings for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A and their message about abortion. For more information about what the Sunday readings, and the whole Bible, say about abortion, and for resources for your Church, see https://www.ProLifePreaching.org. You can order there the book “Proclaiming the Message of Life,” which contains these reflections for all the Sunday readings in the lectionary. Sir 27:30-28:9 Rom 14:7-9 Mt 18:21-35 “None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master.” This assertion, and what follows it in today’s Second Reading, speak of the dominion of God over human life. This, of course, is the basis for the Church’s opposition to abortion and euthanasia, and any other kind of violence against human life. The “pro-choice” side chants, “My body, my life, my choice!” and the pro-euthanasia side chants also, “My death!” But this reading declares that Christ is Lord both of the living and the dead. When the Church defends life, she is not only defending the rights of the human person, but is also defending the rights of God himself, and his absolute dominion over human life. It is that dominion which also is the basis for the mercy and forgiveness of which today’s First Reading, Psalm, and Gospel speak. God is over all, and therefore can have mercy on all. The first act of mercy is creation itself, and therefore, just as we are called to imitate God’s mercy by forgiving our neighbor, so are we called to imitate his mercy by protecting our neighbor’s life. Moreover, these powerful readings about mercy are a good opening to remind the congregation about the forgiveness the Lord and the Church offer to those who have had abortions, and about our responsibility to welcome such individuals with tenderness and kindness, and never with harshness or judgment.

A Special Woman

Inside the Abortion Industry! Exposed!

The Good Shepherd Project - Clarity, not Confusion How to Help our Congregation Think Clearly About the Faith

The Wrong Question About President Trump

My Daily Diary for Sept. 2nd - SEPT. 4th

My Daily Diary for AUG. 26th - SEPT. 1st

What Kind of King Do We Have?

How They Want To Stop Trump Voters

Pray with Me!

The Announcement of the Prolife Awards for the 29th Annual National Prayer Service

Do Not Be Asleep Like The Rest

Today, Prolife Leader Frank Pavone, in a live Labor Day time of prayer and Scripture reflection, speaks about how our work is holy, an expression of human dignity, and an aspect of loving our neighbor. Follow us @FrFrankPavone

Today, Prolife Leader Frank Pavone, in a live Sunday time of prayer and Scripture reflection, speaks about how our discipleship requires us not to be conformed to the way the world lives without Christ. Follow us @FrFrankPavone

Do Not Bury The Talent