USCCB - Pro-Life Activities - Intercessions for Life

Intercessions for Life

August 2004

Spanish Version

August 1st EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
For every woman who has had an abortion,
that she might be given the grace
to embrace the mercy of God
and know healing, strength and holiness;
We pray to the Lord:

August 8th NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
For those who work for the healing
of mothers and their children:
that God will strengthen their resolve
and make their hands gentle yet strong;
We pray to the Lord:

August 15th THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY
That from her place in heaven,
the ever gentle Mother of God
might cradle the souls of all deceased children
in her loving embrace;
We pray to the Lord:
August 22nd TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
For those whose burden of age has grown heavy,
that God might teach us to love them,
and to assure them of the innate value of their presence;
We pray to the Lord:

August 29th TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
For all who work for the Gospel of Life, and especially for those who teach: for patient endurance and joy; We pray to the Lord:

Never be discouraged and never tire, dear brothers and sisters, of proclaiming and witnessing to the Gospel of life; may you be beside the families and mothers in difficulty....God will never let you lack the help you need to conclude your many activities satisfactorily, if you turn to him with intense and constant prayer. — Pope John Paul II to the Italian Pro-Life Movement (May 22, 2003)

August 2004: Bulletin Briefs

Human life is a gift from God and as Catholics we have a most grave obligation to defend all human life from the moment of conception until natural death. God help us if we fail in this most fundamental obligation.
— Archbishop Myers, Archdiocese of Newark, "A Time for Honesty," May 5, 2004

I should like particularly to underline how the administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act. Its use, furthermore, should be considered, in principle, ordinary and proportionate, and as such morally obligatory, insofar as and until it is seen to have attained its proper finality.
— Pope John Paul II, address before the International Congress on 'Life-sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State,' March 20, 2004

No evaluation of costs can outweigh the value of fundamental good which we are trying to protect, that of human life.
— John Paul II, address before the International Congress on 'Life-sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State', March 20, 2004

Sometimes, your work to build a culture of life can seem very frustrating—it might seem that your efforts bear no fruit...Do not give up—trust God...imitate God in his love, his kindness, his patience.
— Bishop Thomas Wenski, Coadjutor Bishop of Orlando, Respect Life Homily, March 14, 2004

Prepared by the USCCB Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities