USCCB - Pro-Life Activities - Intercessions for Life

Intercessions for Life

December 2003

December 7th SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT
That through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
patroness of our nation,
America will again support and protect all human life
from conception to natural death;
We pray to the Lord:

December 14th THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT
That in this season of joyful hope,
we might cherish each day of life God gives us,
and use it to proclaim the goodness of God and the Gospel of Life;
We pray to the Lord:

December 21st FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT
For all doctors and medical professionals,
and especially for those who assist in the miraculous birth of children,
that they may be rewarded for their work and their goodness;
We pray to the Lord:

December 28th THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY, AND JOSEPH
For all families,
and especially for parents who have grown very old,
that they may be loved and cared for by the children they have borne;
We pray to the Lord:

To Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Watch over all families in a special way: May love sealed by the Sacrament ever reign between spouses, May children walk on the paths of goodness and true freedom, And may the elderly feel surrounded by attention and affection.

John Paul II, Dec. 8, 2002

December 2003: Bulletin Briefs

A single soul is a whole world in the sight of God. Jesus, himself, stopped to preach to one woman. — St. John Eudes

Christmas is above all a celebration of the family, because God, being born in a human family, chose it as the first community consecrated by his love. — Pope John Paul II, December 15, 2002

The Church's 'No' to abortion and euthanasia is a 'Yes' to life, a 'Yes' to the fundamental goodness of creation, a 'Yes' which can move every person in the depths of his conscience, a 'Yes' to the family, the most basic community of hope, which so pleases God that he calls it to become a domestic Church. — Pope John Paul II, October 16, 2003, Pastores Gregis, no. 71

Human rights flow from the recognition that human beings have an intrinsic dignity that is based on the fact that they are human. Human embryos are human, even if they are cloned. If the rest of us are to have the rights that flow from the recognition of this dignity, then we must act to ban cloning in all its forms. — Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, on Oct. 21, "International Convention Against the Cloning of Human Beings."

Prepared by the USCCB Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities