Useful Links:

Louisiana Right to Life

Woman's New Life Center

Archdiocese Respect Life Page

Respect Life on the radio…Catch monthly Respect Life updates on Catholic Community Radio’s Wake Up show every first Wednesday at 7:35am. Learn more about Catholic Community Radio here… http://www.catholiccommunityradio.org

THE 2ND MONTH AFTER CONCEPTION

Your baby is making tremendous progress in his or her development. The brain is functioning more and the baby can move his or her muscles. The mother can hear the heartbeat through an ultrasonic stethoscope. The taste buds are beginning to form and milk -teeth buds are present at 6 ½ weeks. At the gestational age of 2 months, a developing baby is able to suck his or her thumb. The baby is just over 1 inch long but has unquestionably human characteristics. Incredibly, by the end of the 8th week, all of the major organ systems have been established. You spiritually adopted baby has developed the essential internal and external features needed to survive after birth and just needs to grow and be refined. Please remember to keep your spiritually adopted baby and his or her mother in your prayers.

Heavenly Father, in Your love for us, protect against the wickedness of the devil, those helpless little ones to whom You have given the gift of life. Touch with pity the hearts of those women pregnant in our world today who are not thinking of motherhood. Help them to see that the child they carry is made in Your image—as well as theirs—made for eternal life. Dispel their fear and selfishness and give them true womanly hearts to love their babies and give them birth and all the needed care that a mother alone can give. We ask  this through Jesus Christ, Your Son, Our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

OCTOBER is the month when we recall the tragic ways our country has turned away from the Gospel of Life. This week please pray particularly for all children who have died by abortion and for the parents of these unborn children. The choice in favor of life is not a private option but a basic demand of a just and moral society. Message from Pope John Paul II to Cardinal William Keeler:  For those deprived of the human needs and their human rights, that they may be given the dignity you confer on all your people, we pray to the Lord.
 

NFP Resources and Articles

Prayer for Life

Almighty God, Our Father, you have given us life and intend for us to live forever. Grant us your blessings as we stand together and pray for LIFE. Ground us in the belief that human life is sacred, because all people were made in your image and likeness. And give us the courage to stand up and defend all life from creation until natural death. Help us to teach by word and example that all men, women and children, in every land, on every continent are precious because we are a gift from God, who is all Love. Grace us with the strength and the wisdom we need to eliminate poverty, discrimination and ignorance that diminish the value of life in our country. May the tender mercy of God shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow and guide our feet into the path of peace.  Amen.

Humanae Vitae 

Pope Paul IV wrote and dated the encyclical Humane Vitae  July 25, 1968 and it was issued at a Vatican press conference on July 29, 1968 making it 50 years old.  Section 17 of the encyclical contained 4 predictions made by Pope Paul IV,  there would be:

1) An increase in marital infidelity.
 

2) A general lowering of moral standards.
 

3) A loss of respect for women (man would “reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires”).
 

4) Governments would coerce people into using contraception and intervene in citizens’ sexual relationships.  

The Pope's predictions were controversial in 1968.  Many of the predictions have come true, but the debate has shifted to whether contraception had any influence on those societal changes.