April 26–May 2
All gather around an image of Mary and a candle. Light the candle and make the sign of the cross:
V. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
R. Amen.
For those families that will pray together, the opening words are read by the father, the teaching and the intercessions by different children, and the final prayer by the mother.
I. Opening
On the cross, the Lord gave us his Mother and in John, the beloved disciple, we all received her among our dearest things. As a good Mother, she not only distributes God's graces to us but also helps us to understand how Jesus makes our lives great and beautiful. Through Mary, we want to rediscover how Christ risen has touched all the dimensions of our life. We want to prepare ourselves as a family for the consecration of our parish to Her. We ask Mary that she will explain us the greatness of the gift of every human life, entrusted to our welcoming and care, as a gift called to flourish by our love.
II. Teaching
Read the reflection by St. John Paul II assigned for the day (below).
III. Intercessions
Say the following intercessions and responses:
V. Mary, you who welcome the Son of God in your womb and carry Him for nine months until you brought Him forth; bring Him to live again in our hearts so that we learn to welcome and respect life as a gift from the Creator and bring it to flourishment...
R. Lord, hear our prayer.
V. Mary, you knew that the center of your family was Jesus Christ, help us to put Him at the center of our plans, challenges, issues so that He will generate a new life in our own families...
R. Lord, hear our prayer.
V. Mary, Jesus is the Life of the World and apart from Him everything withers and die. Help our families to become witnesses of the new life that Jesus wants to bring to our society and all the families in United States...
R. Lord, hear our prayer.
All: Our Father... Hail Mary... Glory Be...
IV. Final Prayer
O Mary, bright dawn of the new world, Mother of the living, to you do we entrust the cause of life. Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers of babies not allowed to be born, (…) and of the elderly and the sick killed by indifference or out of misguided mercy. (…)
Obtain for the people of our time the grace to accept the Gospel of Life as a gift ever new, the joy of celebrating it with gratitude throughout their lives and the courage to bear witness to it resolutely, in order to build, together with all people of good will, the civilization of truth and love, to the praise and glory of God, the Creator and lover of life. Amen.
- Saint John Paul II
Readings from St. John Paul II
From the Encyclical Evangelium vitae (the Gospel of Life), St. John Paul II
Monday, April 26
The Gospel of life is at the heart of Jesus' message. Lovingly received day after day by the Church, it is to be preached with dauntless fidelity as "good news" to the people of every age and culture. At the dawn of salvation, it is the Birth of a Child which is proclaimed as joyful news: "I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Lk 2:10-11). The source of this "great joy" is the Birth of the Saviour; but Christmas also reveals the full meaning of every human birth, and the joy which accompanies the Birth of the Messiah is thus seen to be the foundation and fulfillment of joy at every child born into the world.
Tuesday, April 27
The culture of death is actively fostered by powerful cultural, economic and political currents which encourage an idea of society excessively concerned with efficiency... A life which would require greater acceptance, love and care is considered useless, or held to be an intolerable burden, and is therefore rejected in one way or another. A person who, because of illness, handicap or, more simply, just by existing, compromises the well-being or life-style of those who are more favored tends to be looked upon as an enemy to be resisted or eliminated. In this way a kind of "conspiracy against life" is unleashed… When the sense of God is lost, there is also a tendency to lose the sense of man, of his dignity and his life; in turn, the systematic violation of the moral law, especially in the serious matter of respect for human life and its dignity, produces a kind of progressive darkening of the capacity to discern God's living and saving presence... By living "as if God did not exist", man not only loses sight of the mystery of God, but also of the mystery of the world and the mystery of his own being.
Wednesday, April 28
Every man is his "brother's keeper", because God entrusts us to one another. And it is also in view of this entrusting that God gives everyone freedom, a freedom which possesses an inherently relational dimension. This is a great gift of the Creator, placed as it is at the service of the person and of his fulfillment through the gift of self and openness to others; but when freedom is made absolute in an individualistic way, it is emptied of its original content, and its very meaning and dignity are contradicted.
Thursday, April 29
Life is always a good. This is an instinctive perception and a fact of experience, and man is called to grasp the profound reason why this is so. Why is life a good? This question is found everywhere in the Bible, and from the very first pages it receives a powerful and amazing answer. The life which God gives man is quite different from the life of all other living creatures. Man, although formed from the dust of the earth, is a manifestation of God in the world, a sign of his presence, a trace of his glory. This is what Saint Irenaeus of Lyons wanted to emphasize in his celebrated definition: "Man, living man, is the glory of God". Man has been given a sublime dignity, based on the intimate bond which unites him to his Creator: in man there shines forth a reflection of God himself… All who commit themselves to following Christ are given the fullness of life: the divine image is restored, renewed and brought to perfection in them. God's plan for human beings is this, that they should "be conformed to the image of his Son".
Friday, April 30
The blood of Christ, while it reveals the grandeur of the Father's love, shows how precious man is in God's eyes and how priceless the value of his life. ... Christ's blood reveals to man that his greatness, and therefore his vocation, consists in the sincere gift of self. Precisely because it is poured out as the gift of life, the blood of Christ is no longer a sign of death, of definitive separation from the brethren, but the instrument of a communion which is richness of life for all. Whoever in the Sacrament of the Eucharist drinks this blood and abides in Jesus is drawn into the dynamism of his love and gift of life, in order to bring to its fullness the original vocation to love which belongs to everyone.
Saturday, May 1
The one who accepted "Life" in the name of all and for the sake of all was Mary, the Virgin Mother; she is thus most closely and personally associated with the Gospel of life. Mary's consent at the Annunciation and her motherhood stand at the very beginning of the mystery of life which Christ came to bestow on humanity. Through her acceptance and loving care for the life of the Incarnate Word, human life has been rescued from condemnation to final and eternal death. For this reason, Mary is a mother of all who are reborn to life... Like the Church, Mary too had to live her motherhood amid suffering… Mary shares in the gift which the Son makes of himself: she offers Jesus, gives him over, and begets him to the end for our sake. The "yes" spoken on the day of the Annunciation reaches full maturity on the day of the Cross, when the time comes for Mary to receive and beget as her children all those who become disciples, pouring out upon them the saving love of her Son.
Sunday, May 2
"When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished'; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit"… The "giving up" of the spirit describes Jesus' death, a death like that of every other human being, but it also seems to allude to the "gift of the Spirit”… It is the very life of God which is now shared with man… The contemplation of the Cross thus brings us to the very heart of all that has taken place. Jesus, who upon entering into the world said: "I have come, O God, to do your will", made himself obedient to the Father in everything and, "having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end", giving himself completely for them. He who had come "not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many", attains on the Cross the heights of love: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends". And he died for us while we were yet sinners. In this way Jesus proclaims that life finds its centre, its meaning and its fulfillment when it is given up.