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For the past several years the seminarian community of Saint Meinrad has made a pilgrimage to participate in the March for Life. It is always an honor to march beside people from all over the country, including people of diverse faith traditions and the countless youth who enthusiastically make their voices heard. Other than the opportunity to march for the sanctity of life, and spending time with my seminary brothers, the aspect of the pilgrimage that I enjoy the most is staying with a host family from Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Potomac Maryland.

These families, many of whom have small children themselves, graciously invite us into their homes and lives for a few days, which gives us seminarians a chance to experience the hospitality of others in preparation for living a life of hospitality and ministry. I have often reflected and prayed about the distinct difference between staying with a family so willing to invite a complete stranger into their home, and the sad reality of the countless families that could participate, but choose not to. An outpouring of hospitality and recognition of the sanctity of life is starkly contracted by a culture that promotes saying no to hospitality and no to life. This tension has provided ample amounts of material for spiritual contemplation and has helped me grow into a better seminarian and a better human being.

The call to hospitality is something that we all share and the ability to be open to everyone I meet is a virtue that I am working hard to cultivate while I am in seminary. By the grace of God and the guidance of those entrusted with my formation, I have faith that I can more and more effectively be a bridge for the conversion of others.

Please pray for us and all of those who will soon be making this pilgrimage.

Peace to you and your families!

"We would like you to take the position of Pro-Life Ministries Coordinator for the Archdiocese of Louisville."  Those were the words I heard last summer from the Chancery.  Those are the words that have changed my life. 

The prayers I pray, the places I have been, and the people I have met are indescribably beautiful while perplexingly challenging, full of hope yet lingering in despair.   Through the despair of human situations, where the dignity of life is all too often not dignified, the words from Psalm 31:25 come to mind, Take courage and be stouthearted, all you who hope in the Lord.  

Mary Katherine Hilkert in her book, Naming Grace, tells us, "The dialectic of both judgment and grace remains the fundamental truth of the human situation.  The final victory of God's grace over the sin of the world in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, however, gives the final word to grace."[1] 

And, in the words of Pope John Paul II's encyclical The Gospel of Life, we hear these thoughtful words: 

"The present Encyclical, the fruit of the cooperation of the Episcopate of every country of the world, is therefore meant to be a precise and vigorous reaffirmation of the value of human life and its inviolability, and at the same time a pressing appeal addressed to each and every person, in the name of God: respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice, development, true freedom, peace and happiness!"  (Par. 5)

May it be our prayer that our diocese continues to move in this direction. 

               On Monday, January 24, 2011, thirty-five students, parents and faculty from Sacred Heart Academy will join the 38^th national Walk for Life in Washington DC to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. Members of the Youth for Life group of Sacred Heart Academy approached Principal Beverly McAuliffe for permission to organize the activity.  The response was overwhelming.  Mary Elizabeth Young, a junior from SHA who has attended previous walks, commented on the excitement of uniting with more than 300,000 people from various parts of the country to protest the deaths of unborn Americans.  Junior Grace Daly added: "This is such a worthy cause and it gives us an opportunity let our voices be heard!" 

                  As the faculty moderator of Youth for Life at Sacred Heart, I was impressed by the level of student enthusiasm and commitment to this cause in the beginning. But, the excitement is escalating as many of us anticipate what will be our first national walk.  It will be the first time we walk the Mall towards the Supreme Court as a student body and silently contemplate the missing voices of millions of unborn children. The unavoidable question is how might our country be different today if those voices were not missing? More importantly, how will it be different in the future with young people so focused on giving voice to the silent? One thing is clear, it would have been, and it will be different!