Saints + Scripture: Legal Protection of Unborn Children

9 Days for Life: Day 2
May all unborn children be protected in law and welcomed in love.

'Tis the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children: U.S.C.C.B.-link, 9 Days for Life-link, & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Wayback Machine. Quoth the Holy Redeemer bulletin:

The U.S. Bishops have declared 22 January to be a "Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children," in support of the full restoration of the "right to life & penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion."

Scripture of the Day
Mass Readings—Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
The First Book of Samuel, chapter seventeen, verses thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-seven, & forty thru fifty-one;
Psalm On Hundred Forty-four (R/. one), verses one(b), two, & nine & ten;
The Gospel according to Mark, chapter three, verses one thru six.

Commentary: Reflection by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire):

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus withstands the opposition of the Pharisees to heal a man with a withered hand. His healings like this one signified the arrival of the kingdom of God.

When Jesus began to preach, his theme was that the kingdom of God is at hand. In his own person an entirely new way of ordering things was on offer. Then—in his love and nonviolence, in his mocking of the Pharisees and religious establishment, in his healing and teaching—Jesus was demonstrating precisely what the reign of the God of Israel looks like.

This way of life inevitably awakened the opposition of the powers that be. At the climax of his ministry, Jesus faced down the resistance of "the world," to use the typical New Testament term, meaning that whole congeries of cruelty, betrayal, denial, violence, corruption, and hatred by which human affairs are typically ordered.

He permitted all of that darkness to wash over him, to crush him, to snuff him out. But then, on the third day, he rose again from the dead in the power of the Holy Spirit, and thereby outflanked, outmaneuvered, and swallowed up the darkness.

Video reflection by Jem Sullivan, Ph.D. (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops): Daily Reflection.

Mass Readings—Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children
The Book of Genesis, chapter one, verse one thru chapter two, verse two;
or, the Second Book of Maccabees, chapter seven, verses one & twenty thru thirty-one;
or, the Book of Isaiah, chapter forty-nine, verses one thru six;

Psalm Eight (R/. two[a/b]), verses four & five, six & seven, & eight & nine;
or, Psalm One Hundred Thirty-nine (R/. fourteen), verses one(b), two, & three; thirteen & fourteen(a/b); & fourteen(c) & fifteen;

The Letter to the Romans, chapter eleven, verses thirty-three thru thirty-six;
or, the Letter to the Ephesians, chapter one, verses three thru fourteen;
or, the Letter to the Ephesians, chapter three, verses fourteen thru twenty-one;
or, the Letter to the Colossians, chapter one, verses twelve thru twenty;
or, the First Letter of John, chapter three, verses eleven thru twenty-one;

The Gospel according to Matthew, chapter eighteen, verses one thru five, ten, twelve, thirteen, & fourteen;
or, the Gospel according to Mark, chapter nine, verses thirty thru thirty-seven;
or, the Gospel according to Luke, chapter one, verses thirty-nine thru fifty-six;
or, the Gospel according to Luke, chapter seventeen, verses eleven thru nineteen;
or, the Gospel according to Luke, chapter twenty-three, verses thirty-five thru forty-three;
or, the Gospel according to John, chapter one, verses one thru five, nine thru fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, & eighteen;
or, the Gospel according to John, chapter six, verses twenty-four thru thirty-five.

Scripture Study—Exodus 90: Day 10
The Book of Exodus, chapter four, verses eighteen thru thirty-one.

Commentary: Moses Returns to Egypt (Exodus, 4:18-31).

'Tis also the festival of Saint Bertwald of Ramsbury, Bishop, O.S.B. (died 1045; also spelt Brithwald, etc.; A.K.A. of Glastonbury, of Sarum), ninth (IX) Bishop of Ramsbury (995-1045): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link; Wikipedia-link Ramsbury.

'Tis also the festival of Blessed William Patenson, Priest & Martyr (died 1592) martyred in the reign of the English queen Elizabeth I, one of the one hundred sixty Martyrs of Douai: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link; Martyrs-link Douai & Wikipedia-link Douai.

'Tis also the festival of Saint Guillaume-Joseph Chaminade, Priest, S.M. (1761-1850, Anglicized as William Joseph Chaminade), founder of the Marianists (S.M.), formally the Society of Mary: Saint-link & Wikipedia-link; Wikipedia-link S.M.

'Tis also the festival of Blessed Laura Vicuña (1891-1904): Blessed-link & Wikipedia-link.

Papal Quote o' the Day

"The inviolability of the person… finds its primary & fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life. Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights—for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture—is false & illusory if the right to life, the most basic & fundamental right & the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination."
—Pope St. John Paul II the Great, Christifideles Laici № 38 (1920-2005, r. 1978-2005; feast day: 22 October)

Catholic Quote o' the Day

"I am dedicated to spending the rest of my life undoing the law that bears my name."
—Norma McCorvey ("Jane Roe," 1947-2017)