God creates each human being in an act of divine love. As Catholics, we believe human life begins at conception and unfolds over the span of time we are given on this earth until our natural death. It is our firm hope that God, who created us in love and guides and sustains us by that same love throughout our lives, will also welcome us into eternity where we can rejoice in the presence of Love itself. Life in this world is our experience of being created, sustained and redeemed by God, and for this reason life is of the highest value. This is why we celebrate Respect Life Month each October. We thank God for the gift of life, and we renew our commitment to honor and promote the dignity of every person.

In his apostolic exhortation The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis reminds us, “Every human being is the object of God’s infinite tenderness, and he himself is present in their lives” (EG 274). Every person is loved by God. Every person reflects His presence. We are then called to also love each person. As the Lord said, “Love one another as I love you” (Jn. 15:12).

Jesus left us this new commandment of love on the night before He was to offer His life for the salvation of every human being. From the Cross, He teaches us that true love is sacrificial; it seeks the good of the other no matter the cost. Christian love, then, is selfless and for all. The Lord calls us to love not only our family members and friends, but also those who are alone, afraid and abandoned. He calls us to love the most vulnerable – the unborn and the infirm. We are called to love those who suffer from poverty, those who have fled their homeland due to war or persecution, and those who have been imprisoned, cast out from society and forgotten. The Lord even calls us to love our enemies.

On our own we cannot love as Christ loves, but we are capable of such love to the degree that we allow Christ to love through us. This is why a life of prayer, built upon the fruitful reception of the sacraments and the Scriptures, is essential for each one of us. We can accomplish great things united to the Lord.

This year we celebrate the first Respect Life Month after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. We know that the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision does not mark the conclusion of our efforts to promote and foster a culture of life. More than 65 million innocent children have lost their lives to abortion in the U.S. since Roe v. Wade. This sad fact demonstrates the desperate need for conversion of hearts and minds. We must continue to pray and work so that all people come to respect the inherent dignity and sacredness of every human being from conception to natural death.

We build such a culture which respects the gift of life through prayer, sacrifice and joyful service to all. Offering our love and support to pregnant women, especially those who are alone or overwhelmed, remains an important part of this work. Likewise, the compassion and assistance we provide for the sick and the needy gives testimony to our faith. Visiting and ministering to those in prison provides hope for those who often feel forgotten and rejected by society. Welcoming immigrants and helping them to begin a new life heals the scars of the tragedies they have left behind.

We have the opportunity to love every person we encounter as Christ has loved us. In so doing, we contribute to building a culture which truly respects each human life. May God sustain us in this endeavor!

“Run so as to win.” St. Paul wrote these words to the Christians at Corinth, a city with a large stadium and anchored in the centuries-old Greek athletic tradition. “Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one” (1 Cor. 9:24-25).

Sports and the Catholic spiritual life, perhaps surprisingly, have some significant aspects in common. Saints from the Apostle Paul to Pope St. John Paul II have taught us that focus, persistence and determination are as necessary to the faithful Christian witness as to the successful athlete. At the same time, participation in sports can nourish important human values.

Almost two millennia after St. Paul, at a Mass in Rome’s Olympic Stadium celebrating the Jubilee of Sports People on Oct. 29, 2000, Pope St. John Paul II used a similar sporting analogy. “Every Christian is called to become a strong athlete of Christ, that is, a faithful and courageous witness to His Gospel,” he said. “But to succeed in this, he must persevere in prayer, be trained in virtue, and follow the divine Master in everything.”

Perseverance is necessary for success at anything in life, Pope St. John Paul II pointed out. “Anyone who plays sports knows this very well: it is only at the cost of strenuous training that significant results are achieved. This is the logic of sport; it is also the logic of life: without sacrifices, important results are not obtained, or even genuine satisfaction.”

St. John Paul was, himself, an avid athlete who hiked and skied even after he became pope. In his 2000 speech, he thanked God for the gift of sports “in which the human person exercises his body, intellect and will, recognizing these abilities as so many gifts of the Creator.” And he noted that playing sports “can encourage young people to develop important values such as loyalty, perseverance, friendship, sharing and solidarity,” plus a healthy sense of competition. Most of all, sports teaches that the achievement of a goal, particularly a stretch goal, is the result of embracing everything that leads to obtaining that goal and rejecting those things that do not.

As Catholics, we are called to be saints. This is our ultimate goal. It is not the goal of an exceptional few or those living out a particular vocation. The universal call to holiness is at the very heart of one of the central documents of the Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium. “Therefore in the Church, everyone, whether belonging to the hierarchy or being cared for by it, is called to holiness, according to the saying of the Apostle: ‘For this is the will of God, your sanctification’” (LG 39). Just as an elite athlete orients his or her whole mental and physical life – training, nutrition, competitive psychology, skill development – to the end of athletic excellence and winning, so must we strive to orient all our thoughts, words and deeds to our ultimate end: holiness. Everything we do, every choice we make, moves us either closer to that goal or further from it.

Unlike athletic contests, the competition within ourselves between faith and doubt, virtue and vice, light and darkness, is one we must win. Fortunately, we are not alone in this contest. The Catholic Church, Christ’s sacramental presence on earth, imbued with the Holy Spirit, offers us everything we need to orient our lives to Christ. Among them are prayer, spiritual reading, Sacred Scripture and Tradition, the saints, the holy sacrifice of the Mass, the sacraments and adoration of our Lord in the Eucharist. These are gifts which we should not ignore.

When our time on this earth comes to its end, may we echo the words of St. Paul: “I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7).

Growing up has always had its difficulties, but young people today face a particularly challenging environment in our country – rising violence, such as riots and horrific school shootings; civil discourse that is increasingly uncivil; and a secularist culture that continues to push faith to the margins as weekly religious practice declines.

In previous generations, American society, while far from perfect, generally reinforced the important values and virtues taught in Catholic homes and Catholic schools. That is often no longer the case. Therefore, faithful and effective Catholic schools and religious education programs are needed more than ever. They are essential partners with students’ parents, who remain the primary religious educators of their children.

St. John Baptist de la Salle, patron saint of teachers, put into words what the Church has long understood, that instruction in the faith is done largely by the witness of discipleship – living the Gospel and not just teaching it. In a reflection to his teachers, he wrote: “In your teaching, the [children] in your charge must see by the way you teach that you are true ministers of God, full of true charity and sincere in carrying out your task. It is most important for you to realize that you are ministers not only of God but also of Jesus Christ and the Church.”

Pope St. Paul VI echoed the importance of personal witness in his 1975 apostolic exhortation, Evangelii nuntiandi, in which he wrote: “for the Church, the first means of evangelization is the witness of an authentically Catholic life, given over to God in a communion that nothing should destroy and at the same time given to one’s neighbor with limitless zeal. . . . Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses” (EN 41).

The charge to Catholic teachers is thus to educate students for this life and prepare them for the next by instruction and by example. The very nature of authentic Catholic education is the search for goodness, beauty and truth and the cultivation of wisdom and virtue under the guidance of the Church. The various arts and sciences are pathways for growing closer to God since students learn in these the endless wonders of His creation. A passion for learning is a passion for Jesus Himself, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Catholic schools play an important role in forming disciples to know, love and follow Jesus. The teacher-ministers, principal-ministers and support staff of Catholic schools reflect this every day as they not only teach, but also model, the faith for our more than 40,000 students in this archdiocese. For that I am very grateful.

Although not all our students are Catholic, it is the mission of our schools to be Catholic in every classroom, lunchroom, hallway and gym. They are Christ-centered communities rooted in the Gospel message. At the same time, as I have frequently noted, Catholic schools are everybody’s schools because they form students into leaders who will help to make the world a better place – more peaceful, more civil, more faith-filled.

Please join me in keeping all students, parents and school principals, faculty and staff in our prayers as this new school year begins.