United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

402 • Part III. Christian Morality: The Faith Lived

the original vocation to love which belongs to everyone (cf. Gn 1:27; 2:18-24). It is from the blood of Christ that all draw the strength to commit themselves to promoting life. It is precisely this blood that is the most powerful source of hope, indeed it is the foun dation of the absolute certitude that in God’s plan life will be victorious. “And death shall be no more,” exclaims the power ful voice which comes from the throne of God in the Heavenly Jerusalem (Rev 21:4). And Saint Paul assures us that the present victory over sin is a sign and anticipation of the definitive vic tory over death, when there “shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’” (1 Cor 15:54-55).

—Saint John Paul II, The Gospel of Life ( Evangelium Vitae ), no. 25

PRAYER

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith, where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. • I have set before you life and death. . . . Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live.

—St. Francis of Assisi

—Dt 30:19