My dear brothers and sisters in Christ – October 2025
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We continue to celebrate this Jubilee Year of Hope and the kerygma in our own Year of Evangelization in Via Fidelis. Now in October, as we also celebrate Respect Life Month, I want us to reflect on our family relationship with our Creator and with each other. We are a people of hope, called to evangelize the world, and our God demands that we respect all life.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We continue to celebrate this Jubilee Year of Hope and the kerygma in our own Year of Evangelization in Via Fidelis. Now in October, as we also celebrate Respect Life Month, I want us to reflect on our family relationship with our Creator and with each other. We are a people of hope, called to evangelize the world, and our God demands that we respect all life.
St. Aloysius Gonzaga once said, “It is better to be a child of God than king of the whole world.” God fashioned each and every one of us for a purpose: to know, love and serve. We are all children of God, and how fortunate are we to have such a loving Father! How great it is that he stands by us steadfastly in our greatest joys and sufferings. He is the source of all patience, all peace, all understanding. And he waits for us to ask and to receive, to seek and discover, to knock and be greeted by our Lord (Mt 7:7).
We are called to approach him with childlike trust, knowing that he will know our needs before they cross our lips in adoration. Sometimes, our best, most heartfelt prayers are the simplest phrases: “Jesus, I trust in you,” “God, help me,” and “Here I am, Lord.” He knows the deepest intentions of our hearts and beckons us, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28).
Our God freely gives us his great advocate, the Holy Spirit, and he gives us a mother who will nurture us and gently guide us along the way. Greatest of all, he gives us his Son repeatedly in the Eucharist for the life of the whole world. And, then, he continues to comfort us with sacred Scripture, the sacrament of reconciliation and the great witness of his Church.
We are the Lord’s, and he lives in and through us. So, children, honor your parents each day. Parents, cherish your sons and daughters, both biological and spiritual, and pass on the Good News to them. Our evangelization is not just about convincing strangers that Jesus is truly present, but showing our human family that we all are loved by a Creator who remains true to his promise. For we are all one family in Christ Jesus, and absolutely no one is outside of that salvation.
I ask this month, especially, that you pray for our pre-born brothers and sisters, for the elderly and infirm and for all of our siblings and co-heirs to the kingdom, the immigrants, those that are at risk, alone or disheartened. Go out, you are sent!
In Christ’s love,
Most Rev. Jacques Fabre-Jeune, CS
Bishop of Charleston
