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A mother and her unborn child do not have competing rights. Each, as a living human being, has the right to life, that is: THE RIGHT NOT TO BE KILLED. For a baby to be killed for the convenience of its mother is like prisoners of war being killed for the convenience of the captors, who have little food to share with them.

A sick person should not feel obliged to accept very painful treatments which she is not convinced will cure her. But she is right to expect humane care, which every human being deserves, receiving food and nourishment, and also pain relief if available.

When an employer pays himself an outrageously large salary whilst leaving his workers struggling to pay for their own basic food and clothing, he is treating them unjustly. It's as if he is stepping over an employee as one steps over a mere obstacle, in order to achieve his ambitions and goals.

Just as a mother bird feeds her nestlings with small morsels of food, so a spiritual director or friend gives to the one she advises only what he or she can digest - depending on the state-of-soul of the listener.

When we have shown our love for Christ by fulfilling our ordinary duties but want to offer Him further good deeds, we need not worry about doing one very good thing or another, as if He might be displeased by the deed. It's as if Christ is speaking to His friends in Heaven, at a banquet, saying, 'This friend on earth make me very happy. Every good deed she offers me, whatever it is, is like a bowl of delicious food'.

The Lord asks us to deal with some injustices in the manner of Saint Francis, who was reported as saying: if he were to trudge for miles through a snowy landscape, in darkness, and hungry, only to be met with insults, picked up and thrown aside - and yet be able to bear all this with patience, without food and warmth, that would be perfect joy, because then he would have been found worthy to be treated like Christ, and to be able to imitate Him.

Just as the one way by which a person can lose weight is by eating less food, so the one way in which to emerge from spiritual and emotional unease is doing what wise people in the Church have always done: by using the Sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Penance ('Confession') and Mass with Holy Communion.

A surgeon takes tremendous care in his preparations for his work, just as a good mother takes great care, in cleanliness and nutrition, as she prepares food for a little child; and even greater care is necessary when everyone prepares for an event that is not only important, but sacred: receiving Christ in Holy Communion, or taking part in any of the Sacraments, in which our all-holy, glorious God is at work.

We are right to defend human rights. Each person has been given life by God. However, there are no human rights, if the right to life is ignored. There are no human rights to fight for, if the right to life is ignored. So when Catholics write about such issues, they must first protest about the evil practice of abortion, before defending, for example, a right to food, shelter, a just wage, and other matters.

A person on a joyful drive through the country-side in Spring, to a pleasant destination, can enjoy the new greenery, and the blossom on the hedgerows; but it is necessary to remain alert for the whole time to road-signs, both well-established and new, to avoid danger. So it is on our journey to Heaven. We are foolish if we ignore the warnings offered by the Church, as well as accepting her food and fuel for the way.

There are unnecessary and dreadful tragedies to be seen today. God sees a terrible change taking place in our hospitals, as some doctors and nurses develop a pro-death outlook, and share their views as they persuade people that old people are useless and should be helped to die, and that 'selective terminations' are the answer to multiple pregnancies, that a diagnosis of a tiny infant in the womb with Down's Syndrome should be followed by killing of the unborn child, and that food and water can be denied to someone old or frail.

Imagine the sadness of a king who arranged a special event, sent out special invitations to special guests, with special food prepared, and special proclamations to be made, who then found his event disrupted, and himself insulted, by guests who ate and drank uproariously, and threw bread rolls, for fun, chatting, and ignoring the king; that is how it seems to Christ, Really Present with us, when our behaviour at Mass is irreverent or unholy, unworthy of our God.