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Some people believe God rewards them with riches; but the one God, the God of love, does not promise to reward people with great wealth, or honours, does not inspire them to undertake self-glorifying buildings, and does not look on gladly as the poor and neglected are blamed for their plight or totally ignored.

If any religion suggests that riches or worldly success are a sign of God's approval of certain persons, and that poverty is shameful, and if people develop habits of ignoring or despising the poor, it is plainly not founded by the God of love, Who sent His Son to earth, Who founded a Church which hands on His Gospel of love: His teaching about God's love for all people, rich and poor. Christ has revealed to us the true nature of God.

The gift of a child is meant to bring joy and gratitude to all members of a family. It pleases God to see people welcome a pregnancy and to look forward hopefully to the birth. It gives Him joy when people do not grumble about 'inconvenience', as many might call it, or about hard work, but see the life of a child as a gift from God.

There are scientists at work who are careless about human life, and who think nothing of creating embryos in their laboratories, for experimentation; or they freeze embryos, or destroy them, as surplus to requirements. They forget, or do not care, or do not believe that God gives the gift of life. In rejecting His gift they insult and disobey their Creator. In overstepping His laws, they break the fence which would have saved them from the Abyss.

Even if we were to avoid sports or obvious dangers there is no time in life, no matter how happy, when an accident can't happen - just as a skier might suddenly fall, or hit a hidden tree-stump. What counts in ordinary life is faith in God. If we trust in God, He gives us strength and patience in our troubles, and also allows them to purify us so that we are worthy of Heaven: His free gift to His friends.

God is so lavish in his creativity that there are thousands of creatures which He has designed, hidden in the depths of the ocean, or elsewhere, and so with us; it should not cause us sorrow if all our gifts or creative powers, given by God, are not used or recognised to the fullest degree. With God's guidance, we can be certain that He will use them in the best possible ways for His good purposes.

It is not enough to teach school children to recognise their talents, to celebrate them, and to use them. They need to be encouraged to ask God for direction. He sometimes asks people to hide or subdue their talents and ambitions, for the sake of a greater good, for a while. Children need to learn that humility, and gratitude to God, are of greater importance than the pleasure found in receiving praise from other people for their gifts.

We must not be made despondent by our minor distractions in prayer, or our tiny failings. As sure as miners find what they want in a mine, we can mine spiritual treasure from our little faults, by using each as a reason for prayer. If we are distracted, we can make an act of humility. If we have neglected some good, we can make an act of gratitude for all God's gifts. If we find it hard to forgive, we can praise God for having forgiven us our sins.

Christ sees every tiny act of charity that we do for love of Him. He sees each one as being like a personal gift to Him - or like a rose-petal thrown by a child in His honour, where He is Present in the Most Blessed Sacrament, as the Sacred Host in carried along in a monstrance, by a priest, for the faithful to venerate and adore.

There is no gift from Heaven so precious as the gift of life, in a tiny child, except the gift of Eternal Life, which is Heaven, and salvation. Those who refuse the gift of life by rejecting the infant in the womb, are rejecting the Giver, Who is God, and failing to trust in Him. By killing the child, they risk their eternal Salvation.

Some people ignore all God's warnings about sin. It is a terrible tragedy, that some people determinedly refuse to listen to God, and refuse to accept His gifts, refusing to obey His laws and His Church, as well as their own conscience, in order to fulfil selfish desires. There can be no change of direction, after death; and some find themselves trapped forever in Hell, without God, through their own fault.

The 'quality control' exercised towards humans, denying life, is loathsome to God. God wants every woman to know the truth about the gift of life. It is a gift from God, even if circumstances are not what a woman would want. He wants every woman to know that there is a fork in the road, ahead. When a mother decides to rid herself of her unborn child, and have it aborted, she is taking the road away from God and Heaven, by her cruelty, and the taking of innocent life.

One sin leads so easily to another; for example, when a woman idolises the man she loves, co-habits with him, pursues a career to be a glittering partner to him, rather that have a family, and then finds she is pregnant, she slides more easily into the grave sin of abortion than a woman who has already been prayerful and disciplined for God's sake, in a loving marriage begun in Church: a woman not ashamed to carry our ordinary domestic tasks, and who sees every baby as a gift from God to her and to her husband.

People who freely choose to request or assist with a direct abortion, are responsible for the death of an innocent human being who has received life from God. Such choices mean that those people, in disobeying God, separate themselves from Him. Unless they repent before they die, they will find themselves in danger of Hell, by their own fault, having ignored all requests to do good, and all warnings.

Many Catholics do not enjoy the lights and consolations that God delights in giving to His faithful children. People who refuse to repent of their grave sins - which they do not want to abandon - act like a man who puts a boulder in the path between himself and Christ. It blocks the flow of light and joy from Heaven. Of his own free will, such a man is refusing Christ's free gifts.

We sometimes seem to arrive at a fork in the road, as we wonder what God is really asking of us, in life. One way of deciding is to act as the Saints have acted; we don't copy their vocations, but imitate their virtues. If one way ahead requires vanity, self-assertion, neglect of basic duties, and exaggeration of our gifts, it cannot be the way God points out to His friends.

Christ gives to many women the greatest gift they could receive from Him (apart from the gift of salvation), the gift of a child. But when a woman refuses the gift of life and asks for her unborn baby to be destroyed within her, it is, in Christ's sight, as if she is not just refusing the gift but also jumping up and down on it, determined to ruin it, whilst Christ looks on.

If we could see into the womb of a pregnant woman, as if through a window, we would see a tiny infant, given life by God, and meant to receive love and education by its parents, in preparation for a good life on earth, and the eventual gift of Heaven. How blessed are those children who are welcomed as the fruit of their parent's union, as God intends.

God is a powerful God, Who loves us. The God Who is powerful enough to raise Jesus Christ from the grave, radiant and joyful, is powerful enough to answer the prayers we offer in Jesus' name for people to be converted and made hopeful. The Lord is pleased when we trust in Him, and pray for great gifts as well as help with small matters in daily life.

God pours down His gifts from Heaven so that we can use them in the service of the Church and the world, just as Pope John Paul II did. If we use the gifts for personal fulfilment rather than to fulfil God's plans, it's as if we are building a roof over our lives, to avoid seeing God's wishes. We make a notice that says to Him: "Keep Out".