As the U.S. looks to swear in the most radically pro-choice president in history, and as India mourns over 170 victims of a terrorist killing spree, the Pope, in this month of December, asks us to pray:
that, faced by the growing expansion of the culture of violence and death, the Church may courageously promote the culture of life through all her apostolic and missionary activities.
Lest you think this is reactive, the Pope sends these intentions to the Apostleship of Prayer before the start of the calendar year. The 2009 intentions can be found here.
This month's missionary intention is:
that especially in mission countries, Christians may show through gestures of brotherliness that the Child born in the grotto in Bethlehem is the luminous Hope of the world.