“Life is worth defending whether in the womb or in the nursing home.”

I first met our Sisters at our skilled nursing facility Mary Health of the Sick in Newbury Park, California, where I would often visit during my time of vocation discernment. Spending time there with the Sisters and residents taught me valuable life lessons that made a lasting impression on my heart and mind.

One afternoon, I walked out into the beautiful garden at the facility and saw a young woman feeding her great grandmother. The elderly woman could no longer walk or speak, and her eyes remained closed. Many would automatically come to the conclusion that since this woman no longer communicated or responded as before, her life no longer had value or meaning.

But in that quiet moment of observation, I understood something profoundly different. Her life was valuable, infinitely so, and God was working powerfully through her. Without a word, she was teaching her great granddaughter how to love, how to be patient, how to care for another person, and how to give of herself. She was forming a heart to be compassionate simply by her being.

This is what all of us are called to do: to allow God to work through our lives, even in our frailty, even in our silence, even when we can no longer offer anything the world considers “useful.” Our dignity does not come from what we can do, but from who we are, beloved children of God.

On this World Day of the Sick, we remember that the sick, the elderly, the fragile, and the forgotten are not burdens. They are living sacraments of God’s presence. They remind us that every life has a mission, even when that mission is simply to receive love and to inspire it in others.

This is why the tragedy of assisted suicide is so profound. It cuts short the very moments where grace is often the most abundant. It interrupts the sacred time when God is shaping hearts, reconciling relationships, deepening compassion, and preparing the soul for eternity. When we end a life prematurely, we also end the lessons of love that unfold in those final days and hours.

From the moment of conception until natural death, life is sacred.  

And every person is a gift entrusted to us.

- Sister Elizabeth

Sister Elizabeth