Featured Article:

The Rosary - Our Most Powerful Weapon: by Hannah Blosser
Fires burn everywhere, the smoke so thick that visibility is almost completely obscured. Shouts of men and the roar of cannons fill the air. A sailor stands at the helm of his ship, calling out orders to his comrades. His once handsome face is marred by ash and the scars of battle, yet his eyes are still sharp as flint as he gazes out over the water. In his hand he clutches a string of beads with a small crucifix on the end; he raises the beads and crosses himself, uttering a prayer under his breath. “Blessed Mother, protect us.”

Meanwhile, in Rome, an elderly man dressed in white paces across the balcony of a large stone building. He pauses, as though struck by sudden inspiration. He looks out across the horizon, as a look of relief passes over his face. “They have won,” he whispers. “Our Lady has prevailed!”

The elderly man mentioned was named Pope Pius V. The triumph he spoke of was the Battle of Lepanto, one of the greatest Christian victories in history. The Battle of Lepanto was won on October 7th, 1571, and Pius V declared that day the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Before the battle, the pope had exhorted every man, woman, and child in Christendom to pray for victory against the Turks. Specifically, he asked all Christians to appeal to Our Lady by praying the Rosary.

The Rosary is one of the most common Catholic prayers, as well as one of the most powerful. Many Catholics believe that devotion to Our Lady through the Rosary was started by St. Dominic, but this is not the case. The Rosary began to appear as a devotion in the Middle Ages, when lay monks, called conversi , needed a substitute for praying the Psalms. The conversi were often illiterate, and were therefore unable to read the 150 Psalms prayed by the other monks. Instead, they would pray repeated Our Fathers on a string of beads. Around the 12th century, the conversi began to pray Hail Marys on their beads, and the devotion became known as “Our Lady’s Psalter.” Eventually the prayer of the Psalter spread to the laity, which led to what is known today as the Rosary.

The Rosary is important in the Pro-Life movement, because it is one of the most powerful prayer weapons. The soldiers fighting for Christendom in the Battle of Lepanto prayed the Rosary, begging Our Lady to grant them victory. Like those soldiers, we are fighting a hard battle, but ours is not against an enemy we can see. Daily, we fight against abortion, praying for victory not for ourselves, but for all of the unborn. Until the world comes to recognize the value of every life, born and unborn, we must continue to pray for an end to abortion every day. Like the Catholic soldiers at the Battle of Lepanto, let us fly to Our Lady and ask for her protection by praying the Rosary.

Prayers:

Respect Life Month Prayer

That during this Respect Life Month our resolve will be strengthened to cherish and protect the gift of every human life, we pray to the Lord.

That the life of every person, from conception to natural death, will be protected in our laws and cherished in our hearts, we pray to the Lord.

For women and men suffering after abortion: May they find peace and healing through Christ's endless mercy, we pray to the Lord.

For those nearing the end of life: May they receive care that respects their dignity and protects their lives as they place their hope in the promise of eternal life, we pray to the Lord.

May God grant us the wisdom and courage to lovingly protect His gift of human life at every stage, in sickness and in health.

Amen

Pro-Life Quotes:

"In each child, God whispers a new secret to the world; adds a new dimension of immortality to creation."- Fulton Sheen

"People should not die at the hand of another person, but holding the hand of another person."- Francis Cardinal Konig

"When there is question of defending the rights of individuals, the poor and badly off have a claim to especial consideration." - Pope Leo XIII

"This is the choice before us: either try to revolutionize the world and break under it or revolutionize ourselves and remake the world." - Fulton Sheen

News:

Catholic Church Vandalized by Abortion Supporters

On September 29th, the Sacred Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Boulder, Colorado discovered that the church had been vandalized over night. The abortion supporters and anti-Catholic vandals had spray painted hate messages such as “Jesus loves abortion”, “Abort Catholicism”, and “Your Church is dying”, as well as marking cars and buildings with the anarchy symbol, slashing tires, and breaking windows. Sacred Heart of Mary Catholic Church is the site of a cemetery and memorial wall to honor to lives of the innocent babies killed in abortions. The memorial wall is also the burying place of the ashes of about 5,500 aborted babies.

Although this horrific crime should shock and startle us, we can also say with confidence that the vandals were wrong. Our Church and the pro-life movement are not dying. Far from it, we, the youth, are more numerous and prouder than ever to fight for a culture of life and defend our Church, even when faced with opposition.

To see the full article as reported by Brenna Lewis from Students for Life, please click here: https://studentsforlife.org/2021/09/29/catholic-church-in-colorado-vandalized-in-shocking-ways-by-abortion-supporters/

Texas Heartbeat Bill Goes Into Effect

On September 1st, the Texas Heartbeat Bill officially went into effect. This bill is estimated to save over 100 lives each day. It is important to recognize that this bill will not punish women facing crisis pregnancies. Rather, the new bill targets those who are directly involved in taking the lives of babies. The Heartbeat Bill differs from other laws that have previously been suggested as it relies on individuals to hold abortionist accountable for the lives they have taken. It is vitally important to be educated on what this law says and on the myths circulating.

To view the common myths and how to dispel them, please click here: https://studentsforlife.org/2021/09/02/the-top-8-myths-about-the-new-texas-abortion-law/

Creative Corner:

Thank you so much to everyone who submitted a logo for our contest! We loved all of them so much and it was hard to make a decision. The logos were judged anonymously by our advisors, Mrs. Kiernan and Mrs. Weber, and our leadership team. There were so many we loved that we hope to use some of them for future merchandise!

The winner of the contest is Lydia Landry! Below is the logo she designed and our new official logo of Homeschool Connections Students for Life:

Thank you to Lydia L., Lucia D., Sofia N., Maria W., Ella M., Ariel V., Gianna S., and Lauryn M. for your beautiful logos, especially for all the time and love you put into them. We will be contacting you shortly if we decide to use it for merchandise!

We are looking for artistic content to fill our Creative Corner! If you have something that you would like to contribute, please email us at hscstudentsforlife@gmail.com.

Upcoming Events:

Saturday, October 2nd at 2:00pm EST - Monthly pro-life rosary

Saturday, October 9th at 6:30pm EST - What does it Mean to Respect Life? with Myah Abraham, founder and president of GreatLife Teens

Please join us for Respect Life Month! Our guest speaker is Myah Abraham, the founder and president of GreatLife Teens, a nonprofit organization created for and by young people to combat the issue of abortion in our modern world. We will be discussing what it means to respect life and how much of the disrespect for life stems from the issue of abortion.

Submit Content:

This newsletter relies heavily on the contributions of group members. There are a number of items we are looking for:

Creative content We have implemented a segment of the newsletter dedicated to the topically relevant artistic contributions of group members, regardless of medium. If you have anything to share, please send it in. We'll accept most mediums, including (pictures of) paintings, graphic design pieces, songs, videos, poems, etc.
Articles We are accepting topically relevant articles from group members. Please note, however, that the newsletter editors reserve the right to modify articles in order to make them suitable for publication. Such modifications may include grammatical corrections and removal of potentially offensive content.
Quotes & Literary Passages We are also looking for any topically relevant quotes or literary passages to fill a segment of the newsletter. Anything from a simple sentence spoken by a saint to a paragraph from a book can be accepted.

If you want to submit anything from the above categories, or you simply want to provide feedback or suggestions, please email us at hscstudentsforlife@gmail.com and we will get in touch with you shortly.