October 2024 Newsletter

Featured Article (Throwback):

Embracing Motherhood, by Hannah Blosser

"I want to be a stay at home mom when I grow up." How often have we heard those words spoken by young homeschooled girls? Chances are, pretty often. Children learn quickly from example, and in a homeschooling family it's common for the girls of the family to want to be like mom when they grow up someday. However, this sentiment is not so familiar to modern society. In fact, it's often looked down upon. There is a common theme in our culture that causes stay at home moms and traditional marriage and family values to fall into the "not trendy" pile today. That theme is selfishness.

The society of today tells women "you can do anything!" and "empowers" them to climb the business ladder, make more money, and live their own lives. While it's good for women to have ample job opportunities and the ability to earn a living, our culture has taken it to extremes. Women are encouraged to be like men, even to strive to be equal to men. Equal in pay, work, and lifestyle. They are discouraged from becoming "tied down" as mothers in a household and told that motherhood is the second-best option. Having a job and being "free" from the responsibilities of family is better.

People today have lost sight of what it means to be a woman and a mother. Motherhood is difficult. It is a high and beautiful calling that requires complete selflessness and humility. Modern society rejects these virtues, pushing them aside in favor of a novel form of vanity, hidden in the guise of an extreme version of "self-love." The truth is, women are hurting because of this. Every woman is called to be a mother in some way. Whether married to a man and becoming mother to their own children, as a sister or nun with spiritual sons and daughters, or even being mother to those around her by her friendship and loving care. Whatever season in life a woman may be in, she is called to motherhood.

We often forget the heroism of our own mothers. They nurture us from the time we are conceived, go through the joyful pain of childbirth, spend sleepless nights comforting us, and along with our fathers, become our primary educators as we grow up. Our mothers quietly encourage us as we take our first steps into adulthood, realizing that we need to make our own decisions, but standing by to catch us in case we fall. Motherhood, in all of its forms, is the most heroic vocation in the world. After all, it was the calling of our first mother, Eve, and of a young girl from Nazareth, who would become the Mother of God and Queen of Heaven. Mothers are all at once nurturers, teachers, comforters, and queens of the domestic Church. It's a job only the strongest can handle, supported by a husband for protection and love, and a merciful Father for the grace to keep going.

God bless all of our mothers and may the Blessed Mother Mary keep them all in her loving care!

Prayer

Prayer To God the Father of All Life

Eternal God, You have revealed Yourself as the Father of all Life. We praise You for the Fatherly care which You extend to all creation, and especially to us, made in Your image and likeness.

Father, extend Your hand of protection to those threatened by abortion, and save them from its destructive power. Give Your strength to all fathers, that they may never give in to the fears that may tempt them to facilitate abortions.

Bless our families and bless our land, that we may have the joy of welcoming and nurturing the life of which You are the source and the Eternal Father. Amen.

Pro-Life Quotes

“I believe our society has a responsibility to defend the vulnerable and the weak. And I believe our nation should set a goal that unborn children should be welcomed in life and protected in law.” — President George W. Bush

“If the unborn is not a human person, no justification for abortion is necessary. However, if the unborn is a human person, no justification for abortion is adequate.” — Greg Koukl, Christian Apologist

News

Voters in several states will cast ballots on November 5 to decide on proposals that aim to increase access to abortion and possibly codify abortion rights in state constitutions. Many of these modifications may eliminate protections like parental consent for minors and permit abortion up until the point of viability. At the expense of many unborn lives, these policies would undermine recent pro-life gains and strengthen access to abortion. We hope and pray that voters across the country will reject these plans in favor of preserving the value and sanctity of human life. St. John Paul the Second, pray for us!

Upcoming Events

Our next monthly meeting will be held on November 18th at 6:30 EST. We will have a guest speaker for effective education. We hope to see you there!

Unfortunately, the pro-life rosary is canceled this month. We will resume the rosary on December 3rd.

Pro-Life Content

Our chapter's president, Paulina Ostrander, carved a beautiful pro-life pumpkin for Halloween!

Here's a template to carve your own pro-life pumpkin this Halloween:

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.