Spreading the Gospel of Life

“I came that they may have life and have it to the full.”

Offering the Message of Life in the Culture of Death is of critical importance if our apostolate of education is to be effective. It is a message of reverence for human life at all stages, and encompasses principles that are both personal and theological. Rooted in our understanding of the human person, we seek to teach and live these fundamental principles. The content we teach and the love with which we approach each of our students are necessarily integrated , in ways both big and small.

All life is a gift. Each person is a gift from the hands of the Father. Thus, the message of reverence for life begins in the classroom at the earliest ages, as a message of love and respect for all one’s classmates. The opportunities to convey this lesson are legion. “Teaching the children kindness is so important. This is where respect for life begins,” said Sister Mary Juliana, who teaches second grade at St. Rose in Murfreesboro, TN. “Not bullying others is the beginning, but I try to get the children to be considerate and to reach out to others, especially at lunch and recess—sensitive to those who may be left out, and asking others what they would like to do instead of just thinking about what I want to do. We have class meetings about what loving others really means.”
 
Sister Anna Laura, who teaches in the middle school in Cincinnati, OH., also consistently emphasizes courtesy, kindness, and respect toward each other. “It’s all part of recognizing the dignity of the human person. Love is what we will be judged on in the end,” she said. “If we can’t love the people we are with everyday, how can we love people we don’t know yet? Once they see how to love the human person and how lovable the human person is, then we can talk more about the gift of life, and the human person in the beginning stages of life. I show them the actual-size models of babies in the various stages of development in the womb. I let them hold them, and we talk about the reality of the miracle of life and the miracle of the human person.” Sister Mary Patrick, in Oakridge, TN., teaches the same message and finds it particularly effective to surround her students with images of new life. Her favorite images are those of a father holding his newborn child and Mary holding the baby Jesus. “Choose Life” is the motto on the bulletin board, and, Sister Mary Patrick observes, “They learn the bigger picture of what choosing life everyday means—kindness, respect, and caring about each other.”

The Sisters also teach the life issues explicitly. In Denver, CO., Sister Anna Grace and her middle-school students discuss the section on the life issues in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. She guides the discussion and helps them to understand the truth of the dignity and value of every human person’s life. “Human life is precious,” she said, “so it is worth defending, it is worth suffering for.” After weeks of study, learning, and discussion of the life issues, the students write a “Respect Life” essay and participate in the diocesan-wide Respect Life Essay Contest. Sister Rosemary, who teaches middle-school in Nashville, has invited parents for an evening of discussion on current issues. The response was overwhelming. She and the over 60 parents who came discussed the Church’s teachings on the various issues that impact their children. “What was really wonderful,” Sister Rosemary said, “was that the parents were able to talk openly to each other about some very practical issues—for instance, the significance of modesty in dress. All life issues are related. Chastity and helping others to grow in chastity is supporting life.” At the high-school level, students deepen their understanding of life issues and become even more involved in the pro-life movement. Sister Mary Brigid took her students from Memphis, TN., to the March for Life in Washington, D.C. “As we were walking toward the capital,” she said, “I asked them, ‘Now, why are we here?’ And we talked about life. We talked about the babies. We walked and we prayed the rosary for the babies, especially the ones we had spiritually adopted earlier in the year, but also the babies who would die that day from abortion. The students were proud to be in their school uniforms, and “standing” for life. They were cheering and leading the cheers.” Carrying the lead banner in the March for Life this year were the students from Mount de Sales Academy in Baltimore, Maryland. Each year the girls at the Academy are given the opportunity to “march” and a hundred chose to do so with great conviction under the leadership of Sr. Margaret Andrew and Sr. Andrea Marie. The high-school girls were prepared for the March through the study of the Holy Father’s encyclical, The Gospel of Life, along with a study and discussion of the life issues. The students also participated in in the March for Life essay, poetry, and art contests (and winning a first place for a drawing submitted.) Many of the girls were also members of the Academy’s Pro-Life Club.

“The message of life cannot be separated from the message of chastity. The message of chastity and pure love is one that young people never tire of hearing,” said Sister Jane Dominic, who teaches at St. Cecilia Academy in Nashville. “The girls love the ideal, the thought that they can begin loving their future spouse and their future children right now by sacrificing immediate pleasures and resisting the temptations presented by the media and popular culture. Each one also hopes and prays that her future spouse is doing the same right now. They learn that their true dignity lies in integrity, in possessing themselves completely so that they may more completely give themselves as a gift to their future spouse.” The Dominican Campus in Nashville sponsors a lecture series open to the public. Sister Jane Dominic’s presentation on the Holy Father’s Theology of the Body was well attended. “It’s amazing to see how many people are interested in the real goodness and the real mystery of human sexuality, and the Holy Father has so much to give us—just like a really good father does.”

At Aquinas College, in the Ethics course, Sister Terese discusses life issues in further depth and detail. “The dignity of the human person is foundational to understanding respect for life. Even with complicated issues, such as artificial reproduction, once the students can see that the person’s dignity is so great that it cannot be compromised even for a short time—the time it would be placed in a petri dish, the time it would be frozen, etc.—they understand the Church’s teachings on life. Life is a great gift, a great good; it must be protected in every sphere at all levels.”