Job answers his friends from the middle of his ruin: "Truly I know that it is so: but how can a man be just before God?" He does not pretend the loss doesn't hurt. He just refuses to let it be the last word about who God is. Then in Luke, Jesus tells three would-be followers exactly what it costs to come after him - no nest, no delay, no looking back. "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." Fifty years ago today, a congressman from Illinois put his hand to a plow of saving lives. And a priest whose feast we keep today gave his whole life, without hedging, to help hand on the Scriptures to us.

The deeper reflection on today's readings - and a daily prayer for your household - is waiting in the & Altar app and at andaltar.com. More after the news.

📰 Quick Hits

1. Fifty Years of Hyde: 2,678,274 Lives, One Congressman Who Never Looked Back

On September 30, 1976, an Illinois congressman named Henry Hyde attached a single clause to an appropriations bill: no federal dollars could pay for most abortions. Today, on its 50th anniversary, the Charlotte Lozier Institute puts the number of lives it has saved at 2,678,274 - roughly 60,000 a year, every year, for half a century. Hyde renewed the fight annually for the rest of his career, through lawsuits, repeal attempts, and two Supreme Court challenges that upheld it. Rep. Chris Smith and Sen. James Lankford both introduced resolutions this week marking the anniversary; Smith's office described it as honoring the amendment's "enduring legacy." It has now outlasted Roe v. Wade itself.

Faith Lens for the Home: Hyde put his hand to the plow once, in 1976, and then kept it there for thirty more years until he died in 2007. Ask your family: "What does it look like to stay faithful to one hard, unpopular thing for an entire lifetime, when it would have been so much easier to let it go?" Give thanks tonight for the 2.7 million.

2. A Senator Introduces a Bill Named for a Daughter Lost

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) introduced the Yaeli Martinez Child Protection Act this week, which would bar federally funded child welfare agencies from treating a parent's refusal to socially or medically "affirm" a child's stated transgender identity as abuse, or from removing children from their homes on that basis. The bill is named for a young California woman who died after being socially transitioned by her school and separated from her family as a minor. "Raising a child according to his or her sex is not abuse," the bill states. Schmitt said parents in some states "are being punished, and sometimes even separated from their children, for protecting their kids."

Faith Lens for the Home: The Church teaches plainly that parents are the first and primary educators of their children - a right no institution may simply override. Ask your family: "Why does the Church say that authority belongs to parents before it belongs to the state?" Pray tonight for Yaeli Martinez's family, and for every parent trying to raise a child according to what they believe is true.

⛪ Family Saint Spotlight

St. Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church - September 30

Born around 340 in what is now Croatia, Jerome was brilliant, difficult, and utterly unwilling to treat Scripture as anything less than the center of his life. He left comfort and reputation behind, studied Hebrew from a converted Jewish monk so he could translate the Old Testament from its original language rather than secondhand Greek, and spent decades in a cave near Bethlehem producing the Vulgate - the Latin Bible that would shape the Church's understanding of Scripture for over a thousand years. He is famous for the line: "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." He never once looked back at the easier life he could have had.

Ask at dinner: "Jerome gave up comfort and status to spend decades on one enormous, unglamorous task. What is something worth that kind of sustained, unglamorous commitment in our own family's life?"

✋ One Simple Action

Give thanks tonight, specifically, for the Hyde Amendment and the 2.7 million lives tied to it. Pray for Yaeli Martinez's family and for parents everywhere trying to raise their children faithfully. And open Scripture for five minutes tonight - just five - in honor of the priest who said not knowing it means not knowing Christ.

📚 Read More

• Hyde Amendment's 50th anniversary - full impact report: Charlotte Lozier Institute (https://lozierinstitute.org/hyde-turns-50-analyzing-the-impact-of-the-hyde-amendment-with-2026-addendum/) and LifeNews (https://www.lifenews.com/2026/09/17/members-of-congress-celebrate-hyde-amendments-50th-anniversary/) and Oregon Right to Life (https://www.ortl.org/on-50th-anniversary-pro-life-hyde-amendment-estimated-to-have-saved-2-7-million-unborn-lives/)
• Yaeli Martinez Child Protection Act: The Daily Signal (https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/09/29/new-schmitt-bill-would-bar-child-welfare-agencies-from-treating-biological-reality-as-abuse/) and The Daily Wire (https://www.dailywire.com/news/congress-could-soon-declare-that-affirming-a-childs-sex-is-not-abuse)
• St. Jerome: Franciscan Media (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-jerome/)

Job would not let his loss be the last word about God. Jesus said no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom. Fifty years ago a congressman put his hand to a plow and never let go, and 2.7 million people are alive because of it. A senator named a bill for a daughter a family lost too soon. A priest spent decades in a cave so the whole Church could finally read the Word in its own tongue. Put your hand to the plow today.