feminine-genius

Judy Klein's new book!

This morning, KYES aired my new interview with Judy Klein (author of Miracle Man). She is a mother who has been praying in the trenches a very long time, through a host of trials and diverse challenges. Thus, her new book, Mary's Way, is fantastic--a tremendous resource for mothers of all ages--and available for preorder at her site, Memorare Ministries. There you'll find ordering information and links to her other work, which is a breath of fresh air for women! I'll post a link as soon as the show makes it to the archives, but in the meantime you can peruse her blog and enjoy all she has to offer.

A childlike heart

Today's reading reminded us that we must all be like little children in order to come to God:

The disciples approached Jesus and said, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?” He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me (Matthew 18).

We had a lovely anecdote this morning at Mass. Father related a story from his previous parish, in which a little boy was invited to bring the Christ Child up to the crèche at the Midnight Mass. He was so excited. But when the moment came and he was handed the figure, he began to cry.

 

"Why are you crying?" asked Father.

"I thought it was going to be the real Baby Jesus," was the answer.

 

All things are considered possible with a child-like heart.

 

Two recent interviews

Hosting the radio show "Exploring the Feminine Genius" is such a privilege! I had the pleasure of discussing prayer with Connie Rossini, whose website is Contemplative Homeschooling. There you will find all of her books and great tips on how to not only be a better pray-er, but how to bring that leaven into the lives of your family members. Connie's interview is here.

Lisa Mladinich interview is here. She is the author of True Radiance: Finding Grace in the Second Half of Life. Her author page at Amazon tells more about her. And here is Shalom TV!

Fatherhood and Blasphemy

I'll be discussing this article this morning with John Harper on Relevant Radio's Morning Air (9:30am EST). With all due respect, in winning so many pro-life battles, we may have [temporarily] lost the war, and we cannot recover until we acknowledge the root of the lie:

If you look at this chaos in terms of cultural Marxism, it becomes clear, especially as we review the stages of confrontation specific to the pro-life movement. The first battle was enormous and urgent -- to save the life of the child. It took years, but technology was on our side. Education about fetal development was key, and what fetal models did at the outset, the ultrasound perfected, so that there are very few people who have not seen the marvelous images of the unborn child: they are in scrap books, on refrigerators, and even in a handful of television commercials -- this is a tremendous a victory for life!

 

The second battle was for motherhood, which was to underscore the strength of women everywhere, to show that they were strong enough to handle pregnancy in a host of adverse circumstances: while still in school, while working stressful jobs, after having suffered abuse or rape, while encumbered financially, while feeling emotionally fragile, while responsible for other children, and even when facing special needs or medical emergencies -- this is a tremendous victory for women!

 

But the greater battle has yet to be won, and this is where Marxism and its insidious lies have prevailed, even here -- despite the political changes that accompanied the fall of the Berlin Wall, its cultural footprint remains. The majority of millennials are pro-life -- in that they want the unborn child to be given the benefit of the doubt, a chance at life. Gone are the days of stigma, where a woman would have an abortion because of the shame of a child out of wedlock. Schools and workplaces accommodate pregnancy no matter what the particular details of the situation, and in this realm we see that choice has won.

 

Having a baby at any stage of life, within marriage or without, has so prevailed that we now come to the root horror of our predicament: fatherhood is no longer an essential component of family life. The quest to defend life and to empower women has left men completely out in the cold, and few people see their value -- even though a woman cannot be a mother without a man: the child exists only because of his seed... 

For the complete article, go here.

 

 

 

 

Shocker: men and women not interchangeable

This is an important reminder on the reasons why drafting women will be disastrous:

Unchanging physical differences between the sexes will always render women at a stark disadvantage in offensive kill missions. In the Marines’ testing, women suffered 2-6 times the injuries of their male counterparts. Active-duty women average 2-10 times the injuries compared to men before even attempting to achieve men’s standards or the combat arms’ much more grueling demands. It should go without saying that higher rates of injury are a liability to units that have to endure and withstand the toughest physical demands as they hunt and kill our enemies. Drafting women for this will result in much higher turnover, weakened combat effectiveness and fewer of both men and women coming home alive and victorious against our enemies.

Even when the best women were paired with men in a recent Marine integration study, the results showed that readiness, effectiveness, and success rates plummeted, not to mention the women sustained far greater injuries. One might ponder the real strategy of putting women into combat: the prospect of dead mothers will be a deterrent to any battle; diminished fighting capacity will cause the CIC to reconsider many deployments; and distracted and demoralised troops will discourage many from considering a military career -- which combine to undermine American interests around the world and encourage our enemies.

Which is a win-win for those who disparage all that our civilisation stands for -- check out the standard texts for Gender Study departments nationwide. "Men wage wars" has been their mantra for decades. Stacking the troops with those who will undermine troop effectiveness promotes androgyny as the antidote while simply replacing testosterone with estrogen. Which wages "peace" as a façade for capitulation. 

Social engineering based on delusions

This is an important piece by Stella Morabito, who is an expert in agitprop:

The transgender movement has never been about “gender.” It’s all about sex. Sex is the real target. “Gender” is merely the politicized linguistic vehicle that facilitates a legal ban on sex distinctions. There aren’t a whole lot of dots to connect to uncover the logic of where this leads: if you abolish sex distinctions in law, you can abolish state recognition of biological family ties, and the state can regulate personal relationships and consolidate power as never before.

I had the privilege of meeting Stella last week, and hearing her explain how propaganda works. Its goal is to:

1. prevent independent thought;
2. mobilise the masses; and
3. build conformity.

If anyone has any doubts as to these goals, he simply needs to watch these bright young things (here and here). But - here's the kicker - when the propaganda is light years away from reality, then it will take enormous force to keep the ideology in place. Since gender ideology only exists in the mind (and note that the students filmed above were happy to let the average-height male Caucasian interviewer identify as a 6'5" Chinese woman if he so wished) it is illusory, and one person's illusion may conflict not only with reality but with the competing illusions of their peers. As Stella notes:

What will happen when all of society is sexless in both language and law? If the law does not recognize your body as physically male or female—applying only the word “gender” to your internal, self-reported self-perception—does the law even recognize your body? Every single cell of you has either “male” or “female” written into its DNA, but the law refuses to recognize such categories. Such laws will only recognize an infinite, immeasurable “gender spectrum,” your place on which is determined only by your mind. So what exactly are you after the law has de-sexed you? In what sense is your body a legal entity?

And what happens to your familial relationships after the law has de-sexed you? Are they legally recognized? I don’t see how they could be. Certainly not by default, certainly not by the recognition that each child comes through the union of two opposite-sex parents.

In a society de-sexed by law, would the state recognize your relationship as a husband or a wife? Mother or father? Daughter or son? Those are all sexed terms. A system that does not recognize the existence of male and female would be free to ignore the parentage of any child. You might be recognized as your child’s “legal guardian,” but only if the state agrees to that.

Putting the state in charge of an illusion-based construct is frightening, and what may look liberating today will be the cinderblock tied to our ankles in the very near future. Caveat emptor!

Gender dysphoria

This is the first part of a two-part conversation with Dr Michelle Cretella, the president of the American College of Pediatricians.

American College of Pediatricians

Courage

Mercatornet article: Gender Ideology = Child Abuse

UPDATE: this is part two of the conversation with Dr Cretella

 

Links for Dr Peter's Interview

Peters

Here is the link to a lovely conversation with Dr Danielle Peters, who is a member of the Secular Institute of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary, and a research fellow at the Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame University, IN. She obtained her MA in theology from Sacred Heart Seminary in Wisconsin and her STL and STD from the International Marian Research Institute (IMRI) in Dayton OH. Her former assignments include professor and coordinator of academic programs at the Pontifical International Marian Research Institute (IMRI) in Dayton, OH, the Athenaeum in Cincinnati, OH, and employment at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican.

The Schoenstatt prayer to the Blessed Mother that she recited is as follows:

Let us walk like you through life

Let us mirror you forever

Strong and noble; meek and mild

Peace and love be our endeavor

Walk in us through our world

Make it ready for the Lord

She is the author of Ecce educatrix tua: the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary for a pedagogy of holiness in the thought of John Paul II and Father Joseph Kentenich, numerous articles, and is a regular contributor to the Church Life Journal. She currently serves as the vice president of the Mariological Society of America (2014-16). Or after May 20: She serves as president of the Mariological Society of America (2016-18).

I referred to the following resources:

The Mary Page;  Secular Institute of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary: and the image of the Mother thrice admirable, Queen and Victress of Schoenstatt (above).

As for the Protoevangelium of James, she explains:

writings such as the Protoevangelium of St. James are non-canonical writings from the early church. From this piece the Catholic tradition accepts the names of Mary's parents and her Presentation in the Temple (celebrated on November 21). It also includes stories about the person of St. Joseph and of Mary's midwife, Salome, who doubted her virginity after birth (and when she wanted to have a physical examination her right hand withered .... Some of these episodes (including the two step Annunciation at the well and then in Mary's house) made it into iconography. I guess, as with everything we love, we want to know more details and this writing wanted to fill the gap.

 

Hospitality in the face of death

That is not a phrase commonly heard when mortal illness strikes, but Ruth Lasseter explains beautifully how her family dealt with the departure of a beloved husband, father, and grandfather. And here is a link to the Catholic Textbook Project on which Ruth and Rollin (and many others) collaborated -- highly recommended!

 

 

Ruth Lasseter