feminine-genius

Annoyances

From today's Moment with Mary:

One day Father Oblat was trekking across the high mountains of Lesotho, with a rosary in his hand, visiting the Christians spread here and there scattered throughout the villages. Suddenly, a clap of thunder threw him to the ground. He got up painfully, with the help of his catechist who begged him to turn back. "The demon is annoyed because there is a soul to save," replied the priest. And they continued their route in prayer.

After a good deal of walking on mountain paths, they heard cries coming from a remote village. The good father stopped, "Someone is calling us, let us go there!" he said. The catechist replied, "No, that village is full of witches, it's a trap." But the priest answered, "Perhaps there is a soul to save there. I must go and find out." And the priest set off to the village, followed by his reluctant assistant who seemed to be more dead than alive.

When they arrived, several women surrounded the priest and took him into a hut where a girl about 17 years of age was dying. The women said, "She has been calling for you. She wants to be baptized by a Catholic priest so she can be with the beautiful lady." The father knelt down close to the dying girl who said with great effort, "Are you a Catholic priest?" He replied, "Yes, I am." - "Then baptize me quickly. Please hurry..."

Testimony of a missionary of Lesotho
Published in the magazine "Our Lady of New Time" #6 1982
Told in the Marian Collection 1986 by Brother Albert Pfleger, Marist

Pray for guidance. Sometimes obstacles are to be respected. Sometimes, they indicate that more resolve is needed.

The key to the culture

The key to a restoration of culture, a culture of life, lies with women. Mary Jo Anderson has a very good essay on the feminine vocation as outlined in Mulieris Dignitatem.

It is women who must re-learn the truth about the feminine nature and to then insist that our social structures respect that truth. A world where the true feminine is marginalized or even erased (transgenderism, androgyny) is a world where human beings are thrown back into a lonely existence devoid of authentic relationships. There is no loneliness on earth worse that the alienation of being surrounded by many bodies, even having “encounters” with other bodies, and yet, having no relationship.

This modern alienation is cataloged in art, sociology, psychology and philosophy. It is why nihilism is rampant in our times. it is why our young cut and pierce themselves so that they can “feel alive,” the pain is preferable to being overlooked, of not belonging.

The Woman is the key to recovery of the culture gone cold from the loss of an authentic femininity.

So much news around us is dark and forboding. It is not a time for despair, but for resolve. So much lies within our realm of grace -- not by doing, but simply by being who we're called to be. Take courage, friends. And take time to understand your feminine vocation. Much depends on it.

View of the Passion

From the vision of Julian of Norwich:

Suddenly I saw the red blood running down from under the crown, hot and flowing freely and copiously, a living stream, just as it was at the time when the crown of thorns was pressed on his blessed head (181).

I looked with bodily vision into the face of the crucifix hung before me, in which I saw a part of Christ's Passion: contempt, foul spitting, buffeting, and many long-drawn pains, more than I can tell; and his colour often changed. At one time I saw how half his face, beginning at the ear, became covered with dried blood, until it was caked to the middle of his face, and then the other side was caked in the same fashion (193).

...the fair skin was deeply broken into the tender flesh, through the vicious blows delivered all over the lovely body. The hot blood ran out so plentifully that neither skin nor wounds could be seen, but everything seemed to be blood (199).

I saw his sweet face as it were dry and bloodless with the pallor of dying, and then deadly pale, languishing, and then the pallor turning blue, and then the blue turning brown, as took took more hold on his flesh. For his Passion appeared to me most vividly in his blessed face, and especially in his lips. I saw there what had become of these four colours, which had appeared to me before as fresh and ruddy, vital and beautiful. This was a painful change to watch, this deep dying, and his nose shrivelled and dried as I saw; and the sweet body turned brown and black (206).

In deep grief Julian beholds the dying Christ, waiting in agony for the moment of his death. But as she thinks this moment has come, there is a dramatic change. In the ninth vision she writes:

Suddenly, as I looked at the same cross, he changed to an appearance of joy. The change in his blessed countenance changed mine, and I was as glad and joyful as I could possibly be. And then cheerfully our Lord suggested to my mind: 'Where is now any instant of your pain or of your grief?' And I was very joyful (215).

It was at this point that the seer completely cured of her serious illness.

Then our good Lord put a question to me: 'Are you well satisfied that I suffered for you?' I said: 'Yes, good Lord, all my thanks to you; yes, good Lord, blessed may you be'. Then Jesus our good Lord said: 'If you are satisfied, I am satisfied. It is a joy, a bliss, an endless delight to me that ever I suffered my Passion for you; and if I could suffer more, I would suffer more' (2166)

Eyes on Jerusalem

As our hearts turn to the Passion and its setting in the Holy Land, I bring this apostolate to your attention. It looks like an excellent initiative, and joining the list for updates will put a Marian inspiration in your inbox regularly. Today's:

It is true that feminine perfection, as it was fully realized in Mary, can at first sight seem to be an exceptional case and impossible to imitate, a model too lofty for imitation. In fact, the unique holiness of her who from the very first moment received the privilege of the Immaculate Conception is sometimes considered unreachably distant.

However, far from being a restraint on the way of following the Lord, Mary's exalted holiness is on the contrary, destined in God's plan to encourage all Christians to open themselves to the sanctifying power of the grace of God, for whom nothing is impossible. Therefore in Mary all are called to put total trust in the divine omnipotence, which transforms hearts, guiding them towards full receptivity to his providential plan of love.

Time to trust. Despite the suffering inherent in loving, love anyway.

Quiet rejoicing

As ever, Father Mark provides a rich foundation for Week Three of Advent:

Today’s Introit is one of the few drawn from Saint Paul. It is an exhortation to joy, but its mood is quiet and reflective. “Joy to you in the Lord at all times; once again I wish you joy. Give proof to all of your courtesy. The Lord is near. Nothing must make you anxious; in every need, make your requests known to God, praying and beseeching Him, and giving Him thanks as well” (Phil 4:4-6).

What the Latin gives as, “gaudete,” and the English as “rejoice,” is astonishingly rich in Saint Paul’s Greek. Any one translation would be inadequate. Paul says, “chaírete.” It is the very same word used by the angel Gabriel to greet the Virgin of Nazareth. “Chaire, kecharitoménè!” “Joy to you, O full of grace!” (Lk 1:28). The word is untranslatable. Just when we think we have seized its meaning once and for all, another door opens inside it. “Chaírete” was the ordinary greeting of the Greeks. It embraces health, salvation, loveliness, grace, and joy, all at once. In the mouth and in the ear of Christians, the taste of the word is indescribable. “Grace to you, and loveliness, and joy in the Lord; again I wish you grace, and loveliness, and joy” (Phil 4:4). Paul’s greeting is not so much an imperative — a command to be joyful — as it is the imparting of a gift in the Lord. “What I wish for you, what I send you, what I give you in the Lord is grace, and loveliness, and joy.”

He then provides an anecdote which guides our behaviour -- both inwardly and with the external manifestation:

The widowed Baroness de Chantal, writing of her first encounter with Saint Francis de Sales, says that his countenance was serene and heavenly, and that some assurance in it of inward peace seemed to give instant relief to her grieving heart. Show each other faces that are serene and peaceful, radiant with joy, faces that reflect the loveliness of God. Saint Paul adds, “the Lord is at hand” (Phil 4:5). This is the great central affirmation of the liturgy today, and every day. Dominus prope est. “The Lord is at hand” (Phil 4:5).

No fretting, no anxiety, no grumbling. This is not to deny our deeply-held concerns, but to trust God and His promises, which is the foundation of our hope. When this is authentically lived, it will become a source of evangelisation. Not our words, not our actions, but simply our demeanor.

It is disarmingly simple. “In every need,” he says, “make your requests known to God, praying and beseeching Him, and giving Him thanks as well” (Phil 4:6). The Apostle sends us to prayer because in prayer God accomplishes the things that of ourselves, and by ourselves, we are unable to do. In prayer we wait, all of us — the weak, the feeble, the blind, the deaf, and the lame — for God’s gifts of grace, and loveliness, and joy. Prayer is what makes the desert rejoice and blossom. Prayer is the irrigation of the heart’s deserts.

Give it all to God and rejoice -- the Saviour is near, and He knows our needs. Trust!

A little late...

This is late for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, but it's a timeless nugget. (This blog never fails to inspire!)

Bloodguilt and sacrifice

I stand on the firm principle that an understanding of the nuptial backdrop to creation is an adequate defense of the all-male priesthood. That said, I found this fascinating comment by Alice , who renounced her "holy orders" in the Episcopal Church in 2004.

Since 2004 I've been studying the institution of the priesthood from the earliest times up to the catholic priesthood of today. In every stage of development the priesthood is male because of what it involves: blood and bloodguilt. In no society with priests are women to be involved with blood sacrifice and ritual that address bloodguilt and the anxiety caused by the shedding of blood. This is work that pertains to males. It is not difficult to understand why this is so. What community wants those who are to bring forth and nurture their young ones to be engaged in bloodshed and all the spiritual contamination that that involves? Women had their own monthly blood to deal with, not to mention the blood shed in the birthing process. They too were contaminated by blood. That's where the "churching" of women came into play.

When we consider primitive societies, we note universally that hunting is a male task whereas agriculture is a female task. Both hunting and agriculture require physical strength, but the spiritual danger associated with bloodletting requires that hunting be undertaken by the physically stronger. Among every primitive society that has been studied, anthropologists have noted the belief that here is power in the blood and this power is spiritual and potentially dangerous. This brings us to an important anthropological principle that states: “The older the trait, the wider the distribution.”

Since this anxiety about the shedding of blood is universal, we conclude that it is also very old. It is in fact primeval, and from the first day that man shed blood, the priesthood has existed to address this anxiety.

When archaic man took life in the hunt, the spiritual leader of the community offered prayers for the sacrifice of the animal. The ritual act of sacrifice and prayer is apparent from the beginning. The sacrifice gave the community life and the prayer protected it from bloodguilt. The prayers and the sacrifice of the hunt were performed according to sacred law. The priest then symbolizes prayer, sacrifice and law. That is true most fully in Christ, our Great High Priest. This anthropolically well-documented reality surrounding blood among primitives societies stands behind the Church’s tradition of a male priesthood.

The original post is here, which concerns the Christological error at the heart of the push for women's ordination. Fascinating stuff, if more earthy and pungeant than our antiseptic culture usually finds comfortable.

Interesting application

I have always been fascinated with the concept of Church as Sanctuary. This is a long-respected tradition, so that the church building is a haven during war, a mutually safe ground between opposing sides, and an oasis in times of crisis. Women, as icons of the Church, provide sanctuaries to new life and their presence in general should provide a calming influence on heated events. (That's the ideal, of course.)

This story out of Norway doesn't provide much detail, but the sanctuary premise is the heart of the story. (I googled this woman, but can't find other stories in English.) She is a Christian and seems to be at the heart of a deportation dispute that hints at persecution awaiting her in her homeland of Iran.

Shahla Valadi has been in church asylum in Mysen for seven years, and on Friday she will be wheeled to a demonstration in Oslo. A protest march on her behalf is organized for Friday, and in order for her to participate in Oslo her supporters will take her to the capital in a car that has been converted into a church on wheels, newspaper Vårt Land reports.

You see, as long as she stays in a Church, she is safe from deportation laws. The pastor who is caring for her wants the van in which he transports her to be considered a sanctuary as well, a "rolling church." He asked the Lutheran bishop to consecrate the vehicle, but she declined. The pastor was understanding of her position.

There is no condition of consecration for a church building to qualify as a sanctuary for church asylum. The Filadelfia in Mysen is not consecrated in the Lutheran or Catholic sense, but the authorities understand what makes a house of god, and we hope that they will continue to have that respect."

So much gets lost with the fragmenting of Holy Mother Church. We have a woman in role of bridegroom, the essence of Church as bride slipping away (you see, there's no coincidence that a communion that allows abortion wouldn't make the connexion that the bride provides sanctuary), a reticence to "consecrate," and finally a vulnerable woman caught in the tangle.

It's ironic that the minister caring for Shahla Valadi, who is described as a "TV-pastor," understands the urgency of consecration while a consecrated bishop declines to get involved. I cannot speak to the legitimacy of the case in question -- knowing so little, but the backdrop itself reveals much about a mystical body no longer consecrated in truth.

The Cross of infertility

John Mallon brings to our attention a wonderful talk offered through Human Life International, given by Marie Meaney:

This talk looks at the difficulties with which couples and in particular women suffering from infertility have to deal. After analyzing the temptations the woman has to face such as self-pity, anger, envy, not allowing herself to mourn, running away from the cross, this talk points out the wrong responses that people surrounding the infertile couple tend to give: telling them to get over it, being curious about the reason for their infertility, blaming them. These can stem from simple clumsiness, but often express a lack of compassion and the failure to stand under the cross with the persons who suffer.

In a world that hardly understands the value of human life, there is the ironic, perplexing suffering of those who do value it, yearn for it, and wish with all their hearts to co-create with God -- and yet who are asked to forego the gift of children for a higher good. Perhaps you know someone who would benefit by hearing this. Kindly spread the Good News.

Find a place for God

The apparition of La Salette happened on September 19th, 1846 on Saturday at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of a beautiful, clear autumn day. The Virgin Mary appeared to Maximin Giraud, age 11, and Melanie Calvat, age 14, on a mountain near the town of La Salette, some 1800m high in the French Alps.

The two children had first met the day before while tending cows on the slopes. After their meagre lunch at midday; they were overcome by fatigue and fell into a deep sleep. Suddenly Melanie awoke and, not seeing the cows, called to Maximin: Memin, come and see where the cows might have strayed. They quickly climbed the hill in front of them and with relief saw the cows grazing on the opposite side of the knoll.

Returning to pick up their knapsacks, the two children stopped in their tracks when they saw a very bright light blazing over the bench of stones where they had sat for lunch. The radiance parted and revealed a woman seated on the stones, her elbows on her knees and her face buried in her hands. They realized at once that she was weeping. They were frightened but the Lady rose and reassured them:

"Come near, my children, don't be afraid. I am here to tell you great news".

They hurried to her side while she took a few steps towards them.

Over a shining white dress the Lady wore a full length golden apron. Along the border of her white kerchief were roses of all colours and on a fine gold chain a crucifix more radiant than anything else in the vision. On the left of the crucifix hung a miniature hammer and on the right, pincers. Her headdress was white and crowned with a diadem of roses of many hues. Her shoes were sparkling white with a square gold buckle. Around each slipper were tiny roses that were not crushed as she stood and walked on the tips of the blades of grass.

The Lady was so resplendent in light that the noonday sun faded in comparison. Her face was exceedingly beautiful yet profoundly sad. Tears fell down her cheeks all the while she spoke. With rapt attention the children listened to the Beautiful Lady:

If my people refuse to submit, I shall be forced to let go the arm of my son. It is so strong and so heavy. I can no longer hold it back.

How long a time I have suffered for you! If I want my Son not to abandon you, I must plead with him without ceasing. And as for you, you pay no heed! However much you pray, however much you do, you will never be able to repay the pains I have taken for you.

I gave you six days to work; I kept the seventh for myself, and they will not give it to me. This is what makes the arm of my Son so heavy. And then, those who drive the carts cannot swear without bringing in my Son's name. These are the two things which make the arm of my Son so heavy.

If the harvest is ruined, it is only on account of you. I let you know last year with the potatoes. You paid no heed. Instead, when you found the potatoes spoiled, you swore, and brought in my Son's name. They are going to continue to spoil, and by Christmas this year there will be none left.

The Beautiful Lady had been speaking French but Melanie, not knowing the French word for potatoes, turned towards Maximin to ask him if he knew what "pommes de terre" meant.

The Lady interrupted: Don't you understand, my children? Let me find another way to say it.

Then speaking in their local dialect, she continued: If you have wheat, you must not sow it. Anything you sow the insects will eat, and whatever does come up will fall into dust when you thresh it. A great famine is coming. Before the famine comes, children under seven will be seized with trembling and they will die in the arms of the persons who hold them. The rest will do penance through the famine. The walnuts will become worm-eaten, the grapes will rot.

The Lady then confided a separate secret to each of the children. Although each child noticed her lips moving, neither of them heard what was being said to the other. Having entrusted these secrets, she continued:

If they are converted, rocks and stones will turn in to heaps of wheat, and potatoes will be self-sown in the fields.

Then she asked: Do you say your prayers well, my children?

Hardly ever, Madame.

Ah! My children, you must say them well, at night and in the morning, if you were to say only an Our Father and a Hail Mary, when you can't do better. When you can do better, say more. 

My children, you will make this known to all my people.

Then she crossed the brook, walked slowly to the top of the hill and rose more than a metre in the air. There she turned and gazed in the direction of Rome and said once again:

Very well, my children make this known to all my people.

Then she vanished. The light alone remained but in an instant it too disappeared.

That evening the children returned home and told their parents what they had seen and heard. Soon, the whole town wanted to hear the story and the children were to tell it again and again.

After five years of careful study and investigation the Bishop of Grenoble, in whose diocese the event had taken place, gave his approbation in a formal declaration, which stated, in part: We judge that the Apparition of the Blessed Virgin to two shepherds, September 19, 1846, on the mountain in the French Alps, in the parish of La Salette ... shows all the signs of the truth and the faithful have grounds for believing it indubitable and certain.

At the spot where Maximin and Melanie saw the lady weeping there is a statue, a large basilica and accommodation for pilgrims. The message from Our Lady of La Salette has not changed: "Find a place for God in your life, otherwise things will get out of hand".

---

Pope John Paul II wrote about La Salette on 6th May 1996.

"The message of La Salette was given to two young shepherds in a period of great suffering. People were scourged by famine, subjected to many injustices. Indifference or hostility toward the Gospel message worsened. As she appeared, bearing upon her breast the likeness of her crucified Son, Our Lady showed herself to be associated to the work of salvation, experiencing compassion for her children...

La Salette is a message of hope - a hope sustained by the intercession of her who is the Mother of all peoples... The arm of Mary's Son will not weigh upon, will not condemn, the people who walk humbly in the pathway of the Lord. Christ will take the outstretched hand into his own and lead to new life the sinner reconciled by the grace of the Cross...

At La Salette, Mary clearly spoke of the constancy of her prayer for the world: she will never abandon the people created in the image and likeness of God, those to whom it has been given to become children of God. May she lead to her Son all the nations of the earth".

Pope John Paul II
May 6, 1996