feminine-genius

Women's retreats

The last retreat I offered was recorded, and the two talks can be found here. We had a beautiful day near the ocean in Westerly, RI--a day that included Holy Mass, Confession, the Rosary, and a luncheon. I am now setting up the calendar for the coming year (Sept 2013-May 2014) and would love to come and talk to your parish, your diocesan women's guild, your school, or your book club. For more information, see my site and see if this would be a good fit for the women you know!

Maternal solicitude

I have written often about the feminine vocation to prayer--especially our call to pray for priests. It is a priviledged dimension of our motherhood to support others through prayer and sacrifice, and to this end we should consider participating in this apostolate. (If it doesn't already exist in your diocese, perhaps you are called to create it.)

That said, the Holy Father has benefited by prayers of these fine women, one of whom recently spoke* of her vocation:

One of the seven cloistered nuns who until last October lived in the Mater Ecclesiae ("Mother of the Church") convent in the Vatican gardens, where Pope Benedict will live after his two months at Castel Gandolfo, has given an interesting interview to Vatican Radio.

 

The nuns were all Spanish except for one Italian, Sister Maria Francesca. This is what she had to say about living in the Vatican Gardens:

 

"E’ stata un’esperienza unica, ed è un’esperienza di quelle per cui uno comincia a misurare la vita da 'prima' di questo e 'dopo' questo. Quello che l’ha caratterizzata è stata essenzialmente la presenza del Santo Padre, cioè questa vita data e offerta per lui con una vicinanza, tra l’altro, fisica: la posizione del monastero è dentro i Giardini Vaticani. Proprio questa vicinanza implicava dei contatti con il Santo Padre ed il primo, il più importante in assoluto, è quello della preghiera. Noi eravamo lì essenzialmente per lui, per la Chiesa, per i suoi collaboratori della Curia. Tutte le mattine, aprendo le finestre della nostra casa, vedevamo il Palazzo Apostolico ed era un modo per mandare la preghiera quasi 'fisicamente' verso di lui." ("It was a unique experience, one of those experiences that one measures one's life by, 'before' and 'after' the experience. What characterized it was essentially the presence of the Holy Father, that is, this life given and offered for him with a nearness which was, among other things, physical: the position of the convent is inside the Vatican Gardens. Precisely this nearness implied contacts with the Holy Father, and the first, the most important of all, was that of prayer. We were there essentially for him, for the Church, for his co-workers of the Curia. Every morning, opening the windows of our house, we saw the Apostolic Palace and it was a way to send our prayer 'physically' toward him.')

 

She said she met the Pope only two times, once on December 14, 2010, on the 400th anniversary of her order's founding, and on October 14, 2012, a week before leaving the Vatican. On that last occasion, they met the Pope in his apartment.

 

What struck her, she said, was his very great capacity to be "present" and "open" to each person in front of him.

 

Asked what message she would like to communicate to the Pope, she said: "We love him very much. We loved him very much, and we love him very much." ("Lo amiamo tanto. Lo abbiamo amato tanto e lo amiamo tanto.")

God bless these dear women, and I know the next pope will have their continued support and affection.

* from Robert Moynihans newsletter #13

Magnifique!

Not only is it wonderful that Notre Dame Cathedral is getting new bells, but it's more wonderful that the event is greeted so warmly by the citizens of Paris:

Driven through the streets of Paris with a police motorcycle escort, nine new bells arrived at the Notre Dame Cathedral on Thursday to be installed for the landmark's 850th anniversary.

The bells, named Dame de Paris (lady of Paris) Maurice, Gabriel, Anne-Geneviève, Benôit-Joseph, Jean Marie, Etienne, Marcel, Marie and finally Dennis, were given a warm welcome as they were delivered to the iconic cathedral in the heart of Paris.

Hundreds lined the streets to watch them be carried on two trucks to the famous landmark, where they were greeted by gathered crowds to the sounds of its old bells ringing.

Four of the old bells, in place since 1856, had deteriorated because of the low-quality metals used, rendering them out of key with the main tenor bell, Emmanuel, considered one of the finest examples in Europe.

The nine new bells will be installed overnight Friday and on display for a month from Saturday, before they will be rung for the first time on March 23 to mark the beginning of the Holy Week before Easter.

While the largest bell, Marie, was made in the Netherlands, the rest were made in France--in Normany, to be precise, and they are all expected to last 200-300 years. Despite the abysmal rate of Mass attendance in France, the beautiful cathedral is "one of the most visited sites in Paris, attracting 13.6 million visitors in 2011."

Sainte Geneviève, priez pour nous!

Lovely witness in Nepal

Whatever you've heard of Kathmandu, it was probably exotic and mysterious, but be assured that children there are like kids everywhere. Only, there's horrific poverty -- over half the country lives below UNICEF's poverty line. Interestingly, many who are sentenced to jail for criminal activity simply take their dependent children with them, if there's no one else to care for them.

And, like everywhere else in the world, there are good souls who see a need and feel compelled to help.

[Pushpa] Basnet was just 21 when she discovered her calling, she said. While her family ran a successful business, she was studying social work in college. As part of her studies, she visited a women's prison and was appalled by the dire conditions. She also was shocked to discover children living behind bars.

One baby girl grabbed Basnet's shawl and gave her a big smile.

"I felt she was calling me," Basnet said. "I went back home and told my parents about it. They told me it was a normal thing and that in a couple of days I'd forget it. But I couldn't forget."

Basnet decided to start a day care to get incarcerated children out from behind the prison walls. While her parents were against the idea at first -- she had no job or way to sustain it financially -- eventually they helped support her. But prison officials, government workers and even some of the imprisoned mothers she approached doubted that someone her age could handle such a project.

"When I started, nobody believed in me," Basnet said. "People thought I was crazy. They laughed at me."

But Basnet was undaunted. She got friends to donate money, and she rented a building in Kathmandu to house her new organization, the Early Childhood Development Center. She furnished it largely by convincing her parents that they needed a new refrigerator or kitchen table; when her parents' replacement would arrive, she'd whisk the old one to her center.

Just two months after she first visited the prison, Basnet began to care for five children. She picked them up at the prison every weekday morning, brought them to her center and then returned them in the afternoon. Basnet's program was the first of its kind in Kathmandu; when she started, some of the children in her care had never been outside a prison.

Two years later, Basnet established the Butterfly Home, a children's home where she herself has lived for the past five years. While she now has a few staff members who help her, Basnet is still very hands on.

"We do cooking, washing, shopping," she said. "It's amazing, I never get tired. (The children) give me the energy. ... The smiles of my children keep me motivated."

It's a beautiful endeavor, and I'm delighted that she's found some recognition for her work, which may translate into some much-needed donations. It would seem, though, that the critical element is her maternal love, which flows abundantly. May God reward her generosity of heart.

Voici!

The new book is officially out! It can be ordered here, and there's more information at the main site: feminine-genius.com

I'd love to share this good news with your women's groups, and am a reasonably cheap date (air travel being what it is). God's message of freedom through forgiveness should be shouted from the rooftops -- or blogs, or radio shows, and everywhere. I'm doing my part -- and count on your support.

Four new women saints

From Benedict's beatification homily today:

“May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you” (Ps 32:22). With these words, the liturgy invites us to make our own this hymn to God, creator and provider, accepting his plan into our lives. María Carmelo Sallés y Barangueras, a religious born in Vic in Spain in 1848, did just so. Filled with hope in spite of many trials, she, on seeing the progress of the Congregation of the Conceptionist Missionary Sisters of Teaching, which she founded in 1892, was able to sing with the Mother of God, “His mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation” (Lk 1:50). Her educational work, entrusted to the Immaculate Virgin Mary, continues to bear abundant fruit among young people through the generous dedication of her daughters who, like her, entrust themselves to God for whom all is possible.

I now turn to Marianne Cope, born in eighteen thirty-eight in Heppenheim, Germany. Only one year old when taken to the United States, in eighteen sixty-two she entered the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis at Syracuse, New York. Later, as Superior General of her congregation, Mother Marianne willingly embraced a call to care for the lepers of Hawaii after many others had refused. She personally went, with six of her fellow sisters, to manage a hospital on Oahu, later founding Malulani Hospital on Maui and opening a home for girls whose parents were lepers. Five years after that she accepted the invitation to open a home for women and girls on the island of Molokai itself, bravely going there herself and effectively ending her contact with the outside world. There she looked after Father Damien, already famous for his heroic work among the lepers, nursed him as he died and took over his work among male lepers. At a time when little could be done for those suffering from this terrible disease, Marianne Cope showed the highest love, courage and enthusiasm. She is a shining and energetic example of the best of the tradition of Catholic nursing sisters and of the spirit of her beloved Saint Francis.

Kateri Tekakwitha was born in today’s New York state in sixteen fifty-six to a Mohawk father and a Christian Algonquin mother who gave to her a sense of the living God. She was baptized at twenty years of age and, to escape persecution, she took refuge in Saint Francis Xavier Mission near Montreal. There she worked, faithful to the traditions of her people, although renouncing their religious convictions until her death at the age of twenty-four. Leading a simple life, Kateri remained faithful to her love for Jesus, to prayer and to daily Mass. Her greatest wish was to know and to do what pleased God. She lived a life radiant with faith and purity.

Kateri impresses us by the action of grace in her life in spite of the absence of external help and by the courage of her vocation, so unusual in her culture. In her, faith and culture enrich each other! May her example help us to live where we are, loving Jesus without denying who we are. Saint Kateri, Protectress of Canada and the first native American saint, we entrust to you the renewal of the faith in the first nations and in all of North America! May God bless the first nations!

Anna Schaeffer, from Mindelstetten, as a young woman wished to enter a missionary order. She came from a poor background so, in order to earn the dowry needed for acceptance into the cloister, she worked as a maid. One day she suffered a terrible accident and received incurable burns on her legs which forced her to be bed-ridden for the rest of her life. So her sick-bed became her cloister cell and her suffering a missionary service. She struggled for a time to accept her fate, but then understood her situation as a loving call from the crucified One to follow him. Strengthened by daily communion, she became an untiring intercessor in prayer and a mirror of God’s love for the many who sought her counsel. May her apostolate of prayer and suffering, of sacrifice and expiation, be a shining example for believers in her homeland, and may her intercession strengthen the Christian hospice movement in its beneficial activity.

Four lovely icons of Holy Mother Church -- our true teacher, our source of healing and consolation, the builder of authentic culture. Four new examples of the feminine genius that is only fully possible in the rich soil of our faith. Dear sisters, pray for us!

A new Doctor of the Church

In addition to the tremendously important opening of a "Year of Faith," Pope Benedict declared Hildegard of Bingen a Doctor of the Church, only the fourth woman to be given that esteemed title. I have written an introductory piece on here here, and offer this news snippet from Rome Reports:

 

Here are a couple examples of Saint Hildegard's creativity:

Currently, I am reading this book, Hildegard of Bingen: Homilies on the Gospels, which I highly recommended. Please be careful when ordering anything on her, because many New Age and other suspect groups have adopted her, and those books are "interpretations" rather than authentic translations. Regine Pernoud has written and excellent biography found here.Her music is widely available from Amazon and other sources, and is very lovely, quite soothing.

I'm sure you will be hearing much about her in the coming months, so it would be prudent to familiarise yourself with what she truly was (and what she was not!) This is a great time to be a Catholic woman, and we have an excellent opportunity to show how much the Church esteems authentic femininity.

[Don't forget to read the full article here.]

Thoughts on Kristin

I've updated my website, and posted a review on Kristin Lavransdatter that has yet to be published. On second thought, it's not so much a review as a reflection on the trials of parents:

While I prepare each time [I read this book] to be absorbed into the life and struggles of another, I am always surprised by my changing reaction. As a young mother, the first reading allowed me to share Kristin's frustration with a husband who was inconstant, unreliable, and irreverent towards many Things That Matter. How could he shrug off incidents concerning duty, honor, and moral rectitude? Poor Kristin. The second time around, I realized that she knew these things about him before marriage; and he was right in saying he never promised her those things -- only his undying affections. Poor Erland to have married such a scold. The third time, I simply sighed upon finishing, recognizing certainly that, well, marriage is quite complicated.

But it's this fourth reading that shows, not only the trajectory of my own life with a small handful of children and a troubling culture lurking about to snatch them from the narrow road, but also how the purifying love of one's offspring throws us into the arms of God the Father -- as father...

Read it all here and enjoy the new site!