feminine-genius

A tinge of envy

I wouldn't trade our diocese (or our priests) for the world, but Tulsa's got it going on. Goodness, look how their bishop loves these women, and rightly so! They've pledged themselves to pray for the well-being of priests and for vocations, and they get some holy bling in return. Could this be a new trend?
 
Our diocese has a similar program and we are treated royally at our seminary almost monthly. No fancy medals or cards with calligraphy -- only the holiest Mass possible, rosary, and coffee with some marvelous fellows. It is a privilege and a wonderful opportunity.

Nag your bishop, promise your priests the moon if they'll set this up for you -- but regardless, pray for them!

A lenten column

Catholic Mom kindly carried my latest column here. Looks kind of dark, but it's really supposed to be a hopeful sort of piece...  So much is in our humble hands!

Bringing the Annunciation home

We have tremendously dedicated souls who participate in the Forty Days for Life campaign here in RI. Today we got lovely news about today's successes:

Three wonderful gifts from Our Lady's hands on this great Feast of the Annunciation:

1) Our first absolutely confirmed save of a child in the womb in this Lenten campaign today in Cranston!!! We were praying up a storm out there, bearing in mind that if we could hear sounds from the clinic, they could hear our prayers! At approximately 10 o'clock, a woman began pulling out of the driveway of the abortion facility. She was sobbing and talking on the cell phone, but she interrupted herself to open the windows and call out to us "I didn't do it; I didn't do it! I'm not doing it!", and then she waved and tore away from that place as fast as she could. Thank you, Lord!! Ave Maria!

2) Afterwards, on Point St, a young man approached me for info on Planned Parenthood vs Pro-Life. He asked for a copy of our help and healing flier, spoke to me for about 15 mins, and then entered PP for what he expected to be an interview. He was working on a [school?] project. He seemed to lean toward pro-choice, but we could agree that at the very least, women had the RIGHT to be provided with all relevant information concerning her health and her child before scheduling an abortion.

About 15 minutes later, he exited, explaining to me that they had not allowed an interview that day after all, but had made an appointment for him to return at a later date. He then accepted a 40 Days For Life pamphlet from me, a couple of post-abortion testimonials, and the web addresses of Priests For Life and Silent No More Awareness, in addition to our pro-life fair flier. I am delighted that he was open to researching all angles of life vs abortion--there is no doubt that the truth is on the side of life, after all!! We have no reason to hide OUR information!

3) A man who had entered PP with a woman, who accepted a help and healing flier, told me while he was waiting for her that she was only in for a pregnancy test. I was able to give him some info about free or no-cost pregnancy tests and other health care available to those in need. He was glad to hear that they would not be forced to return to PP for health care, and informed me that they fully intended to keep their child if the test was positive. I told him I'd pray for the pregnancy.

When they exited later, I was kneeling in prayer, holding my 40 Days For Life sign. He pulled up in their car and announced to me "She's pregnant!! We're gonna have a baby!" The beaming mom, the new dad, Dick and Janet and I all got to cheer together and praise God! The couple was practically jumping out of their seats with joy, and thanked us when we said we'd pray for the baby's good health! I hope they discover that the day they learned of the pregnancy was the Feast of the Annunciation--the day that Mary learned She would be the Mother of the Lord! It's a date they won't forget when they know, but in all the whooping, I forgot to tell them of that sweet blessing! (Perhaps they know already!!)

If you've been wondering whether all the hours of prayer, fasting, and spreading the truth of Life have been worth it, YES, YES, YES, they have been more than paid for! Amen! Thank you so much for all of your labor!! Our prayers are certainly part of each saved life during 40DFL, but it is truly amazing to witness when a mother definitely changes her mind, or when we get to be the very first people with whom joyful parents share the news of their living child! Let us rejoice together, and with all those who have been touched by the other 237 lives saved by God in response to our Spring 40 Days For Life!

Let us increase our vigil attendance in these next eleven days! Not only do we send a more visible, audible message of life and love when we are gathered together on the sidewalk, but there will be MORE of you to witness God's magnificent gifts to us!!

See you on the sidewalk,
In the Love Who IS,
J.

God be praised, now and forever. May the coming days bear His glorious fruit.

Mother of priests

I'm sure that if one is martyred for the love of God, then one would be honoured to share her feast day with the Mother of God -- especially on the day on which she was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and the High Priest took flesh in her womb.

St. Margaret is considered the first woman martyred under Queen Elizabeth's religious suppression. Margaret was raised a Protestant but converted to Catholicism about two to three years after she was married. According to her confessor, Fr. Mush, Margaret became a Catholic because she "found no substance, truth nor Christian comfort in the ministers of the new church, nor in their doctrine itself, and hearing also many priests and lay people to suffer for the defense of the ancient Catholic Faith." Margaret's husband, John Clitherow, remained a Protestant but supported his wife's decision to convert. They were happily married and raised three children: Henry, William, and Anne. She was a businesswoman who helped run her husband's butcher shop business. She was loved by many people even her Protestant neighbors.

Margaret practiced her faith and helped many people reconcile themselves back into the Catholic Church. She prayed one and a half hours every day and fasted four times a week. She regularly participated in Mass and frequently went to confession. When laws were passed against Catholics, Margaret was imprisoned several times because she did not attend Protestant services. Other laws were passed which included a 1585 law that made it high treason for a priest to live in England and a felony for anyone to harbor or aid a priest. The penalty for breaking such laws was death. Despite the risk, Margaret helped and concealed priests. Margaret said "by God's grace all priests shall be more welcome to me than ever they were, and I will do what I can to set forward God's Catholic service."

Margaret wanted her son Henry to receive a Catholic education so she endeavored that her son be sent outside the Kingdom to Douai, France for schooling. Such an act was considered a crime. When the authorities discovered their intention, the Common Council had the Clitherow house searched. They initially found nothing but later retrieved religious vessels, books and vestments used for Holy Mass. They also found a secret hiding place but no renegade priests. Still, Margaret was arrested. Margaret refused to plead and to be tried saying, "Having made no offense, I need no trial". English law decreed that anyone who refused to plead and to be tried should be "pressed to death". So on the morning of March 25, 1586, after sewing her own shroud the night before and after praying for the Pope, cardinals, clergy, and the Queen, Margaret was executed. She lay sandwiched between a rock and a wooden slab while weights were dropped upon her, crushing her to death. She did not cry out but prayed "Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, have mercy upon me. She died at age 30.

Move by her saintly life, all her children entered the religious life. Anne became a nun. Henry and William both became priests.

Imagine that -- her heroic witness on this very feast day resulted in her two sons answering the call to the priesthood. Fascinating tie with the Mother of all priests. More details here.

The fullness of motherhood

In the fullness of time and Angel of Light came down from the great Throne of light to a Virgin kneeling in prayer, to ask her if she was willing to give God a human nature. Her answer was that she "knew not man" and, therefore, could not be the mother of the "Expected of the Nations."

There never can be a birth without love. In this the maiden was right. The begetting of new life requires the fires of love. But besides the human passion which begets life, there is the "passionless passion and wild tranquility" of the Holy Spirit; and it was this that overshadowed the woman and begot in her Emmanuel or "God with us." At the moment that Mary pronounced Fiat or "be it done," something greater happened than the Fiat lux ("let there be light") of creation; for the light that was now made was not the sun, but the Son of God in the flesh. By pronouncing Fiat Mary achieved the full role of motherhood, namely, to be the bearer of God's gifts to man. There is a passive receptiveness in which woman says Fiat to the cosmos as she shares its rhythm. Fiat to a man's love as she receives it, and Fiat to God as she receives the Spirit (Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ).

Attention all cellarers

Mary Kochan, editor of Catholic Exchange has begun a four-part series on food, from the standpoint of exercising frugality in the coming months/years. She begins by explaining a few concepts for our hand-to-mouth, fast-food generation.

To function in an economical and well-organized manner a home should have both cupboard and pantry storage. Many people also have long-term food storage and there is some overlap between pantry items and long-term food storage, but not much. What goes where is based on the shelf-life and turnover of various foods. Foods whose shelf-life or turnover is less than a year are not suitable for long-term storage. Those foods probably make up the bulk of the foods in your kitchen cupboards and are candidates to be stored in a pantry. Shelf-life refers to the “use by” or “best by” or “expiration” date stamped on the package. Turnover refers to how often you have to replace the product because it has been used up.

It's quite reminiscent of the Benedictine Rule, which gives careful instructions for the monk or sister who takes care of the food for the community.

As cellarer of the monastery
let there be chosen from the community
one who is wise, of mature character, sober,
not a great eater, not haughty, not excitable,
not offensive, not slow, not wasteful,
but a God-fearing man
who may be like a father to the whole community.

Let him keep qua rd over his own soul,
mindful always of the Apostle's saying
that "he who has ministered well
will acquire for himself a good standing" (1 Tim. 3:13).

Let him take the greatest care
of the sick, of children, of guests and of the poor,
knowing without doubt
that he will have to render an account for all these
on the Day of Judgment.

Let him regard all the utensils of the monastery
and its whole property
as if they were the sacred vessels of the altar.
Let him not think that he may neglect anything.
He should be neither a miser
nor a prodigal and squanderer of the monastery's substance,
but should do all things with measure
and in accordance with the Abbot's instructions.

I'm looking forward to the rest -- because in our domestic churches this is our God-given duty, for which we will answer one day. [Time to go clean my cell!]

How blessed are they!

The women of Luana, Angola were privileged to personally receive this most lovely address from the Holy Father. It began with a reference to the wedding feast at Cana, where Our Lady interceded with her Son to replenish the wine, which had run out. Her sensitivity and encouragement brought the "new wine," which "[prefigured] a new covenant between divine omnipotence and the poor but receptive human heart."

Benedict encouraged women to follow Mary's example and to bestow their gifts on their communities, primarily the gift of love. Referencing Mulieris Dignitatem, he reiterated the glorious truth about the vocation of woman:

As you know, my dear friends, this order of love belongs to the intimate life of God himself, the Trinitarian life, the Holy Spirit being the personal hypostasis of love. As my predecessor Pope John Paul II once wrote, "in God's eternal plan, woman is the one in whom the order of love in the created world of persons takes first root" (Mulieris Dignitatem, 29). In fact, gazing upon the captivating charm that radiates from woman due to the inner grace God has given her, the heart of man is enlightened and he sees himself reflected in her: "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" (Gen 2:23). Woman is another "I" who shares in the same human nature. We must therefore recognize, affirm and defend the equal dignity of man and woman: they are both persons, utterly unique among all the living beings found in the world.

I remember how my heart raced when I first encountered that truth so many years ago. I took the document to a priest friend to make sure I understood the concept correctly -- earth-shattering was it. Just knowing  now how important that truth is to Benedict is gratifying. He makes an important distinction:

[A] woman's personal sense of dignity is not primarily the result of juridically defined rights, but rather the direct consequence of the material and spiritual care she receives in the bosom of the family. The presence of a mother within the family is so important for the stability and growth of this fundamental cell of society, that it should be recognized, commended and supported in every possible way.

I highly recommend that you read the entire address (only about a page and a half) because it references two extraordinary and saintly women whose names were new to me.

Finally, he appealed to Mary under the title of Our Lady of Muxima, but I'm finding it hard to get much information. Evidently there is a church that dates back to the 16th century that was built by the Portuguese. There many captured natives were baptised before their departure. (There's no indication that the missionaries were in the slave trade, but offered the sacrament as the only assistance possible under the circumstances.)

Calendar item

Nothing like a last-minute notice, but I will be here in NJ this weekend. Looks like a lovely day -- I hope to "retreat" myself, even in the business of giving the talks. I'm sure God will work His wonders!

Nota bene: Any group of women could arrange such an event, using a variety of formats -- simply contact me at gskineke [at] yahoo [dot] com.