feminine-genius

Mother as bridge

K-Lo has found the most extraordinary video of a child, who speaks with the thoughtfulness and wisdom of a grown man--indeed like a man quite advanced in age. He had to think deeply because of a congenital illness that threatened to cut his life short. Do watch the clip here.

And then, please take some time to reflect on the mother's tremendous influence, by which she took a frightened, suffering child and helped him to make sense of his world. He died young, but with great anticipation of his reunion with God and those he loved. His words are inspiring, teaching us all how to live--and how to die.

Part of the feminine genius is to be an icon of the Church, mater et magistra, the bridge with the One True God. To be specific, the Church offers viaticum to those who are gravely ill, which strengthens them for the journey--either the path to recovery or the path to Eternity. This child reveals a mother who understood her vocation and carefully catechised her dear one amidst the tears. Thus with the help of God she took what could have been a tragedy and turned it into a miracle of grace.

Let's not miss the opportunities we have for being that bridge between the natural and the supernatural, between man and God, between sacrifice and grace. Truly this child must have been a powerful intercessor since his untimely death, and he is one to remember with confidence. Saint Garvan, pray for us!

Generous, fervent, and humble

The Mexican people rejoiced at the Basilica of Guadalupe, where Mother Maria Inés Teresa of the Most Blessed Sacrament was beatified. The fifth of eight children, she was born in 1904, discerned a call to religious life in 1924, and made her final profession in 1933 at the Ave Maria Monastery. Shortly thereafter, the entire convent had to move to California during the Cristero persecutions. Later she was called to found a new two new groups, the Clarissan Missionaries of the Most Holy Sacrament (1924) and the Missionaries of Christ for the Universal Church (1979).

From the Vatican website:

The Servant of God, Maria Inés Teresa Arias, was born on Ixtlan del Rio (Mexico). She entered religious life in 1929 and lived for a while in California and then in Mexico. In the community she was appointed counseler, secretary and novice mistress. In 1945, the convent she founded in Cuernavaca, Mexico, was approved by the Holy See. The Congregation became missionary by the Pontifical Decree of 1951. Different foundations followed: Cuernavaca, Puebla, Chiapas, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Japan, United States (Texas, California), Costa Rica, Sierra Leone, Indonesia, Italy (Rome), Spain (Pamplona, Madrid), Ireland (Dublin), Nigeria. She died in Rome on July 22, 1981, leaving behind a missionary family of sisters, priests and lay persons, spread through the five continents. She left us a testimony of generous dedication and service to the Church. Her missionary travels took her to visit the convents she founded. She kept in touch with each one of them by correspondence. This correspondence has provided us with an abundant missionary legacy of great spiritual richness as are: letters, advices and reflections, studies and meditations, spiritual exercises.

More information can be found here at their site. A hearty congratulations to her community at this joyful time!

A battle front in the real war on women

The feminists must be distracted; otherwise they would be outraged by the abuse of Uzbek women, who are being sterilised against their will. These poor women are not even aware of that government's monthly quotas which are assigned to each Ob-Gyn, and carried out during childbirth.

And look at the health risks that women are unnecessarily subject to for this govt. program:

The forced sterilizations may even be on the rise. Antelava’s medical sources reported a dramatic increase in Caesarean section births in the last two years, which provide surgeons with an easy opportunity to sterilize women.

“Rules on Caesareans used to be very strict, but now I believe 80% of women give birth through C-sections. This makes it very easy to perform a sterilisation and tie the fallopian tubes,” a chief surgeon at a hospital near Tashkent said.

“The mark of a totalitarian government is the use of secretive programs, violence and force to manipulate the population. This effort to forcibly sterilize women without their knowledge is an egregious affront to human rights and a crime against humanity,” said Father Peter West, vice president for missions at Human Life International, in response to the story. “Civil and political leaders in Uzbekistan and other nations, including President Obama, need to strongly and very publicly condemn these attacks on the women of Uzbekistan and pressure government officials to bring an end to this human rights crisis.”

Obama and the feminists always seem to be distracted by their own red herrings. 80% of Uzbek babies are delivered by Caesarian so that the government can interfere with their fertility? To women who are probably strong, healthy, and otherwise need no such interventions? In settings where health care may be substandard and risky?

Leave it to the Church to point out real injustices against women--and to work for the good.

Mercy for the Asking

Having just come through Holy Week and Easter, we’ve been reminded once more of the terrible price that God paid for our sins. Perhaps you had a chance to go to confession before Easter, and the graces of the holy season penetrated your soul as never before. Or perhaps you looked on with the same weary eyes as before, wondering if God is faithful to his promises—if the glories of the resurrection can make a difference in your life. Has another season of grace come and gone without effect, causing you to keep God at arm’s length and to wonder at the meaning of it all?

To be sure, the season hasn’t ended, and we continue with “little Easter”—the second Sunday after the Passion, which has now been dedicated to the Divine Mercy. In the midst of the 20^th century—that bloody century marked by wars, gulags and unspeakable devastation—God repeatedly emphasized his abiding love to a young Polish nun named Sister Faustina Kowalska in messages that spanned from 1931 to 1938. Did the horrors from which so many suffered end with those revelations? Not at all—and indeed they only grew worse—but his children were comforted amidst the darkness with the truth that no human sin is more powerful than his mercy.

No matter what cunning devices humans concoct to evict God from his creation, no matter what depraved behaviors they insist on calling enlightened, God will still be God, and he will remain here in our midst, hoping for the slightest response to his solicitousness. He cannot be scared off, nor can he be horrified at our degeneracy, for he has already walked the gauntlet of wickedness and conquered it.

What is mercy, this curious dimension of God that makes him so steadfast in his love for creation, and particularly his love for us? Is all mercy love, or is it different? We hear that God is love, and we’re familiar with the explanation that love is his very essence—he must love, for that is who he is—but how can he love us, especially when we find ourselves so unlovable?

While we understand the relationship between sin and justice, whereby reparation must be made for offenses against God, sin also adds to our understanding of his love. When a person bears love for that which is perfect, it is simply love, but when love embraces that which is imperfect, we see that perfect love includes mercy, for now there is the forbearance of a defect that wasn’t previously necessary. In that sense, our intransigence didn’t change God—he is immutable—but we subsequently learned that the love which was intrinsic to his nature included an unquenchable mercy, which does not shrink from us even in our corrupt state.

Is there no limit to what he will forgive? Evidently not, as he stressed to Sister Faustina that his mercy and kindness are always at the disposal of all people—especially those who suffer—and he pointed to the gift of his passion and death as proof of his desire that we be freed from the consequences of our sins. That gift stands for all time, and just because our depravity seems to have intensified in recent decades, that doesn’t mean that he’s withdrawn his offer in disgust. In fact, the greater our propensity for self-destruction, the more radical, the more astonishing is his healing by contrast.

How instructive it is that Eastertide is longer than Lent, and now is the time for celebrating God’s great mercy. Embrace it—and let it embrace you!

Respendent Dawn

The Virgin got up and said: "These witnesses to the time of my Son's Resurrection are enough for me..." Then she looked out the window and saw that the dawn was beginning to break. Her joy was great: "My son will soon resuscitate," she said. Then, kneeling down, she prayed: "Awake, stand in front of me and look, and you, Lord God Sabaoth, awake." Immediately, Christ sent the angel Gabriel to her saying, "You once announced to my mother the Incarnation of the Word, announce to her now His resurrection." Then the Angel flew to Mary and said to her, "Queen of Heaven, rejoice, because the One you deserved to carry in your womb is risen as He said." And Christ greeted His mother, saying: "Peace be with you"... And Mary said to her Son: "Before, my Son, I worshipped on Saturday, in honor of the holy rest after the creation of the world. Now I will worship on Sunday in memory of your Resurrection, and your rest and glory." And Christ approved (Saint Vincent Ferrer, Spanish Dominican, d. 1419).

Part of the introduction to the Mass states:

"The Fathers of the Church...frequently teach us that the mysteries of Christ, which the Church, our virgin mother, celebrates in the sacraments of Christian initiation, were accomplished in Mary, the Virgin Mother (Pref): the Spirit who sanctifies the womb of the Church--that is, the font of baptism--to bring forth children of God, sanctified Mary's womb so that she might bring forth the firstborn of many brothers and sisters (see Hebrews 2:11-15) ..."

The texts of the Mass celebrate Our Lady as:

--the Virgin Mother, (OP, see Pref) who, overshadowed by the Holy Spirit (Com Ant), became the mother of Christ, the bread of life (see John 6:35), by whom the faithful are nourished in the Church.

--the mother of light (Ent Ant), because she brought forth Christ, the light of the world (see John 12:46; Gos A, John 12:44-50). --the model of the Church (Ent Ant) because the Church is itself a virgin and brings to birth in the chaste waters of baptism a people of faith (Ent Ant), and in imitation of the mother of Christ makes its eucharistic offering (POG); and because those things accomplished in sign through the sacraments of the Church' were accomplished already in the Blessed Virgin. (Preface)

--the sanctuary of the mysteries of God (Com Ant), because she carried in her virginal womb' Christ, the sacrament of the Father: in Christ are hidden all the treasures of salvation and grace, and through him the face of the Father is revealed to us (see Luke 10:22; John 14:9).

From a homily by St Lawrence of Brindisi (1559-1619), a Capuchin-Franciscan priest:

Mary rejoiced in the conception of Christ, she thrilled with joy at His birth, and when she heard "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace of men of good will" (Luke 2:13-14), the hymn echoed throughout the countryside by a chorus of angels. Mary was enraptured when the Magi came in adoration, and when she found Jesus in the temple; and she was even more joyous when she heard of and saw the great number and variety of miracles which He was working. Her joy grew more profound as she saw Him ascend into heaven, His seat of glory, accompanied by the angels. But on this day, she was filled with a happiness greater than all of these, greater than can ever be told. Just like the man who found the great treasure in his field, in a unimaginable manner Mary found an infinite glorious treasure in the Resurrection of her son, Jesus Christ.

Holy Saturday and Our Lady

Christ told Mary what He had done in hell, how He had chained up Satan, and presented to His mother the patriarchs He brought back with him. They all bowed low in front of her. I will let you ponder what the feelings of Adam and Eve were when they said to the Virgin Mary: "Blessed are you, our daughter and Our Lady. The Lord was thinking about you when he told the serpent, 'I will place enmity between you and the woman.'"

Eve added: "I closed paradise through my fault, but you, Full of Grace, you have opened it again."

Each Prophet told her in turn, "I have prophesied about you here and there in my book." Then they all saluted her by saying, "You are the glory of Jerusalem, Israel's joy and the honor of our people."

And the Virgin responded with these words, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people that God has acquired to Himself to announce the praises of Him who called you from the darkness into His admirable light." And the angels sang again: "Queen of heaven, rejoice."

Saint Vincent Ferrer (Spanish Dominican, d. 1419)

Always Lent in some places

As Prison Planet notes, China's one-child policy still stands, with no discernable protests from the "enlighened" West. We begin with a piece cited from the Epoch Times, which gives an account of an incident from June, in which a woman in her last weeks of pregnancy was kidnapped by representatives of the Birth Control Office, who brought her to a site where the unborn child was injected with poison. The story notes that she was of "advanced maternal age" (unexplained) but that the child was healthy.

Half a dozen men pushed the woman down on a bed and injected her with a drug to induce labor. The woman fought desperately and got away twice, but not the third time.

In the early morning of June 12, the woman had repeated pains in her abdomen. At around 6 a.m., she had a stillbirth. The injection had poisoned and killed the fetus. According to the doctor, immediately after the woman’s placenta was passed, she had a massive hemorrhage. She died after hospital staff attempted an emergency rescue. 

Although the husband wasn't there, he was offered a paltry compensation, and she was immediately cremated, making the reader wonder when and how he actually learned what had happened.

Holy Week began with another documented case of murder, this time in Moshan, which is in the Shandong province of China:

Because the parents of the baby already had a child, they were hunted down and forced to comply with China’s draconian one child policy. The mother was injected with a poison that induced an abortion, but after the baby was “pulled out inhumanly like a piece of meat,” it was still alive and began to cry before doctors slung the defenseless child into a bucket and left it to die.

Trading rights with China, the current trade imbalance and national debt drives our foreign policy. Although millions of women are regularly abused in this way, and millions of babies snuffed out, it doesn't register on the financial spread sheet. On towards the Passion...

ADDENDUM: LifeSiteNews adds a sad footnote by passing along the news that approximately 500 Chinese women commit suicide each day. (There are some interesting conjectures as to why, but I admit I was sad to see that suicides among American men is higher.) The one-child policy may be part of it, but it's not necessarily because of women being robbed of motherhood --rather the fact that the policy crystalises the point that boys are preferred. They always have been, but perhaps the rising rate of sex-selection abortions targeting girls drives it home? Hard to tell, but sad all the same. Furthermore, with the sex imbalance growing and men unable to find wives, these statistics are only more alarming.