Category: The Feminine Genius

The Double-Edged Sword of Infertility
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The Double-Edged Sword of Infertility

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The pain of infertility or impaired fertility comes in more than one form. The first is the obvious suffering of the couple who wants so badly to have a child but, for whatever reason, is unable to. The second is the judgment of others in their Catholic community. I’ve experienced this first-hand, despite having three […]

Extreme Christianity
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Extreme Christianity

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I fancy myself a Christian. I was baptized Catholic and have practiced the faith over fifty years. I’m convinced I will need a lifetime of practice to make any noteworthy progress. My love for the Lord is deep. Teaching, writing, and talking about God, His love for humanity, and the necessity to be authentic witnesses, […]

Patient Progress
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Patient Progress

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My son called from graduate school, somewhat discouraged. As part of his degree program, he works with ninth graders, spending his days trying to convince jaded 13 and 14 year olds to care about literature. He’s new to the field and discovering that the major struggle in teaching is not making a lesson plan, but […]

Natural Family Planning as Self Defense
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Natural Family Planning as Self Defense

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My comment was met with a blank stare, a look of confusion. Fortunately, it only lasted a few awkward seconds. I was visiting my nurse practitioner for a nagging abdominal pain. Having concluded that I should have a CT scan (a detailed, in-depth x-ray) she had asked me if there was any chance I might […]

Good Shelter Work
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Good Shelter Work

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I acted the devil’s advocate. “So here we are, driving to the animal shelter to volunteer when people are hungry. Shouldn’t we be helping at the Food Bank?” I grinned so she knew I was playing a bit. Reprinted with permission from CatholicSistas.com. She pursed her sassy, fourteen-year-old lips and dodged. “Well, you can go […]

It Is Good to Be Seen
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It Is Good to Be Seen

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It is that time of year again, the time when we gather together to remember our blessings and bestow gifts upon one another in celebration of our Savior’s birth. It’s easy to get caught up in the secular world of stress, worrying, and over-buying, but as Christians it is important that we remember the reason […]

Faith in Suffering: Kristi's Gift to All of Us
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Faith in Suffering: Kristi’s Gift to All of Us

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I crawled into the bed with Kristi and we lay together all afternoon talking and laughing. We talked about everything under the sun: our childhoods, our hopes and dreams, our disappointments, homeschooling, our faith, our husbands, our children, and her cancer. It’s been a year ago already and I can remember everything about that day. […]

Your Number One Job as a Wife: It's Not What You Think
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Your Number One Job as a Wife: It’s Not What You Think

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This past February, my husband and I started planning the family trip to Las Vegas that will commemorate our 20-year wedding anniversary in two years. We spent a week in Sin City for our honeymoon, and think it’s only fitting that we return two decades later with our kids, having “beaten the odds” when it […]

What Our Lady Can Do with a Little Bag of Beads
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What Our Lady Can Do with a Little Bag of Beads

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The Miraculous Closing of the Last Abortion Facility in Corpus Christ, Texas For many years the pro-life community of Corpus Christi, Texas and surrounding areas prayed in front of the last remaining abortion business left in the town. There were countless novenas and Masses offered along with visitations of a relic from the tilma of […]

Pope Francis vs. the “Demon” of Gender Theory
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Pope Francis vs. the “Demon” of Gender Theory

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Liberals and conservatives need to pay closer attention.

Woman, Know Your Power
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Woman, Know Your Power

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“Here we go again,” you might speculate, “another feminist tirade on ‘I am woman hear me roar.’” I’ll be roaring alright, but you might be surprised to find yourself questioning long-held, culturally-infused deceptions. Ladies, it’s time to take a long look at where your life is, and where you once dreamed it might be. One […]

The Profound Dignity of Motherhood
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The Profound Dignity of Motherhood

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Mothers are by far the most beautiful creatures in the world. There is nothing more beautiful than a mother. There has never been a beauty pageant winner more beautiful than a pregnant woman. A pregnant woman glows with the grace of God. She is one with God. Her love has borne fruit with the life […]

Ode to Feminine Genius: Discovering Her Feminine Beauty
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Ode to Feminine Genius: Discovering Her Feminine Beauty

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A few months ago, my oldest daughter turned thirteen. Having my firstborn become our first teenager seemed almost anticlimactic; an especially precocious child, Honor has always seemed far older than she is. On paper, she’s in the 7th grade, but most of her homeschooling is from high school and college textbooks. Her height (5’5?), poise, and ability […]

God's Gift: Husbands Should Reverence Their Wives
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God’s Gift: Husbands Should Reverence Their Wives

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It can be quite tempting for husbands to misuse their authority as the head of the household in relating to their wives. Within my own therapy experience, I have seen men misquote Scripture as justification for disregarding their wives’ opinions and wishes. The fifth chapter of Ephesians is a popular source for this kind of […]

Women, The Cosmos, and Cosmetics
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Women, The Cosmos, and Cosmetics

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Any writer or speaker who offers his opinions on a topic does so with the implicit promise that he is an expert in the subject and can offer insight not generally available to the general public. But I am forced to take a different tack, since I am about to opine on a subject—two subjects, […]

Making the Right Decision
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Making the Right Decision

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She was 19 years old. Still in college. Had a job, though not yet a career. Still living at home with her parents. She was young and beautiful and intelligent and fun – and in love. She and her fiance planned to be married in about nine months, and they were deep into plans for […]

Ode to Feminine Genius: A Family Woman
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Ode to Feminine Genius: A Family Woman

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When I was a child I always said I wanted 9 children. In fact, I said I wanted 9 boys! I would tell people I wanted my own baseball team, not a softball team, a baseball team. Family was important to me and I hoped and prayed that one day I would find someone who […]

Ode to Feminine Genius: the Merciful Woman
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Ode to Feminine Genius: the Merciful Woman

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Four years ago, my husband became someone else almost overnight. We’d been married for more than a decade and I’d always known I’d gotten one of the good ones. My husband was naturally compassionate, attentive to me and our children, and easygoing about most things. Reprinted with permission from Catholic Sistas. But then it was […]

Candle in Darkness - Earth Hour
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Moral Chaos Should Strengthen Your Faith

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While many pious people are wringing their hands over the popular culture and wondering if God will save his people, I find that the moral decay and preposterous incongruities we witness daily actually reinforce all I believe about Divine Revelation. What else is to be expected when God is removed from the Public Square? It […]

Ode to Feminine Genius: A Hospitable Woman
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Ode to Feminine Genius: A Hospitable Woman

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Hospitality really isn’t having folks over for dinner or inviting ladies to tea (although I love to do this); it isn’t making sure our homes are in decent enough order to welcome drop-ins (although this is a good idea). It is much more radical. Much more uncomfortable. Much more beautiful. Reprinted with permission from Catholic […]

Ode to Feminine Genius: a Diligent Woman
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Ode to Feminine Genius: a Diligent Woman

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A Valiant Woman uses her time wisely. She works diligently to complete her daily tasks. She does not spend time dwelling on those things that do not please the Lord. She looks for ways to be organized and finds solutions to home keeping. Proverbs 31: 19, “She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her […]

Ode to Feminine Genius: A Frugal Woman
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Ode to Feminine Genius: A Frugal Woman

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A Frugal woman. Sounds kinda boring, doesn’t it? Like that woman wearing an ill-fitting jeans jumper that looks like it’s from 30 years ago, buying only day-old bread, never getting anything nice or new, and spouting off about how everyone should grow and grind their own flour, like her. Um yeah, I really don’t want to […]

Ode to Feminine Genius: What is This Homemaker Stuff, Anyway?
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Ode to Feminine Genius: What is This Homemaker Stuff, Anyway?

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When we first started hammering out details for this series, I got really excited. Then, I saw the word homemaker used repeatedly. Not really knowing much about the word, I looked up the definition and found: HOME·MAK·ER [hohm-mey-ker] noun 1. a person who manages the household of his or her own family, especially as a principal occupation 2. a person employed to manage a household and do household chores for others, as for the sick or elderly. Origin: 1885–90; home + maker Can be confused: homemaker, housewife (see usage note at housewife). Usage note 1. See housewife. HOUSE·WIFE [hous-wahyf or, usually, huhz-if for 2] noun, plural house·wives [hous-wahyvz] 1. Sometimes Offensive. a married woman who manages her own household, […]

Ode to Feminine Genius: Proverbs 31 Catholic Woman, Intro
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Ode to Feminine Genius: Proverbs 31 Catholic Woman, Intro

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Achieving perfection that is pleasing to God by imitating the Blessed Virgin Mary is the goal of this new series entitled Ode to Feminine Genius: The Proverbs 31 Catholic Woman.  In our quest for doing God’s will, intentional homemaking, and becoming a woman of inner beauty by focusing our study in this series of Proverbs 31: 10-31, […]