I only wear mascara for special occasions: Easter, Christmas, Sunday Mass, an evening out with hubby, lunch with friends. It isn’t a daily, automatic thing for me. So when I was getting ready to attend the Paul Ryan rally in our area this past week, I thought it odd that my instinct was to put […]
For the past few months, the image followed me. At work, I shuddered as I came across it in one of our study workbooks. This week again at a TOB seminar, there it was in its full, blazing glory: Caravaggio’s depiction of “Doubting Thomas” sticking his probing finger into the glorified wound of the Risen […]
“The hour is coming, in fact has come, when the vocation of women is being acknowledged in its fullness, the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved. That is why, at this moment when the human race is undergoing so deep a transformation, women […]
Recently God brought into my life a woman who I now call “friend.” I spent some time with her recently and as I left I was buoyed by our visit. It got me to thinking how perfectly she fit into my life and reflecting on the question: What sort of friends does a woman “need” […]
A woman asked me how to start a Bible study for her friends in her parish. After that a young college girl inquired about starting a Bible study in her sorority. That was followed by a mother wanting to begin one, in her home, with her friends. It got me thinking…How many women would like […]
My name is Cheryl. And I am a weakling. That’s the kind of group I want to be in: the kind of group where we each take the stand and own up to who we are—who we really are. Not the avatars we put out in the world through our blogs and our tweets; but […]
There seems to be a growing idea in our world today that we don’t actually need men for much more than their “contribution” to the furthering of the human race. This idea has become so prevalent that an opinion piece about it has made its way to the New York Times. Greg Hampikian, the author […]
“Mom, can I count your grey hairs?” my nine-year-old asked me the other day as he started to poke at my head. He eventually abandoned the task, deciding that there were too many. Last week, I walked into my parents’ house and my mom declared, “Wow! I love your new haircut. It makes you look […]
It must be said: What NBC newswoman Andrea Mitchell knows about suburban moms would fit on the back of a postage stamp. Ms. Mitchell, reporting from Virginia at the Saturday rally where Mitt Romney introduced Rep. Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate, announced with authority that Mr. Ryan was “not a pick for suburban […]
“From the beginning therefore he [man] is called to work. Work is one of the characteristics that distinguish man from the rest of creatures, whose activity for sustaining their lives cannot be called work. Only man is capable of work, and only man works, at the same time by work occupying his existence on earth. Thus work […]
Some months back, my sister came to visit, and we had an interesting chat. Chris lives in New York and is a vice president at a very large and internationally-known corporation. She’s at the top of the corporate world, and at the forefront of women making their way in a “man’s world.” We were talking about the need […]
Every so often, I feel the driving need to go thrift shopping. I don’t just “need” to go, I need to go. Most of the time, I’ll go and be happy I went. At other times, I’ll tell myself it’s a fanciful notion and try to ignore it, but that only lasts so long. The […]
Last week, in an advertorial slideshow on ObamaForAmerica.com, the president’s re-election campaign introduced “The Life of Julia” about a fictional “everywoman” whose government-subsidized existence is intended to reassure women voters about President Obama’s ability to provide for them in an uncertain future. This “composite” female — not to be confused with the one who portrayed […]
In 1968, cigarette maker Philip Morris launched a brand of smokes just for women. Marketed with the provocative slogan, “You’ve come a long way, baby,” Virginia Slims offered an elegant profile and an image that suggested freedom, empowerment and equality. Unfortunately for women, “Skinny Ginnys” were not a cultural or political statement, they were just […]
Let it not be said that St. Augustine was a misogynist. He thought very seriously about the place in creation of human reproduction–of the male and the female and their particular beauty. Contrary to some contemporaries–mostly Manichees–he saw the female form as a cause of rejoicing. Now, you may read the following excerpt to your […]
A smooth shaved head, dark tear drop forever etched by her left eye, and Roxanne scrawled in ink across her neck, this young woman stood before me, arms over crutches to support her newly amputated leg and smiled. “I can’t believe I’m getting to meet you,” she said. “I finished your book today. You’ve been through so much,” she […]
In honor of Women’s History Month, I’d like to make a request of America’s political and media elites on behalf of America’s women: Stop lumping us together. To be more specific: Stop telling us “what women want” in the next president, which political stands are sure-fire winners (or losers) of “the women’s vote” and what […]
It is a constant chant from those who would like the defenders of unborn life to disappear, and leave them undisturbed in their killing. “Your concern for life does not go any further than the uterus.” “All you want is to stop the abortion, and then you abandon the mother.” “You don’t care about the […]
On December 8, the Solemn Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the British medical journal, The Lancet, published a most puzzling commentary, in which a clarion call is issued for the Catholic Church to provide all nuns with oral contraceptives in order to prevent cancer. Australian researchers Kara Britt and Roger Short make their recommendation based on the […]
The southern Indian state of Kerala might be the next in a long line of governments attempting to destroy their own greatest resource: their people. According to on-the-ground reports obtained by PRI, elements in the Keralan government are attempting to pass what they innocuously call “The Women’s Code Bill.” This bill, if passed, would create […]
