In Glorious Contradiction of the Spirit of the Age
Tags: Catholicism, Christianity.
Click here to get Caucus of Corruption: The Truth About The New Democratic Majority by Matt Margolis and Mark Noonan.
Deep within all of us is not just the ability to do the right thing, but the desire to do it – some people still rise to the challenge:
They are the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. They wear long white habits, carry rosaries, live in community, teach, and attract so many new recruits that they’re building a new motherhouse big enough to house 100 women religious.
The community, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., is only 11 years old. It started as an offshoot of a large convent, with four nuns, but it has grown to 85 sisters. Their average age is only 28, more than 40 years younger than the average age of all women religious in the United States. They come from more than 30 states, plus Canada, Europe and the Caribbean. They have been featured on NBC, ABC, National Public Radio and Canadian TV.
Their lives, traditions and devotion are part of the 800-year-old Dominican charism. They form “a beautiful and alluring sign of contradiction,” says one of the foundresses, Sister Joseph Andrew, director of vocations. “You can get ‘the world’ wherever you go.”
Young women discerning religious life, she said, want authenticity, and with her community, “what they see is what they get,” that is, one with “a clear vision and identity.”…
…“I can’t imagine living religious life in an apartment,” said Sister Maria, a native of the Bronx, a first-year novitiate. “It’s not puppy dogs and rainbows every day; your sisters bring you up.”
She gave up a successful corporate career in the car business to enter the convent. She chose the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, she said, because of their devotion to Mary, traditional lifestyle and sense of humor.
“I knew that to go to heaven, I needed to be in a convent!” she said with a laugh. “I knew that I could slip into being greedy. I wanted more than a house on the lake and a closet full of shoes. Life is empty without Christ. It doesn’t make any sense without him.”
In the end, she said, she felt compelled to stand up for what she believed in, regardless of what other people thought she should do.
“Go big or go home,” she said. “No one will live my life but me.”
Sister Maria Jose, a second-year novice, grew up in a strong, Catholic, Mexican-American family and graduated from the University of Texas-El Paso. After working as a software engineer for six years, she entered the convent.
“I loved my career, but Jesus Christ is better,” she said. “I realized that there was more to life than going to a job. There was a lot of emptiness there. I could either do something to distract me, like going out to the bars, or I could pursue prayer, seek Jesus, and see what it was that Jesus was calling me to do.”
And the meek shall inherit the earth…or, at least in this case, the feminist movement. Wrap all the broads at NOW together and you won’t get something a tenth as worthy as these Sisters, and their like around the world. One of the wisest statements I’ve seen is that – “There was a lot of emptiness there.”. False feminism held that for women to be fulfilled they would have to follow men on the treadmill of corporate life…get a degree, slave away in a corporate behemoth, expend your sexual energy in pointless affairs, eschew children or – if you have them – consign them to the care of others…that terrible mistake men made was, for the feminists, precisely what women should do. Never in the course of human history was there ever a more stupid idea.
And here, now, is the signpost back – just as it was 2,000 years ago, it is the devoutly Christian women who will save our society (and, yes, devoutly Jewish and Moslem women will, too, but we’re a mostly Christian society and thus the lion’s share of it will be from Christians). In a large sense, the Greco-Roman world went insane and the only thing the women of Rome could think to do was to follow the men into their insanity. Along came the Christians – men, of course, but it was the sobriety and solidarity of the women, I think, who really made the running – to recall people back to sanity; and thus it will be again, in this time when our society has gone insane.
The most important thing for those who are not Catholic to understand here is that these women are not so much giving up everything, but mostly giving up nothing, and seeking for something…in fact, seeking for the only genuinely real thing there is. The biggest mistake anyone can make in contemplating this story is to think that these women are in retreat – they are in the vanguard, the sharp point of the revived world.
HAT TIP: The Anchoress
Thank you for visiting Blogs For Victory. If you enjoy our content, please consider making a donation to help us cover the costs of our servers.Mark Noonan is co-author (with Matt Margolis) of Caucus of Corruption: The Truth About The New Democratic Majority. He also blogs at Nevada News and Views. Follow Mark on Twitter.
67 Responses to “In Glorious Contradiction of the Spirit of the Age”
Caucus of Corruption
caspurrrrrr
You can probably start by running for the local school board. That’s who is charge of most schools.
Not really
the fed, state govts and of course the NEA run them.
dont believe me….try to end busing, try end diversity indoctrination, try teaching Christian based morality.
They and you are simply leftwing marxist indoctrination camp directors.
I have to say that sometimes you greatly challenge my resolve to consider the source in your case.
Well, that’s probably because you’re a pragmatist … or in most sophisticated terms, a Post-Modernist…lol.
So, you really have no belief…except that everything subjective to your own feelings and ego…you tend to interpret things from what your mind or flesh tell you instead of what God’s Word says which is absolute truth … in other words, you don’t stand for anyone, or anything except … you. In a sense, I guess you could say that you’re on idle, give or take … you make a lot of noise, but it doesn’t do any good, it’s not of any benefit to society. In more than most cases, however, with neutral people (pragmatists/postmodernists), they generally tend to side to the left in political matters … and today, that’s not such a good thing.
We desperately need people who are willing to stand for what is right and truth and holy … such as the dear lady quoted in this article.
You can probably start by running for the local school board. That’s who is charge of most schools.
I doubt it, Casper … even if I did make it, I’d be the only one in the public education system who would be willing to teach truth … say I have 50 students per day … that still does not account for the thousands of others being indoctrinated in left-wing revisionism across the nation … even in my own school, because of the other teachers who would teach differently … me teaching truth, while they’re teaching falsehoods isn’t going to work.
It’s going to take a shift on a national level … and the one way to start is by cutting funding to the N.E.A … the most dangerous organization in America today.
fmrmarine,
“the fed, state govts and of course the NEA run them.
dont believe me….try to end busing, try end diversity indoctrination, try teaching Christian based morality.
They and you are simply leftwing marxist indoctrination camp directors.”
We don’t have busing in my district. As for diversity indoctrination, I’m not sure what you mean. We do try to teach our students to respect themselves and others, which some might see as a Christian based moral. The closes thing we do as far as indoctrination is have the students say the pledge every morning.
Now based on your comment, if jeremiah wants to effect change, he needs to either work for the state or federal government or become a member of the NEA. I’m not sure he wants to take those options. In our district, the school board has a lot of power, and if you were looking to change the system, that would be the place to start.
he needs to either work for the state or federal government or become a member of the NEA. I’m not sure he wants to take those options. In our district, the school board has a lot of power, and if you were looking to change the system, that would be the place to start.
That’s what I’m saying, Casper … I am powerless by myself. Common sense tells you that there is strength in numbers … and this is why we have the rights guaranteed us in the Constitution to petition our government … just like they did in proposition 8, just like they did over the atheist sign in the State of Washington … you see what a difference we can make when we put an effort into winning the battle … but we have to keep up the momentum … we can’t just stop on one issue and hope the rest will cure itself, because it’s not, because the atheists are going to continue to take advantage of the places that we leave off at … just because some stupid lawyer convinced a judge that prayer and Bible reading “shouldn’t” be in school does not make that pinhead judge or lawyer “right”, it just makes them stupid … and stupidity is how we got the ruling in Everson v Board of Education and we have to reverse that stupid ruling.
The longer we wait to push back, however, is that much longer for the masses to be indoctrinated, and in time, time will have run out.
So … Saddle up, blow your trumpets and holler CHAAARGE! .. ;)
I applaud the decision of anyone to forego a life of materialism and corporate success to pursue spirituality. Still I cannot understand what is gained by renouncing the society of the larger world for the contrived rigor of a religious institution.
You say, “The biggest mistake anyone can make in contemplating this story is to think that these women are in retreat – they are in the vanguard, the sharp point of the revived world.”
What vanguard of what revived world? The world generally never hears from these women again. Out of ten thousand nuns comes one Mother Teresa. I remember two courageous Franciscan nuns from Iowa who were imprisoned years ago for protesting at the School of the Americas, but I suspect they made their bold statement independent of the convent.
Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:13-16.
The either/or scenario portrayed by Sister Maria Jose of spiritual “emptiness”, “going out to bars”, etc, vs. pursuing prayer and seeking Jesus in a convent is a simplistic, false dichotomy. Prayer is an attitude that can permeate one’s life regardless where you are. Perhaps the greatest challenge and triumph of all is to bring the spirit of Christ into the larger world through one’s own personal values and demeanor. How do you square Jesus’ command to “Let your light shine before men” [or the world] with life in a convent?
Casper,
Oh, I like what I do fine – and when it gets to be drudgery (which it does, at times) I bring to mind that all lawful work is to be done for the glory of God and, also, it allows us to put into practice the advice to pray without ceasing. But I’m not independent – I don’t set the hours of my work, I don’t set the conditions of my work, I don’t get to choose if I’ll work 12 hours today and 3 hours tomorrow. I am, while I am my job, ruled by others – as are all of those who labor in corporate America.
Mark,
“But I’m not independent – I don’t set the hours of my work, I don’t set the conditions of my work, I don’t get to choose if I’ll work 12 hours today and 3 hours tomorrow. I am, while I am my job, ruled by others – as are all of those who labor in corporate America.”
Few people are independent, including stay at home moms. My daughter-in-laws world is built around the sleeping and eating habits of a 1year old and a four year old. Both of my brothers have a lot more control over their schedules, seeing that they both work for themselves. There are a lot of jobs that have some leaway built in. Corporate America doesn’t provide all of the jobs. As for the difference in how we look at our jobs: I like what I do fine is a long way from loving a job so much you can’t wait to go to work in the morning. I’ve had a lot of jobs I liked just fine, but only a couple I’ve been passionate about. And while I am ruled by others to a degree, it’s not a problem because I enjoy what I do so much. I personally feel that God has guided me to where I am now, because everything I’ve done in the past has prepared me for what I do now.
fraudmarine,
That is some mighty scary typing; your use of all caps and bold has put the fear of your god into me. BTW, if you were in Viet Nam 1966-1968, how come you told Mark your wife is a “stay at home mom/wife”, present tense. That would put you in your sixties. Your kids must be pushing 40. Your story just keeps getting harder to believe.
The Virtuous Woman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db9OVpqCMGE&feature=related
Mark: Oh, I like what I do fine – and when it gets to be drudgery (which it does, at times) I bring to mind that all lawful work is to be done for the glory of God and, also, it allows us to put into practice the advice to pray without ceasing.
Goodness, how fatalistic. But pardon me for reading between the lines: you really don’t want to resign yourself to your fate. That much is obvious, despite your protestations. You don’t have to admit it to me (or anyone else here) but I’m guessing you feel both trapped and worried, and you’re praying for a way out. It that’s the case, I think you should admit it to one or more someones who could do you some good. The person that immediately comes to mind is your priest. To be perfectly honest (and perhaps inappropriately so, especially given the topic), I tend to have problems with nuns as a general rule. But also as a general rule I have a high regard for priests. At least in my experience most of them actually do know what they’re doing.
ricorun,
Careful reading between the lines. fmrmarine might get mad.
I’m not going to say you are right, but I can tell you that I was once there. About twenty years ago I was a retail manager and while I was very well paid, I was very unhappy. It started affecting my health and my relationship with my wife and family. My wife and I made the decision that I needed to do something different. I went back to school, got my teaching degree, and was able to find a teaching job fairly quickly. And when I say God guided me to this decision, I really mean it. Everything fell into place and I’ve never looked back. I can’t say it was easy though. I was out of work for a year and a half and when I did get a job, I took a forty percent pay cut. Things were very tight for years, but it was probably the best decision I’ve ever made. I could never have done it with out the support of my wife and family and God’s help.
Jeremiah strikes again. Spoken like a true anti-American theocrat.
Jeremiah strikes again. Spoken like a true anti-American theocrat.
Haaaahaaaahaaa!
You and Rico, like most libs … don’t like it when something or someone comes along to threaten your evil little games.
Yeah, I don’t like it either when teachers are betraying America behind the backs of godly fathers and mothers all across the nation, and turning their children into monsters … I mean real geniuses, with purely demonic minds…
As Ravi Zacharias would say … ‘Genius gone wrong!’
But … whose fault is it? None other than their parents, who have sit back for the last forty years and let it happen … and now, most of them are gone…and the ones who are left are the very products of those generations, who wouldn’t fight for what’s right.
It’s a mess … One gigantic ball of shame, just pure shame!
douchebag
Your story just keeps getting harder to believe.
Who gives a flying crap what a MORON like you thinks.
as one poster says “if stupid were a crime- you would be on death row”.
ASShat!
“… secularists do not deserve jobs. period.”
I must say, this makes you more offensive. Why do we not deserve jobs? Are you jealous because we don’t have to do other people’s bidding?
Mark and Marine: Thank you for responding to my post. I do NOT want to sound like I am beginning the battle of sexes so please bear with me as I try to make my point clear.
When women became empowered and sexual harrassment laws were put into place……that was a GOOD thing. I don’t want to go back to the old days when some guy wanted to play grab ass with me in the work place. I don’t want to go back to the days when the church hid spousal and child abuse. Unfortunately, the last 25 years we have seen an increase of violence against women. What women achieved in the mid 60s-80s is being lost due to inferior education and the moral break down of society. The Supreme Court decided it was okay to kill the innocent preborn and several states said that you can kill granny at the same time. The old slogan “we have come along way baby” does NOT hold much truth. I don’t blame feminism for this……..I blame society as a whole. Where was the moral outrage from not only the Conservatives, but also the Right Wing? Where were the marches for parental rights? for mandatory graduation from high school? for 0 tolerance? for not tying the hands of our law enforcement? for following the Rule of Law? The USA has devolved as a society.
If you don’t believe me, look at some of the liberal posts on this blog. Not only are they disgusting, it makes one wonder if these kids who blog here have any parents. You can’t blame that on feminism. You can only blame the woman for not keeping her legs closed and the guy for not keeping his zipper shut.