The Nature, Dignity and Mission of Woman

Description

Based on conferences he gave to high school girls (à le Fr. Lasance), this is Fr. Stelin's sort of "de virginitate " treatise.

ch. 2 "The Essential Vocation of Woman", § "Virgo " on virginity, 1 Cor. 7, divisus est

Spiritual motherhood discussed, too

p. 90 (PDF p. 92):

Trousers emphasize a man's legs,

display […] this special natural characteristic of a man, for whom it is appropriate to strive toward a goal and thus to move and to bring everything around him into motion so as to realize an idea, to plan and build a structure, to have an effect on the world and to set it in motion.

In contrast, a woman in creation represents the element of rest, or interiority, of “God in us”. [cf. The Eternal Woman quote on Stehlin p. 22 (PDF p. 24); e.g.: "a man represents the situation at hand, while a woman represents the generation. […] Just as the individual woman on average lives to be older than the man, so too the female line of the generations grows older than the masculine line."] In order to testify to this outwardly, the limbs by which she moves are hidden; one usually does not see her legs. Thus her skirt or her dress emphasizes her character of stability, the tranquil side of the male-female polarity, her role as foundation and preserver of life.

08/11/26: 22

She is the one who principally rests in God, while man is the one who principally seeks God.

08/13/26: 46

the mission of Gabon: in 1988 a 14-year-old pagan girl named Celia came to the mission.

∃ cause for her beatification?

08/13/26: 69

of Dante and Beatrice, of Michelangelo and Vittoria Colonna, of the poet Hölderlin and Diotima, of Goethe and Frau von Stein, or of Richard Wagner and Mathilde Wesendonk.

08/13/26: 70

the great friendships of the saints. What did St. Clare give to St. Francis, or St. Teresa of Avila to St. John of the Cross, or St. Jane Frances de Chantal to St. Francis de Sales,

08/15/26: 71

If the man works unilaterally at his projects and excludes the nature and participation of woman, he produces imitations of the Tower of Babel, the names for which [in Latin and other European languages] are all in the masculine gender: liberalism, materialism, socialism, communism, modernism.

08/15/26: 71

Where the collaboration of woman (the dispenser of life, the servant of love) is excluded, all that remains is rigid pride, cold indifference and ultimately death.

08/15/26: 79

If the man fails to meet his responsibilities, that is bad, but nothing is lost yet. If the mother fails, as a rule the family is destroyed, unless by a miracle God preserves it

Is this why neglect of one’s own worse than infidel appied to wife?

08/15/26: 79

When everyone wants to rule, a society breaks up.

08/15/26: 80

In preparing for adulthood, a young woman should thoroughly ponder the problems of family life and acquire some knowledge of the principles of childrearing.

08/15/26: 82

spiritual fatherhood or motherhood with respect to souls, which in a certain way become our children. How do they become our children? Through our prayers and sacrifices, our example and the dedication of our lives, we impart Christ to them, communicate the grace of Christ to them and act as instruments of the Immaculata, so that she can bear Christ in their souls: and that, of course, is her Divine Maternity.

08/15/26: 97

a woman in this world has the special task of being, on the contrary, a source of peace and rest.

08/15/26: 99

Catholic Tradition is maintained above all by women.

He seems to be exaggerating.

08/16/26: 99

Love says: “It is good that you exist!”

08/16/26: 101

If she is denied children, she bears her fate as a hidden wound within her, which causes her to suffer secretly until her maternal character is released in the opportunity to sympathize with the suffering of other mothers.

08/16/26: 104

St. Catharine of Sienna or St. Bridget of Sweden, Sigrid Undset comments: “No woman has ever been a priest; a woman has never received diaconal ordination; a woman cannot minister at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, but by the power of the Holy Spirit she can reprimand a priest who dishonours the dignity of his office, even if he should be the Vicar of Christ.”

1 of Cherubino of Siena’s duties of a wife

08/16/26: 109

the world declines into the typical errors of masculine pride. Today’s world boasts of being a world of inventions, economic marvels, and perfect technologies.

08/16/26: 110

“ No scientist, no artist can fulfil his mission unless the hands of an unselfish woman guard his everyday routine. No physician, however brilliant, can heal his patient if the faithful nurse is missing; no social life can flourish, no home can be a place of security in the absence of the quiet care and service of a woman’s hands. Only a woman can manage to resist the depersonalizing trend and loosen up the cold, organizational schemes that debilitate our life today.”

08/16/26: 132

It is extremely important to resolve these initial conflicts and marital problems immediately. To many people they seem “not worth mentioning” and so this baggage is heedlessly carried around; the spouses do not notice that they are undermining the foundation that they have built together. These difficulties that are not resolved at the outset are often the real reasons for failed marriages and ruined families.

08/16/26: 137

third way”, which has been approved explicitly by the Holy See.1

08/16/26: 137

Pius XII, Apostolic Constitution “Provida Mater Ecclesia” (1947).