Femininity and what I absolutely love about my Catholic Faith

I never had a quest to understand the meaning of my feminine identity in light of my catholic faith and a culture shaped by modern feminism. My Italian upbringing and my quasi-perfect mother solidified in me an unwavering, unswerving view of what authentic femininity was. It was naturally manifested in my mother's daily words, deeds, and actions. As I learned about my faith through the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I already intuited as an Italian little girl that families were supposed to be extensions of the Holy Family's love. I found love and inspiration from my mother's selfless giving to me and later, grace and inspiration from Mary, the mother of God who would intercede for me to Jesus. Secular feminists were never appealing to me. I was never confused over the sexual liberation or fidelity, professional success or family, marriage or pleasure and lastly, freedom or responsibility. Love and liberation were not tied for me ever. In fact, what I would ultimately discover is that true liberation would come from my surrender to love sacrificially as Christ did on the cross. In other words, I learned to surrender completely to God and to give with reckless abandon to my family as well as to others because of my great examples culturally and spiritually. Unfettered freedom was just a trap and a way for Satan to lure modern women under the guise of equal rights for women to subjugated slavery. My mother may have been a slave but she was a slave of God through her own volition. I recall that St. Paul exhorts us to be slaves of Christ, to imitate his sacrificial love and that is exactly the kind of love that refracted from my dear mother onto me throughout my childhood. My father was very exemplary of sacrificial love, too but my mother's feminine, maternal love nurtured me more because of our kindred female and mother-daughter relationship. My parents were not educated in the sense of formal education or through reading scripture because they could hardly read but they embodied Jesus in how they lived their daily lives. They had more wisdom, knowledge, and common sense than many erudite scholars I know today. My femininity is a large part of who I am as a person and I thank my dear mother from the bottom of my heart for being such a beautiful feminine role-model to me. You never tired in loving us as Mary loved her Son.


"Love knows no fatigue"
   St. Augustine

 Patron Saint for authentic femininity is Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat ( 1779-1865) May 25th

I, on the other hand through my Catholic and public , formal education cultivated a true love for my faith through frequent daily mass, love of contemplative prayer, reading of scripture and spiritual books, reciting of the rosary and other devotional prayers and going to adore, thank, praise, and petition my Lord and Savior at Eucharistic Adoration. I would come to realize later in life the incredible gifts and graces that I would receive through the beauty of my Catholic Faith, its church and most importantly, through its founder, our Lord, King, and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I love everything about the Catholic Church. In order of importance for me, Here is what I love  about my Catholic faith:

-  Jesus Christ (God-Man), His humble Nativity, his humiliating Crucifixion and His glorious Resurection for Man's eternal salvation;

-  The Eucharist, the most beautiful gift  my spiritual daily nourishment (My Heaven on Earth with Jesus truly present Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in communion with all the angels and saints). Such a beautiful gift from God to us! It is truly as great theologians say, "the source and summit of our faith." Perpetual Adoration is one of the greatest gifts we have in the Catholic Church next to the Eucharist. I can go to Perpetual Adoration at any time ( 24 hours a day) to be with Jesus. An awesome gift!  I am so humbly thankful to Jesus for His living bread that is His flesh that is truly present when I receive Him in Communion. Jesus said, " Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you."This is not symbolic, this is literal language!

-The Blessed Virgin Mary ( La Madonna) is the perfect Mother of God and of us all. She has always helped me when I pray to her to intercede for me to the Lord as our Lady of Lourdes especially during my trials and tribulations in a world that is imperfect and always helping me to draw closer to Jesus, to love Him, serve Him, and imitate Him. She guides me to be closer and in union with God. God used my family member's tumultuous pregnancy and Mary's example to teach me to truly love others, to truly forgive others, and to truly love and trust my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, to ultimately surrender completely to accepting His will. 

- The Communion of Saints through their heroic love and faith in God who guide me through their illustrious example of sacrificial love of God( Fathe, Son and Holy Spirit).
St. Francis of Assisi, St. Joseph, St, Anthony of Padua, St. John -Paul the Great, St. Francis Selos, St. Clare, St. Padre Pio, St. Jude Thaddeus, St. Gianna Mola, St. Gerard, and the list is endless of the saints who help me daily.

-Reciting my nightly rosary when I can before I fall asleep from exhaustion always gives me peace and a tremendous sense of HOPE because nothing is impossible for God. God used a difficult pregnancy in my family and Mary's example to teach me how to truly love and trust my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to surrender completely to accepting His will. Through my brokenness and through the miraculous birth of my first beautiful grandson I did not marvel that God transformed my life so radically but I humbly thanked Him for having done so. My faith was never shattered, never doubted, just tested and triumphant.

I don't know what I would have done or who I would be today without the guidance, counseling, and teaching by the Catholic Church with the Pope, its bishops, priests, and religious such as sisters, nuns, brothers, and missionaries. These holy and beautiful mentors who imitate Christ taught me to do the same.

The Mass ( its liturgy and Sacrifice of Calvary - This is home for me where Jesus is truly present in me where heaven and Earth meet, where I truly feel at peace. I love to be able to go to daily mass especially when I am worried or broken. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass reminds me to love sacrificially as Christ did on the cross. When I leave the mass, I am reminded to live the mass in my daily life. It strengthens me by the power of God's grace in me after receiving Him in Holy Communion.

The Beatitudes of Christ on Mount Olive - These are radical tenets that our Lord gave us for imitating His compassion or Caritas to my fellowman. "Love one another as I have loved you." 
I am asked to love God and my neighbor but more radically, to love my enemy as I love myself!
A tremendous shift from the old covenant to the new covenant of Jesus Christ. Very difficult to do but very satisfying once you learn how to humble yourself to do it.

The Cross- The only God in history who became incarnate both human and divine! Christ gives us spiritual trials in our souls for those who love Him so that they can learn to love Him more. In catholic school I was taught what my mother and father did in their life which is to unite our sufferings with the sufferings of Jesus. The cross also taught me to always forgive as Jesus did. "To err is human but to forgive is divine." Christ said to his Father on the cross: "Forgive them for they know not what they do."  La migliore vendetta e il perdono ( The best vendetta is  forgiveness) is what my Papa would always say. If we imitate Christ in loving and forgiving our enemies, we get closer to Him and closer to Caritas ( Perfect Love as in Christ's Passion).
We become strong, hopeful and compassionate from our suffering and uniting it to Jesus' suffering on the cross. Catholics call this redemptive suffering. 

For all the above reasons I absolutely love my Catholic Faith! It provides me with joy and peace through good as well as bad times.

The Easter Parade

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYac9O3GYTM

Watching the old classic film of Easter Parade with Fred Astaire and Judy Garland with the most memorable song of the film entitled, "In your Easter Bonnet" brought me back to reminisce nostalgically about my own wonderful Italian childhood celebrations of Easter, What a joyous time of year not parading down Fifth Avenue but down the ordinary sidewalk of my cozy house on the northwest side of Chicago. My new Easter outfit "with all the frills upon it". would be laid out all ready for me to don on Easter Sunday beginning with my pastel colored, lace trimmed spring dress accompanied by Easter accoutrements of white gloves, white dress shoes and  matching white purse and ending with the piece de resistance...my white feminine Easter Bonnet with pastel colored ribbons that always matched the color of my dress. I would get up very early on Easter morn because I couldn't wait to put on my new spring outfit carefully selected by my loving parents for Easter Sunday. My dear mother would help me get dressed while she was preparing a sumptuous Easter dinner. I don't know how she managed it all so flawlessly. Mamma would take out the many pink-sponged rollers in my hair and make my curls eventually accentuate the bonnet I would be donning on the glorious and most festive day of the year. She would make sure that every part of the Easter ensemble on me was perfect to the eye. I also fondly remember putting on my cherished beautiful 24 carat gold Italian jewelry that my parents bought in Italy just before we came to the United States. The end result of all the meticulous and loving care that my mother gave me Easter morn made me feel like a beautiful princess as I proudly came down our basement stairs to leave for the most important day of the year liturgically for my catholic and Italian family." I  could write a sonnet" about my Easter bonnet because  it was such a wondrous and magical as well as beautifully spiritual time of one of the most memorable times of my childhood life growing up Italian. Easter always made me feel happy and hopeful and it continues to do so for it reminds me more and more each year that my greatest joy is knowing that God loved me so much that He gave his only Son so that I may have eternal life. La piu bella speranza che abbiamo in questo mondo! The most beautiful hope that we have in this world!