tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post2540220946207327146..comments2024-03-21T04:02:46.799-07:00Comments on Little Catholic Bubble: Young marriage: Another daughter engaged!Leila@LittleCatholicBubblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09357573787143230160noreply@blogger.comBlogger255125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-47872594604820365782014-02-05T13:35:24.622-07:002014-02-05T13:35:24.622-07:00Thanks for sharing this Leila! What beautiful phot...Thanks for sharing this Leila! What beautiful photos and what an even more beautiful story. Congratulations to you and to the happy couple.Kendra Tierneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04212829372556908004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-13518824944842358492014-02-02T14:14:30.602-07:002014-02-02T14:14:30.602-07:00Miss G, I think you should start a centrist Women&...Miss G, I think you should start a centrist Women's Studies! Honestly, that would be amazing! Something with balance.Leila@LittleCatholicBubblehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09357573787143230160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-74974040530873112492014-02-02T11:05:56.689-07:002014-02-02T11:05:56.689-07:00It's been quite a week but I wanted to drop b...It's been quite a week but I wanted to drop by and say thanks for the congratulations <br />: ) <br /><br />Also, what would a centrist women's studies program look like, I wonder? The idea intrigues me.<br /> Miss Ghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02503676176409924845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-25099631822754670142014-02-01T00:31:13.511-07:002014-02-01T00:31:13.511-07:00Sebastian,
Of course! We resist negativity, fear ...Sebastian,<br /><br />Of course! We resist negativity, fear and despair in all things, not with our own positivity, but through faith in a merciful and omnipotent God Who orders all things to His own good purposes. <b>However</b>, faith itself must be nurtured and fortified through <i>orthodox practice, acceptance of Truth, and bold witness</i>. Else a sudden <i>firsthand</i> experience of the insensitivity, callousness, persecution and violence that is now so inexorably on the rise in the world can suddenly put paid to what we imagined was our most stalwart and dependable resource. It is with very good reason that Our Lord taught us to pray not to be led into temptation (in other words, not to have our faith put to the test).<br /><br />I read a true story some years ago that really impressed this point on me. There was a young Jew interred in a Nazi concentration camp during WW2. He was actually a rabbi. Fit and able, he was allocated to tend to a field of vegetables a little distance from the gas chambers, which were located just out of sight from the field, behind a hill. He’d heard of the happenings in such places, but had never witnessed firsthand anything to do with the horror. So there he was this fine morning, spade in hand, tending to the nurture of the camp Commandant’s precious vegetables, when suddenly a convoy of trucks came trundling up a road that snaked around the perimeter of the field. A road that led to the factory of death. Packed into the trucks were scores of women and children. He describes how the sight was so innocuous and even idyllic, until the convoy rounded a corner of the hill - and the ghastly gas chambers, assumedly, suddenly became visible to the women. He describes how the realization of their fate hit the women all at once, and the unearthly, soul shattering screams from a hundred voices that suddenly rent the air. Trembling at the sound, the rabbi fell to his knees to implore God’s intervention. “God, you must do something! Surely, if you are watching and hearing, you must do something! Do something now! These are helpless women! These are innocent children! You must do something! God! God! Do you hear me? Where are you? Answer, quickly! God? God?” <br /><br />The convoy rolled on, and quickly disappeared from sight. As suddenly as it had been shattered, silence descended once again on that picturesque, sunlit field, punctured only by the occasional sound of birds chirping. The rabbi struggled to his feet, distraught and ashen faced. A half hour later he spotted the first wisps of grey smoke rise to the sky from the other side of the hill. He smelled its acrid odor. Looking slowly up to heaven, jaw set like stone, he declared, “Today I know that there is no God!” He survived the war, but lost the battle of perseverance - from that day he abandoned his faith and embraced atheism for the rest of his life.<br /><br />We don’t hear wailing anymore; only a silent scream every minute or two, perceivable only by those who have ears left to hear - followed by plaintiff cries to heaven for vengeance, from the blood of a hundred million innocents. <b>(Let no one be kidded – Heaven is indeed listening, and Justice must indeed respond.)</b> Trucks don’t trundle into death factories anymore: the victim children and their battered mothers are herded into “clinics” by freedom become diabolic licentiousness, in all manner of comfortable civil transportation. Nazi style records of the exterminations aren’t of popular interest these days, only distinguished ex Vice Presidents of the US complaining about how long it’s taking to get “fertility management” into Africa. <br /><br />Pray, friends, for eyes to see – and see clearly. Pray for ears to hear – and hear compassionately. Pray for understanding, and freedom from sinful, persistent doubts against the doctrines of God’s Church. Pray to borrow the armor of Christ and wade into battle against the powers and principalities that are hell bent on mankind’s destruction. Pray that in the hour of testing, our faith will not fail us. Glory to God, and peace and strength to all people of good will.Francis Choudhuryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01146223983345452362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-71553773993407734632014-01-31T16:29:45.333-07:002014-01-31T16:29:45.333-07:00JoAnna, ha ha! And Sebastian, yes, absolutely! We ...JoAnna, ha ha! And Sebastian, yes, absolutely! We mustn't forget that we were made for THIS age, and THIS time. It gives great comfort!Leila@LittleCatholicBubblehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09357573787143230160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-63412598903957338292014-01-31T15:33:25.329-07:002014-01-31T15:33:25.329-07:00Ditto JoAnna!
And Amen to all that Francis wrote ...Ditto JoAnna!<br /><br />And Amen to all that Francis wrote so eloquently (obviously not leiloquently). But although it is frightful what you describe, everything bad that happens is permitted by God to allow some greater good to flourish. Christ died for our atonement. Mustn't we trust in Him at every moment in our lives, and recognize fear and despair as the work of the devil? I never forget the Lord's troubling words on the Cross, crying out to God "why have You forsaken me?". And yet we know He delivered us. No? Francis? Leila?Sebastianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03993048824594772782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-8804449692421457392014-01-31T10:12:10.372-07:002014-01-31T10:12:10.372-07:00"Leiloquence" is now my new favorite wor..."Leiloquence" is now my new favorite word.JoAnna Wahlundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09942928659520676271noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-14249021701762801512014-01-31T09:16:24.050-07:002014-01-31T09:16:24.050-07:00M Albinoni,
Leila has accurately deciphered and ...M Albinoni, <br /><br />Leila has accurately deciphered and <a href="http://littlecatholicbubble.blogspot.com/2014/01/another-daughter-engaged_24.html?showComment=1391050921400#c7832918250217309015" rel="nofollow">spelled out</a> (with customary Leiloquence) what was/is behind my observation that radical feminism and militant homosexuality constitute the greatest existential threats to humankind today, so I don't believe I really need to add a heap to what she has already written. <br /><br />Commentary on this blog has long delineated the gravity and extent of the injustices that these two movements (radical feminism and militant homosexuality) embrace. Abortion constitutes the <b>ultimate</b> violence of a woman against her own flesh, while homosexuality encompasses a gross degradation of another’s flesh. No man loves another by lodging himself in his alimentary canal. No men or women “parent” a child by deliberately depriving it of the intimacy and nurture of its true mother and/or father and all its blood relatives on the missing father or mother’s side. What such fabrications of “marriage” and “family” constitute is a particularly pernicious form of (legalized) child abuse. Contrary to the chicanery camouflaging it, it has little to do with true love and everything to do with a nauseating self love that blatantly violates the dignity and rights of others.<br /><br />Violence begets violence. And when this much violence is done by so many to the “least of these”, that violence must, ultimately, redound to all of mankind. Christians know it, for God Himself has warned that the wages of sin is death. Hindus know it, with their age old understanding of karma. Even atheists will not dispute the adage that what goes around comes around. And what’s going around at the moment are atrocities unprecedented in human history, both in terms of scale and callousness - ever given new “life” by <i>radical</i> feminists and <i>militant</i> homosexuals.<br /><br />Behind every large scale injustice in history is a malevolent or deluded mindset which often takes decades to develop. And what has been developing in the mind of man for at least the past 50 years is the delusion that with his economic freedoms and titillating scientific successes, he can now freely do whatever his lusts dictate, without ever having to pay a price for it. Pope Paul VI most accurately prophesied in <i><a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html" rel="nofollow">Humanae Vitae</a></i> the frightening, all encompassing, culture of death that a “contraceptive mindset” (involving a fictitious, self accorded “right” of an individual or group to decide who is born and who is not, or who lives and who dies) would lead the world to. And that culture of death is precisely what is now unfolding before our eyes, in an increasing number of decadent corners of the world. For the dummies who didn’t get (or, indeed, dismissed out of hand) the good pope’s warning, Mother Teresa, in her own simple but stark words, further sounded the alarm: “If a mother can kill her own child - what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me - there is nothing between.”<br /><br />The toxic core beneath the cynical veneer of a feminism that stridently promotes murder, and homosexuality that seeks to upend the most fundamental unit of society by its disingenuous legal machinations, does not even need religion to expose it. Anyone with an ounce of unsullied insight (vs contorted enlightenment) &/or the ability to connect a few basic dots, can spot it. As Christians, of course we know that the real driver of both these destructive initiatives is none other than “the murderer from the beginning”. Give him free reign for a few more years, and we are certain to suffer the murderous/annihilating violence that is unleashed on all of us – by our own fellow (wo)men. An unprecedented level and ferocity of violence that will have us <b>all</b> wailing to the mountains, “Fall on us” and to the hills, “Cover us.” The heads exploding then will not be just metaphorical ones.Francis Choudhuryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01146223983345452362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-25323950103948288012014-01-30T22:59:17.371-07:002014-01-30T22:59:17.371-07:00Michelle, thank you so much!!
And, I actually th...Michelle, thank you so much!! <br /><br />And, I actually think of you every time the discussion of the MD/Ph.D comes up! I will definitely be coming to you as a resource! I truly appreciate it. :)Leila@LittleCatholicBubblehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09357573787143230160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-55887863203479930372014-01-30T22:36:54.300-07:002014-01-30T22:36:54.300-07:00Oh, congratulations! I'll admit that 19 sounds...Oh, congratulations! I'll admit that 19 sounds awfully young to me, but that may mostly be because <i>I</i> wouldn't have been ready for marriage at that age (and at 23, I'm probably still not ready). It sounds like it was a well-thought-out decision and I wish them all the best!<br /><br />(Also, I noticed you mentioned that your son is considering an MD/PhD – I am always here as a resource if you need it!)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-16477705986774650782014-01-30T16:40:30.633-07:002014-01-30T16:40:30.633-07:00Theresa, thank you! That is awesome!!Theresa, thank you! That is awesome!!Leila@LittleCatholicBubblehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09357573787143230160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-42980351979476011022014-01-30T16:11:55.275-07:002014-01-30T16:11:55.275-07:00I just wanted to say congratulations! I'm a lu...I just wanted to say congratulations! I'm a lurker, but this hits home with me as my husband and i got married very young. I was 18, and he was 21. 11 years later, we have seven kids and are still going on strong! We definitely grew up together, but I don't think that was a bad thing. The weirdest thing is that I never considered how out of place we were, getting married that young. I was just very ready! :) So again, congrats! They're making a wonderful choice!Theresahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05061767774590170961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-26345390872379681072014-01-30T13:59:37.403-07:002014-01-30T13:59:37.403-07:00It may not be a choice to have an attraction towar...It may not be a choice to have an attraction towards the same sex, but it is indeed a choice to act on the attraction/desire. You are not asked to deny your heterosexuality because it fits within God's plan for marriage (a man and a woman coming together as one flesh to potentially create new life). He made two separate genders to complement each other on purpose. <br /><br />While it is certainly helpful in a marriage for the husband and wife to have loving, affectionate feelings for each other, that should not be the main goal of marriage. Marriage symbolizes the relationship of the Holy Trinity - the love of the Father and the Son expressed through the Holy Spirit, just as the love of the husband and wife is illustrated through their children. <br /><br />I am glad to hear you're talking through it with your confessor who hopefully will express similar statements such as Leila's above. It is not loving to support people in their sin. It may SEEM like the loving thing to do, but appearances can be very deceiving. Their civil union would be hurting their souls as they are choosing to reject God's plan to do things their way...NOT recommended. <br /><br />Christ calls us to a higher love, one that involves self denial and carrying our cross(es). That is what He asks of those who are attracted to the same sex, to carry the cross of abstinence and purity, in which He will infuse His love and grace. <br /><br />Does that make sense? I know it can be difficult, when you want to support your friends and you want them to have their desires fulfilled, but as a practicing Catholic, can you agree that the most important desire should be following Christ?Margohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09456678968658724716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-16699336460272732902014-01-30T13:52:08.566-07:002014-01-30T13:52:08.566-07:00And these amazing words by Pope Francis today are ...And these amazing words by Pope Francis today are just beautiful and speak to the issue of faithfulness to Church teaching:<br /><br />http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/a-christian-without-the-church-is-an-absurd-dichotomy-says-pope/<br /><br />A taste:<br /><br />“It is an absurd dichotomy to love Christ without the Church; to listen to Christ but not the Church; to be with Christ at the margins of the Church. One cannot do this. It is an absurd dichotomy.”Leila@LittleCatholicBubblehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09357573787143230160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-76901644302906487992014-01-30T13:43:35.489-07:002014-01-30T13:43:35.489-07:00Thanks, M! I appreciate your honesty. I will say t...Thanks, M! I appreciate your honesty. I will say this for the benefit of any of the readers who may be confused: Christ's Church is very clear: Sodomy is a grave, mortal sin. To support it with joy (one of the "sins that cries out to heaven for vengeance") is nothing that any priest or even bishop can give permission to do. It is a grave sin, with eternal implications. It would be the same for condoning adultery or fornication, of course…. it is a complete and total offense against God<br /><br />Again, confusion is not of God, so I want to be very, very clear here so that no one is led astray and thinks that homosexual acts can in anyway be squared with the Catholic Faith or Christ's teachings. <br /><br />Mores may change, but sin stays the same. There is no new sin. Our goal is holiness and sanctity, and that often requires carrying a great, big cross. <br /><br />Leila@LittleCatholicBubblehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09357573787143230160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-7251896134653794992014-01-30T12:59:13.116-07:002014-01-30T12:59:13.116-07:00I had resolved to avoid stay away from controversi...I had resolved to avoid stay away from controversial topics because I didn't want Leila to think that I was politicizing her daughter's engagement post, but I guess I failed! :-/ Sorry about that.<br /><br />Leila and Margo, I guess the best way to answer your questions about where I stand on homosexuality is that I am conflicted. I was raised Catholic and consider myself a practicing Catholic, but I definitely struggle with the teachings of the Church on homosexuality. I believe that homosexuality is not a choice, and if it is not, I struggle mightily with the concept that homosexuals should then deny an intrinsic part of their personhood. I have never been asked to deny my heterosexuality, so why should they deny their homosexuality? My very best friend is gay and he has been in a monogamous, loving, committed relationship with his partner for over 8 years now. I will be a witness at their wedding next month and I will do it with joy. His relationship is harming no one, not my marriage, nor anybody else's. The only thing else I want to say on the matter is that my confessor and I are dealing with it. :-)<br />As to this whole debate about classical vs. post-modern feminism, I would like to say that I am very much a feminist. I believe in equality of the sexes and that we must champion the political, sexual, economic, and social rights of women, independent of men. That said, I will also whole-heartedly defend the validity of choosing traditional values (e.g., to be a “stay-at-home mom”) for those who find satisfaction in doing so.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02045462732302427068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-4510253656161712962014-01-30T10:19:30.658-07:002014-01-30T10:19:30.658-07:00Priscilla, this blog is known for going off on a l...Priscilla, this blog is known for going off on a lot of tangents! As long as it's not nasty or unruly, I don't mind, ha ha.<br /><br />Leila@LittleCatholicBubblehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09357573787143230160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-60210308878807145022014-01-30T10:01:31.165-07:002014-01-30T10:01:31.165-07:00Whoa. How did this post end up on the topic of ga...Whoa. How did this post end up on the topic of gay sex? I thought we were talking about marriage before finishing post-secondary education. I'm very grateful for those women who opened up law schools and medical schools to women like me and several posters on this thread. Women have choices now. We can marry, not marry, have one child, several children, stay home, re-enter the workforce in our 40s etc.. the possibilities are endless. For that, I'm grateful to the feminist movement. Unfortunately, post-modern feminism still believes that women need the ability to squash everything uniquely feminine in order to compete in a man's world. It is so untrue. I can't wait to return to the practice of law and have my children working beside me in my office after school and during summer breaks. To me, that is truly feminist. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06581928154414435352noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-83985856537700860342014-01-29T22:38:15.824-07:002014-01-29T22:38:15.824-07:00M., but could you at least clear it up: Do you sub...M., but could you at least clear it up: Do you submit to Church teaching on the moral law, specifically regarding human sexuality including the sinfulness of homosexual acts? Leila@LittleCatholicBubblehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09357573787143230160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-65736435219009039872014-01-29T21:53:28.912-07:002014-01-29T21:53:28.912-07:00Whoops! I apologize for misreading that comment! Whoops! I apologize for misreading that comment! Margohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09456678968658724716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-7919558384670135482014-01-29T21:41:11.849-07:002014-01-29T21:41:11.849-07:00Margo, I said that "I wasn't saying that ...Margo, I said that "I <b>wasn't</b> saying that Francis' belief that homosexuality is a sin is some sort of personal conviction". Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02045462732302427068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-37060173362800184992014-01-29T21:29:10.078-07:002014-01-29T21:29:10.078-07:00Wait...M. Albinoni, you're Catholic, but you r...Wait...M. Albinoni, you're Catholic, but you reject the Church's teaching on homosexuality?!? I don't get it. How do you not see the evil of engaging in homosexual behavior or how gravely sinful GOD considers it. It's not Francis' "personal conviction", it's that Christ taught that marriage is ONLY for a man and a woman and that not every person is called to marriage. <br /><br />I have no idea what my vocation will be yet, but I am realizing that I may not be called to marriage, oh well! You don't see me whining. I see that there is WAY more to life than marriage or sex. Yes, I have a desire for marriage, but if it doesn't happen, then oh well. Why not embrace the virtue of chastity???<br />Margohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09456678968658724716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-20983936047341134522014-01-29T21:19:56.696-07:002014-01-29T21:19:56.696-07:00Leila, of course I wasn't saying that Francis&...Leila, of course I wasn't saying that Francis' belief that homosexuality is a sin is some sort of personal conviction. I am a Catholic. I am aware of the Church's teaching on that. <br /><br />I appreciate your attempts to interpret his statements, but its all still lipstick on a pig. Take another look at what he actually said: women getting "Schwarzenegger biceps" (whatever that means), poor "fashion accessories", and children "feeding on frozen dinners and porn" -- all because of feminism. Not to mention his assertion that homosexuality is somehow destroying "masculinity" (I'm assuming he feels homosexuality is a choice, so "choosing" to be gay is somehow an attack on masculinity. <br /><br />I don't think he was talking about the communion of saints, Leila. All his examples seem pretty darn specific to the corporal world. <br /><br />If Francis will argue otherwise, then I stand corrected.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02045462732302427068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-82416236810574960382014-01-29T20:44:09.416-07:002014-01-29T20:44:09.416-07:00Wait, M. Albinoni: It is not "Francis" w...Wait, M. Albinoni: It is not "Francis" who thinks that homosexual acts and the philosophy of pro-"choice" feminism is immoral. It is our Church. The Church that Jesus (God) founded to teach Truth in His name, with His authority. So, <i>Christ's Church</i> believes in the sinfulness of those things. The moral law is not about politics or the political spectrum.<br /><br />I guess I have to ask you: What is a bigger threat to humanity than sins against children, marriage, and the family? Sins which strike directly at the heart of Life and Love? <br /><br />"As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live." - Blessed John Paul II<br /><br />Nothing strikes more harmfully at the truth of what family is than philosophies that would totally upend and reorder it. Abortion and the misuse of human sexuality are at odds, completely, with life and love.<br /><br />Is the temporal life more important than the eternal? I don't get it.<br /><br />Leila@LittleCatholicBubblehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09357573787143230160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240447238522390484.post-68499070335806330082014-01-29T20:19:29.418-07:002014-01-29T20:19:29.418-07:00I get that Francis is against "radical femini...I get that Francis is against "radical feminists" and that he believes homosexuality is immoral. I really do. He and I are pretty much on on opposite sides of the political spectrum. I'm okay with that. But he made a clear statement about the <i>"greatest…existential threats to humanity"</i>. There were no qualifiers, no limits to the scope of his assertion. <br /><br />To claim that feminism and homosexuality are at the TOP of the list of threats to human existence is just…I don't know… I really don't even know what to say to that.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02045462732302427068noreply@blogger.com