Exciting Media Interview Week !!

It certainly was exciting to be interviewed by Lisa Hendey who is the author of several Catholic books for moms! You can listen to the podcast interview right HERE.

Keep me in your prayers will you? Tomorrow I am being interviewed by a journalist with the National Catholic Register. The day after that I am going to be interviewed on the radio. So listen in as David Dawson of Catholic Community Radio WPYR 1380 from Baton Rouge, Louisiana interviews me about my book !!!

This is definitely an exciting media week !!!

By the way, you can still vote for Motherhood Matters! It's been nominated one of the top five new Catholic books in 2011. How exciting is that? You can vote for Motherhood Matters by clicking right HERE

 

Did you know you can vote everyday? Make it a Lenten sacrifice !!! LOL !!! Cast your vote today !!!

Vote for Best Catholic Book of the Year

I was delighted to get a note from a friend who told me that she voted for my book, Motherhood Matters, that was nominated one of the best new Catholic books published in 2011.

I was delighted, honored, excited, thrilled and in disbelief seeing my name amongst some of the big league Catholic writers that's for sure!

How happy I am just to be here!

If you would like to have your say in the matter, you can vote right here! Thanks for all of your support and prayers over the years!

http://catholicism.about.com/library/bl-readers-choice-awards-best-catholic-book.htm?r=facebook

The Deception of Self Sufficient Susie

It’s not often I get to exchange thoughts with a prominent Catholic philosopher and theologian, but since writing my book Motherhood Matters I have done exactly that. Getting to know Dr. Alice von Hildebrand has had a dramatic impact on my life.

Von Hildebrand, 89, spent 37 years as a professor of philosophy at Hunter College in New York, where she authored several books. Her husband, Dietrich von Hildebrand, was considered among the great Catholic philosophers of the 20th century. In retirement, she became a sought-after lecturer and TV commentator who speaks passionately about true Catholic femininity.

She has taught me many things but perhaps most important she helped me understand that, despite the many positive advances, modern society often has a negative impact on women.

It’s ironic that women are entrusted with the gift of giving life yet in many cases are the ones destroying it. Women, the gatekeepers of life who are bestowed with the privilege of co-creating with the divine, are too often turning their backs on the call to have children.

We have all heard it said that the best gift a mother can give a child is another brother or sister. It’s a modern tragedy that women don’t take those words more seriously. Instead, many women shrug them off as an empty platitude when they should be prayerfully discerning whether God is calling them to have a child, or another child.

Through my work, I have had hundreds of conversations with women. I’ve noticed recently that many are afflicted with a twisted sense of self-sufficiency. I call these women Self-Sufficient Susie.

Self-Sufficient Susie is a woman with one or two children who has decided she’s done with babies. So she cuts herself off from the divine gift of procreation. She manages her body with machine-like efficiency and is proud to say she is the boss.

In some cases, she assesses her husband’s faults and decides she doesn’t need him. She files for divorce. She doesn’t want to carry the cross that is very real in many marriages. Or sometimes she is looking for a husband but, failing to find a perfect candidate, shuts the door on marital love. 

Self-Sufficient Susies are having a dramatic impact on the Church, but nobody is talking about it. Getting to know von Hildebrand has helped me see this and she’s given me the confidence to question this phenomenon, because I now realize Susie has been deceived.

Whenever I get the chance, I tell women that I’ve never met anyone who regretted having another child. Nor have I met a woman who has regretted staying at home with their children. I suppose such women are out there but I’ve never come across them. Instead, I’ve met hundreds of women who admit they gave too much of themselves to careers and who have wept over precious moments lost. I have also witnessed many women cry inconsolably in remorse after having an abortion.

When von Hildebrand endorsed Motherhood Matters, I felt blessed. She has helped me in so many ways. Because of her mentoring, I gained clear insight into my role as a mother.

Part of her life’s work is to help women regard motherhood as a form of knighthood. A mother is charged with shielding her children from dangerous worldly influences, rising up like a crusader to fend off inappropriate media, Hollywood, secularism, materialism, greed, sexualization, technology, immodesty, relativism, selfishness, profanity and more.

That’s how my mother raised her children, but it took von Hildebrand to help me see it. Now I can’t imagine regarding motherhood any other way.

But judging from parenting magazine covers, I doubt many mothers consider themselves knights. From what I see in most books and magazines, mothers are instructed to care for their children — love them, indulge them, provide opportunities, educate them, entertain them — but I’ve never seen mothers advised to go to battle against the negative influences that abound in society.

Lately I have been researching knighthood. The more I read, the more I see the parallels with motherhood. I thank God for the weapons to defend family life: the Bible, the rosary, Mass, eucharistic adoration and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

We are fortunate to have these spiritual weapons to advance the cause of Catholic motherhood. The challenge is to help more women realize the power of these supernatural gifts so they too can join the crusade.

The article originally appeared in the Catholic Register http://www.catholicregister.org/columns/guest-columnists/item/13859-the-deception-of-self-sufficient-susie

If you would like to hear Dr. von Hildebrand speak, you can do so right here! Enjoy!
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