Merry Christmas!! 

Don't let the world take away your Christmas, enjoy the full 12 days of Christmastide!! The season has just begun.

 

The Anti-Mary Exposed book recommendation

At first, I didn't want to read this book because of the title. Not The Anti-Mary Exposed, but what comes after that; Rescuing the Culture from Toxic Femininity. 

 

So for me there is a difference between femininity and feminism. 

Online Merriam Webster definition of feminine is: characteristics that are appropriate or unique to women. Whereas the definition of feminism is: belief in and advocacy of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes expressed especially through organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests. (My definition of feminism is a lot worse.)

My question is, are we really seeing toxic femininity in our culture, or toxic feminism. I would have titled the book a little different, completely agreeing we are seeing anti-Mary in our culture.

Also, it seems too close in familiarity to "toxic masculinity", which I question as to whether that is a legitimate issue in males but maybe that is why the author chose to title the book with "toxic femininity", to show that there can be toxic issues or problems on both sides. I am not a fan of the word "toxic".

All that said, and just in case everyone is thinking I did not like this book, they would be totally wrong. I thought the book was great and a definite eye opener.

Opening our eyes to the evils of feminism and yes, feminism is evil. Carrie Gress clearly shows in her book how feminism is an evil and since the 1960's it has attacked and harmed women, children and men and destroyed families ever since. Feminism is connected to the errors of Russia (heard this before from a good traditional Catholic priest), associated with demons falsely called goddesses, the occult and abortion.

Women are so much more unhappy today. More than they have ever been. They have freedoms, or so they think, more like slavery. The worst thing that could have ever happened to women is feminism. Women have lost so very, very much due to believing the lies of such an evil.

In the book, Carrie Gress clearly reveals the evil beginnings of the feminist movement and the results after and I highly, highly recommend it to every woman and suggest they flee from feminism with everything they have, pray to God, pray the rosary asking for help to free ourselves from the lies we, as women, have heard from feminists and have been implanted in our brains, hearts, families and culture, such as men are chauvinists, women need careers, children are a burden or that there is such a thing as Catholic or Christian feminism. There is no such thing as Catholic feminism because you can't have your feet in the evils of feminism and follow Christ or imitate the Blessed Mother at the same time.

The anti-Mary or the feminist movement is a following of Eve, saying "no" to God rather than "yes" to God as Mary did. 

As Carrie Gress says, the solution for women is Mary our Blessed Mother. She is to be women's model, who is the best example of true womanhood.

After having grown up in this feminist culture we are living in, I frequently need to pray and ask God to help me to choose Him and reject all feminist thoughts or ideas.

Ask our Blessed Mother for help and guidance, pray the rosary and women flee as fast as you can from feminism and choose God, choose family, choose sacramental marriage and a family or if you are called choose the religious life as a traditional Catholic sister. Say yes to God. It is good for the soul.

God bless.

https://tanbooks.com/vocation/catholic-women-books/the-anti-mary-exposed-rescuing-the-culture-from-toxic-femininity/?gclid=CjwKCAjwzruGBhBAEiwAUqMR8DicpIZ35V0bBEPAea_lKDETANZsbGIDQ_WlDywLF_qGjG05A6m_-xoCSroQAvD_BwE

Maria, My Own Story. Book recommendation.

Last year after watching The Sound of Music, I decided to investigate the real life of Maria Von Trapp. Of course, I started out looking things up on the internet discovering that there were some discrepancies between her life and the movie.

In looking at her life, I found that she wrote several books. One that I purchased and read was Maria, My Own Story. This is her own autobiography. She says she wrote the book because those who bought her story, twisted it and she wanted people to know the truth. One main truth she wanted people to know was that her husband was not the person the movie industry portrayed him out to be but instead he was a loving and kind father and husband. The whistles were only used because the house was so large, they were needed to call the children, not march them around. 

My own father was a very good whistler and when he wanted us home, he would whistle, no big deal.

Some interesting things I discovered were, that she was raised by her aunt and her angry socialist uncle after her parents passed away when she was a child, she was a rebellious teen who, when she was finally of age, left home, got a job, made money and went on to college.  Her mother, father and aunt were Catholic, so she did learn some Catholicism but not much. When she went on to college she became, as would be expected even then, a liberal atheist.

Fortunately because of her father's love of music when she was a child, she also had a love of music. In order to hear the beautiful music of her day she would go to Mass on Sundays, sit in the back and listen to the music, though ignoring everything else.

Once at Mass when there wasn't any music, she was forced to hear the Mass and the homily. Afterward she spoke with the priest and challenged him on what she heard during his homily, asking him if he truly believed all that he had said about Christ, forgiveness of sin, heaven and hell. He could not speak with her at that moment but encouraged her to come back the next day. She did and for three hours he answered all her questions. 

She became a devoted Catholic, and joined an extremely strict convent, where, yes, she still had some mischievousness' in her. She would slide down banisters, jump over bushes and accidentally break many dishes.

Different than what the movie showed was that she was only asked to tutor one child, she did not love the Captain when they married, though grew to love him more than she could ever imagine and they did not go over the mountains but just got on the train and left Austria. 

The family traveled through Europe singing but could not stay in many countries long because people feared they were spies. Eventually of course they ended up in America.

She was a very devout Catholic and did her best to teach all the children in the family the faith.

 Her true story is so very interesting, I highly recommend the book.

Mary, My Own Story