“To a great extent the level of any civilization is the level of its womanhood. When a man loves a woman, he has to become worthy of her. The higher her virtue, the more her character, the more devoted she is to truth, justice, goodness, the more a man has to aspire to be worthy of her. The history of civilization could actually be written in terms of the level of its women.”
~Bishop Fulton Sheen
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The history of civilization could also be written in terms of a society’s devotion to Mother Mary.
Related to this is a translation of St. Albertus Magnus’s commentary on Proverbs 31:10-31 by Benedict Ashley, O.P., The Strong Woman.
Thanks for the post Gerry. I am reposting it on my two daughter’s wall. At 16 and 17, they both started dating. It is something for both of them to take to heart. It reminds me of the night we met and you found out that I was a CNR graduate as is your wife and you told me that you married up!!:). How smart you are to know that. My husband Al feels the same.
Good for you!!:). Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Thank you for this
As the father of four daughters, I will take a few minutes to repost to their walls.
A real gift. And I agree with Alan’s point as well.
Thank you for the quote! I will save it
I’ve been thinking about this post all weekend. At first read, it’s beautiful and speaks of the essence of women and motherhood. But I fail to think of a time in history when this actually held true. Look around you in today’s world and you will see women exploited by men from forced abortions and sterilzations in China, to the Indonesian prostitution market. Indian families who do not abort their girls will otherwise sell them into prostitution or forced labor camps. Let’s not forget about about Internet pornography, and the proliferation of std’s as a consequence of instant gratification on the part of men. Just this past weekend I was speaking to a friend of mine who was telling me that the influx of Muslims in NYC poses challenges to the public school system. How do you enforce kindergarteners picking up their art supplies when a 5 year old tells you, “That’s women’s work?”. Or the immigrant husband residing in the US who murdered his wife over an affair, because in his country it is the “honorable” thing to do? Yes we very much still live in a man’s conquer and divide world. To those who try to temper my opinion, I offer this … There are two ways to avoid unwanted pregnancies in a hedonistic society. Sterilize the women or sterilize the men. If every convicted rapist were sterilized as a result of his crime, we would effectuate a reduction in crime. Just my two cents. Perhaps in the next life your post may hold true, but I won’t hold my breath for it’s achievement in this life.
Sterilization would deepen the illusion of “responsible, ‘safe’ sex,” thereby exacerbating the problem of irresponsible sex by casting man’s intellect to ever lower lows and further objectifying women. Ruled more by violent passion than reason, man would increase the sex trade and domestic violence. Unplanned pregnancies would increase, too, because irrational men would impregnate unsterilized or improperly-sterilized women and force them to have abortions. More new strains of STDs would crop up, and more men would have prostate cancer and women would have ovarian, cervical, uterine, and breast cancers, since sterilization procedures do have carcinogenic effects.
Have you watched Maafa 21? It details how sterilization and eugenics go hand-in-hand. Oregon was the last of the United States to eliminate its mandatory sterilization laws, in 1983!
Also, our present day society’s lack of respect for women isn’t entirely men’s fault. Women, e.g., are the ones who choose what to wear, whether to present themselves as dignified or not. Sadly, many women, knowingly or not, choose to dress undignified. We can only pray and hope for a cultural change in women’s fashion such that modesty and beauty returns as the norm.
Whether a woman is a Bride of Christ (nun) or wife with biological children, women need to be taught that their nature is to be motherly. This is not something they choose; it is who they are. Similarly for men, too; their nature is to be protectors. This is who they are.
Wonderful, as we have the culture of death where it is celebrated when women hate being womenly, kill their children, rush to climb the corporate ladder faster than men, and basically HAVE no virtue!!
Very well put. I wasn’t surprised as to who the author was.
I love this quote and have turned to it many many times! Thank you for sharing it! Dorothy
I tend to agree with Mourning Mom. Very few men today “aspire” to be worthy of a woman’s virtue. First off, they don’t need to and secondly they don’t care. If a woman is virtuous, especially in the area of sexuality, she can usually expect to forgo dating and marriage – for years. She can expect to be passed over or dumped on a regular basis. I know because I had this experience 25 years ago and it’s only gotten worse.
My personal experience has been that if a man marries a virtuous woman and he doesn’t care for her virtue he will try everything to degrade her and bring her down to his level. Everything.
Men are to be protectors of women but sadly many are predators today.
I do very much agree with Fulton Sheen though. Women have a choice. Many women have made poor individual choices that have collectively destroyed the fabric of society for women and for society in general.
Have a blessed evening.