On March 25, in Santa Clara, more than 30 young adult men hosted a formal event called “The Beloved Dinner” to honor women in their Catholic community. This event was not sponsored by any church or organization — rather, it was single-handedly put on by laymen who enlisted the support of their friends to create a truly memorable night to honor women. I was fortunate enough to be one of the ladies invited to attend the dinner.
This event was on par with a wedding reception. From the wax-sealed invitations mailed far in advance, to taking into account our dietary preferences, and the raffle with amazing Catholic prizes — these men went above and beyond. While attending the dinner, I became inspired to write about this experience because, throughout my 10 years of involvement in various young adult groups (both Catholic and Protestant), I have never seen anything done quite like this — especially by men with no formal training in event planning. In the month leading up to the dinner, Catholic women were all abuzz about what they were going to wear to the formal event. It truly felt as though we were invited to a Catholic ball!
Many women speculated that this dinner was held in March due to International Women’s Day, but when I asked Josh Harmon, 24, co-creator of Beloved, he said, “No, it was because of the feast of the Annunciation being in March.”
Each table had a Marian theme with an icon of our Blessed Mother. Each setting included a name card for the woman who would sit there. I was touched by this simple gesture because it reminded me of how our Lord calls us each by name. He knows us intimately as individuals — not as a monolith, grouped by gender, age, race or status.
These men not only fed our bellies but also our hearts and minds. Josh Jeremiah, 26, gave an incredible speech, explaining the reason for the event. He summarized what Pope John Paul II called the “feminine genius,” St. Thomas Aquinas on love and willing the other’s good, and Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen on women being the “pinnacle of creation.”
Jeremiah said, “To will the good of the other for the sake of the other also means considering how the other person wants to receive love. Women have an intuition, a sense, a ‘feminine genius’ … that equips them with a special sensitivity to know not just that we ought to love people but how we ought to love people….”
Full story at National Catholic Register
Excellent! Good job brothers. And, thank you California Catholic Daily for posting this. May we all honor all of the women in our lives.
If they deserve it.
All human persons deserve honor and respect based on the fact that they’re made in the image of God. While our sins mar our likeness to God, we always retain the imago Dei in us. Of course, some persons deserve additional honor and respect due to their exemplary service, heroic virtue, etc. God loved us and came after us while we were lost in sin and death. We certainly didn’t deserve that. I’ve never observed a problem with persons honestly honoring and respecting others in their lives. if, I guess I may not be clear about the point you were trying to make.
What if they aborted your child?
Or divorced you to marry a woman?
Or gambled away your money?
Or put you in such credit card debt that you will never get out?
Or paid for a hit on you?
Or murdered your kids?
Or was taking the pill without your knowledge?
Or was putting your kids up to committing crimes?
Or was prostituting herself to pay for illegal drugs?
Or had a secret OnlyFans account?
Or put antifreeze in your drinks?
lotmore, are you the same person as “if?” Your questions are obviously true and painful. Yet, I don’t believe they describe the majority of women, including Christian women. I’m still not clear about your point, in relation to the article and what those young men did. We all sin. Yet, even our sins don’t obliterate our human dignity, which is always worthy of respect. A person is more than her (or his) bad, even sinful and evil, behaviors. All human persons deserve respect. That is my point. And, often, all of us need healing from the effects of wrongdoing perpetrated against us. May we find healing, peace and forgiveness.
Ladies do need to earn the trust of others, and seek to make reparation for our sins, just as gentlemen should.
I remember a time in my twenties when I had gotten off from a hard day’s work. While waiting for the bus to go home, a young man my age walked up to me with three or four beautiful bouquets of flowers and gave me one. I thanked him. Then he told me he was giving them out in honor of his wife who had passed away. I thought how much he must have loved and missed her.
If lot more: do you think they deserve you? Hmmm probably not, with a stingy attitude displayed here.
Another instance where the good Deacon hits the nail on the head.
Let’s go back.
May we honor all the women in our lives if they deserve it.
If they have betrayed you in a massively evil way, they do not deserve it.
Stingy much?- I think you assumed I was male.
You all need to honor your Mothers, take her gifts and flowers for Mother’s Day, always try to help her, and daily pray the Rosary to Our Blessed Mother, and honor her. Womanhood has for far too long been evilly disrespected, cast aside, despised, and trampled on, by feminists, who sought to nearly annihilate authentic, beautiful Womanhood out of existence, in our society. Womanhood is sacred, created by God, and needs to be respectfully and lovingly restored in our society. All young women need to be brought up to love, cherish and respect their God-given Womanhood and feminine gifts and graces. And all young men need to be brought up to respect women, and cherish their special feminine gifts and graces — starting with giving honor and respect to their Mothers.
I googled your statement “Womanhood is sacred” and I got some really strange stuff-paganism.
Do you know what syncretism is?
My suggestion is to stop exposing yourself to non-Catholic sources until you can purify your faith.
Read the Catechism. Read the Bible.
Get away from everything that is not Catholic.
You have lost your focus. You cannot achieve what you want without prayer and also without focusing on Christ.
If you notice someone in error – a feminist or whatever, just pray for them.
Syncretism, you are not normal. Read the Bible. Womanhood is sacred, and Manhood is sacred– created by God, in His Divine Image. There are only two genders– Man and Woman. God created Marriage with the union of Man and Woman, in Holy Matrimony, bringing forth Children, created by God. This is His Divine Plan for us, as Man and Woman. Our Blessed Mother is the epitome of Womanhood. The pagan, Godless, leftist “Google” mechanism is useless. May and October are special months in which we honor Our Blessed Mother, Mary– the Holy Mother of God. May is also the month in which we honor our Mothers, on Mothers’ Day. Very important!
SACRED
The holy or divine. The sacred is that which pertains to God, as distinguished from what pertains to human beings; that which is eternal, in contrast with the temporal; the heavenly as opposted to the earthly; the mysterious and therefore not the rationally explainable; the infinite and not the finite. In all religions, the sacred is the Absolute, which does not change, whereas the profane is the relative, whose essence is to change. (Etym. Latin sacrare, to set apart as sacred, consecrate.)
No. You don’t understand. For example, if a group of feminists are tearing your church to pieces, insisting on changing your parish to suit their feminist agendas, speak up! Once, many long decades ago, when the feminists first started, I was a volunteer at a Montessori preschool, set up in a former Catholic parish school, sold after Vatican II. Well, I quit after just one day! It was starting to rain, and I saw a little girl who fell off the swings at recess, and was crying. I ran over to help her, picked her up, brought her inside, administered First Aid, and got her cleaned up, and all fixed up, happy and well, all ready for snack time! Guess what? The head of the school came over, asked to speak with me, and sternly reprimanded me for helping the little girl! She said I made her “weak,” by caring for her needs, and destroyed her ability to learn to be a strong, self-reliant, tough woman, someday, a tough leader, a high achiever. I was supposed to leave her crying in the mud, and ignore her! Never pick her up, never sympathize and help her! I had never heard of such a horrific, inhuman, sick educational philosophy! This was certainly not Maria Montessori’s pholosophy! I believe that when a little girl or boy is given kindness, love and care, especially if they are hurt, they can grow up strong, and feel a sense of love and self-worth– and succeed in life! That’s normal thinking! I sternly gave this evil, incompetent, “feminist” head of school a piece of my mind, got my coat, and left.
Fine. But you need a normal Catholic definition, and understanding of the Biblical creation of Man and Woman, made in the Divine Image of God– the Imago Dei. Christ honored His holy, Virgin Mother, Mary– Our Blessed Mother. And we should all love, respect and honor our own mothers! And all young boys should grow up to be fine gentlemen, who love, respect and honor their wives, as well as their mothers, mothers-in-law, and all women.
Actually, when I said “womanhood is sacred” what I really was trying to say, is that God created Man and Woman in His own Divine Image–“in Imago Dei”– and that is very special. And Christ loved His holy Mother, Mary, and revered her– she is very special. So– I will replace the word “sacred” with “special.”
A lot of women have to work through the damage their mothers have done to them. Some mothers are drug addicts. Some stayed and defended the men who abused them. Some abused them themselves. Some sold them. Some are incarcerated. Some travel for work.
I know a mother who kept her kids home from school because she was lonely. She was also an alcoholic and all of her children ended up with substance abuse issues. 2 died young from it.
People are people and everybody is sinful and selfish.
When mothers are taking proper care of young children, they need help. Women with big families use the other kids to help. Wealthier women hire help. Men are pitching in more. Finally, the kids go to school and then there are other demands.
The children of single mothers who work hard seem much more appreciative and honor and respect their mothers more.
The women you described, are not normal! You need to think in terms of good Catholic women, and women of other good religions, who are truly good, decent and NORMAL! Raised in good, decent, normal family homes, with religious beliefs, and good family values. Many women have had good and decent parents, who tried to make a good family home, and gave their children their best. Even if there were a few setbacks, these good women worked to overcome their setbacks, snd made good, decent, successful, happy lives.
Beautiful! and how handsome the young men look all dressed up — very courtly.
I was thinking this over and I realized that if you took a vow to love, honor and protect (obey, cherish) you have to still do that even if they try to kill you or kill your kids or commit public immorality.
I think the way you do that would be different (Like visiting them in prison, or paying their legal bills)
I have seen men on the news who still love and support their wives even though they killed all their children. They say something like “That wasn’t her” or “She needs help,”
The other thing I think is that if some husband did this, their wives would be mad, because they know they get treated at home. The huzband would just be putting on an act to impress others. Narcs do this stuff, too..
Cherish, you need to think in terms of normalcy. Normal, decent people are certainly not juvenile delinquents, violent robbers, violent dope gang members, dope addicts and peddlers, violent murderers, rapists, and all other criminals– low-life, Satanic filth and scum in the gutter. Good Catholics, and good Americans of all religions, always honor their wives and mothers, and cherish the loveliness of femininity in their daughters, growing up to be lovely young women.
No Christian talks like that.
A Christian is a good and decent member of society, ideally a role model, who loves God and fellowman, works hard for the betterment of society, and gives their best. Good Christian women in our churches are the very best of our society. You need a sense of normalcy with very nornal, good American women, especially in our churches. Examples of good Christian women today: Lila Rose, founder of Live Action, Johnnette Benkovic Williams, founder of Women of Grace, Marilisa Carney, Pro Life leader and wife of Shawn Carney, head of 40 Days for Life, Pro Life leader Abby Johnson, SCOTUS Judge Amy Coney Barrett, March for Life president, Jeanne Mancini, award-winning author and EWTN star, who left to be a Homeschooling Mom, Colleen Carroll Campbell– and many, many more.
Oh– and of course, Riley Gaines, of Tennessee, is superb, as well as Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, of Arkansas, and many other fine, Christian Pro-Life lawmakers and governors– all are Republicans, as far as I know. And Kristan Hawkins, of Students for Life, Franklin Graham’s daughter, Cissie Graham Lynch, and his sister, Anne Graham Lotz, are all fine Christian Pro Life women in leadership, too. There are a great many other fine Christian ladies in public leadership, today.
If Cardinal McElroy’s radical inclusion idea gets accepted it will not just kill off Confession but also Marriage and Mass attendance.