[stfassisi]

No doubt, you have heard this siren song, because the media are good when it comes to spreading this negative message.

Those of us with daughters should give this to them to read.

I have been Blessed with two daughters

[stfassisi]

Ping!

[To Hell With Poverty]

Once you realize this, you will be awe-filled for the double mystery that God has confided to you: to conceive a human being made to God’s image and likeness, and to give birth to it in pain and anguish. Do not forget that it was also in pain and anguish that Christ re-opened for us the gates of paradise – which had been shut by sin. To women has been granted the awesome privilege of nobly suffering...

Just wondering (non-Catholic thinking about conversion here), does the Catholic Church have a stand against epidurals or other means to relieve the pain of childbirth? Kind of sounds like it in this quote. I had my first child three months ago (also blessed with a daughter!) and hardly felt a thing (now the recovery, that was another story...). I know early on in the development of anesthesia, many religious leaders were against it because they believed pain to be ennobling.

Anyway, good post, something I'll hopefully remember when it comes time for "the talk"...

[Kolokotronis]

This is magnificent! It reminds me of a conversation I had with a very holy abbess at the monastery outside my maternal village down in Greece and another I had with a truly fine young Antiochian Orthodox woman. What the author has written is thoroughly Orthodox and what we try to impart to our young girls and women.

[mockingbyrd]

But from the very moment that the Catholic Church became a recognized religion, she fought relentlessly against this pagan cult. But the Church introduced a prayer uttered millions of times every single day in which the female organ par excellence, the "womb" is mentioned. "Blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus". I am sure, my dear young friend, that if you meditate on this, you will understand that it is a privilege to be born a woman, and will respect the mystery that God has put in the female body.

I love it. Especially good to read while not enjoying the less glamorous aspects of motherhood...namely the first trimester.