TRANSITION REGRET

 

Catherine Nicolette

Words of wisdom are that gender reassignment surgery procedures for youth are permanent changes to a very young body. 

When I was a teenager, I found the teen years to be a time of rapid change, confusion and - sometimes - emotional turmoil. Looking back now, I realize that many of the emotional issues were natural effects accompanying teen hormonal changes.

When I talked to my mom at the time about the issues which I felt I faced, she said that the experience was the same for her, her mom and her mom's mom. 

Teenage years - Mom said - are a time when the teenager is "neither fish nor flesh". I was ready to be indignant; what did this idiom mean? What it meant, explained Mom, is that you are no longer a child and not yet a full adult. 

Teenager years are themselves a time of transition, where hormones such as growth hormone, progesterone and oestrogen in a female and testosterone in a male are flooding the system. These cause a child's body to turn into that of an adult.

True, at times a child may need hormone therapy, such as a child who is deficient in growth hormone requires hormonal assistance in order to achieve relevant adult growth and attendant functional fertility. However, this instance is not the norm.

Usually, a teenager needs to have patience: give Mother Nature a chance to complete her work of turning you into a man or a woman.

If an individual is hermaphrodite (has both male and female gender organs), supportive psychology service will assist to determine whether emotional identity is male or female. Gender surgery at a relevant age will be of assistance if chosen after a period of expert medical assessment and assistance.

Emotional gender identity develops in stages. Some may experience distress or unease between their physical identity and their emotional identity. Counselling and psychological support may prove invaluable when a mismatch is experienced between birth gender and emotional gender identity. 

The crux of the matter is that the emotional suffering of those experiencing gender dysphoria is both real and a difficulty for those experiencing the dysphoria.

Yet it must be remembered that not every teenager who experiences confusion or moodiness is experiencing gender dysphoria. Sensible prudence would appear to guide that - except in cases of hermaphroditism and clear gender dysmorphia - give Mother Nature a chance.

A teenager is still undergoing tremendous physical, psychological, neurological and spiritual changes. Neuroscience is giving increasing evidence that brain development has not completed by age 21; according to studies, brain maturation only completes at age 25. [1] 

It would be deeply unfortunate for youth to make life-changing gender reassignment decisions at too early an age, only to regret these decisions later.

Which leads me to my next point. Gender transition regret has become a real issue for many in recent years. It is heartbreaking to hear the emotional pain of those who reassigned gender, only to realize that in fact this is a path they no longer wish to follow. 

Yet those who regret transition struggle with changes to their physiques which in many cases may prove difficult to reverse.

The moral of the story would appear to be: don't swiftly reach for the scalpel or body-altering medication to medicate the teen years. It may prove an experience with deep regret in its wake.

Prayer Chapel for Detransitioners who regret gender transition; Words of Comfort

https://eventslumiere.blogspot.com/2022/06/prayer-chapel-for-detransitioners-who.html

[1] Brain Maturity extends well beyond 21 - the moral implications of placing undue responsibility at too young an age

https://churchinterfaith.blogspot.com/2015/05/brain-maturity-extends-well-beyond-21.html

Gender ideology harms children - American College of Pediatricians

https://churchinterfaith.blogspot.com/2016/04/gender-ideology-harms-children-american.html

HOUSEWIVES MUST PRAY AS WELL AS WORK

 

Luky:

WOULD you describe yourself as a Martha or a Mary type of person?

Years ago I tried to get someone to promise to pray the rosary daily with her family. A friend and I obtained such pledges on behalf of the World Rosary Crusade for Peace. 

When I had used up all the arguments in favor of the rosary I could think of, the person tersely said: "You pray! I work!"

Balance needed

What the Marthas of the world don't always seem to realize, however, is that working and caring for the home are just not enough; you've got to pray a little too.

"You tell me", another housewife said, "Do I drop everything at the busiest time of the day to recite my rosary with the family? What about my cooking, dishes, the children's baths? Which would you like me to skip?"

I was amazed to hear myself answering: "None. You see to everything, but make sure our Lord gets His share too."

Why?

For what purpose are we washing nappies, serving meals, cleaning dishes, pulling out weeds, or playing chauffeur, chef and nanny, if these and our other daily chores are not backed by a meaning? Would you want to continue living if you truly believed that life were one continuous effort, terminating in the grave?

Only prayer and meditation can give meaning to these seemingly meaningless tasks.

Like all other human beings, the housewife has a contemplative side to her nature, although it may seem to sit ill on one wearing an apron, holding a baby and a broom or a duster. It isn't strange, when you think about it, because she has been used as an instrument in the miracle of creation, and that should make anyone thoughtful.

When she hears words like: "My soul is thirsting for the Lord; when shall I see Him face to face?", the housewife may be moved to tears of longing. But then again, if her doctor told her she had a fatal disease, she'd make straight for the church, light a candle and pray for the joy of seeing the Lord face to face to be deferred till her children were off her hands.

I don't meditate

I read with interest the exchange in the letter columns about meditation on the rosary, and have come to the horrible conclusion that I don't meditate properly, either on the mysteries or on the words of the Our Father and the Hail Mary.

I try to, honestly, but I fail time and time again. I've been tempted to leave off reciting the rosary, but can't because of my pledge.

Fortunately God knows I've a lot on my plate, so I continued rounding up the family for the rosary. Maybe one day I'll learn to meditate properly as I pray.

Simply beautiful

And yet I wonder if perfection is what God demands of His children as much as the desire to become perfect. One of my children used to bring me a bedraggled bunch of veld flowers, picked daily on the way from school. The smile on the child's face would be so devastating that I'd arrange the flowers in a good vase, where they would flop gracelessly.

I suppose my rosary, when it reaches Mary's feet, looks as bedraggled as those veld flowers. But I hope and believe that when she in her turn presents my bouquet to Jesus, it will look beautiful.

Catherine Nicolette

Ah, the rosary - what a blessed prayer. If you would like to join the Rosary Crusade for peace, click in the link

https://www.mdrevelation.org/rosary-crusade-for-peace/

If you do not know how to pray the rosary, and would like to do so, click in the following link

https://www.praytherosary.org/how-to-pray

If you wish to join worldwide prayer of the rosary, this is made possible in the following link

https://www.comepraytherosary.org/

With thanks to mdrevelation.org, praytherosary.or and comepraytherosary.org

Clip art with thanks to free clipart-library.com

MOM WENT TO HEAVEN

 

Requiescat in pace

Lucia Antonia Whittle

21 May 1940, Amsterdam

7 December 2021, Kroonstad

Dear Readers,

Our dear Mom went to Heaven on 7th December of last year. Words cannot describe the loss. Mom bequeathed to me her literary writings, and had asked me to ensure that articles, manuscripts and books she left ready, continue to put on the blogs which she treasured so much. This I consider an honour to do.

Please remember Mom in prayer.

Blessings,

Catherine Nicolette

How Coffee Break began

https://lumierecharitycoffeebreak.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-coffee-break-began.html

Marian Praise

http://lumierecharitymarian.blogspot.com/

Quilt of Memories - My Dappled Life

https://quiltofmemories.blogspot.com/

Lumiere Charity English Academy

http://lumierecharity.blogspot.com/

Koinonia Academic Journal

https://koinoniajournal.blogspot.com/

TREES OF FAITH

 

Catherine Nicolette:

And so I have a story to tell. This photo is such an evocative one. Lush greenery of great beauty making a verdant landscape; and I was there at the beginning . . . 

When we moved to the mining town of Welkom in the Free State when I was a very little girl, the landscape was very sandy and we experienced frequent dust-storms. The heat could be oppressive at times, and I remember that one heatwave was so blistering that some of the neighbourhood teenagers fried an egg on the bonnet of their car. A bird dropped dead from a tree in front of me from heatstroke. 

Water resources literally dried up, and we used to line up at the municipality tankers to receive a weekly ration of water. I used to walk to and fro from school, and on the way back it would be so hot that I hung my blazer over my head to prevent sunburn.

The school was beautiful, newly built. Long cloisters hearking back to missionary cloisters kept us cool, while mole-hills dotted the large erf. The Sisters built rockeries from hewn stones, and only bristle-thorned cacti and vygies could grow in the arid heat. The front erf was a sandy desert, and we longed for shade where there was none.

One day, a Sister came to call me to help her. "I think you would be interested, " she told me. We went out to the rockeries, and Sister showed me how to plant twig like branches. "What are we planting, Sister?" I asked. Sister twirled around with her arms in the air. "Look around you," she told me. "See all the trees and greenery!" 

Puzzled, I looked about Sister. There was no greenery to be seen at all. She pealed with laughter at my face. "Yes, many trees and plants are there, but you must see them with the eyes of faith. They are in the future," Sister said. "One day when I'm dead and gone, and no-one will remember me, you will come and see the beautiful trees that we planted today. Then you will remember me and the beauty that we planted. That is faith," she said very seriously as she looked at me, "We plant today that others may reap. We may never sit in the shade of the trees we planted, but many in the future will. God will take these small branches and make them grow. He always blesses our efforts!" 

I looked at the small twigs in that vast expanse of sandy desert. There was not a hope, I thought, that they would ever grow. But I wanted Sister to feel happy, so I merely nodded quietly.

Well, I was at that school until I graduated, and we had arid heat and sand with thin little branches that struggled to grow. After my graduation, I moved on with life. A few years ago, I went with my brother for a walk down memory lane. We went back to my old convent school, and I marvelled as I walked down verdant avenues. I had never thought of that conversation again: I had been too young to realize the depth of the truth that Sister had taught me. Indeed, she had never enjoyed the fruits of our planting. Sand and dust-storms had been her lot. Now the greenery grew lush and cool, and I remembered that I had been part of it all.

Dear reader, it is so true. That wonderful missionary Sister who had come from the wooded glades of her youth to minister in a newly developed mining town heavy with sand had explained a deep truth to me. We sow that others may reap. We plant in faith that others may benefit. And we look to the future to see how God brings forth faith and eternal life from the lessons of faith we pass on to younger generations.

 As I stood quietly under the trees which you had helped me to push into rocky ground, I watched students walk quietly past, cool under the sheltering leaves.

Sister, I salute you.

A fatherly priest who sowed friendship

Luky:

I have sung the praises of the late Father Norbert Jansen many times. Perhaps I loved him so much because he was so like my own dad, even to having the same Christian name. Shortly after I met Fr Jansen my own father died, and perhaps I transferred my affection to the priest.

Not only I but my whole family did. When Father Jansen arrived, which was seldom because he did not believe in favouritism, everybody dropped whatever he or she was doing and sat around him in the sitting room. Even the cat would jump on to his lap.

He'd sit there, beaming benevolently, as though thinking: "What a lovely Catholic family this is", and it would make you determined once again to pull up where you'd been slipping.

Different sorts

My husband and I had two rather different natures. He was reserved, distant and a fiercely private person. I am outgoing, a lover of people. This cost us both a lot of friends.

When we became engaged we found that his old friends couldn't really fancy me and that my friends weren't all that crazy about him. So on the principle "love me, love my dog", both of us turned away from our erstwhile cronies and became a somewhat isolated couple - except for all those children.

But Fr Jansen loved us both. I think he loved everyone. He brought out the best in all of us.

Author, too

We were talking about him one day. I asked my husband what the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are and he couldn't remember them all. I took Fr Jansen's book The Sacramental We and opened it on the very page I sought, though I hadn't looked at the book for years.

We started talking about him again and about the letter he wrote to us when he was very ill and my husband had just had his first heart attack.

"I have asked our Lord to take away your illness, Sean, and let me suffer it on your behalf," he wrote, "because I'm old but you still have so many children to look after."

That was many years ago. His prayer was certainly heard.

Diplomatic

But it is neither his holiness nor his longsuffering we remember when we talk about him. It is his sweetness and humour that we recall, and above all his diplomacy.

A friend of mine was having hassles with her husband, and went to Fr Jansen to complain. After some discussion they arranged that she would keep out of the way one day her husband was sure to be in so that Fr Jansen could call, be terribly surprised to find her out, and (so she assumed) wipe the floor with her husband.

But that's not the way things worked out. "I gave them an hour and a half together", she recalled bitterly. "Then I came home, determined to have things out with my old man in front of Father, once and for all. And what do you think I found?

"There they were sitting, smoking and having a drink together like blood brothers. That was the sum total of Fr Jansen's efforts on my behalf."

That was Father Jansen for you. He united, he did not divide. By taking sides against one marriage partner he would have created a rift. But by loving both he was in fact saying: "I love both of you. Won't you please love each other the way I love each of you?"

I feel that put him in the top of the tree where marriage guidance was concerned.

Catherine Nicolette

When I was a little girl, Dad and Fr Norbert Jansen were my great heroes. So when the two of them encouraged me to consider studying theology and philosophy - which I loved - I was enthusiastic. Dad, who had degrees in philosophy, used to sit me on the high bar stool and teach me from the Summa Theologiae of Saint Thomas Aquinas. In one of his philosophy lessons, Dad tried to get me to guess how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. I told him none, because angels are great spirits that a. wouldn't fit on a pinhead and b. they aren't stupid. "Besides," I went on, "they are too important to be bothered with pins." 

Dad looked at me quietly. "Why are they important?" he asked. "Well, they're busy keeping the planets going as regular as clockwork, and keeping asteroids from hitting us, and listening to God, and helping us with problems," I firmly replied.  Pins indeed! Dad looked at me quietly. "Well," he said, "I never thought there would be a match for my philosophy professor. But a nine-year-old girl would surely have made him think." I left Dad brooding gloomily over the hours he and his fellow students had wasted on the conundrum. . . 

Shortly thereafter, I agreed when Fr Jansen - supported by Dad - asked me to promise that I would eventually study for Doctorate of Theology. I credit my heroes with planting the seeds of my great love for theophilosophical research.

If you are reading this, I would ask you also to consider studies about the deep things of God [1 Corinthians 2:10]. The Kingdom of God always has need of able theologians ...

SAINT PAUL VI BLESSED THE TOWN OF KROONSTAD

Angel of the Resurrection

Catherine Nicolette

No-one was more thrilled than I was when I heard that Pope Paul VI was to be canonised. Pope Paul was a figure of my childhood for whom I had the greatest respect. During my youth, the second Vatican Council and the sweeping changes it wrought were an everyday phenomenon. I loved reading the Council documents, and there is no doubt they were a significant part of my theological formation.

Also beloved in my youth were the great Bishop Brenninkmeijr of Kroonstad and Sr Bernwarda OP, my charismatic art teacher. One day during art class, Sister told me that the Cathedral of Kroonstad had been graced with new art which would be famous internationally. I listened wide eyed to this new development. 

What I did not know was that Saint Paul VI had personally donated the obelisk with an angel of the resurrection.  Zoltan Borboreki - the esteemed South African artist (1907-1992) - had executed the sculpture, and Bishop Gerard van Velsen OP had dedicated the Cathedral. The then developing mission territory gratefully received all gifts. 

Pope Paul VI was instrumental in assisting far flung corners of the Church, from laying the Regina Mundi foundation stone in Soweto to donating an angel to the Free State. I only wonder how many acts of kindness and evangelization may be attributed to the saint from Concesio.

Saint Paul VI not only brought new life into the Church, but in the miracles attributed to his intercession before God has protected unborn life within the womb. 

It is a glorious day that this Saint who - so many years ago - thoughtfully helped the people of Africa with material and spiritual aid, has at last been recognized as one of the luminaries of heaven.

Luky

Correction, Nicolette.  I am sure I was even more delighted than you were to hear about St Paul VI's canonisation for unlike you, I was an adult member of the Catholic Church  who witnessed his spiritual martyrdom for telling the truth in Humanae Vitae.

I suffered to see the pictures of that saintly man and the  patient humility with which he bore all the denigration. At that time in a column I wrote for the Catholic press, I stated:  "Starting the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII opened the window to let fresh air into the Church, but it was Paul who bore the icy blast that followed."

Whenever I read about Jacinta, the little Fatima visionary, now also a canonised saint, and how she said: "Shame, the poor holy Father," I would see the tormented face of St Paul VI in my mind's eye. Today in heaven and on earth he was gloriously vindicated.  Hurrah.

St Malachy, a twelfth century bishop of Armagh, Ireland, is said to have prophesied a list of 112 papal mottos of which that of St Paul VI was the 108th.  St Malachy called him Flos Florum, Latin for Flower of Flowers.  Apparently this motto may have referred to the fleur-de-lis depicted on the pope's coat of arms. Somehow I always mistakenly thought St Malachy had called him the Angel of Angels - but Flos Florum will do. 

On this wonderful day I recall that I have honoured all the popes who ruled the Church from Pope Pius XII onwards until Pope Francis.  But among them all it has always been  Pope St Paul VI whom I have loved.  I rejoice in his newly declared sainthood. 

THE DAY A FUTURE POPE LAID A FOUNDATION STONE

Catherine Nicolette
THE NEWS THAT POPE PAUL VI OF BLESSED MEMORY IS AT LAST TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED AS A HOLY SAINT HAS OVERJOYED MANY WORLDWIDE. 
  I was fascinated to hear from Mom that the holy pontiff laid the foundation stone of the famous Regina Mundi Church during his visit to South Africa many years ago.
  After initiating the building of the sanctuary church Cardinal Giovanni Montini returned to Rome to become pope. 
  
The beleaguered pontiff steered the Barque of Saint Peter through some very stormy times.
  I well remember as a child being somewhat confused by the rapid changes which swept through the church.
  One week I heard the Mass in Latin - the next Sunday found all Latin books gone, and an unfamiliar text in English to be followed.
  Years later I found the beautiful Latin texts and Missa de Angelis choir books stuffed in a cupboard where they had gently begun aging.
  I must say there was a touch of pathos about the sight.

It is an amazing thing that many of my generation who lived through sweeping changes of liturgy are - in our maturing years - returning to more conservative forms of church worship.


Canonisation
My generation has seen much suffering. Post divorce sadness, contraceptive linked strokes and deaths among friends and acquaintances, wars with losses of treasured and irreplaceable community members have all been part of our lot.
  Now as we near our golden years, it seems only right that we return to the faith of our infancy, a return to a time when as children it seemed that God was in heaven and all was right in our parish world.

Along with our return to more conservative mores comes the welcome news that a man - both pontiff and prophet - is at last receiving the honor which was always his due.
  Cardinal Montini - Pope Paul VI of blessed memory - is to be recognized as a saint later this year. Miracles through his intercession - his pleading with Almighty God on behalf of another - have been attributed to this great man.
  
Sanctity of human life
Prolifers everywhere have always known the depth of sanctity of Pope Paul VI - Vox populi as it were. Blessed Paul VI stood fast for the rights of the unborn child at a time when to do so, proved exceedingly unpopular. In 1968 his prophetic encyclical Humanae Vitae stated that 'Human life is sacred'. [1]
  This Saint of the unborn child has been respected and loved everywhere by those who defend the right to life of the infant within the womb.
  
  Pope Paul VI was beatified in 2014 after a first miracle was attributed to him, the healing of an unborn baby in California in the early 1990's.

  During her pregnancy, the baby's mother heard from doctors that they had found a problem with her baby that would likely result in brain damage.
  The physicians suggested abortion. The mother refused and trusted her baby to the intercession of Pope Paul VI. The infant was born with no disability. [2]  

Second miracle
Earlier this year a Vatican theological and medical commission approved a second miracle attributed to Pope Paul VI. [3] A miracle is the medically inexplicable healing of someone. 
  This second miracle concerns the healing of an unborn child in the fifth month of pregnancy.

  The mother, from Verona Italy, reportedly had an illness that risked both her own life and the life of her unborn child. She was advised to have an abortion.
  A few days after the beatification of Paul VI by Pope Francis in October 2014, the mother prayed to the now blessed pontiff at a shrine in Lombardy and the baby girl was later born in good health. [4]

  It is a source of joy that at last Pope Paul VI - the man who so courageously wore the crown of thorns of prophetic ministry - is at last to receive the universal acclaim for the depth of holiness his life for Christ bore witness to.
  

Prayer to Blessed Paul VI for your unborn child
http://churchinterfaith.blogspot.co.za/2016/09/ 

[1] Humanae Vitae
http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae.html 
[2] Saint of the Unborn Child - Blessed Pope Paul VI
http://churchinterfaith.blogspot.co.za/2016/09/saint-of-unborn-child-blessed-pope-paul.html 

[3] Late Pope Paul VI to be made saint this year, Pope Francis says
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-paul-sainthood/late-pope-paul-vi-to-be-made-saint-this-year-pope-francis-says-idUSKCN1G10LH 

[4] Vatican approves second miracle needed for canonisation of Pope Paul VI
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/vatican-approves-second-miracle-needed-for-canonisation-of-pope-paul-vi-1.3382583



With thanks to vatican.va, reuters.com and irishtimes.com