The Christian Mother

Connoisseur Kids a manual for manners

March 22, 2023 No Comments

“Connoisseur Kids” A manual for manners “God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food,” we first graders recited with Miss McIntosh at our public elementary school.Then she lined us up boy, girl, boy girl, and we proceeded to the cafeteria. All the girls wore dresses, so it was easy to see at a glance that we were in the right order.We filed inside the cavernous lunchroom and stood solemnly facing each other across the long tables. Bubbling with excitement, some of us suppressed giggles.“Boys, pull out the chair for the girl to your right,” Miss McIntosh instructed while raising her right hand. And so we began our school year with this awkward but thrilling introduction to manners.It was 1965, and Wright Elementary was doing its part to uphold the cultural norms that our parents were teaching at home.Apparently, the widespread rebellion of the 1960s hit

The True Role of Women in God’s Plan.

May 10, 2022 No Comments

by Rev. Father M. Benedict Hughes, CMRI(This article originally appeared as “The Feminization of the Conciliar Church in “The Reign of Mary”) As a young priest I was assigned to travel on lecture tours throughout the United States, speaking about the situation in the Church and the message of Fatima. The goal was to alert Catholics to what was happening in their churches. In the course of these travels I met with many Catholics who were alarmed at what had taken place with the Novus Ordo. What particularly struck me – it was in the early 1980s – was that so many older Catholics were quite incensed about the altar girls! You would think that their main complaints would be about the “guitar Masses” or Communion in the hand, or the handshake of peace, or whatever, but no, it was the girls in the sanctuary. That particularly bothered older Catholics

The example of Joan Catherine Hughes

May 8, 2022 2 Comments

Reflections on her life by Father M. Benedict Hughes, CMRI July 19, 2020 In the book of Tobias in the Old Testament, we read that the younger Tobias exhorted his wife Sara: We must practice virtue “for we are the children of saints” (Tobias 8:5). Indeed, we are who we are, to a great degree, because of the upbringing we received from our parents. Although we must not discount the workings of grace and free will, it remains true that our upbringing by our parents exerts a powerful influence upon who and what type of persons we become. We must practice virtue “for we are the children of saints” (Tobias 8:5). For that reason, I would like to share with you some recollections of my mother, hoping thereby to discharge some of my great debt to God for all I have received through her. I will begin these brief reflections

Chapter Meeting: Forging the Links of a Circle of Friends

December 18, 2021 No Comments

Nine eager ladies converged on Our Lady of Fatima Chapel in Chelsea, OK, on the First Saturday of December, to attend Mass and participate in the first meeting of their newly-organized chapter of the Confraternity of Christian Mothers. Invigorated by the sacraments, they retreated to the hall for a delightful brunch with gracious helpings of convivial conversation and happy introductions. Fr. Carlos Zepeda breakfasted with them and then delivered instructive talks, beginning with the history of the Confraternity. As the members are mostly new to Christian Mothers, Father took care to help them envision all that the Confraternity can be for them, both spiritually and materially, if they live up to the possibilities it offers. In “The Virtues We Should Practice,” Father began by urging the ladies to see themselves as having a duty toward the other women, “to lead them to heaven, to help them save their souls and

On the Christian Training of Children-Early Ages

December 9, 2021 2 Comments

On the Christian Training of Children – Early Ages Taken from the Book “Mother’s Love” 1951 Edition. As soon as the Christian Mother becomes aware that a new being has been engendered in her womb through the power of God, she should immediately offer it up to God, and again and again commend it to His fatherly care and protection in aspirations and words which her own mother-heart suggests. During the months of its development she must carefully avoid unwholesome food, undue exertion, and still more all passionate outbursts of impatience and anger, of grief and worry, of excessive sorrow and care. She must, moreover, refrain from vain and proud thoughts. On the other hand, she should constantly strive to remain calm and unruffled in all adverse circumstances, foster a devout and contented disposition, pray earnestly, and receive the Holy Sacraments frequently and worthily; briefly, she should seek to be as

The Confraternity of Christian Mothers

December 4, 2021 No Comments

What is the Confraternity of Christian Mothers? The Confraternity of Christian Mothers appeals to the family, and especially to the mothers. These, above all, it desires to sanctify by frequent and regular prayers in common with thousands of their own condition and vocation, by talks and discussions, by the frequentation of the Sacraments, by the edifying example of the other members; they shall learn to walk in the sight of God; like the sanctuary lamps before the altars, they, in the hallowed precincts of the home, shall cast bright rays upon the families; they shall sacrifice and consume themselves, as it were, in holy flames in the service of God for the welfare and salvation of their families. How did the Confraternity of Christian Mothers begin? ORIGIN OF THE CONFRATERNITY OF CHRISTIAN MOTHERS (Taken from the Book “Mother Love” 1951 Edition.) In the northern part of France there lived, about