This is great Judeo-Christian pedagogy about Genesis: “Male and female He created them.” The men’s restroom at the Methodist Church here in Andrews is labeled “MEN” and “ADAM” even while the women’s restroom is labeled “WOMEN” and “EVE”. You can’t argue with that, can you? I took this picture from my crowded table at the reception after the Noon Good Friday ecumenical service at which I was the preacher. Our Catholic schools could learn from this, making sure everyone understands that while this is a biological and religious issue, not simply a topic to be forced on others by way of specious social engineering.
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 
Amen. If 20 or 30 years ago anyone had told us this would become and issue we would all have suggested a good ‘shrink’. Time to pray the Rosary.
Did you ever tell us what you preached about to the ecumenical Good Friday gathering Father? If you did I forget.
The Adam and Eve signs are a great idea for today.
I should have recorded it…
YES, do you mean to say you could or would have, and you didn’t? I have a sense of loss. I wish you would record all your sermons honestly.
On the other hand I keep waiting to hear that you are working on the Immaculate Conception book like your bishop said, and so I am wary of suggesting other work like uploading sermons and stuff. I am not the most Marian person, but I am very persuaded this is something you should do for the Church and for Jesus.
I do not want anyone to take this the wrong way, as I offer the following thought in all charity. All Catholics should be heavily Marian. Count up all the Holy days of obligation (they vary by country) in a year and consider the percentage that are Marian. Father, I hope you do a post about this.
I pray to Mary many times a day and can explain and defend every Marian doctrine. I am a daily Mass goer and pray the full Liturgy of the Hours, obviously also on Marian feasts! I go to rosary marches, Marian shrines etc. Some people have “father issues” and it affects how they feel about God as Father; there is something analogous with how I feel about Mary; humanly I do not feel much warmth about Mary. To me it is hard to see her in a way that is not discouraging and even a source of anxiety since she is understood to be infinitely more loveable and pleasing to God than me. I am way, way more focused on Jesus Who takes away my sins and redeems me. I look at Jesus and realize He is infinitely more and better than me but He actually lifts me up, whereas I look at Mary, or really cannot even look at Mary, and feel crushed because she is the image of what a woman is supposed to be that I am not and cannot be.
@ elizdelphi — Ah yes. But that is why I insist I am a donkey in the midst of the Holy Family where I get a pat on the nose from Mary and maybe a little treat to eat…
elizdelphi : I used to feel a little bit that way, which is partly ( I think) a product of how BVM is “marketed” sometimes, even by people who love Mary very much. She seems like a perfect china doll with a little bit of rouge and lipstick in some pictures—and so statically perfect.
I prayed to her once very honestly/directly a few years ago about a situation that I KNEW I would not be able to handle should it come to pass—as in, I would fall ignominiously into the depths of despair.
She rescued me mightily from said situation, miraculously.
I wasn’t praying to God or Jesus, or anyone but her—and when you realize she is the nurturer of your own soul, quietly and without fanfare—as natural mothers ought to do—and she is the most humble of all women—giving you honor when you honor her Son, it all falls into place.
She also has produced many other major and minor miracles in my family’s life; she is the Mediatrix of all Graces!
I think someone really wounded by their own sins is not good at authentic humility; it takes a miracle, literally, but miracles happen.
In the Holy Family maybe I am the Christological goldfinch that is so often being “abused” by the Divine Infant in art. I have a bird and I know birds do not like being grabbed like that, so I really feel the goldfinch’s distress, while at the same time believing it’s a tame goldfinch that loves Baby Jesus and accepts its “passion” at the mercy of His good pleasure.
I think understand from where you come, Elizabeth. I have a not-dissimilar distress:
My dad used to hug me extra-hard all through my life precisely, I believe, because I “hated” it! Sometimes he would see me in all my introverted glory and exclaim (in a most exaggerated manner) as he hugged me, “why are you crying; who hurt you?” All the while I protested that I was fine. I understand now what his deal was.