So! I have been reading the most amazing book! It was introduced and recommended to me by my dear, sweet Mother-in-law, who could not say enough good things about it.
The book is titled "The Valiant Woman" and is a series of discourses from Monseigneur Landriot, the once archbishop of Rheims, given to the ladies of the Society of Charity. They are especially directed toward married women, but are also very useful for unmarried women.
There are seventeen discourses, and I have read through the fourth discourse thus far. This book has been one of the most challenging books I have ever read. It has, with ease, dispelled notions of this world for the married woman, and at the same time provided godly direction and truth for her state in life.
I suppose I will write about this book, at least a little, as I go through it, and as I feel inspired to share.
If anyone read my last blog, I talked about the role of a married woman. "The Valiant Woman" is giving me more and more truth on the matter and more instruction as well - I do so love practical application!
The Msgr. Landriot, who wrote this book, has no qualms about stating the purposes of God for the married woman. No sugar-coating here. Just straightforward, in-your-face challenges. These are not new ideas or personal opinions that the Msgr. is spouting. No, they are grounded in the Word, they have been tested and tried by many generations past, and have been found not wanting. To give you a taste of such bittersweet-ness, I will list a few of the discourses:
A Portrait of the Valiant Woman
The Valiant Woman reigns over one empire, and that is her home.
The Valiant Woman is the "sun" of her household, giving it light and warmth.
Developing firmness with constancy, the Valiant Woman is neither obstinate or fickle.
Duties of the Valiant Woman, the guardian of the domestic hearth.
The virtuous wife can polish the manners of a stern husband, however abrasive his character.
True Beauty: a veil of glory that radiates the exterior of the woman who has the invisible elegance of a virtuous heart.
I have truly been inspired even more so to be the woman of God I am called to be in my home! The domestic life has purpose and meaning, and IT IS MY CALLING, MY VOCATION!
Even having only read the first few chapters, it is becoming clearer just how much responsibility and how many duties I have. Especially challenging is the discourses on idleness and ennui, which is boredom, and how these are the greatest contributors to vice and abandonment of duty.
I will end this with an excerpt from the book:
From the Second Discourse, "The Valiant Woman reigns over one empire, and that is her home."
"The care of her household should be one of a woman's chief occupations. To men belong external toil, the hurry of business, the administration of civil and military offices, the courts of law, the cure of the sick, and the study of science. Woman plays a more modest part: her domain is her house, her rule is over its interior, her subjects are the persons and things connected with all the details of domestic life. Woman's mission, as well as man's, has its advantages and inconveniences. Flowers and thorns are to be found in all the gardens of earth, whether these belong to man or woman, and happiness often depends on the degree of skill and care with which we cull the flowers and put aside the thorns....Accept then, my children, the position God has ordained for you in this world; accept the sphere in which Divine Providence has placed you; be queens in your own empire; but, if you value your happiness, your tranquility, and the success of your affairs, do not seek to be queens elsewhere. If prudence permit and wisdom counsel, then suggest, advise, and influence by affection; but you will be all the more persuasive if you are first what you ought yourselves to be, and what God intended you to be. To do good in one's own sphere of action, without seeking to leave it unless when requested to do so, is often the best sermon, and the most active means of indirectly influencing affairs outside our own province."
