I agree with both of the articles posted by Rawb. My RCIA class was run by a woman (albeit under the direction of and with frequent visits from our priest), and there does seem to be a certain woman-focused bent to Catholic worship. I don’t want to think of myself as a “bride” of Christ, though the whole Church is.
And might I say that the manliness that the Catholic Church attempts often seems quite forced and only appealing to a certain kind of man, e.g., “Crossing the Goal Line” or whatever that stupid football-themed show on EWTN is called (y’know, in between show-transitions filled with soft, Renaissance-style paintings of St. Mary). I don’t care about football in particular so much as committing to something challenging, then doing that thing until it’s done. It seems like modern Catholicism is the exact opposite of that. The believer’s spiritual life is one of craven emotionality because that is what is offered through various devotions that come to us through the visions of little girls and young women, rather than to-the-point, basic instructions from the saints and Fathers themselves.
The brethren came to Abba Anthony and said to him, “Speak a word; how are we to be saved?” The old man said to them, “You have heard the Scriptures. That should teach you how.” But they said, “We want to hear from you too, Father.” Then the old man said to them, “The Gospel says, ‘if anyone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also.’” They said “We cannot do that.” The old man said, “If you cannot offer the other cheek, at least allow one cheek to be struck.” “We cannot do that either”, they said. So he said, “If you are not able to do that, do not return evil for evil”, and they said, “We cannot do that, either.” Then the old man said to his disciple, “Prepare a little brew of corn for these invalids. If you cannot do this, or that, what can I do for you? What you need is prayers.”
The moral of the story is that you need to be able to DO SOMETHING. Many Catholic devotions, which tellingly have very flowery names like “adoration” (babies are adorable…), don’t involve any sort of challenge in this way, but instead involve sitting there, being introspective and considering the Lord as a partner or whatever. Bleh.
