The ideal wife as per the Liturgy of the Hours today

[Hoosier_Daddy]

We don’t have servant girls either.

We have failed as Catholics.

We have four servant girls. In June we will have five. And one little manservant.

 

[SAVINGRACE]

I’m not sure it’s a good thing you showed him and he laughed…

He said the part where I give servant girls orders is where he lost it. For some reason he found it funny.

 

[Bonnie]

I do a lot of that stuff but I have no idea what “flax” is and I don’t have servant girls to give orders to.

Flax is what is turned into linen.

Our servant girls are our vacuum cleaners, washing machines, driers, dishwashers, refrigerators & freezers, stoves, etc. In a sense, everyone we buy products from that we don’t make ourselves could be considered our servants, in that we should be treating them well.

 

[SAVINGRACE]

We have four servant girls. In June we will have five. And one little manservant.

wow, care to share your servants. We have one little servant girl. She is a great little helper to mum and dad but I don’t give her orders, she does it out of the goodness of her heart.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

He said the part where I give servant girls orders is where he lost it. For some reason he found it funny.

Good cover by him.

 

[SAVINGRACE]

Good cover by him.

 

[utunumsint]

Thanks for posting this. I actually didn’t pray the Office of Readings this morning and would have missed this completely if not for you sharing your thoughts and concerns. God bless you for that!

Glad I could help.

Anyway, I’m a single mom – for over ten years now – and my son is now a teenager who has just passed me in height this month. :bighanky:

I love Proverbs 31 and have sought to grow in holiness in taking on the attitude of the woman described in these verses. My life is one of service to my family and my school community (I’m a public school teacher). I seek to be a vessel that brings God’s blessings into the lives of others. I seek to be responsible in meeting my obligations to the best of my ability. I rely on God to provide in means He desires. And when I fail, I run to confession (way too often these days :imsorry.

Isn’t that ultimately what this chapter is describing – someone who seeks after holiness and strives to serve her community?

Agreed. And God bless you for striving towards the ideal even in less than ideal circumstances.

As for Pope Pius XII’s commentary, I think it both appropriate and fitting that he set the bar high – he is talking about perfection, and that is what we should all be striving after. That I cannot meet those very high standards with my community (son, students, their families, my mom, etc.) does not mean that I shouldn’t strive for them!

Let the examples of perfection be an encouragement, not a stumbling block.

God bless you!

True. And perhaps the ideal points towards our desperate need for grace. I guess what I would like in that perfect description is something like what you already alluded to "And when I fail, I run to confession ".

God bless,
Ut

 

[Allegra]

Well, I’ve got wearing purple covered, and the nanny is warmly clad. She’s the closest thing to a servant I’ve got. I guess I should get more and then I would have more time to make sashes for the merchants out of flax.

 

[Allegra]

In all seriousness, this slightly out of date description IS meant to be of the PERFECT wife, not the PRETTY GOOD wife, or the DECENT WIFE. It’s meant to be something to strive toward, not that you’re a failure if you don’t meet every criterea every single day.

 

[utunumsint]

The standards I don’t think are set up by the church necessarily. If you look throughout history and all religions, those standards- the ones that are truly the most difficult to obtain- are those set for the people to reach. (side note: It used to be only the rich women were obese, and obesity was thought of as beauty then, not the waif look we have today- which was then what paupers were- Today it is the opposite!) No one sets a goals that are already reached. I think this is just a human thing… when humans want to strive to do better, that is.

I do think we are living in a day which has propelled the difficulty in attaining those standards. Confusion of the traditional gender roles would do this.

This woman in the Scripture passage is one who is married and works from home and seeks to utilize the resources she has at her possession to increase the good wealth of her family. Some of the attributes might be allegorical, and some of the meaning might be transformed a bit since it is from the Old Testament and must be read in the light of the Gospels.

Some of the obstacles people face is because of their sin. Hate to say that, but it is the truth. And since everyone has those sins that they struggle with, even so they will have those consequences (sooner or later) to deal with- being prosperous and admired or not. So we can’t read that passage as if you have all the praise and richness that the world can offer that somehow that means you are the perfect woman. No. It is taught that Mary and Joseph were poor or at least lived by modest means. The Blessed Mother is the Christian model for women. Her life and way, we can surmise, is not too far from the passage cited here, but you must think of both together.

Agreed.

… And yes, it is also true that undeserving people can face horrible obstacles as well. A lot of the people in Scripture had horrendous obstacles, but their faith got them through. When reading the passage you cited, I couldn’t help but compare what we know of The Blessed Mother- The line “she can laugh at the days to come”… I wonder if Mary did that, knowing what she was told- that a sword would pierce her own heart. I think though, the reward of being with God in heaven is enough to lift someone’s spirits even when the world shows its ugly face. Difficult,- WHEW! for sure. Not lovely or desirable to live through, yeppers… but Impossible?, … not with God; for anything for God is possible. (Matthew 19:26) We don’t please Him without faith. (Hebrews 11:6) Without those obstacles… how could we please him then? And what is admirable of someone if they hadn’t done what is extra and beyond- and said “yes” to striving to do it? What you are not hearing about that lady of proverbs are her difficulties!!! …

YES! That is exactly the problem with those passages.

One of the things I remember about St. Padre Pio was that he said that your difficulties are like GOLD. He meant it! Sounds really backwards, huh? But its true if you seek God first. IN fact, most of the saints stories you will see how people with difficulties turning to God turned that “manure” of life into black gold compost. (if you don’t know about black gold compost… PLEASE look it up!!!.. Jesus’s teachings often were agricultural in meaning, and with most of the population not understanding basic agricultural themes, they might not understand the scripture!)

True.

I don’t think that passage is supposed to be used as a measuring tool- as if you don’t have those things accomplished then you are nothing.

Maybe I was approaching it that way.

I think that passage is a visage of what the rewards of goodness are, and that we are to seek to attain* that.* … not worldly places of admiration, seats in high places. The passage just says that her family sees her love for them and is thankful for all the help she provided and also see her love for God and praise it, naturally, as any one who feels loved and is thankful for the help they received.

Right.

Hope this helps.

It does. And thank you for this thoughtful post.

God bless,
Ut

 

[utunumsint]

welcome to the Failed Catholic Wives Club.

And husbands!!

 

[Allegra]

And linen is not allowed in this failure of a wife’s house because it shrivels up and no amount of ironing makes it look decent.

 

[SAVINGRACE]

And husbands!!

I’d like to see something similar to what the OP posted for “The Ideal Husband”.

 

[AnneElizabeth]

…

One of the things I remember about St. Padre Pio was that he said that your difficulties are like GOLD. He meant it! Sounds really backwards, huh? But its true if you seek God first. IN fact, most of the saints stories you will see how people with difficulties turning to God turned that “manure” of life into black gold compost. (if you don’t know about black gold compost… PLEASE look it up!!!.. Jesus’s teachings often were agricultural in meaning, and with most of the population not understanding basic agricultural themes, they might not understand the scripture!)

…

I just wanted to put the real quote down, because I paraphrased a lot what St. Padre Pio said about sufferings and gold. Here is the actual quote:

“No suffering borne out of love for Christ, even poorly borne, will go unrewarded in eternal life. Trust and hope in the merits of Jesus and in this way even poor clay will become the finest gold which will shine in the palace of the King of heaven.”

Taken from this website: infallible-catholic.blogspot.com/2012/04/life-and-miracles-of-padre-pio.html