Gentlemen

Everyone knows I have boys - and if you don't already know:  I have boys.  Only boys. I live in a male dormitory and am the singular woman in a swarm of testosterone.

This, of course, is my husband's fault (the male-ness of our children) and that's ok because, as I know now, I don't think my countenance could have handled girls - spiritual daughters, emphatically YES! but not 24hrs/day real life girls in my household.  All I need is one afternoon with infestation and I'm done. 

Boys and girls are totally different as any good parent would observe.  My boys, from day one, were obsessed with dirt, wheels, danger, and outdoors.  I would guess pieces or parts could hold true for young girls, but not with the same single-minded tunnel vision.  We do a grave disservice to boys when we foster indoor play and gender-neutral (oh dear I hate even using that phrase!) activities.

Serious damage is done when we treat the gender field as level and boys/girls can do all things interchangeably.  Not to girls, mind you, but to boys.  Serious damage. 

Never was this more clear to me than spending a day and a half with my sons in Minnesota at their Seminary - a domicile where the feminists have yet to set their sites upon (but of which I have no doubt is coming) because they 'exclude' girls (praise God). 

I was ushered into contemplative silence as I observed (and frequently teared up) at the joy, camraderie, devotion, and prayerfulness of these men.  I had not experienced such a true spectacle of what it means to be "Gentlemen" outside our own little Domestic Church.  Doors were opened, Thank You's were uttered, hands were extended in greeting, smack was talked among the guys, deep baritone laughter echoed through the walls, along with boy smell at each doorway (meaning no putrid mix of hair products and perfume); boyness everywhere and none of it felt out of the ordinary. 

I was an interloper in their world in which they exuded abundant manliness; the most startling moment when these gentle giants began to chant the prayers during the Liturgy of the Hours; the most touching included their voices once again, but in witness to true sportsmanship when the two teams began a ballad to Our Lady of Knock after soundly defeating the St. Paul Sons of Thunder in their annual Rector Bowl.  The cacophony of manly voices bouncing off the surrounding walls of the St. Thomas campus, shining in the light of the moon, singing to Our Lady made one feel the hand of the Eternal reaching down to touch the moment with Grace. 

The SJV Jaxx for the Win in the annual Rector Bowl
No matter what Vocation God has in store for these men, they will infiltrate the world with their Manliness and our cities, villages, and families will be all the better for it.   We need good men in this world to fight the crazed culture of "Inclusivity" and "Equality" words which are meant to paint a picture of vibrant individuality in a tapestry of life but end up creating an ugly, muddy grey of  of conformity, joining the other in lockstep on a path to demise. 

One may have my eyes, one may carry my crooked smile, one may be as stubborn as the day is long (which, truthfully, comes from both his parents) but my sons are men and I am a woman - Thank you Benevolent Father! - for it's through our uniqueness that the color of life comes to being.  I did not traverse the halls of the Seminarian dorm thinking "boy wouldn't it be great to have girls be a part of this?"  Because it wouldn't.  That's false and would make the boys less than, not the whole greater. 

There is a reason man and woman are created differently so that we can be complementary to eachother; it is up to us as servants of Christ to uphold this Truth in spite of what the world wants to tell us with the message de rigueur. 

St. John Vianney College Seminary does it right:  Men in Christ, Men for the Church, Men for Others.

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