Our family has been very blessed over the last year to get to know some special people from Nigeria.

How surprised I was when, last Ordinations, a group of strapping Nigerian men came up to me to introduce themselves. They called me, “Mrs. FinerFem”! It truly was wonderful and getting to know them made it even more so. I think we have formed some special bonds!

I knew there was a group of ladies there…”Finer Fem Nigeria” …that followed my blog and try to live out the values that are presented here. It is very exciting to me! The ladies that I have met are wonderful and inspirational. I would like to include some of the messages that Marycynthia has sent me. Marycynthia heads up the Nigerian FinerFem FB Page and also the FinerFem Tea Parties. I thought you would be interested in what is going on over there….and be inspired like I am!

🌷🌸🌺🌼 This is the WhatsApp Group Description: 🌷🌸🌺🌼

A group for Catholic ladies aspiring to imitate our Lady’s femininity and modesty. Inspired by Leane VanderPutten’s blog- https://finerfem.wordpress.com

Here, we’ll have discussions about the blogposts, and others topics touching on modesty. We can also share modest clothes inspirations, and any other thing we deem fit.

So…Welcome and feel free to invite your friends

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Hello Leane😊, Happy Sunday. Thank you for your Finer Femininty blog. It has been a great inspiration for me and other of my friends to live better Catholic Lives. May God reward you.

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Well, in today’s world, there’s so much emphasis on the woman, and rightly so.

But as Catholics we need to know who our true role model is, and should be – *the Blessed Virgin Mary*

So this group is not doing anything new. We’re just going to be showing and sharing what has been in existence and is not popular (at least not popular enough) – femininity! 😊

There are lots of Catholic literature and resources that’ll teach us ladies to embrace our God-given feminine nature, to be  modest in dress and actions, to have clean courtships and eventually love and raise children in the Catholic faith and to be happy doing all these.

This is Marycynthia:

Below are a couple more descriptions on Finer Femininity in Nigeria. And then you can take a gander at the gallery!

From Marycynthia:

Finer Femininity Nigeria Whatsapp group chat was created on the 15th of April, 2021. A friend of mine, Theresa Oyim, told me about your blog and how lovely the posts were. I began to read the daily posts online almost every day and I found them so lovable.

With time I realized that other ladies need these teachings, books, and information about Catholic life, family life, marriage, raising good children, and all. So I spoke to Theresa and I was like let us create a group chat for Ladies where we can post daily these write-ups, which will be beneficial to them (that was the aim for creating the group). We also have as Admins, Hauwa Okezie, the wife of Joseph Okezie who visited you with Fr. Vanderputten last year, and Perpetua Nwadike who is also a close friend.

Many things have happened during the past years since the group was created. Some of the Ladies have married good Catholic Men, we attended these weddings and on the group chat, we ask for Spiritual bouquets (Masses, Rosaries, etc) which are presented on the wedding day.

Some now have children they are trying to raise well. Your blog has also helped most of the ladies prepare better for their courtship, wedding, and raising a good Catholic home. Books like, How to Raise Good Catholic Children, Your Vocation of Love, Train a Child, Clean Love in Courtship, Three to Get Married, The Man for Her, The Wife Desired, and so on. Thank you. Most of them are doing their best to be good housewives and Catholic homemakers. I hope they persevere.

We’ve had two Tea Parties so far. The first we had more of the older girls and the recent Christmas one we had more of the little girls from the Parish school, Saint Therese Nursery and Primary school.

For me, I have inculcated some Catholic traditions like the Advent wreath, Christmas Crib, Crown of Thorns Lenten practice, growing flowers, and planting little things because of the love I had for your posts. I have read some of your Catholic Hearth Stories, Maglets, Poems from Catholic Mother Goose, and books that you’ve recommended on the blog such as Light and Peace, Little Women, With God in Russia, He Leadeth Me, etc. I also got the meditation book Divine Intimacy as a gift from Jeanette through Maryanne who visited Kansas a few weeks ago.

I love the family galleries you always post. It always puts a smile on my face, seeing the Family and the Children growing up within a Catholic ambiance. It was not the same for us when we were raised. Our parents did not have as their major objective to raise Catholic children and Saints and that is why the blog is a great blessing for some of the ladies as they can see someone they can follow to learn to be Joyful, Catholic, Finer Feminity women.

I am a great fan of your Family. May God reward you for your efforts in raising a Catholic home and inspiring others. Greet Rosie, Gemma, Hannah, Angelo, Jeanette, Virginia, Margy, etc, and their children for me…Esther, Sean, Avila… that a secret Fan is happy to always see their pictures, their smiles,😊 their creative artwork, their stockings, and many more. This write-up is less than what I have in my Heart. Your home has done great good to me. God reward you.

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From one of the Admins, Theresa Oyim, with the perusal of the other two, Hauwa Okezie and Perpetua Reuben:

Sometime in April 2021, a WhatsApp group was born following a conversation amongst two friends who are avid readers of the Finer Femininity blog.  We christened the whatsapp group Finer Femininity NG with the description: “A group for catholic ladies aspiring to imitate our Lady’s femininity and modesty-inspired by Leane VanderPutten’s blog…welcome and feel free to invite your friends”. The appeal to invite others was well received as we have grown to 138 members today.

Pre the whatsapp group, the FF blog had found its way into the circle of female Slaves of the Immaculate Heart from the Federal University of Technology Owerri. The topics on the blog were often conversation starters amongst us, some controversial ones could ignite interesting debates and then, the admins of the FF NG group thought a women only group will be nice to have.

Amidst the changes in the frequency and style of our engagements, we try to stick to our purpose and support one another on our shared journey as catholic women striving to emulate the virtues of Our Lady. There are a few rules about acceptable content but we try to maintain a friendly atmosphere which could be quite difficult given the mix of Novus Ordo and Traditional Catholics.

In the early days, we had more structured activities: Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and occasionally Fridays. On Sundays, we participated in a Catechism trivia with trivia cards and while some questions were simple, others had us making funny guesses with clues provided.  

Mondays were designated as #ModestyMonday, reserved for discussions ranging from sermons to modesty tips and personal narratives called #ModestyJourney where members bravely shared their experiences transitioning to modest attire, thus inspiring others.

Wednesdays were reserved for promoting devotion to Our Lady and on Fridays, we had Q&A sessions revolving around FF posts on courtship, marriage, parenting etc. We also had Saturday sessions where we shared pictures or tips on any womanly art such as haircare, sewing, crocheting, baking, cooking, etc.

Looking back on our achievements so far, we read Colleen Hammond’s Dressing with Dignity as a group – assigning a chapter to a lady weekly. The book is in addition to the countless sermons(written and audio) on Modesty. We also acknowledge that the group started from our circle of FUTO female Slaves of the Immaculate Heart but our reach currently spans other TLM ladies in the country. 

The admins have always been in different locations and no thought was given to a meetup until last year when a good number of the ladies gathered for a Tea Party at Nne Enyemaka Ebebe Parish Umuaka. 

As we pray daily for God to grant many Catholic families, some ladies have  gotten married. Their weddings serve as mini-reunions as we rejoice with the newly-weds. One of the ladies who was very active in the group  before she left also recently took her vows as a religious with the Sister Adorers, affiliated with the Institute of Christ the King, in Naples, Italy. All of them who have entered either state of life, were honored with spiritual bouquets collected from the group members. 

It‘s been almost three years since we began and Divine Providence has allowed the admins more responsibilities. Out of the four, two are married with children so the group is not as effervescent as in the early days but recently #ModestyMondays made a comeback.

We have a lady who just completed her studies moderating the topic weekly. One of the admins shares the link to every FFpost daily and sometimes we have some members ask questions and have others contribute to the subject. Controversial questions are usually shared with Fr. Angelo or Fr. Scott for clarification.

Overall, its been an interesting ride promoting femininity among Nigerian Catholic ladies. Some members have left because “these teachings are strange” but we welcome new members regardless. Although there are no laid-out plans yet, we just keep putting one foot in front of another following the example of our Lady and pray the almighty God waters the seeds we plant by our efforts.

🌷🌸🌺🌼 Nigeria Gallery 🌷🌸🌺🌼

Marycynthia was able to provide captions for some of the following photos… Click on the pictures to view the gallery.

The modesty is impressive!