The Housewife’s Adorning ~ Beautiful Apparel

by Father Lasance, Catholic Girl’s Guide

Happiness or misery, peace or disquiet, the good or bad training of the children—everything depends in the first place on the wife and mother. If the husband is ever so vicious and irreligious, the family will yet go on comparatively well if the mother is truly good, pious, and intelligent.

If, on the contrary, the mother is shiftless and unfaithful to her duties, the prospects are bleak for the family no matter how saintly the father may be.

No better description of a model housewife can be found than that which the Holy Ghost gives us in the Proverbs of Solomon. In the 31st chapter we read:

“Who shall find a valiant woman? The price of her is as of things brought from afar, from the uttermost coasts. The heart of her husband trusteth in her, and he shall have no need of spoils. She will render him good, and not evil, all the days of her life. She hath tasted and seen that her traffic is good; her lamp shall not be put out in the night. She hath opened her mouth to wisdom, and the law of clemency is on her tongue. She hath looked well to the paths of her house, and hath not eaten her bread idle. Her children rose up, and called her blessed; her husband, and he praised her. Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain: the woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.”

This description furnishes us with a lifelike portrait of the industrious housewife, constantly keeping her house in order and pleasing her husband. What a thoroughly efficient and sensible housewife can accomplish is beyond words. I do not hesitate to say that the husband and children cannot go wrong for any length of time when the mother understands how to strike the right chord and be a model of quiet industry and peaceful, thrifty domesticity.

Great and exalted, therefore, is the dignity of a mother. Among the glorious titles we give to the Blessed Virgin Mary, one of the greatest is “Mother of the Son of God.” This title shines as does the sun among the stars. And what sound is more melodious in our ears than the sweet name of mother?

What does not a mother do and suffer? Amid pain, anxiety, and care, she tends her child; she watches over it day and night; she prays for its physical and mental well-being; she thinks of it at all times. She makes the child what it is.

A wise bishop once said that the education of a child begins and ends in its mother’s lap. Therefore, this precious garb of her dignity is the pride of every Christian housewife and mother. For the sake of her dignity, she gladly renounces the glitter and fame of public life, the strenuous joys and distracting vanities of the world.

The mother’s dignity and love have been respected and extolled throughout all ages and among all nations—civilized or uncivilized, Christian or pagan. This is proven by numerous proverbs and quaint rhymes from all times and climes, such as:

“The mother is old,

but her love is not cold;

Be he wayward and wild,

 yet she dotes on her child.”

“A mother’s love is new every morning.”

“Better lose a rich father than a poor mother.”

“Without a mother,” says the Russians, “the children are lost as much as bees without their queen.”

In nearly every country, one meets with popular sayings like, “A poor mother will support seven children sooner than seven children will support their mother.” These examples, multiplied indefinitely, express truths that fill the maternal heart with joy and pride.

The robe of maternal dignity appears especially precious when we think of the glorious reward awaiting a good Christian mother—her reward will be great both on earth and in eternity.

Children, as a rule, cling to their mother and love her with grateful, abiding affection. A little child shows this as soon as it begins to walk, clinging to its mother’s gown and following her step by step.

Do not, my dear daughter, place implicit confidence in your mother because you know that she always has your best interests at heart; rather, confide the inmost secrets of your heart to your mother. Even grown-up sons and daughters, when they think of marrying, seek advice from their mother in preference to anyone else.

This confidence is based upon an ordinance of Divine Providence, and only in God and the saints should children place greater trust than they do in their mother.

And how glorious a reward awaits the good, faithful Christian mother on the other side of the grave! Our good God, along with Mary and all the angels and saints, will welcome a soul adorned with the twofold robe of sanctifying grace and the dignity of a pious, Christian mother. Great indeed will be her reward in heaven.

My dear child, let the consideration of the dignity of a Christian mother furnish you with a fresh motive for esteeming your own mother all the more highly, for loving her all the more dearly, and for striving more earnestly to give her pleasure. Above all, remain a faithful child of your heavenly Mother, of whom we speak in the familiar lines:

A mother’s love, how fond and true,
Never failing, daily new;
Mary, dearest Mother mine,
Be gracious to this child of thine.

It is the task of fathers and mothers to take up the burdens of their children, to lead the way forward and upward, and always to encourage and never to discourage. Children will sometimes be guilty; but guilty or innocent, they have the right to be able to turn with confidence to their parents. -Joseph Breig, 1950’s, The Family and the Cross, Painting by Jim Daly

Available here.

Women historically have been denigrated as lower than men or viewed as privileged. Dr. Alice von Hildebrand characterizes the difference between such views as based on whether man’s vision is secularistic or steeped in the supernatural. She shows that feminism’s attempts to gain equality with men by imitation of men is unnatural, foolish, destructive, and self-defeating. The Blessed Mother’s role in the Incarnation points to the true privilege of being a woman. Both virginity and maternity meet in Mary who exhibits the feminine gifts of purity, receptivity to God’s word, and life-giving nurturance at their highest.

You’ll learn how to grow in wisdom and in love as you encounter the unglamorous, everyday problems that threaten all marriages. As the author says: If someone were to give me many short bits of wool, most likely I would throw them away. A carpet weaver thinks differently. He knows the marvels we can achieve by using small things artfully and lovingly. Like the carpet weaver, the good wife must be an artist of love. She must remember her mission and never waste the little deeds that fill her day the precious bits of wool she s been given to weave the majestic tapestry of married love.

This remarkable book will show you how to start weaving love into the tapestry of your marriage today, as it leads you more deeply into the joys of love.

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.