Restore the Patriarchy and the Father’s Blessings

Yesterday, I posted on the Hatred of the Father. Here is a woman's take on the 'Patriarchy' and the absolutely vital need for its restoration.

From Catholic Stand

By Susan Skinner

The other day while I was perusing social media, I came across post after post by Christian women who are trying to edify women. This is a laudable goal. However, I was sad as I read through them because, in their effort to uplift women, they were extremely bitter towards men. One post even claimed to be emulating the Blessed Mother while at the same time bashing the all-male Priesthood.

The Father’s Blessings

A little while I go I went to visit the Shrine in Hanceville, Alabama. While I was praying the words, “Restore the Father’s Blessings” popped into my head.  At the time I was not sure what this actually meant, but I have come to understand that God the Father wants us to be restored to union with his will, and it is in this that Blessing is poured upon us.

Here’s the thing; we don’t walk in God’s will if we walk in bitterness and resentment. I don’t believe women are edified when they put men down. This does not mean that I do not recognize the damage that men have done to women over the years. It simply means that I want for my own salvation and for the salvation of men. It also doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in punishing bad behavior. It simply means I do not have to let the bad behavior of someone else torture me with demons of bitterness and resentment. So hear me now when I say, to all the men who have ever hurt me, I forgive you. And to all the men I have ever hurt, I am sorry. This is meant especially for my own spouse, who is a gift from the Father in Heaven to me.

And the man said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man she was taken.” For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh (Genesis 2:23-24).

We are not meant to be in competition with one another. We are meant for cooperation with God.

For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them ( Matthew 18:20).

This restoration of the Father’s blessings that God wants to pour on us begins with the restoration of the Priesthood. I freely admit that I am one who used to think women should be Priests until I realized that was a worldly longing for equality, and that God already gave me equality of dignity so that I need not be angry at His design. We each have a purpose and a destiny, and it is okay that they are different. Every person’s role is meant to build up the Kingdom of God and the Mystical Body, but it’s when the sin of envy comes in that we begin to tear one another down. And it is the sin of pride that makes one Lord themselves over another. These are the deadliest of sins.

The Patriarchy

When the Priesthood is properly restored, Sacramental Grace flows straight from heaven down on the altar and into our souls. Priests need to be serious about their duty to God the Father because they are a conduit of the Father’s Blessing. Clericalism often gets called out these days, and it is something that is real, but clericalism is a fruit of sin. This is sin that Priests and Bishops do not want to root out, but instead cover up and use the power of their office to do so.

I recently read a book by Kevin Wells, called The Priests we need to save the Church. This book outlines the formula of what made Priests Saints. I urge every Priest out there to read it because we need you to be Saints.

This restoration of the Father’s Blessings doesn’t stop there with the Priesthood. God the Father wants to restore earthly Fatherhood. And I believe it is for this reason he is more and more pointing out Saint Joseph. Remember, Joseph was a righteous man, but he was a man who wanted to divorce Mary quietly. We do not see Mary get bitter or resentful towards Joseph. We can know from who she is that she prayed and trusted God. And Joseph had a dream and he listened to God.

Here in this small insight that the Gospels give to us of Saint Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary, we see two people who cooperate with the Will of God that leads them to cooperate with one another. There is no envy, no bitterness, no resentment. It is two people who did the will of God and together raised the Savior. And a Savior who subjected Himself to them.

That is why another book I came across is so vitally important right now as well, and that is the Consecration to Saint Joseph, by Father Donald Calloway. I believe that the Spiritual repercussions of doing this Consecration will spread far and wide to help our Christian society receive the grace of the Father’s Blessings.

What many of us women fail to understand, is that when our men are blessed, the blessings extend to us as well. We are not some afterthought of God. We are part of the completion of the design of God that brings wholeness and healing.

… she thus represents God from whom comes our help (CCC 1605).

The fruit of our love for one another brings children but our love also bears virtue. What could be a better blessing from God our loving Father?

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. (1 Corinthians 13:4).

So for me, I do not say down with the Patriarchy. I pray the Patriarchy to be properly restored as it was in the beginning; because when it is restored my own life will flourish to its fullness.

Jesus answered, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us (John 14:6-8).