What Direction for Men?

Pope Francis during his weekly general audience announced the canonization dates of two of the Catholic Church’s most popular young saints-in-the-making: the “techie teen” Carlo Acutis, and outdoorsman and activist Piero Giorgio Frassati.https://t.co/hcvDyEoIWs

— Crux (@Crux) November 21, 2024

Pope Francis has announced that Blesseds Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati will be canonised during the 2025 Jubilee Year — Blessed Carlo on April 27 and Blessed Pier Giorgio sometime between July 28-August 3 @cnalive https://t.co/5dN9Tdpwzu

— Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) November 20, 2024

The Future of Chalcedonian Orthodoxy in the United States?

We can't believe it's the beginning of the new Academic Year here at the Seminary! The summer break flew by. Today was the first day of classes--just look at those smiles. Glory to God for all things! pic.twitter.com/zouo8KHaY0

— St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (@stvlads) August 23, 2021

Our 25 new seminarians hail from 8 different countries and 11 Eastern and Oriental Orthodox jurisdictions. They join our 44 returning seminarians. Glory to God! https://t.co/EfWuSeCUyB pic.twitter.com/fAnupxLsyN

— St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (@stvlads) August 24, 2021

Remaking Latin Clerics in His Image

Catholic Cancel Culture by George Neumayr @george_neumayrhttps://t.co/Dsyp93Wd13

— The American Spectator (@amspectator) May 30, 2021

Spectator

The Pope’s Horizontal Church by George Neumayr @george_neumayrhttps://t.co/XCygbhbTix

— The American Spectator (@amspectator) June 6, 2021

How Many Bishops Fear the Condemnation of the World?

A BISHOP MUST NEVER CONVEY FEAR
- Fr. Patrick Reardon, on what must bishops do now during this present crisis:

EXCERPT:
...“Taking our beloved Bishop Anthony at his word, let me make the following suggestion:
(1)https://t.co/l5Ul4t017G

— Orthodox Ethos (@frpeterheers) December 4, 2020

the letter

Shifting Definitions of Masculinity with Respect to the Presbyterate

Written by a feminist so it may not be agenda-free, but it is unlikely that the historical facts are in error.

UPenn: The Manly Priest: Clerical Celibacy, Masculinity, and Reform in England and Normandy, 1066-1300 by Jennifer D. Thibodeaux

(a review)

See also: Negotiating Clerical Identities: Priests, Monks and Masculinity in the Middle Ages (Palgrave).

Theology of Presbyterate/Episcopate

MASCULINITY AND THE LITURGY by Fr. Thomas Loya

If the priest acts in persona Christi, how does he strengthen the "mystical understanding of his husbandhood and fatherhood"? Do presbyters participate in Christ's role as Bridegroom/Husband for the Church as the Mystical Bride? Not directly but as intermediaries or representatives of Christ who teach and lead, subordinate to Christ and the Holy Spirit. But in what way is Christ analogous to the human husband? Who would claim that Christ and the Church share some sort of egalitarian or even a complementarian relationship?

Rorate Caeli: De Mattei: The Church and the Men of the Church

The courageous denunciation of ecclesiastical scandals made by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has generated the consensus of many, but also the displeasure of others, convinced that everything discrediting the representatives of the Church should be covered up by silence. This desire to safeguard the Church is understandable...

Still a Viable Concept? Servant Leadership

Not Solesmes

Icons of Sound Project - Trisagion

rehearsal

The Voice of Hagia Sophia

What would a female version of this sound like? Could someone even like Divna Ljubojević pull it off? Perhaps, but would it be as effective and awesome? I think I have heard women trying to hold a note for an extended period of time in Gregorian chant (maybe polyphony?)?

From Ignatius Press in September

Behold the Man: A Catholic Vision of Male Spirituality
by Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers

Lucid and inspiring, Behold the Man is a unique exploration of Catholic spirituality for men. Much of the literature written for Catholic men focuses on topical issues such as fatherhood and sexuality. While this book does not exclude these subjects, it is the first to present a comprehensive picture of Catholic male spirituality.

What is authentic male Catholic spirituality? What distinguishes it from Protestant male spirituality? How does masculine spirituality complement feminine spirituality? These questions and many more are answered in this book.

Drawing from Scripture and Church teaching, the author roots Catholic male spirituality in a covenant relationship with God and the cross of Jesus Christ. He demonstrates that when a man embraces the cross he is truly able to be himself—the man that God created and calls him to be. Behold the Man can deepen a man’s experience of Christ and help him to know the Lord more intimately.

Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers (FB)

I don't know him, so I don't know if his message goes beyond the usual Christian so-con solutions to the usual Christian so-con criticisms of American men.

Softness

The Forgotten Vice in Seminary Formation
July 27, 2015 By Fr. James Mason

A Worship that Appeals to Both Men and Women

Rorate Caeli: FIUV Position Paper: The Traditional Mass and Men

The claim that prayers and lyrics that are overly sentimental and do not strongly assert the truths of the Faith are repugnant to men is probably right. But one could probably find a trend of declining Mass attendance by men in the Roman rite churches after World War II; this is parallel to other churches (i.e. Byzantine) suffering from low attendance, both here in the US and in Europe, despite their maintaining traditional forms of worship. Why has there been a difficulty in retaining males? This is something those in authority need to address. Male converts are more likely to seek out traditional, more reverent forms, with the exception of charismatics and those who participate in some of the new ecclesial movements? But even those can be said to share with traditional forms a more demanding, robust Christianity, even if the theology of the latter groups may be suspect.

James Chastek: The Trinity understood through typical male-female corruptions

Masculinity corrupts the self by seeking to subordinate everything to itself: the male self is the one that seeks to be utterly set apart with all beneath him, gazing upward in admiration. There is, however, a contrary corruption of the self that is more typical of the feminine: namely to so identify with the expectations and beliefs of the group that any personal desire is altogether lost. One of the dark sides of the feminine traits we praise is that, when pushed to an extreme, they all lead to a dissolution of the self through an identity with others. Empathy with others carries to the extent of loss of the self; tenderness of affection leads to an ontological softness that blurs any distinction between self and other.

This might be true of some married women of the previous generation, their total "giving" to their children; but I have not seen any examples of this not accompanied by a neglect of the marriage and their husbands. Such seeming "self-giving" can actually be a form of disordered self-love.

Even the herd thinking that exemplifies contemporary feminism is tied to modern narcissism, etc.

There are distinct forms of male and female pride; male pride is discussed here, but female pride, which is a more characteristic vice of women, is not.

Leading from the Front

Are We Walking to Heaven Backward? A Pastoral Consideration of Liturgical “orientation.” by Msgr. Charles Pope

Is it possible to acquire the virtue of obedience if one's expression of masculinity has been inhibited or deformed?

The Church Impotent

I have not yet started The Church Impotent by Leon Podles, but in reading the description of the book  I question the support for his thesis. Is he overreaching in his genealogy?

"In an original and challenging account, he traces this feminization to three contemporaneous medieval sources: the writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the rise of scholasticism, and the expansion of female monasticism."

After all, St. Bernard was instrumental in the creation the Christian knight and the military orders. Thus, I am a bit baffled. There will be an element of the "feminine" in Christian spirituality, for both males and females, in so far as we are the recipients of God's grace. (The Song of Songs) But what men should o when enlivened by charity and grace will be different from what women do, as grace builds upon nature.

As for the criticism of the scholastics... I will have to see what he says. Could his criticisms not also be applied to the monastic theologians?

I think it would suffice to locate the breakdown of Christian spirituality with the destruction of Christendom and the rise of the modern-state, and to look at Church-state relations and how the Church has fared.