Men are emasculated today.

They have no idea of how to be real men.
These “new men” are like women. They lack the qualities one expects from men.
A husband should be decisive. He should have a manliness that can give his wife confidence and trust in him.
He should make good decisions so that she will respect him and have confidence in him.

He should be able to give her wise advice that she will heed.

The man should be the provider. The woman should be a mother and housewife. The wife should not work.
A man should provide a home and security, and the necessities, for his wife and children.

In our dark age, if his wife is confused about the Faith, he should instruct her.

He should be in charge. He should not be following his wife’s caprices.
She should be following his plan for their lives.
He should make the decisions, she should follow.
He should not indulge her wrong ideas. He should correct her when she is wrong. He should rule the home.

He should help to raise his wife to spiritual perfection. And he should help to prepare her for Heaven.

He should do the same for the children.
He should be the wise figure that they look up to for guidance and advice.

A husband should be only have eyes for HIS WIFE.
He should not be looking at other women, thinking about them, spending his time inordinately with them.

He should love his family deeply.

To be a “family man” is a truly noble calling. And friends, etc. should take second place.

A husband should have the physical ability to defend his family.

More importantly, he should have the spiritual ability to defend his family.
He should bring his sons up to be gentle. But to be unwavering in their tenacity about the Faith.

A husband should be like Saint Joseph.

A proper Catholic man will put God before anything else.

Saint Joseph is the ideal for all husbands to live up to.

A proper Catholic man will put honour before material gain.
A true man can admit when he is wrong.

To be the man of the family. To take the decisions. To wrestle with the problems. To protect the wife and children. To be a role model and an example to their sons. To stand up for what is right. Those are hallmarks of a real man.

When a man has started an important matter, he should follow it to the end. He should persevere until he succeeds. Even if it takes months or years, even if it arouses enmity or ridicule, even if it costs him dearly – he should persevere. Not obstinacy but depth of character.

Cervantes, in “Don Quixote”, mocked the idea of chivalry.
He did a great deal to end the concept, for which he expressed great remorse before the end of his life.

I have recommended, on a previous thread, the book “The Broadstone of Honour” by Kenelm Henry Digby.

The reality of what constitutes true Catholic manliness has been obscured in this day and age.
This book shows what it is.

Kenelm Henry Digby wrote it when he was a protestant. Then he converted to Catholicism, and he re-wrote the book as a Catholic.

The Catholic edition is A.D. 1826-1827. And the later editions are also Catholic.
Only buy the Catholic editions.

There is an abridged version called “Maxims of Christian Chivalry”. A.D.1926. (Published posthumously.)

That book gives very helpful insights about how to be a real Catholic man, in this age of emasculated, heretical dross.

Feminism would not have progressed without the cowardice and the disgraceful lack of principles of several generations of increasingly emasculated “men”.

A wise and true man once said :

»The human family is a small society...

Did nobody notice who that wise man was? Our good Berengaria (unfortunately still on IA only) is really missing here. She would have known for sure. Berengaria, we miss you here on Cathinfo. King Richard Lionheart of England's wife had the name Berengaria, too. So in absence of her, I've to solve that riddle, ahem well, myself :


-----

Eleison Comments 149, 22 May 2010

Restoring Fatherhood

It is easy to blame parents today for not knowing how to raise their children. It will be more useful to help all of them wishing to be helped to see where the problem of their estranged  children is coming from. The problem is, in a way, as majestic as God, because it comes from the modern world's wholesale refusal and denial of God.

The human family is a small society, consisting basically of father, mother and children. Now common sense tells us that every human society needs a head to be able to function. If no head directs or commands, the society loses its direction and falls apart. A football team needs a captain, a corporation needs a chief executive officer, a country needs a king or president, a town needs a mayor, a fire brigade needs a chief, an army needs a general, a university needs a rector, a court needs a judge, and so on, and so on.

Above all, a family needs a father, because the human family is not only a human society, it is the most basic and natural of human societies, in fact it is the basic model for all other societies. This is because in no other society can the bonds which tie the members together be so deep or natural as the bonds which tie husband to wife and parents to children. Also in no other society is it so clear how the head must both command and care for the members. If a father commands without caring, the family suffers from his harshness. If he cares without commanding – rather more often the case today – it suffers from his softness. Thus family fatherhood is the model for all human authority. That is why (cf. EC 145) the Fourth Commandment to honour father and mother stands at the head of the seven Commandments governing relations in human society.

Now family fatherhood, like all fatherhood or authority, derives from God the Father. St Paul says, „I bow my knees to the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all fatherhood is named“ (Eph. III, 14,15). In other words, says the Word of God, from the fatherhood of God the Father all fatherhood in the human family, all headship in any human society, derives its nature, because the „name“, or word, signifies the nature or thing. Then it stands to reason that in any world which kicks out God the Father, as our world is now doing, the name and nature of fatherhood will be drained out of our minds, and all fatherhood and all authority will be emptied out of our lives.

Family fathers, lead your families to God !  Put yourselves under him, and your wives and children will put themselves that much more easily under you. „The head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God“, says St Paul (I Cor. XI, 3). Give to wife and children the example of a manly piety, as natural as it is „supernatural“, and whatever our mad world may get up to for its part, you at least will be doing the best you can for the family that God has entrusted to you.

Specifics for boys will follow in another „Eleison Comments“, if God wills.

Kyrie eleison.

Bishop Richard Williamson
London, England

Where are the doers?
Modern men talk, debate, opine, think, and write.

Yes exactly. We have plenty of intellectuals who love to use their "intellectual weapons" but when the other side uses the crowbar instead, these same intellectuals run for the hills because of their cowardice.

No man is treated like a child...unless he allows himself to be treated like a child.  I admit that I have no idea what the pages of this thread say, although I feel certain there is some good commentary and some that is amiss...c'est la vie.

Men are emasculated today.

They have no idea of how to be real men.
These “new men” are like women. They lack the qualities one expects from men.
A husband should be decisive. He should have a manliness that can give his wife confidence and trust in him.
He should make good decisions so that she will respect him and have confidence in him.

He should be able to give her wise advice that she will heed.

The man should be the provider. The woman should be a mother and housewife. The wife should not work.
A man should provide a home and security, and the necessities, for his wife and children.

In our dark age, if his wife is confused about the Faith, he should instruct her.

He should be in charge. He should not be following his wife’s caprices.
She should be following his plan for their lives.
He should make the decisions, she should follow.
He should not indulge her wrong ideas. He should correct her when she is wrong. He should rule the home.

He should help to raise his wife to spiritual perfection. And he should help to prepare her for Heaven.

He should do the same for the children.
He should be the wise figure that they look up to for guidance and advice.

A husband should be only have eyes for HIS WIFE.
He should not be looking at other women, thinking about them, spending his time inordinately with them.

He should love his family deeply.

To be a “family man” is a truly noble calling. And friends, etc. should take second place.

A husband should have the physical ability to defend his family.

More importantly, he should have the spiritual ability to defend his family.
He should bring his sons up to be gentle. But to be unwavering in their tenacity about the Faith.

A husband should be like Saint Joseph.

A proper Catholic man will put God before anything else.

Saint Joseph is the ideal for all husbands to live up to.

A proper Catholic man will put honour before material gain.
A true man can admit when he is wrong.

To be the man of the family. To take the decisions. To wrestle with the problems. To protect the wife and children. To be a role model and an example to their sons. To stand up for what is right. Those are hallmarks of a real man.

When a man has started an important matter, he should follow it to the end. He should persevere until he succeeds. Even if it takes months or years, even if it arouses enmity or ridicule, even if it costs him dearly – he should persevere. Not obstinacy but depth of character.

Cervantes, in “Don Quixote”, mocked the idea of chivalry.
He did a great deal to end the concept, for which he expressed great remorse before the end of his life.

I have recommended, on a previous thread, the book “The Broadstone of Honour” by Kenelm Henry Digby.

The reality of what constitutes true Catholic manliness has been obscured in this day and age.
This book shows what it is.

Kenelm Henry Digby wrote it when he was a protestant. Then he converted to Catholicism, and he re-wrote the book as a Catholic.

The Catholic edition is A.D. 1826-1827. And the later editions are also Catholic.
Only buy the Catholic edit
There is an abridged version called “Maxims of Christian Chivalry”. A.D.1926. (Published posthumously.)

That book gives very helpful insights about how to be a real Catholic man, in this age of emasculated, heretical dross.

Feminism would not have progressed without the cowardice and the disgraceful lack of principles of several generations of increasingly emasculated “men”.

This is a great post.  I often hear that men cannot be men because women won't let them.  Excuse me but that is exactly the problem.  They want women to hold the ultimate accountability because, in their ignorance of how to be a man, they don't want to be blamed when they inevitably make a mistake.  So they claim that they would be in charge if wifey would allow them.  It's simply not true.  As a very good priest told me recently "We have to follow God's commands for marriage whether or not our spouse is doing so."

So good Catholic men....you have been instructed to love you wives sacrificially as Christ loves the Church.  You've been given your marching orders from heaven.  You don't need your wife's permission.  Your ability to be strong, brave, hard working, and above all MASCULINE is not dependent on your wife being meek, subservient, and quiet.  She must follow so you must go first.  She cannot follow you if she has to always initiate all change.  That's the inverse.

If she is smarter than you or has more knowledge of the faith then it is incuмbent upon you to educate yourself so that she no longer is the intellectual and spiritual leader in the family.  The solution isn't to force her to pretend to be stupid so as to not draw attention to your shortcomings.  

JMHO.

 My grandma says that the nature of men hates everything that is too easy. So in order to keep men interested you have to ask them to do hard things. It makes them feel proud, keeps them healthy and pure.

I wouldn't put it that way. It's less easiness, per se, than pettiness that I hate. But either way, your grandma is on to something. Why is it, for instance, that I can't stand to go around the corner for groceries, but if I see a tall mountain, I am compelled to climb it?

The destruction of the family is being caused by the behavior of young women.  They're the ones voting for Obama, for example.

In a better society any woman who did abortion would be given the death penalty, along with the abortionist who did it.

I'd rather have my wife divorce me or get fed up with me by being a strong man than keep the relationship going with me playing the part of a dog or a woman (i.e. bowing to your wife's whim).

Quote

You don't need your wife's permission.

Actually, today, a husband needs his wife's permission to do practically anything, because she holds all the cards with respect to family law.

The destruction of the family is being caused by the behavior of young women.  They're the ones voting for Obama, for example.

Family law?  You mean the 10 Commandments or civil divorce law?

Obviously if a man foolishly marries a woman who believes in divorce (that's his fault for picking her) then he should expect that.  A Catholic woman wouldn't have that leverage because she does not have that option.

Again, don't marry the "hot girl" who is a CINO (Catholic in name only).  Go for the plain true Catholic girl from a pious family.

May I suggest a foreign bride who has not been corrupted by Western "culture"?