Rethinking Gender and Identity with Sister Helena - Theology of the Body, Femininity and Masculinty from a Christ-centred lens - Veil + Armour: Holiness in Motherhood and Daily Life

Episode Transcript
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Sheila Nonato (00:04):
Hello and welcome to the Veil and Armour podcast.
This is your host, SheilaNonato.
I'm a stay-at-home mom and afreelance Catholic journalist,
Seeking the guidance of the HolySpirit and the inspiration of
Our Lady.
I strive to tell stories thatinspire, illuminate and enrich
the lives of Catholic women, tohelp them in living out our
vocation of raising the nextgeneration of leaders and saints

(00:27):
.

Co-Host (00:27):
Please join us every week on the Veil and Armour
podcast, where stories comealive through a journalist's
lens and mother's heart.

Friends, listeners, our YouTube audience.
Since Canadian Thanksgiving isaround the corner, I just wanted
to say a heartfelt "hank you toeach and every one of you for
watching every week.
If we can help just one personto feel encouraged in their
vocation as a stay-at-home momor a work-from-home mom, or a
mom or a woman, we are mostgrateful and very blessed to be

(00:58):
doing this family apostolate.
And I just wanted to give ashout out to the incredible
listeners around the world, andI will be listing the countries
according to Buzzsprout, whichis our podcast host Canada,
United States, Philippines,Ghana, Guam, the United Kingdom,
North Macedonia, Netherlands,Mexico, Australia, Belarus,

(01:21):
Switzerland, Slovenia, Sweden,Ireland, South Africa and Côte
d'Ivoire.
Wow, thank you so much forspending some time with us,
giving us those precious minutes, that precious 30 minutes or
hour that you have in your dayto listen to the people that

(01:43):
I've interviewed who can giveyou hope and encouragement, and
to share with you how God hasworked in their lives, how
Mother Mary, how the saints,they have been inspired by the
holy people around us accordingto our tradition, and also in
our everyday lives, how theyhave encouraged us and helped us

(02:03):
to see how Jesus is our lightand the cross.
There is Resurrection after theCross, and thank you so much.
Now this week.
I just want to introduce againSister Helena (Burns) since her
first interview.
The first part was many weeksago.
In the first part of herinterview, Sister Helena quoted
the late Pope Benedict when hewas Cardinal Ratzinger, when he

(02:23):
said that, We are experiencing arebellion against the Creator.
" She also went into a deep diveinto Theology of the Body and
divine design.
Why is the body important?
Because we were created as bodyand soul.
God created us as body and souland the gender debate that we
are experiencing now.
That is the hot topic in ourcommunity, in our schools, in

(02:46):
our world.
The gender debate is over thebody, and this is what Sister
Helena will be discussing inthis coming episode.
In the name of the Father andthe Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen, come, Holy Spirit.
Help us to listen and tounderstand how our Catholic
faith can inform our decisionsin our world and in our
decisions that will affect ourchildren and our families.

(03:08):
Amen, in the name of the Fatherand of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit.
Amen.
Thank you again, thank you.
We are most grateful to eachand every one of you and I am
praying for you.
We are praying for each andevery one of you, and I actually
created a Facebook, a privategroup, for praying mothers,
praying women.

(03:29):
It's on if you search Veil +Armour on Facebook and you will
be taken to the group and I hopeto see you there.
Hopefully we can pray togetheron Instagram or on a Zoom live,
and the next stage would bemeeting in person.
So if you'd like to know moredetails, please email us at
veilandarmour at gmailcom, andthat email address will be in

(03:51):
the show notes.
Armour will have a "U" becauseI'm Canadian.
Thank you so much, god bless.

Sister Helena Burns (03:57):
What does transcendence mean?
Like I said, going out ofoneself, going beyond oneself,
encountering and bettering theworld by working on it.
Men's sexuality is external totheir bodies.
That's part of transcendence.
This means something becausethe body has meaning.
The body already has meaning.

(04:18):
We don't assign the bodymeaning.
The body already has meaning.
What are some ways that menexpress transcendence?
Sports, throwing things.
Everything is a projectile withguys.
Have you ever noticed that?
Spitting disgusting.
We could spit.
Women can spit.
We never do.
It's disgusting and gross.
But men are always spittingConstruction, building, going
out into nature, things likecamping, fishing, hunting, video

(04:41):
games to a degree, althoughit's just virtual, always
wanting to fix the problem, gether done, being singularly
focused on tasks, zoning out inman caves that is a part of
transcendence.
What if the man doesn't?
He's not interested in theseparticular activities.
It's okay, he has them in somedegree.
He's still a man.
He will do everything as hedoes as a man.

(05:03):
He will express histranscendence as a man in his
study, home life, family life,work, business, arts, media,
technology, travel, hobbies,friendships, etc.
Now women image God's imminence.
Imminence means here and now,in the moment, totally present,

(05:25):
not out there.
You know, men are the explorers, and you know all this going
out, out, out.
Women make the world a betterplace by drawing it to
themselves and working on it.
That way, we women, we candominate in our own way.
I ask men, my audiences, I'llsay, "Guys, have you ever been

(05:48):
dominated by a woman?
Do you find you know womendominating?
Oh yeah, we have our own waysby pervading all things.
I would say we're like thesunshine, we're like the air and
the water.
We women are so resilient andresourceful, we kind of permeate
everything.
The way I like to think of itis men are the brick and we are

(06:10):
the mortar.
We keep everything together.
We connect everyone andeverything.
Men are the stalwart bricksthat support everything and do
their job, and bricks just pileon top of each other, are going
to fall down and mortar byitself is just a big heaping
mass of cement.
Right, we need each other.

(06:33):
Another aspect of imminence isagain designed based on the
design of a woman's body.
Our sexuality is internal toour bodies and that means
something, because the bodymeans something.
The body already has a meaningof its own.
We don't have to assign it anew meaning or try to take away

(06:54):
the meaning that it has.
We're a mystery even toourselves, because we can't see
inside our bodies, even right.
The Bible talks about.
You formed me, Oh Lord, youknow, in the darkness and the
mystery of my mother's womb.
I don't know how you did it.
The mother of the Maccabees,the seven Maccabee sons, she
said I don't know how you wereformed in my womb.
Please don't apostatize againstour faith, because God is the

(07:17):
one who made you.
I didn't even make you know.
I don't know how you were made.
Women are not physicallystronger than men, but we are
stronger in our ability toendure pain and we are
emotionally stronger than menbecause we process our emotions
better.
We talk about it, we get it out, we go to our friends.

(07:38):
Now, part of that is cultural.
Two men are told not to cry, tokeep it bottled up, and some of
the other things that I alsomentioned about women in those
characteristics, with thescience to back it up, about
what is the feminine genius.
Does this make women superiorto men?
No.
Are men superior to women?

(07:58):
No, we're just different.
We are the way God made us tobe.
I would highly recommend thatyou go online and check out a
woman named Vicki Thorn,v-i-c-k-i Thorn without an E.
She founded Project Rachel,which is for post-abortion
healing.

(08:18):
She died rather young.
She was a good friend of mine.
They're young.
She was a good friend of mine.
She had a stroke and died butshe moved on from like because
the post-abortion healing reallytook off and in the US the
bishops really supported thisproject and got it into the
parishes and the dioceses and itreally took off Post-abortion
healing for both women and men.

(08:40):
And she moved on to do thebiology of the Theology of the
Body.
So some of the science facts Igot from her.
That's all she does and shegoes into.
She used to go onto secularcampuses and just they would beg
to have her come because peopledon't know this stuff.
We should know about our bodies, how amazing they are, and I
think that would make us loveour bodies more, both as men and

(09:02):
women, if we started tounderstand how amazing we are
and how different we are, thebeauty in that difference.
So check out Vicki Thorn, herbiology of the Theology of the
Body.
She has some YouTube videos onthat.

Okay, thank you for that.
I will definitely check thatout.
That sounds, that's really,that's really interesting.
I'm just wondering, from whatyou've been saying about Radical
Feminism and the masculine andthe feminine, is it, I guess, in
a way, trying to do away with Iguess it's doing away with
God's divine design, his divineplan, and there's also sort of

(09:41):
an underlying hatred.
Is that like a very heavy word,a hatred of the body?
Is that sort of what you'reseeing?
And then how can we sort ofread our way out of this Radical
Feminist mindset?

Yes.
So I think it would depend onthe individual woman how much
she resents being a woman.
And again, this woman may not.
I mean, back in the day therewas no such thing as
transitioning or anything likethat.
So I think a lot of women whoare, they're happy, they like
they're not going to, they'relike I'm not a man.
They know that, they understandthat I am a woman, but they

(10:16):
don't like what a woman is.
And we have to live in accordwith our nature.
These were the ancientphilosophers.
They lived before Christ.
They were not Jews with ournature.
These were the ancientphilosophers.
They lived before Christ.
They were not Jews, they werenot Biblical people.
They lived in Greece.
Right, these brilliantphilosophers.
They came up with the truth,they knew.
They knew the truth, though,about if you're fighting your
very nature and, like I said,our whole entire bodies are

(10:38):
gendered.
So if you just take a bunch ofhormones opposite sex hormones
or have some surgeries, thatchanges nothing and you've
actually, you know, damaged yourbody.
But we can damage our souls tooby resisting God, you know,
resisting a loving creator whocreated you in love.
Now, if someone's been abused,that's a whole another story.

(11:01):
That was not done to you by God, but by evil people.
And so I understand why you maysay well, if I wasn't a woman,
I wouldn't have been abused likethis.
But men can be sexually abusedtoo, right, in different ways.
So that's a whole otherimportant topic.
But why are you angry at God?

(11:22):
Just for who you are, you know,I thought we were supposed to
love ourselves and be ourselves.
All these slogans that the worldoffers us, they don't really
mean it.
So I always tell young peopleyou can learn.
I said I would say to them okay, we're supposed to be body
positive and sex positive, right?
And they go, yeah.
And I say so, tell me, which ismore body positive and sex

(11:47):
positive to say you were bornwrong, you have to have
expensive, painful surgeriesthat's going to weaken your body
and you're going to be on bigpharmaceuticals for the rest of
your life and you're going to becompromised.
And when they say trans health,what does that mean?
Oh, it means going to get yourhormones.
No, it doesn't mean just that.
It means you are now a verysickly creature because you

(12:09):
destroyed your body by forcingit to be something it's not.
So what's happening?
Estrogen, we know, ispre-cancerous, right?
So the boys, the young boysthat are trying to be girls,
they're getting cancer from theestrogen the young women are
having from the testosterone.
That stuff is powerful.
You do not want to mess withtestosterone.

(12:31):
Even old men shouldn't bepumping themselves full of
testosterone.
There's a reason why theirbodies can't handle it anymore.
So what is it doing to theyoung women?
It's making their bones brittle.
They're 16-year-old and theyhave Osteoporosis.
These girls that are taking teaand they have lung problems
from the testosterone, et cetera, et cetera, and also the

(12:52):
surgery.
Usually people can't urinatenormally anymore.
This is like hideous.
It is a hideous form of childabuse, one of the worst.
Don't get me started because Iget really, really upset.
But as far as a woman hatingher own body, it depends on how
strongly she is rejecting herfemininity, her being a woman.

(13:16):
So hatred may not be too strong.
Or she might think it like, oh,it's a pesky thing, I wish I
didn't have these pesky cyclesevery month.
Might think it like, oh, it's apesky thing, I wish I didn't
have these pesky cycles everymonth.
Well, we can, all you know, beinconvenienced and even the most
Christian or religious among uscan get to that point, you know
, of exasperation, butultimately, if you really sit

(13:37):
down, think about it and prayabout it, are you really telling
God no, you know, I remember Ihad horrible, horrible periods
myself like just the worst.
I couldn't go to school for thefirst day and a half in
excruciating pain.
It was just I couldn't eat, Icouldn't.
Feminist.
At this age, I rememberthinking about this creator

(13:57):
force.
I did believe in a creatorforce because it was ridiculous
that something came from nothingand this beautiful world that I
loved, nature.
There had to be an infinitedivine design, intelligence

(14:20):
behind it.
Right, that I always knew.
And I remember thinking well,if this is what I have to go
through, to give life.
This is how new human beingscome to be like well, I guess,
okay.
So at that moment I did seemyself, I suppose as a part of
nature, but not connected to agood God, because I believed

(14:40):
this divine power, this divineintelligence was not personal.
I was a deist.
I believed in the watchmaker,god, who created the world and
then stepped back and it was allup to us.
But we had to get it right,Like I believe.
We had this onus on us.
I was very existentialist.
We had to figure out the bestway to live.
So again, it's possible to notbelieve in God and accept who

(15:03):
you are if you believe.
But see how it's always tied tosomething like the universe or
Mother Nature, or we alwayspersonalize it.
Why?
Because we're persons, and thenwe blame the universe or we
blame God.
It's because we are persons.
And John Paul II was all aboutpersonalism.
It was the type of philosophythat put the human person at the

(15:27):
center, which I think isamazing, and there's different
types of personalism.
And he had something called thepersonalistic norm.
And when I teach Theology of theBody, I always start with
creation, atheism we talk about.
Is there such a thing asevolution we talk about?
Where did the human body comefrom?
We talk about what?
Is there such a thing asevolution we talk about.

(15:48):
Where did the human body comefrom?
We talk about somephilosophical principles, about
personalism, what does it meanto be a person from a non-person
, all of that stuff.
So we lay some really goodgroundwork, because there's the
philosophy of the theology ofthe body also, which John Paul
II laid out in his book Love andResponsibility, which some
people call the philosophy ofthe theology of the body, and
that came out in 1960, waybefore theology of the body.

(16:11):
It was actually before that.
It came out in English in 1960.
And it's just kind of like whatis the nature of human beings,
therefore?
What is the nature of love,human love, what does it require
of us?
Not, what do we require of it?
And he answers Freud, heanswers Immanuel Kant, he
answers Nietzsche.

(16:32):
He goes through all the bignames and the current dominant
philosophies and he'll takewhat's good in them, but then
he'll correct them from aChristian point of view and from
his brilliant philosophicalmind.
So that's a long answer to yourquestion.
But radical feminists aredefinitely rejecting their

(16:52):
bodies in some way, shape orform.
And a wonderful way to getyourself out of Radical Feminism
is to read your way out.
You know, you hear about peoplereading their way into the
Catholic faith.
There's this one guy I know.
He's got a bunch of kids.
His oldest son became a priestand he's on Twitter as Seven
Sacraments Guy because he hasall seven sacraments.

(17:15):
Now he's married, he's a deacon, so he's ordained.
He's had the anointing of thesick, you know, baptized, he's
done it all right.
So he called himself sevensacrament guy and he said he was
a very devout evangelical andhe raised his family devout and
he kept reading these Catholicbooks.
And he said one day he stood upin his living room he said I'm
Catholic, I agree with all theseCatholic books, and he of

(17:39):
course came into the church, etcetera, et cetera.
So you can also read your wayout of wrong headed thinking.
You can undo the lies, right?
Satan is the father of lies.
What did he do in the Gardenwith Eve?
He lied to her, lie upon, lieupon lie.
There are five major liesembedded in his one sentence to

(18:00):
Eve and of course she bought ithook, lie and sinker, but it's
tough.
It's a tough thing to Eve andof course she bought it hook,
line, sinker, but it's tough.
It's a tough thing to do.
C.
S.
Lewis, in his book "Abolitionof man, talks about how we form
our beliefs at a very young age.
He says, like you go to schooland they're teaching you X, y
and Z, or sometimes they don'teven say what they believe, but

(18:21):
the way they talk about things,the context, the framing, the
framing that they do of certainquestions, or maybe some
scoffing, some gentle scoffing,here and there, you start to
just have these ideas that youthink are your own ideas.
You think these are originalideas, but they actually are
coming from probably some verybig, nameable philosophies and

(18:46):
ideologies that maybe yourprofessor, your teacher, your
parents, the media has accepted.
And then they just spew it outas something original and fresh
and cool and new.
And it's not.
It's as old as the ancientserpent, and we need to.
When you have some doubts, whenyou start to say I think I've

(19:07):
been lied to about whatever itis, keep at it.
This is what I believe you gotto.
Keep reading, keep researching,keep digging.
You will find the truth.
This is why there's so muchcensorship now in establishment
media, heritage media,mainstream media, and they're
trying to go after social media,where people have more freedom

(19:27):
and they can speak out the truthright, and they're trying to
shut people up right, left andright, because they don't want
you to know the truth about manydifferent things.
Okay, why?
Because there are socialengineers who, for their own
reasons, want you to buy certainthings, act certain ways, do
certain things that in the end,are not good for you, and the
only one we should follow, likethat, is Jesus, who is the way,

(19:51):
the truth and the life.
So I have a blog post.
If you go to hellburnsH-E-L-L-B-U-R-N-S dot com, it
says how to read your way out ofradical feminism and I've kind
of grouped it.
There's some videos, there'sthings on the Bible.

(20:12):
Is the Bible anti-woman?
What about Mary?
Is she some shrinking violetfreak of nature plaster of Paris
statue that we can't imitate orwe don't want to imitate?
Women saints can they tell ussomething?
They are so varied, our womensaints.
They are not all cloisterednuns, mystical cloistered nuns
packed away in some climate.
There are so many women saintsand there are so many mothers.

(20:34):
Some of my favorite actuallyare women who had big families,
like Anna Maria Taiji and theUlma family that were just all
martyred together.
There is Elizabeth Kindleman.
She's not a saint, but she wasa visionary of Our Lady, very
recent, from Hungary.
She was a widow with six kids.
So our Lord chooses all ofthese amazing women.

(20:56):
Some of them were women andthen they entered the convent,
like Mother Seton who set up theCatholic school system in the
United States.
Then I have some of the toptheology of the body,
introductory books, and some ofthem are free.
You can just click on the linkonline with little descriptions
so you know what you're gettinginto.
I have books from formerradical feminists who did a 180.

(21:17):
I have books, other types ofresources, by women.
I have resources by men wholove women and who are talking
about the feminine genius andthen what the dark side can
teach us, meaning the exorcists.
There's so many high-profileexorcists today that are
teaching us the Catholic faithand, strangely, are informed by

(21:40):
what some of the demons say.
Once they're bound and theyhave to stop lying and they're
forced to tell the truth.
They tell us how they'redisrupting the family, how
they're leading women astray inparticular, and wrecking society
.
Very fascinating how we have tohave the divine order in the
family, where the man is thehead.
He is the head of the woman asChrist is the head of the church

(22:05):
.
Would you like to have Christbe your head?
I would.
You know, men have to be theSaint Joseph to Mary, and and
when that doesn't happen, thereis great disorder and chaos in
the family, which translatesdirectly to chaos in society.
Then I have the whole question,which really isn't a question of
priesthood and ordination, andthen I have a bunch of articles

(22:26):
that I wrote for The CatholicRegister, Toronto's Catholic
Register, about women, deacons,women's ordination, authentic
femininity, five ways feminismwent wrong and five ways to fix
it, et cetera, et cetera.
So I tried to just really go tothe jugular on this blog post
to things that women really are.

(22:49):
Just, I think so many morewomen than we think are open to
hearing the truth, but they justdon't know where to get it.
You know, they don't know who'sgoing to help me, and I had to
do this kind of on my own andreally cherry pick this and go
down that rabbit hole and readthis, and sometimes it was the
wrong thing and I'm like, no, Idon't think that's right.

(23:09):
I think that's part of the lieover there, and again, it wasn't
until I found theology of thebody.
That brought me back to myself,brought me back starting with
my body, starting with thephysical, created world that all
philosophy and all theology issupposed to be grounded and
based in and is not.
When you trip out in your head,you can make stuff up.

(23:31):
If you just do all spiritual,spiritual, spiritual and you
spiritualize everything, youyou're going to, I promise you,
you're going to get into error.
You need the physical world,creation, the body, to bring you
and keep you in reality.

This is awesome.
Yeah, it's like a utterlyfascinating topic to me because
when I was doing my master's ininternational relations at the
university, where Dr.
Jordan Peterson was teaching, Iwas taught gender is social
construction and race is socialconstruction.
But that's another topic foranother podcast.
But how do we for myself as amom, for our listeners who are

(24:14):
parents how do we help ourdaughters discover their true
feminine identity in Christ?

I wanted to add something to the reading
what we just talked aboutreading your way out of radical
feminism, absolutely yeah.
So I'll just start talkingagain.
Another way you can helpyourself out of radical feminism
is to be kind of forensic.
You know you have to.
It's hard.
Like I said, it's hard becausesome of these ideas were

(24:42):
embedded in us at a very youngage.
That's why the Bible says youknow, parents, put the word of
God into your kids when they'relittle, and even if they stray
later in life, they will comeback to it because it's in there
.
They'll have it right.
This isn't programming andindoctrination.
This is telling your childrenthe truth.
Isn't that nice?
Wouldn't that be nice ifsomebody formed you the correct

(25:02):
way when you were little andgave you the truth?
We're always able to rejectcertain things that we don't
believe, but so often we aremalformed in the beginning and
we're warped by schools yes, bycolleges and universities and
the media, and it takessomething's a lifetime to undo
it all right.
So, but that's okay, that'sokay, and when you have to undo

(25:25):
it, you can help other people.
So I have.
I know that I've beeninstrumental in helping a lot of
other women who just didn'tknow where to turn, and so I
kind of did some of the work forthem, and as a sister who works
in media, a sister who studiesa lot and I have the time I
don't have children to take careof, so I have the time to do

(25:46):
this for you and priests andnuns.
Our number one job is to helpfamilies.
It's to help parents, why?
Because you guys are the future, you are raising the future and
we are freed up, in a sense, tohelp you.
So be a little bit forensic,try to scratch down to the you.
So be a little bit forensic,try to scratch down to the
surface.
What are my deepest heldassumptions?

(26:06):
Put it into a phraseology, putit into a slogan that maybe you
heard.
What was a book that you readthat you said this is it and you
took off from there.
Or you heard a talk or a TEDtalk or whatever it was that set
you on this path of convictionabout radical feminism.
Go back to that.
What do you tell yourself?

(26:26):
What is your interior monologue?
What is going around in yourhead every time you think you're
being oppressed?
What are the little words thatpop up, the little slogans or
phrases.
Listen to those.
Sometimes we don't even listento our own interior monologue.
What do I take for granted asbedrock truth that maybe isn't

(26:47):
bedrock truth?
What changed my thinking?
Maybe I wasn't a radicalfeminist, but then I became one.
What changed?
And bring this all to prayer,because our Lord, in the
twinkling of an eye, the HolySpirit, can just bring that to
your memory.
He can unearth that for you,because it's really hard work,
let me tell you to do that.
But through this discerning andunearthing and bringing it to

(27:10):
prayer, I was able to think backon my influences and undo them.
You know, our Lady, thatbeautiful devotion to Our Lady
Undoer of knots.
Sometimes we need that tochange our thinking.
Look back over your influences,hear the arguments that you
embraced and sometimes maybe,like I said, it's just embedded

(27:31):
in the culture and you just didwhat your friends were doing,
you just did what your motherwas doing, maybe, or you didn't
really think for yourself.
You just imitated what you sawaround you.
Well, maybe it's time to readsome of the like both sides, the
feminists what they said, thatinformed these people around you
that you imitated.
I'm all about critical thinkingskills and media literacy.

(27:56):
Is that I have a master's inmedia literacy and we apply
critical thinking skills veryspecifically to different forms
of media, and so we do want tohear both sides in order to do
that.
Is there a fear that, oh no,you're going to go even deeper
into radical feminism if youread what these ladies are
saying.
Well, there's some truth inwhat they're saying, so it's
okay to acknowledge some truthwe have in our Pauline family.

(28:19):
I'm a daughter of St Paul, andin our Pauline family we had our
founder, who was a priest fromItaly.
His mentor was the spiritualdirector at the seminary, and
modernism was raging in theearly 20th century in Northern
Italy the heresy of modernismand some of the seminarians were
sneaking and reading modernismbooks, and it was warping them

(28:40):
as priests, future priests, andeverything so, and it was
forbidden.
Everything was forbidden, right, and there's something to that,
though, like it's okay to havesome good guidance from the
church to tell you no, this isheretical, no, that's an error,
the rest of that book is okay,but there's one error in it.
I think we need more of that.
But what this priest did, FatherChiesa?
He told the seminarians we aregoing to read some of this

(29:03):
modernism and we're going totalk about it and we're going to
point out how it's incorrectand what the truth is.
And I think that is so powerfulbecause you take away the
verboteness of this error andyou pick it apart and you're
kind of defanging it and shiningthe light of truth on it.

(29:25):
And if we do that with our kidstoo, like our young people,
then they can stand on their owntwo feet and say no, I examined
that.
No, I took a look at that and Idon't think that's right
anymore.
I don't think that's correct.
I think this is correct becausewe've helped them to do it and
it's their own personalconviction.
Now, not like I'm not allowed toread that book and again, I'm

(29:46):
not talking like small childrenor age inappropriate stuff or
even garbage, pornography orgraphically erotic, stupid
erotic novels or whatever.
None of that.
I'm not talking about somethingthat automatically corrupts you
and automatically isintrinsically evil and arousing
or whatever.
I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about errors of themind, because it all starts in

(30:10):
the mind how we think aboutsomething.
As we think, so we act.
Thought that was so brilliant.
This priest, who's a part of myspiritual heritage, who took the
time to do that he said guys,you need to know, as priests,
your people are hearing thesemodernist lies too.
You are going to be able to.

(30:30):
You need to help themdeconstruct as well.
So we're going to, we're goingto look at these things and I
think we should do that.
You know, in our homes too.
Take some of these errors likereally have these conversations
about and sometimes can easilyhappen through a song that comes
out that your child is likemommy, what is the song saying?
Or like a book that they saw ata friend's house or even a

(30:51):
cousin's house.
You know, sometimes it's withinyour own family.
You know you're not.
You can choose your own gender.
You had to pick your own genderand it's a wonderful
opportunity to help your kidsthink correctly and teach them
how to discern, teach them howto bring things to prayer, how
to find the good nourishment,the good sources.

So, sister Helena , how can mothers and fathers
help their daughters discovertheir true feminine identity in
Christ?

That is a great question and I think it's
something that really needs tobe done very intentionally these
days, because of the genderwars and people who are like
hands off, this is not yourchild, right?
But they want your child, theywant your child's mind, they
want your child's body, theywant to, you know, confuse your
kid at these very delicatemoments moments you know, as a

(31:43):
parent, how impressionablechildren are, right.
They say it takes just oneexperience.
It can take just one experience.
This is from Walt Heyer.
He's the granddaddy ofdetransitioning.
He lived as a woman for about10 years and then he
detransitioned, and so all thedetransitioner kids, they all

(32:05):
look up to him.
His website issexchangeregretcom.
You can check him out.
He's just a wonderful,wonderful person, and so you
know that there are people outthere who are dying to confuse
your child in any way they can.
They want to transition themand they're passing laws where

(32:27):
they can snatch your child outof your home.
You know, you know right,parents, it's horrific, it's
horrifying, it's terrifying, butI think it can be done very
organically.
You don't even have tonecessarily be talking about it
in those terms all the time.
The first thing is just yourexample as a woman, as a mom,
but not just as their mom, butas a wife.

(32:50):
I think that's super importantto show them how you relate to
your husband, how you relate tomen, and then how you relate to
your friends, how you are anauntie, how you are a cousin,
how you are a worker, how you doall these different roles right
.
That's the biggest thing,because the same- sex parent is
what helps solidify the child'ssexual identity and the opposite

(33:14):
sex parent is the one whoconfirms it.
You know, I'm daddy's littleprincess, not spoiled, but my
daddy doesn't treat me the wayhe treats my brother.
You know they just pick thesethings up.
You're probably doing a betterjob than you think.
I always like to encourageparents because everybody's
yelling at you all.
You're not doing it right,you're not doing it enough,

(33:35):
you're a terrible parent, you'regoing to warp your kid, your
kid's not going to turn out okaybecause you didn't do this or
you're doing that.
I was talking to Sheila, ourhost, our podcast host, the
other day.
I'm like we need more slackermoms.
We need more moms who are.
There's this theory.
I don't know if you heard of it.
It's called the good enoughmother and it's saying that

(33:58):
perfectionist moms are the onesthat are doing a lot of damage
to their kids.
But the good enough mother.
She gives them enoughnutritious food, the house is
just clean enough.
You know she's going to teachher kids that we don't have to
worry, we don't have to live infear, we don't have to be crazy,
crazy busy all the time, wedon't have to do everything

(34:19):
perfect or we won't do it at allor we get all frenzied, you
know.
So fathers can also majorly helpform that true identity in
Christ by being St.
Joseph, by showing theirdaughter what a good man looks
like, because daughters tend tolook for daddy when they're
picking a mate, unless they hada horrible father intentionally.

(34:42):
But even then they can pick outa horrible mate because dad did
X, y and Z and that's all Iknow about a man, right?
So we want our daughters to behonored as the women and the
girls that they are, and men dothat instinctively, right.
Dads do that instinctively,treating their daughters as they
are women.
I think holding up role modelsto your daughters as they are
women, I think holding up rolemodels to your daughters, they

(35:04):
have to be themselves, but becareful, like, for example, if
you are giving them saint bookswhich you should be and saint
movies or whatever, don't haveit always.
Just be Saint Claire, you know,who lived in a monastery and
had mystical experiences.
Let's have some Joan of Arc's.

You know, I love (35:21):
Joanie Joanie's one of my gals.
They can look at Mother Teresa,who worked with the poor, or
Saint Kateri, who stood up forher faith amidst unbelievers,
right, isn't she a model for ourworld today, where people don't
believe anymore?
And she was just so stood upfor her faith and actually she
wanted to found a community ofNative, indigenous sisters, but

(35:46):
the priests that were guidingher told her no and she died at
24 anyway.
But I often thought, wouldn'tthat have been something?
If she did, maybe they shouldhave let her?
Even saints that are justblessed, and the saints that
were moms or that they weren'tnuns, but they gave their whole
life to Jesus, because that'sjust what they wanted to do, you
know, they didn't want to doanything, but just live for God.

(36:09):
We can talk about that in amoment, about also encouraging
vocations like to the sisterhoodamongst your girls.
But I think that the women ofthe Bible are so important, and
the women of church history andsaints.
Certainly, these are the peoplewe look to, not women who are
Instagram models or influencersor you know they're famous for

(36:31):
being famous or movie stars orsingers Like no, we don't want
to hold those people up, butwomen who were women of God,
christian women, women of theBible, et cetera, and saints.
So your daughter this isimportant for especially moms to
think about.
Your daughter may have a verydifferent personality from you.
She may even be a daddy's girlor she even takes after her

(36:56):
father.
So it's okay, it's all right ifshe's not choosing you as her
model, it's okay.
But she should still see a goodmodel of a woman in you, and
that can start even really young.
Sometimes the daughter just youhave a personality clash even
at a very young age.
It's okay, you're still her mom, you're still the main woman in

(37:19):
her life showing an example ofa mom and a woman.
So I do think that topics haveto be brought up.
It's great if they can happenorganically, but sometimes they
don't.
You need to talk about theseissues about did you know that
there are little boys that arebeing told that they are little
girls?
Oh, you don't want to likefreak them out because that is

(37:43):
traumatic.
There was a little girl inOntario who went to school.
This was several years ago Inpre-kindergarten.
She was told by her pre-Kteacher you may not be a girl
just because mommy put you in adress today.
You may not be a girl.
This little girl went home.
She was melting down what am I?
I'm not a boy.
But she told me I'm not a girl.

(38:04):
What am I?
And they sued and these parentswon for trauma.
So we need to get a little morelitigiously active too, because
there are victories.
I'm telling you there arevictories.
There was a little boy inBritish Columbia and he was.
I know I'm getting into transstuff here, but this is where
gender is at today, folks.
It's not just about radicalfeminism.

(38:25):
As you know, this little boy inVancouver was kept aside by his
teacher every recess.
They didn't allow him to go outand the teacher kept saying
you're trans, you're a littlegirl, I like you, and made him,
forced him to read these littletransitioning books for children
and would let him.
You know, those parents suedand they got that teacher fired
and they got a lot of money,okay, and it was hidden, you

(38:48):
know.
And they kept telling don'ttell your parents you know All
right.
So bring up these topics,educate yourself so that you
know some of the little issuesof radical feminism that a
little a daughter, athree-year-old, a five-year-old,
a 10-year-old, a 15-year-oldmay be putting into her mind,

(39:08):
and then talk about it and thenprovide some good resources.
Abigail Favale, who's been doingF-A-V-A-L-E she's been doing a
lot of work on gender.
She's come out with books forkids, called here I Am.
There's one for boys and onefor girls.
I haven't looked at it yet soI'm not endorsing it, but it
might be something good.
There's a book called"Wonderfully Made and it has

(39:30):
little babies on the front andit's about where do babies come
from and it's good and it'sstraight up theology of the body
, like the family as an image ofthe Trinity.
But it's called WonderfullyMade and it is a big white book

(39:50):
with babies drawn, pictures ofthree little babies on the front
.
It's good for age five to 11, Iwould say, or even five to 12,
depending on your child really,really is the best amalgam of
science and health and God andtheology and scripture.
It's just incredible.
It was written by a nurse and amom.

(40:13):
So it's important that when youtalk about these issues, to not
be fear-based and not even togive off those fear vibes.
If parents are living in fear,one of two things is probably
going to happen your kids aregoing to be fearful, and fear is
from the devil.
The devil feeds off of our fear.
You can't live in fear verylong.
Your kids are going to befearful and fear is from the
devil.
The devil feeds off of our fear.
You can't live in fear verylong.

(40:34):
Young people are fearless,right, they tend to be like oh,
I'm immortal, nothing bad isgoing to happen to me if I go,
you know 90 kilometers an hourand you know on this little tiny
street.
So we don't want to give thatmessage of fear.
We want to give the message ofempowerment.
He that is in us is greaterthan he that is in the world.
They should look at mom and dadand say mom and dad, don't take

(40:56):
any guff from the world, fromthe culture, from society.
They may not have that sentencein their mind that I just said,
but they're knowing that, momand dad, they know how to enjoy
life.
They know how to have fun in agood way.
They give us what we need howto enjoy life.
They know how to have fun in agood way.
They give us what we need.
They tell us the truth.
They're lying to us out in theworld, you know.

(41:18):
So there's some really greatbooks, to,o for parents on these
topics of not just keeping yourkids out of the trans cult, but
how to bring up boys, how tobring up girls, how to make
strong boys and strong girlsright.
Dr Leonard Sacks S-A-X is agreat one.

(41:38):
He's got just about a handfulof books that are really
critical.
His website is gendermatters.
com and he kind of came from theother side.
He believed all this likeradical feminism and genderless
nonsense, and until he inpractice he's an MD and a
psychologist.
When he would see what it wasdoing to people young people in
practice, he totally changed histune and he's our friend now.

(42:02):
Dr Meg Meeker, m-e-e-k-e-r.
She's got incredible booksabout dads raising daughters,
moms raising sons and vice versa.
And don't let your kids watchcartoons.
You can't even let them watchcartoons anymore the usual
cartoons, because they areslipping all the gender garbage
into the most innocent lookingcartoons.
Don't let them watch kidsYouTube, because what they're

(42:25):
doing is they're taking likePeppa Pig or something.
I again, I don't know too muchabout children's entertainment,
but they will.
Where do you think thepredators are going to go?
They're going to go at thingsthat are kids only and they know
how to be behind this stuff,and the kids know how to access
it too.
The front of these things.

(42:45):
So, for example, there was likeepisodes of Peppa Pig where
they changed out the middle.
It was a real episode of PeppaPig, but somebody went on and
uploaded onto kids' YouTube whatlooked like Peppa Pig and they
put some horrible stuff in themiddle and then it finished out
hoping that the parents mightnot be in the room when the kids
were accessing this stuff.

(43:05):
And this is not just a one-off,an unusual circumstance.
This is happening all the time.
So unfortunately, we can'ttrust anybody.
But like Christian outlets, youknow that.
So PluggedIncom if you don'tknow what PluggedIn is, it's
from Focus on the Family andthey will review all the latest
stuff entertainment for children.

(43:26):
They are up to the minute, theygive you the best guidance and
you really got to findalternative media, even if it's
just going to a Christianchannel or older content.
So get an old DVD player, get abunch of CDs from TV series
that were good, for example.
I know this is going to soundcrazy, but I would force my

(43:47):
preteen boys to watch Psych.
Force my preteen boys to watchPsych.
Remember Guster and his friendthere, the white guy and the
black guy, and they solve crimes.
It's so innocent and pure andfun.
Towards the very end of it hespends a night with his
girlfriend but it doesn't showanything.
But it was very sad that theyhad that.
But it's really fun, cute stuffwhich is showing our young

(44:08):
people that you can be wholesomeand have a ball.
And if you are on social media alot you'll see the word
wholesome popping up.
They'll say this is sowholesome and it'll be a little
kid with a dog.
It's like adults are lookingfor wholesome stuff too.
We're so sick of the garbage.
It brings you down so much.
Okay, but if kids don't havelike we grew up with the Peanuts

(44:32):
cartoons and we had wholecartoon books of healthy, funny
stuff.
I used to read Dave Barry, youknow, like things that could
form you so that you could befunny, you know, and if we don't
have any of that, our kids are.
That's why you know thehomeschoolers, they'll put them
into like a great books program.
You know when you start readingall the great literature and

(44:55):
great children's literaturethat's out there so that you can
be the new authors and artistsand funny people of our day.
All right, I'm just all aboutthat.
But I'm all about parents notprojecting fear.
I had one mom also.
She was a graphic artist andshe had five kids, and she said
the worst thing you can say,especially if you say it in

(45:15):
front of your kids, is what canyou do?
And you throw your hands up inthe air and you're sending the
kids the message that you are avictim.
We're all a bunch of victimsand the powers that be whether
that's the media or the schoolor the courts or the government,
whoever it is we can't do adarn thing about it, and neither
can the adults.
So just go with the flow, youknow?

(45:39):
Yes, so that's what I have tosay about the feminine identity
in Christ.
Make sure that they're exposedto these good role models.
Maybe it's something in yourfamily you know that you
wouldn't mind if they turned outlike.
But reading books and things isso important too.
To have these heroines notthese crazy like.

(45:59):
She's a space goddess and shegets out there and she kills all
the space aliens and the menwere so stupid they just stayed
in the spaceship.
But she went like not thesestupid books, these unrealistic
you know.
Women not doing typical womenthings, taking on male roles all
the time and leading the men.

(46:19):
She's the five-star general,like no, she can be a courageous
woman.
She could be on a pioneer.
Like she's on her farm and thehusband's away and she kills the
wolf and eating the sheep, Idon't know.
Again, I'm not that up onwomen's stuff, but again, we're
not talking stereotypes, but Ithink it's becoming a stereotype
that these women are thewarriors.

(46:41):
You know "Avatar?
I watched the first Avatar backwhen I used to review movies
for Life, teen and Sirius, xm,catholic Channel and Chicago's
Catholic Paper and also for someCanadian outlets.
And Avatar there were nopregnant women in Avatar.
It was just a bunch of warriorwomen with their swords and

(47:03):
their arrows or these ads yousee on TV, and all the women are
kickboxing and there's nothinglike.
I like ballet, I like figureskating.
Is there a place for me stillin a woman's world or do I have
to be a cage fighter?
It's okay for women to domotocross or whatever the heck.

(47:26):
But what about these otherthings that are seen as weak, or
is that like a little weak andfrail for us now to be like the
stuff that I particularly like?
So, anyway, and get your kidsto think about that.
Why do you think they're onlyshowing women kickboxing these
days?
Use the Socratic method withyour kids.

(47:47):
This is what we do with medialiteracy.
Don't tell them.
I know you're dying to justprotect them and steer them away
and give them all the answers.
Let them speak, ask themquestions, watch how their
little minds are processingthings.
You know they surprise you allthe time, right when you give
them a chance.
Sometimes they've got it wrong,you know, but sometimes they've

(48:08):
got it right and they've got itreally right in ways that you
never even thought of.
They're like, well, I don'tthink that's okay, mom, because
of this, this and this.
Wow, well, you gave them theopportunity.
You didn't tell them right offthe bat whether something was
right or wrong, or you know whatto think, how to think.
You let them process it andthen you give the guidance.

(48:28):
Give process it and then yougive the guidance.
Give the guidance afterward and, you know, hash it out with
them, because if they make ittheir own, if they come to this
on their own.
There is nothing more powerfulthan that.
It's not because mommy anddaddy said although it has to be
, and that's good, but as theyget older we have this.
I'm sure you've heard of thistoo, and this again, it's not to
put fear into you, it's to justlike the reality and how to

(48:51):
avoid these bad outcomes.
Right, there's always hope.
There's always hope.
But some kids that were neverexposed to anything like they
didn't, they weren't allowed tolike mom and dad, didn't bring
some a little bit of the worldinto the home environment and to
hash it out and talk about it.
They get out of the home at 18or whatever, and they go hogwild

(49:14):
, they go crazy, because allthese enticing things are no
longer forbidden and not allkids turn out that way.
But if you show that you're notafraid of the world and, yes,
we can bring some of the worldinto the home again, age
appropriate, et cetera, etcetera Some things are never.
I tell kids this too.
When I do media with them.
I say, "Why don't we watch this?

(49:35):
Oh, we're not old enough yet,and I'm like we're never old
enough for garbage.
It's not just like, oh, you'regoing to get to a certain age
and now you can do this Like no,it's not good for anybody of
any age.
So we are forming their tasteswhile they're young.
And if they love, my brotherand I, our tastes were formed so

(50:02):
well by our parents and by thegood parts of the culture which
were actually dominant when Iwas growing up that we to this
day my brother and I love natureshows, we just want to watch.
We love to watch nature shows,we like good comedy.
So it takes a lot of extra workon your part, parents.
I know that.
But don't think that you haveto have a master's in media
literacy or have read all thestudies.
You know.
You know what's going on in theworld, you know what's right,

(50:23):
you know what's wrong.
Don't be afraid to hash it outwith your kids.
And I have one mom she's justthe greatest.
She doesn't.
She's not a big reader at all,but she always tells her kids I
don't think so, you know.
And if they're listening tosomething in the car on the
radio, she'll be like she'lltalk about it with them, but
then she'll say let's go findthe answer, because I don't have
the answer.
But in that way she shows themthat mom and dad don't have all

(50:45):
the answers but they know whereto get the answers.
Like she'll say they have agreat priest at their parish.
She'll say we're going to askFather about that.
Or she'll go home and check itout, like online on the New
Advent Catholic Encyclopedia orsomething you know.
And what is she doing?
She's showing her kids thatwe're all under the reign of God
, right?
We're all living in this sacredrealm of God and he's going to

(51:09):
help us ultimately to get theanswers.
We'll find what the scripturesays about it.
We'll find what the catechismsays about it.
I think that's so beautifulthat witness of you know, not
thinking the pressure's all onyou to know everything and right
in the moment, but telling yourkids to hang on.
We are going to find the rightanswer, the truth, together

(51:33):
telling your kids to hang on.

Co-Host (51:34):
We are going to find the right answer, the truth,
together.
If you like our podcast, pleaselike share and subscribe.

You can also leave us a comment and a review,
please.
We we were, my kids are hookedon Happy Meals, so we at
McDonald's we saw the sign andit gave us an opportunity to
talk about.
The sign was living, live in mytruth actually.
So truth, what is truth?
Is there only your truth?
Is there the truth?
And my husband and I we sort ofsegued into other things, but

(52:12):
basically we're also talkingabout if somebody says this is a
secret, you have to.
You can't keep secrets.
We have to have things in thelight Jesus is from the light
and things that are secret, thatsomebody is telling you might
not be of God or of the light,and we always welcome you to

(52:34):
talk to us.
And nowadays I feel like kidsare not allowed to be kids.
They're now forced to grow up.
Really, there's so manydistractions and there's so many
expectations that if they areon social media my kids are not
yet trying to hold that off fornow, but there's so many, I
guess, role models that girlslook up to that are painting.

(52:58):
You know, a reality that is notreally a reality.
It's a social media reality, inquotation marks, but it, you
know it's filters and it's well.
It's really selling an imagethat is not necessarily
reflecting that reality and thatthey're wanting to.
You know, there's differentprocedures and all that, like

(53:19):
the clothing.
There's a lot of pressure ongirls nowadays, and on moms as
well, to act a certain way, tobe a certain way, to look a
certain way, and I feel likeit's sort of an opportunity for
my husband and I to sort of yeah, like you were saying about
role models, who is a role model?
Like actually, my, one of mykids.

(53:39):
Last I forget when it was, butthere was a whole Tim Horton's
Justin Bieber collaboration andwe bought one of our kids one of
those bags, I think, and webought one of our kids one of
those bags, I think, and beltbags, and then she said, mom,
who is Justin Bieber?
But yeah, so now I can, I guess.

(54:02):
I mean control is not the word,but I mean I introduce
different songs.
I mean it's not that they don'thear those kind of songs, but
they don't really know who theartists are because they don't
see the videos.
They just kind of listen to themusic.
But I feel like it's anopportunity to sort of invite
them to see these role models.
Like, honestly, yourself, mykids are fascinated with nuns

(54:22):
when they see them at church.
My little one.
Sometimes he likes to dress asa priest, but yeah, the nuns and
the priests, these are our rolemodels that we are not seeing
as much of, and I wish we were,and I'm really truly honored
that you joined us for ourpodcast, for teaching us about

(54:43):
how to live in authentic freedomin our identity in Christ, as
women created in His image andlikeness.
Sister Helena, how can mothersand fathers encourage our
daughters to think aboutbecoming a sister, the vocation
of a religious sister?

Oh, that's great.
I think there's a lot parentscan do, because vocations tend
to come, in general, fromfamilies that are around nuns
and priests or encourage it.
I think it's harder for yourgirls and your sons to see nuns
because we live in clumps, welive in little clusters behind

(55:23):
closed doors, sometimes right,whereas if you go to Mass you
see a priest, right.
So it's a lot easier to, and,if you want to, you could go up
and say hi to Father after Massand a lot of priests stand out
and say hello anyway.
So it's just, you've really gotto seek out nuns.
I can't tell you how many timespeople have come up to me and
say I've never seen a nun before.

(55:43):
Or they bring their child up tome to say to our sisters and
they say we haven't seen nuns orwe haven't seen you in many
years and we need you.
I hear that all the time.
So I tell them well, we're anendangered species, but we're
making a comeback.
So, but it's really true, we'reso rare and because we live in

(56:04):
communities sometimes largecommunities we're just in one
space and if you aren't part ofthe ministry that we're doing,
you're not going to see us, soit's almost like you have to
bend over backwards if you wantto expose your kids to nuns.
Now, one way you can do it isthrough books, like if they're
reading books about a lot of thesaints were nuns, so they can

(56:24):
kind of see nuns there.
St Therese is the big one, butSt.
Claire, Mother Teresa, there'smany, of course, saints that
were nuns, but it's more real ifthey can see a living,
breathing nun.
So we've had so many people justcall us like.
Of course, we run bookstores sopeople can bring their kids
right into our bookstores andsee the nuns right there.

(56:45):
You know, inhabit, but at othertimes we've had, like could I
bring my daughters over and youhave tea with them and just talk
about religious life.
You know, and we're more thanwilling to do that.
It's lovely also to have aconsistent presence, though, but
you do what you can.
Even if they see a nun once ayear, that would be good, but
we've found that, especially forgirls, they need to have that

(57:07):
consistent presence of.
So this is what nuns do all day, you know, to have more than
one contact with sisters movies.
I know that might sound crazy,but there are some really good
nun movies out there.
I don't mean documentaries, andthere's some good ones of that
too.
I have a blog post called Nun'sFavorite Nun Movies, and it's

(57:30):
on my blog, hellburnscom, butit's easier to just Google it
Nun's Favorite Nun Movies, andit's on my blog, hellburns.
com, but it's easier to justGoogle it "Nun's Favorite Nun
Movies, because it's an old blogpost.
It will take you a while tofind it.
And the number one movie believeit or not, that nuns love about
nuns, is "Trouble with Angels.
That's from the 60s with HayleyMills and Rosalind Russell, and
I think it really captures thespirit of the climate.

(57:52):
Like you're, first of all,you're for Jesus 100%.
You're his bride.
That's the number one thing.
Your ministry is second.
No matter how much you loveyour ministry, how important it
is, the number one thing is theoffering of self.
He called you to be hisexclusive bride.
You're not gonna marry a meremortal.
You're not gonna to marry amere mortal.
You're not going to have yourown kids.

(58:13):
You're going to be a spiritualmother, take care of other
people's kids, other adults whoare your children, you know, in
a sense.
So I think that movie, troublewith Angels, just really
captures it.
It's fun.
These girls are at an all-girlsCatholic boarding school.
And is it realistic?
Yeah, there's a lot of realismin it in ways, but just that
exposure to seeing it.
I mean even people who watched"Sound of Music, where she

(58:37):
leaves the convent to getmarried, nun's Story, where she
leaves the convent to getmarried.
It still inspired girls tobecome nuns because they saw the
convent life and in Sound ofMusic.
Anyway, the nuns are great, youknow, they're really awesome,
the ones who had a true vocation.
I have other ones on there too,other movies about nuns.
There's ones you really want tostay away from.

(58:59):
There's many bad movies.
There's even like rated Xmovies they like to attack nuns,
I don't know.
But there's even other ones,like the horror movie "The Nun.
There's some really bad ones,like Novitiate, Agnes of God,
Philomena, Benedetta, like becareful, be very careful.
So I'm giving you some goodones to show.

(59:21):
And there's a lovely old one, ablack and white, called "Come to
the Stable" with Loretta Youngand Celeste Holm, and it's just
so much fun.
It takes place after World WarII and they're trying to start a
children's hospital.
So it's about the moralimagination being exposed to
books about nuns, images of nuns, even Sister Act, the nuns in

(59:41):
that convent.
Okay, it's over the top andthere are a little bit of
caricatures, but a lot of thatstuff.
We say, yeah, the kids wouldalways ask do you guys really do
that stuff?
Yeah, we'll have an ice creamparty in the middle of the night
.
You know we do weird thingslike that and I think there's,
you know, sometimes you'll justsee a nun in passing in a show,
but it's a really good nun, likein Entertaining Angels, the

(01:00:02):
Dorothy Day story there's agreat nun in there, and I could
go on and on the Painted Veilthere's a great nun character in
that movie also.
But you want the whole movie tobe good, not just a little
showing of a nun here and there.
"Call the Midwife" done by theBBC is incredible and that's
based on the journals of a realnurse who lived with these

(01:00:24):
Anglican nuns.
Now this would be for yourteenage girls.
But oh my gosh, that is sobeautiful and it's so realistic
about how the nuns are.
It shows them praying.
How so rarely do they show nunspraying in movies and it's like
that's our whole life.
You know, that's the heartbeat,that's the core.
So they showed the nuns prayinga lot, you know praying the

(01:00:45):
Psalms, and they had theirunique personalities and that
older nun who had a little bitof dementia going on I want to
point out too we just came outwith a series of three.
They're called the SisterSeraphina Mysteries and they
happen to be mice who are nuns.
They wear blue habits and theylive under the floorboards of G.

(01:01:09):
K.
Chesterton's house, but youforget that they are mice
because they're so realistic andthey have a Catholic school
down there for the little miceand they're always solving
mysteries.
I don't know what it is about.
They love to have priests andnuns solving mysteries.
Father Dowling series has a nunhelping him.
I don't think there's a nun inthe Father Brown series.

(01:01:29):
But there's even books.
But again, be careful with thebooks.
Some of them are creepy and Ican't vouch for this.
But there's a Sister Agathamysteries, so you might want to
check some of those out because,again, nuns, nuns.
If they constantly have nuns intheir minds and in the visuals
of nuns, that's going to inspirethem through the years.

(01:01:51):
Also, it's important.
I think to speak well of priestsand nuns.
I mean, we have this ongoingscandals right now in the church
with the priests, right, andit's so sad because this guy
just became a priest and hisfriend said you're going to join
the pedophiles, that's whatyou're doing with your life?
Like no, don't do it.
It's very sad that that'swhat's seen now, but that hasn't

(01:02:14):
really touched the sisterhood.
We're still seen as the goodguys, which is a good thing.
So it's important to speak wellof priests and nuns, not
complain.
Some people just say everythingin front of their kids.
I've been noticing that for thepast what 20, 30 years that

(01:02:36):
there's no division between theadults and the kids.
The parents just spilleverything out.
That's so inappropriate, notjust complaining about priests
or nuns or things like that, butadult themes, adult even things
about like or or that a childcan't handle, can't process.
So my parents always spoke wellof priests and nuns.
They didn't worship them or putthem on a pedestal or idolize
them, but I had a goodimpression of priests and nuns

(01:02:57):
from my parents.
And then you might want to popthe question have you ever
thought of being a sister?
Not to nag them because you'llsend them in the opposite
direction, or to be like cloying, like oh, it would make mother
so happy if you could become anun or like.
We would really love it.
You don't want to program yourkids to like especially if your

(01:03:17):
child is a people pleaser.
You want that to be a freechoice of theirs, but let them
know that you would support them.
You think it is a good choice,because a lot of the world
doesn't think it's a good choice.

Sheila Nonato (01:03:28):
I am definitely going to be checking all those
resources out and think it's agood choice.
I am definitely going to bechecking all those resources out
and to find out more about yourwork people can go to hellburns
.
com, a most memorable websitename, and your writings in
Toronto's Catholic Register,catholicregister.

(01:03:49):
org And your writings inToronto's Catholic Register,
catholicregister.
org Was there anything else thatany other links to your work,
sister, that you wanted toadd?

Sister Helena Burns (01:03:57):
Well, I take care of my mom.
Now I'm actually living withher.
I'm not too far from ourmotherhouse, but I'm living with
my elderly mom taking care ofher and I'm not doing as much
apostolate as I have been.
But the one social media I'mvery active on is Twitter, so
you can find me at SR for sisterHelena Burns on Twitter
@srhelenaburns or X as they callit.

(01:04:18):
So I am rather active there.
But I'm kind of low key thesedays, being that I'm taking care
of my mom.
Awesome, how is she doing?
She's well, she's doing verywell.
She's just basically elderly.
You know how, when you get to acertain point, she doesn't have
a whole lot of health problems,but you're very weak.
She can't walk too well, shecan't remember how to cook

(01:04:40):
something or prepare something,she can't keep on top of her
paying her bills and she livesat home.
She chose to live at home andso we supported her in that, and
then, all of a sudden, it waslike she really couldn't do a
lot for herself.
So my congregation is very goodabout allowing us to take care
of our parents in need, and I'mso close that I can pop over

(01:05:01):
there on Sundays, you know, tothe mother house.
But thank you for asking.
I'll let her know you asked,and yeah, it's just a grace to
be with her.

Well, happy 4th of July.
How are you celebrating?

We are going to have corn on the cob
and my mother's a very likeindoorsy person.
She doesn't like, but I'm goingto make her go outside.
We're going to drive around.
We'll watch some fireworks atnight.
She loves onion rings, so we'regoing to go to an onion ring
stand and maybe just do somehorrible fried food.

Well, it sounds like a lot of fun.
It truly does.
Thank you for joining us andspeaking with us from Boston,
and all the best to yourministry.
We will truly be praying foryou and hope to speak to you
again.

Thank you so much for having me on and I
hope I'll be praying for yourapostolate.
I really believe that it's noteven the big podcasts or the big
YouTube channels that are doingsome of the most good, it's
just this wonderful media thatwe have to talk to each other,
family to family, right?
You know, and share some ofyour wisdom and the truth that

(01:06:12):
you found and the work thatyou've done.
I just think it's so preciousthat we have these small
apostolates, small groups, Likea lot of times I'll go on Zoom
and do you know a handful ofparents We'll do parenting the
media or something, but I knowthose are very intentional.
Parents are going to dosomething with it.
You know, and it's not aboutnumbers, it's not.

(01:06:33):
It would be lovely if we hadlike big, big numbers, but we
can do.
If everyone use their voice,right, If everyone use their
social media accounts to spreadmore truth, spread more light,
like you said, we would coverthe whole world.
People don't think they'reimportant, right?
Like you were saying about youryou know, these role models of
women that are set up and theyhave to spend so much time and

(01:06:57):
energy to get all thosefollowers and likes that they
think they might be doingsomething and I would share also
with kids that, like do youthink that girl's really happy?
Do you think these women thatall they do is their whole life
is in front of a camera, and doyou think they're nice people?
What do they do behind thescenes?

(01:07:19):
Are they exactly as they are onscreen?
That whole understanding ofwhat's real and what's not, you
know, virtual and actual.

You know, our true happiness is in God and
absolutely, as you were saying,we are.
There's the influence.
I guess the influencer age.
But if we look at who arereally the influencers, when
we're children, it's the parents, right, and it's their friends,
and also when we go to church,it's the priest and if there are

(01:07:49):
nuns, it's the nuns.
But these are the realinfluencers.
In my opinion, the og ofinfluencers right.

So if children are given a choice,
they want more time with theirparents.
The parents find this to beastounding, but they've done
studies where they said wouldyou prefer the latest Xbox or
one more hour a week with your?
They all choose the dad becausesome kids are not getting
enough time with their parentsand so you could say their

(01:08:20):
parents are not the mostinfluence in their life anymore.
Just because there's so muchfrenzy and kids are being farmed
out here.
There, people are too busy, youknow.
They need to just chill andjust take a breath.
Kids like to just hang out witheach other in the backyard,
make their own fun.
You know like unstructured playis so vital to kids' growth and
development, and get them offof those devices a little bit is

(01:08:44):
okay, you know.
That's why I love Carlo Acutis,because he would only do one
hour a week of video games.
He said there's more importantthings to be doing in my life.
He did so much Like.
He liked to help the homeless.
He loved to pray, of course,and he had his website that he
was building of the Eucharisticmiracles around the world.
So we think our kids preferscreens.
If we give them unfetteredaccess to screens, they'll

(01:09:08):
become addicted.
And so if you think addictionis preference, it's not.
They're just addicted andthey're not happy.
They're not happy and it's sounhealthy on so many levels for
their bodies and their souls Ifwe would give them more time and
parents.
Even if your kid gets mad at youor, like I said, your daughter
might not have the samepersonality as you and so you
don't have a buddy relationshipwith your daughter.

(01:09:29):
It's okay, there's other peoplein her life too, but you're
still her mom.
You know we have to believe inour roles as parents, and if you
saw those stats that I see ofchildren wanting more time with
their parents, there's thisvisceral thing If a dad goes out
and throws around the ball withhis son, they don't even have

(01:09:52):
to say much.
That kid knows I am soimportant to my dad that he is
taking time to throw the ballwith me.
It's a visceral thing, it's arite of passage.
It is foundational for thingslike that to happen in a child's
life.

Absolutely, and one of our taglines is creating
leaders and saints.
And how do we do that?
As you were saying earlier,modeling it, and I'm not perfect
, neither is my husband, so werely on.
Well, I guess who is theultimate influencer is Jesus
Christ, right?
God, the Father, the HolyTrinity, Mother Mary, all the
saints.
So those are who we want tolook up to, and it's a journey

(01:10:31):
that we are privileged to be on,with yourself being also an
influencer, as you mentioned,Blessed Carlo Acutis.
My favorite headline that I sawin a newspaper was he is "God's
influencer," and I feel likeyou yourself are also in this
ministry of influencing for God,for Jesus, and thank you so
much for doing that, because wedefinitely need more people to

(01:10:55):
be standing up, being thatwitness that is sorely needed in
our world today.
You're very welcome.
Thank you so much, sisterHelena, and all the best
tomorrow.
I hope you have a great timewith your mom.
We'll be praying for you, thankyou so much, God bless, God
bless, Thank You, Take Care, Bye, Bye, God bless, God bless,
Thank you,T ake care, Bye-bye.

(01:11:16):
Thank you to Sister HelenaBurns for a thorough discussion
on the errors of radicalfeminism and her epiphany about
the Catholic teachings on womenand the feminine genius, as well
as its effect on Catholic womenand our families.
What are your thoughts aboutthe episode?
Do you agree?
Do you disagree?
Feel free to leave us a commentor email us at veilandarmour at
gmailcom.

(01:11:36):
That'sV-E-I-L-A-N-D-A-R-M-O-U-R.
That's a special spelling forarmour, because I'm Canadian.
For the month of October, I'mworking on a special episode to
highlight the month of the HolyRosary.
Stay tuned and God bless.
If you like our show, please docontinue to pray for us and if
you think it warrants afive-star review, please take 30

(01:11:59):
seconds right now to leave areview on Apple Podcasts or
wherever you listen to our show.
Thank you and God bless.
Have a blessed week.
I forgot to mention thank you toBuzzsprout again for sending us
to the Podcast MovementConference in Washington D.
C.
in August.
They provided us with a freeticket because we had submitted

(01:12:23):
our show and they picked somepodcasters to pay for their
ticket, and this is not aninconsequential price actually,
so it was about over $500, Ibelieve us.
So that's I don't know 700canadian.
So I just needed to find aplace to stay and a method of

(01:12:44):
getting there and, thanks be toGod, He provided.
My husband drove, volunteeredto drive.
He's he's really my hero and heis the driving force behind
this podcast, with his prayers,his support, his encouragement
and also the family that we staywith in Washington, D.

(01:13:05):
C.
We are so grateful to you, Maryand Chris, and your family.
You have such a beautiful,lovely family and you're such a
shining example of the Catholicfaith and and we are so inspired
by you and grateful for yourgenerosity.
And I forgot to mention thispin that I'm wearing right now.
It says 10.
Because when I was at theconference, Buzzsprout was

(01:13:29):
handing out these milestone pinsand at that point we had 10
episodes.
We're now reaching I believeit's 18, if I'm not mistaken,
and we have a very, very specialepisode coming up to mark a
very significant and importantanniversary in the Catholic news
community, in the Catholic newsworld, and I can't wait to

(01:13:52):
share that with you in October,the month of the Most Holy
Rosary, and thank you, friends.
And also we're going to bedoing a giveaway featuring an
upcoming guest and her book.
It is called "The Little Donkeyand God's Big Plan.
Isabella Chinska is anAscension Press illustrator,
author and just an all-aroundgreat storyteller.

(01:14:15):
So we are looking forward toher interview in the next few
weeks, but I will give you moreinformation about how to enter
this contest to win this book.
Thank you so much, god bless.
Thank you for listening to theVeil and Armor podcast.

Co-Host (01:14:28):
I invite you to share this with another Catholic mom
today.
Please subscribe to our podcastand YouTube channel and please
spread the word.
Let's Be Brave, let's Be Boldand Be Blessed together.

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Rethinking Gender and Identity with Sister Helena - Theology of the Body, Femininity and Masculinty from a Christ-centred lens

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Rethinking Gender and Identity with Sister Helena - Theology of the Body, Femininity and Masculinty from a Christ-centred lens