A couple of weeks ago I was in Littleton Colorado giving a talk at the Restore Tradition Conference.
For a long time I’ve been meditating on the centrality of the nursing mother and mother’s milk in the thought of St. Francis de Sales and indeed in understanding the love of God for each one of us, His dear children.
It struck me how often the saint (priest, bishop, Doctor of the Church) must have seen mothers nursing their babies — he must have been surrounded there in the 16th century by women feeding their babies at the breast constantly, so observant is he and so particular about the joys, eagerness, and tenderness of the act.
My talk was Beauty Will Save the World and How Woman is at the Heart of It. Did you know that one of St. Francis’ chapters has this title: How by Holy Complacency We Are Made as Little Infants at Our Savior’s Breasts?
I hope you will give it a listen! You can find it here.
I also recommend the talk on Beauty in the Liturgy by Peter Kwasniewski, also in that link, which I thought complemented mine very well. The two together will offer, I believe, an important meditation about what we must recover in our lives and worship today.
Please let me know what you think of my talk!
Your personal journey was fascinating! You seemed to describe Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (forgive me if I missed you explicitly using the term) as one of the unsatisfying "faiths" you found others expressing: https://www.arizonachristian.edu/2021/04/27/counterfeit-christianity-moralistic-therapeutic-deism-most-popular-worldview-in-u-s-culture/