| Sunday Style / Thoughts On Grace Kelly |

By -
Hi there, ya'll! =)

I've been going through a slight (cough) Grace Kelly obsession lately.  A friend had me watch "High Society" a few months ago, and I was utterly captivated by Grace's style, poise, elegance, beauty...in short, everything about her.  Her grace (wink) was such a contrast to pretty much every female actress and celebrity today that it really inspired me to try and develop these traits more in myself.  Now, Grace Kelly certainly wasn't perfect, and there are many aspects of her life I do NOT want to imitate, but from reading several of her biographies and learning about her life, I feel I can safely say she possessed many excellent qualities that young ladies of today would do well to imitate.  With celebrities such as Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, and Miley Cyrus being paraded in front of all our young women today as examples of "female power" and "strong women", it's no wonder we have all these poor, confused girls running around with no idea how to act, speak, or dress, and no sense of propriety whatsoever.  Icons such as Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, and (another personal favorite of mine) Jeanne Crain, all beautiful, feminine, graceful women, are all but unknown to the young women of today.  Instead, they have moral depravities like Nicki Minaj held up for them to imitate and admire.




St. Francis told his fellow friars to "preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary use words."  I've always loved this quote, and have found it really is a wonderful motto for life.  We are called to live our lives in such a way that everyone who sees us knows we are children of God, and members of His Holy Church; and this goes for ALL aspects of our life, not just how we pray.  The way we talk, dress, and act are the first things the world notices about us.  When we dress like the rest of the world, act slovenly and rudely, and use slang or foul language, we certainly aren't presenting a very attractive image of what it is to be a daughter of God.  On the contrary, when we live our lives gracefully, treat everyone kindly, and are careful about our speech and dress, we give a much different image to the world.  Since the female celebrities of today are so far from being good role models (with the exception of Kate Middleton), and we no longer have any Grace Kelly's to look up to, we have an even greater obligation to show our sisters in Christ how to behave and look like ladies by our own behavior and dress.  The best icon we can have for femininity and grace is, of course, Our Lady, the Queen of Heaven, and we should strive to imitate her more than any celebrity.  With this being said, it is still a good idea to look for good and admirable qualities in other women throughout history that we wish to imitate.


Now, I realize most of us are not nearly as graceful, elegant, or charming as Grace Kelly was (myself included!), but neither was she at first.  Her poise and charm took the work of many years to develop.  Her own family believed she would never amount to much because of her clumsiness, shyness, and difficulty speaking as a young girl, but she decided she wanted to be a great lady, and she most certainly succeeded.  Now she is a world renown icon of femininity and grace! While most of us are not called to be world-renown like she was, we are obligated to brighten our little corners of the world with our own graceful, feminine behavior and appearance, and to use our gifts to bring others closer to Heaven.  Part of our gift as women is the ability to make things beautiful and desirable.  It is a wonderful gift that most women today do not even realize they posses (thank you, feminism), but is very important in shaping our societies and families.  In fact, it is a necessary gift to rebuild society and the family the way God intended them to be.  The woman is the heart of the home, whether it be her own home, or her parent's, and she has a duty as a daughter of God to make it a beautiful, peaceful refuge from the rest of the world, and to carry this refuge with her whenever she leaves it.  When we start acting like ladies, our brothers in Christ will be encouraged and motivated to behave like gentleman, and then the world will certainly begin to change for the better. 


//Outfit Details//
Sandals: Gift
Earrings: Cato's/Old
Satchel: Charming Charlie (sold out, similar here)

What are your thoughts on this issue?
Do you have any celebrity icons you try to imitate?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SAINT ELIZABETH, MOTHER OF JOHN THE BAPTIST- Feast: November 5

By -
Image
Elizabeth appears in the Gospel of Luke, where she is described as “righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly,”.  I imagine that she was warm, loving and obviously a safe harbour for young Mary, who was not married when she conceived.  When Mary came to visit her, Elizabeth was pregnant with St. John the Baptist and in her sixth month: “Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And how have I deserved that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, the moment that the sound of thy greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who has believed, because the things promised her by the Lord shall be accomplished.” 
Read more

The Memorare

By Helen Gonsalves -
Image
This popular prayer, a favorite of many Catholics, dates back to the 15th century and takes its name from the first Latin word of the prayer, "memorare," which means "remember." The Memorare is of unknown authorship, although it has been attributed to St. Augustine (354-430), St. John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) and, with more reason, to St. Bernard of Clairvaux (c. 1090-1153). St. Bernard's sermons on Mary were famous, and it was his Cistercian monks in the monastery of Citeaux in the 12th century who popularized the name "Our Lady" for Mary. The Memorare has also been attributed to the French cleric Claude Bernard (1588-1641), known as the "poor priest" of Paris, whose homilies contain passages that echo its words. No matter who wrote this prayer, it was Father Bernard who did much to popularize it, teaching it in hospitals and prisons, where Mary's intercession was effective in working miracles of grace. The first manuscript of the Mem...
Read more

'Greater Love: Richie Fernando SJ', a joy-filled Filipino missionary

By -
Image
 I haven't been able to post for more than a week as I was giving an eight-day directed retreat to eight sisters of the Missionaries of Charity near Manila. While I had some access to the internet it was rather slow. I had intended to make a post here on the murder of Fr Fausto Tentorio PIME , a 59-year-old Italian priest, in the Diocese of Kidapawan, Mindanao, on Monday 17 October. I will save that post for a later date. As I was looking for a video about Father Fausto I came across one about Brother Richard Michael 'Richie' Fernando SJ, a Filipino Jesuit scholastic who died while trying to prevent a troubled and disabled young man in Cambodia from throwing a grenade. That was in 1996 - on 17 October. Father Fausto gave his life exactly 15 years later. I remember the mixture of sorrow and pride I felt when I read of the death of Brother Richie, pride as a missionary in the Philippines that a young Filipino seminarian had given his life so spontaneously in order to sav...
Read more