A Site that Collects the Best Content Available to Fortify the Dignity of Women In Harmony with the Common Good (and So It's Good for Men Too!)
Launched just this past week, Helena Daily is the new gathering space for all Catholic women, a site that collects the best content available to help all women rediscover, highlight, and emphasize the best of who they are, helping them to become the women that God created them to be.
Dr Carrie Gress, author of the bestselling book The Marian Option and who teaches a wonderful philosophy course for creative artists for the Pontifex University, is one of the instigators and she alerted me to this recently. I am very happy to pass on the information. She told that Helena Daily, 'is rooted in the 2,000-year-old Catholic tradition that fortifies the dignity of women, and is a place where the content is rich and beautiful, drawing on the Church’s teaching as a guiding compass.'
“From the checkout stand to social media, women are barraged with a very narrow and generally unhealthy model of what it means to be a woman. We want to both challenge this narrow vision and show why the Catholic Church has so much to offer women,” she said.
The Nativity of the Mother of God
There are three women behind the new site:
Becky Carter, co-host of Thriving in the Trenches podcast, is a mother to five strong-willed children. She and her family returned to the Catholic Church after leaving it for 17 years. The years of searching for the truth have led her to be a fierce defender of the faith.
Carrie Gress has a doctorate in philosophy from the Catholic University of America. She is a regular blogger at The National Catholic Register and at My Favorite Catholic Things. She has authored several books, including a best-seller, The Marian Option (TAN 2017), and most recently, Marian Consecration for Children (TAN 2018).
Megan Schrieber, co-host of Thriving in the Trenches podcast, is a Catholic mother of six, an athlete, interior designer, and speaker who is eager to address and defend the Catholic Church’s empowering vision of womanhood and religious freedom.
The content for Helena Daily will focus exclusively on issues and topics for women and will collect fresh pieces ranging from well-known writers to obscure bloggers. The three instigators felt that although there are several great Catholic aggregate sites, none focus solely on issues and topics for women. You can see the video about the site here.
I have started to follow Carrie Gress recently through her articles on NCR and her blog. What has struck me is how by a simple, clear and unapologetic articulation of all that is so positive about the Church's understanding of women she get's noticed. And the response is not all positive. If you thought that liturgy sites had the potential for generating bitter commentary from readers, you should try looking at the response that women's issues get. I don't think I have seen such vitriol in writing as I have from people who push back on women's issues.
I am grateful to her and her colleagues Becky and Megan for having the courage to start such a project.
The Helena Daily site is live, and already offering fresh, meaningful content for all Catholic women.
Content suggestions can be sent to helena@helenadaily.com or through the URL of the site itself: www.helenadaily.com
An ancient mosaic of the Nativity of the Theotokos, the Mother of God
'Mothers, grandmothers, sisters, daughters, aunts, friends - these are the basic relationships that make up our lives. And these are the places in the past where women flourished, learned from each other, supported each other, and grew into the women that God called them to be. Through births, deaths, high days and holy days, dark days and mundane days, tears and laughter, women have been there for each other. For millennia, this was simply the fabric of everyday life.'
Quote from the video and from About Helena Daily, HelenaDaily.com
My favourite! Guido Reni's Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
