.

This blog is not yet a year old, but it has grown quite well, and I am happy with the relationships I have formed since establishing it.

That being said, Modestia will continue in ‘09, and I have spent the last few weeks thinking up new threads for our mutual enjoyment and growth as Catholic women.

1. Saint of the Month

At the beginning of every month I will highlight a new saint for study, and dedicate at least one post per week on the life of that saint, devotions, and what his or her witness can teach us in this modern age.

2. Man of the Month

Because Catholic men should get some praise too! This thread will be composed of Catholic actors, models, clergy, students, activists, and any other guy worthy of a little pat on the back.

3. We Believe…

The “We Believe” thread will be my exploration of the Church’s position on contemporary faith issues. I will pay particular attention to life issues and moral theology in this thread. 

I’m also working on some analytical posts of encyclicals and papal writings. And of course, I will continue with the posts on fashion, social justice, chastity, etc.

BTW, I’m looking for more guest posts, so if you’re interested in writing about something, let me know. I hope you have enjoyed the site thus far and will stay with me during this next year to come!

Pax Christi, Rebecca. 

Good news!

I will be attending the Walk For Life West Coast on Jan. 24th in San Francisco with some friends from Catholic Underground. And of course, after confirming that I was going the first thing I thought was, “Hmm…what am I going to wear?” Lol.

I just bought this V-neck from Abort73…I’ll probably wear it to the walk:

There are some really cute and fashionable pro-life tees for sale on the web. Abort73 has a wide selection, as does the American Life League.

Love Sick Clothing also has some message tees, including this one in a variety of colors for $35:

I’ll be on the look out for more pro-life apparel…feel free to drop me a tip as well.

I’m staying in for New Year’s this year, but many of you will probably be heading out to clubs or parties to bring in ‘09. A word of caution: go easy on the sequins and glitter eyeshadow.

In my years of partying on New Year’s I have seen some ghastly fashions walking down the street. It is appropriate to want to stand out for tonight’s occasion, but consider some looks like the ones below that “shine” without endangering the lives of your fellow partygoers:

It’s not a secret, but modern slavery is a topic that hardly gets any national attention.

Women and children from Asian, African, and sometimes European countries are brought to the US by wealthy families to serve as housemaids, nannies, and sometimes objects for sex. The Associated Press wrote an in-depth piece about one young Egyptian woman sold by her family to pay off debt:

Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in northern Egypt to work in their California home. She awoke before dawn and often worked past midnight to iron their clothes, mop the marble floors and dust the family’s crystal. She earned $45 a month working up to 20 hours a day. She had no breaks during the day and no days off.

For a year, Shyima, 9, worked in the Cairo apartment owned by Amal Motelib and Nasser Ibrahim. Every month, Shyima’s mother came to pick up her salary.

Tens of thousands of children in Africa, some as young as 3, are recruited every year to work as domestic servants. They are on call 24 hours a day and are often beaten if they make a mistake. Children are in demand because they earn less than adults and are less likely to complain. In just one city — Casablanca — a 2001 survey by the Moroccan government found more than 15,000 girls under 15 working as maids.

The modern slave movement has various tiers to it, one of which being sex trafficking. A few years ago I was fortunate enough to hear the testimony of a young woman who travelled with some of her friends to Cambodia to help young girls who were trapped in forced prostitution. Some of the girls were 9 and 10 years old.

I just watched a documentary on forced prostitution in the US, where pimps will literally kidnap teenage girls to work for them. In many cases, these kidnappings are dismissed as runaways. The film told the story of a father who knew where his daughter was being held, and called the police multiple times over the course of a few hours before he took a tire iron and went into the house himself. The father was charged with breaking and entering! (At that point my blood started to boil, but the narrator quickly explained that the charges were eventually dropped.)

The way I see it, it is poverty combined with the objectification of women that is fueling this crisis. Those are big words with many issues attached to them, but there are things we can do to help. Check out some of these relevant websites:

*NotForSaleCampaign.org
*Barnabas Institute
*StopChildSlavery.com

Merry Christmas!!

I hope you had a good few days off with your family and friends. My Christmas celebration was spread over three days, the first being at home in San Diego with my mom, aunt, and her goddaughter.

I usually do the Christmas decorating, but since I didn’t come home until last Monday my mother decorated the entire house….so I wasn’t able to stop her from putting this golden floral explosion on top of the tree that as you can see from the picture, she thinks is majestic or aesthetically pleasing or something…

Christmas day is usually spent at my aunt’s house in Temecula, but my newly graduated cousin is now a counselor at a group home and had to work Christmas Day, so we decided to have the normal family celebration on the 26th.

The day after Christmas I drove up to Temecula, where we had dinner, and then went outside to see “the show.” My aunt’s next-door-neighbor spends all year building attractions for his house for Halloween and Christmas. It gets more huge every year, this time including a video presentation and Disney characters (which were his reluctant kids):

L-R: Mickey, my cousin Courtney, Minney, my cousin Tiffany, myself, & a shy Santa…I asked Santa if he was getting paid and he shook his head “no.”

I suppose there always has to be at least one family fight, this time because one of my little cousins thought he was too mature to take a picture with Mickey…the truth was that he had no choice in the matter…

After the photo ops, half the neighborhood came over and we cracked open some wine and spent 45 minutes trying to figure out how to sing the “12 Days of Christmas” until someone thought to Google it.

My cousins got a Wii for Christmas, so we wrapped up the night with a tipsy old folks (including the grandmas) vs. kids tennis match.

That was the point in the night where I sprained both of my arms. We’re a hardcore competitive family that once upon a time made a family friend’s boyfriend cry during a game of Taboo. (That game has been banned from all family functions since ‘95.)

And yes, my arms still hurt.

Pax Christi, Rebecca.

For unto us a child has been born.

The LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying:
Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God;
let it be deep as the netherworld, or high as the sky!
But Ahaz answered,
“I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!”
Then Isaiah said:
Listen, O house of David!
Is it not enough for you to weary people,
must you also weary my God?
Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign:
the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and shall name him Emmanuel.

—Isaiah 7:10-14

I’m officially home in San Diego for the holidays. I was planning on blogging regularly this week, but I’ve caught an anti-Christmas cold and am trying to get healthy again before Thursday.

But before I leave the blogosphere for a few days, I want to point you to a cool website. Never Silence Life is a site run by sisters of Barlow Girl, one of my favorite Christian bands. The girls will be walking in the March for Life come this January and are blogging about their 40 days of fasting and prayer leading up to the event.

Coincidentally, I just recently purchased Barlow Girl’s latest album “Home For Christmas” which has some really beautiful Christmas hymns sung in that harmony the girls are famous for.

As an aside, over the weekend I learned that the city of Los Angeles will have an active chapter during the next round of 40 Days For Life, which starts on Ash Wednesday of next year. There was a chance there would be no event this spring, and I was very happy to hear that my prayers were answered and we will continue to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Have a beautiful and blessed Christmas ladies. I’ll be back on the 26th. 

~Rebecca.

Eliza Magazine, Modestia’s favorite publication for modest fashion, now has a youtube channel that includes behind-the-scenes videos. Check it out:

I had a conversation with two acquaintances over the weekend. They’re both adult women in their late 20s that have reached a trasitional point in their lives. The first was praying about a potential business move, and the second was praying about getting a new job.

My advice to the both of them was to “watch and wait.” The Lord tells us in Jeremiah 29:11:

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

I’m the type of person who does not like surprises. After I had my conversion it was very difficult to trust God’s will with what to do with my life, especially since at the time I was picking colleges and trying to decide what exactly I wanted to study. But sometimes I think Christians can hinder themselves under the guise of trusting God. That need to be in control, that pressure and anxiety is the work of the Enemy. Whenever I get stressed over a situation, especially a big decision, I pray the Jesus Prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

It’s a very centering prayer that eliminates the anxiety and brings you back into communion with the Spirit. I hope this post finds you well, but if you are faced with a big decision, I would tell you to watch and wait. It may come in the form of a random comment from a stranger, but you will get the answer you need.

Pax Christi, Rebecca.

The second video from the Mona Lisa Project has been released.

More commentary coming soon…

There’s a new comment policy. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to create one, but yesterday there was a commenter who exhibited prettty much every behavior that is not encouraged on this site. (I’m not talking about the A Maiden’s Wreath post.)

Please read the new policy.

I especially want to emphasize the fact that even though I post pictures of celebrities, this is not a gossip blog. What I mean by this is that if I post a picture of Halle Berry, feel free to comment on her dress, but be charitable in your tone. But while you can comment on her dress, please do not make negative comments about her as a person, spread rumors, or accusations.

If I address the tone or wording in your comment, please do not take offense.  I am merely trying to create a Christian atmosphere where everyone feels like they are able to speak their minds without being disrespected.

Pax Christi, Rebecca.

You may not know who Bill Bellamy is, but he’s a comedian, and in my opinion a very underrated one. I’ve only seen a few of his shows, but he was very funny, and more importantly CLEAN in his jokes.

He and his wife Kristen and their two kids Bailey, 5, and Baron, 2, are on the cover of the December issue of Baby Couture Magazine.

The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, is a new order founded in 2003 of young sisters located in Kansas City. They are trying to raise money for a permanent priory and have recorded a CD of beautiful hymns in their first album, “Echos of Ephesus.” The album can be purchased for $20 at their website.

On the topic of Christmas music, the Daughters of St. Paul always have lovely albums. I also just recently downloaded some gregorian chant from the priests of Miles Christi, in case you were wondering where you can get good, traditional sacred music. 
Pax Christi, Rebecca.

I took an Orthodox spirituality class during this now past fall semester. I had become fascinated by the Orthodox church after a meeting between Orthodox and Roman Catholic priests took place on my college’s campus last year. I can say honestly that I have grown a fondness for Orthodoxy and pray for the unity between our two churches, as well as the unification of all other Christian denominations.

This made me smile:

CATHOLICS AND ORTHODOX UNITE TO DEFEND FAMILY

Prelates of Both Churches Join to Make Plan

With families in Europe facing new and greater challenges, Catholic and Orthodox bishops are uniting to offer a common defense of the sacrament of marriage and the bases of the family.

Last week, at the first common forum between Catholic and Orthodox bishops on the theme of family, the prelates considered their common vision of family values, and aimed to offer a joint pastoral plan. During the working sessions, the bishops discussed their common understanding of the complementarity of man and woman, the sacramental character of indissoluble marriage, and theological understandings of the family.

The forum was sponsored by the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe. Among the participants were Monsignors Grzegorz Kaszak, Bernard Munono, and Jacques Suaudeau, members of the Pontifical Councils for the Family, and for Justice and Peace, and the Pontifical Academy for Life, respectively.

According to Orthodox Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev of Vienna and Austria, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II, who died Dec. 5, was an ardent supporter of the forum.

Both delegations affirmed their understanding of matrimony between a man and a woman as part of God’s plan, and not a simple human institution.

To support this vision, Bosnian Orthodox theologian Vaclav Jezek urged an “authentic theology on the relationship between men and women, and between parents and children.”

“The family is not the product of a coincidence,” he said, “but rather the perfect image of communion.”

The prelates further affirmed their common vision of marriage as an indissoluble union between man and woman, and human fertility as a gift of God.

They expressed concern about the situation of the family in the West, particularly low birth rates, the consequences of gender theories, and the imposition of the idea that homosexual unions are the same as marriage.

Bishop Alfeyev lamented the position of the Christian West, “which pressures the Third World and the Islamic world to accept contraception, abortion and sterilization.”

Meanwhile, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Monsignor Kaszak, decried the imposition “on consciences” of ideologies contrary to the family. “These challenges are sufficient reason to motivate us to carry out common actions in defense of matrimony and the family against various attacks,” he said, “and to bring to light more and more the beauty of the divine plan for Christian homes.”

I want to publicly say thank you to Clare of A Maiden’s Wreath for highlighting Modestia on her wonderful blog.

I went over to A Maiden’s Wreath last night to post a “thank you” message, but was a little blindsided by a second post from Clare addressing the following comment from “Lucy”:

I’m all for modesty, and there isn’t enough said about it. Living in Las Vegas, you can’t imagine how women dress to church even. You would think they were out at a dance club. I was so happy to see that there was a blog on so called “modesty”, but was very disappointed when I went to the blog and saw that the poster’s picture actually has her cleavage in it! How modest is that!!!!!!!!!?????????????!!!!!!!!!! Is it just me or are all the other pictures of sleevless dresses and cleavage imodest. I guess they are modest for movie stars! But I ask you…. could you see Mary wearing any of those clothes. I couldn’t! And I’m sure that if she were living in our day and time, she would be wearing clothes that were stylish, that didn’t bow down to fashion trends and that were modest!!!!!!!!!

I want to know what you other Catholic women think.

This post isn’t about defending myself, as I have learned in life that when someone judges you without knowing you, there’s really nothing you can do to change their minds. But since I posted the official Modestia Manifesto last week, I would like to talk a bit more about the purpose of Modestia.

My response to Lucy’s comment on Clare’s post was the following:

Clare, thanks so much for the post about my site. You and your readers are welcome to come over any time!

In response to your commenter Lucy, some of us ladies, even the Catholic ones, have larger busts. I’ve made it a point to include apparel sites on Modestia for women like me to get dresses and tops that cater to this “situation.” LOL.

But honestly, I’m a little taken aback that anyone who may have had a problem with me or my site didn’t write to me, rather than try to shake their finger at me on another site.

There should be no judgement of any other woman’s dress, even women who one would deem “immodest.” Just recently it was “Bridal Week” on Modestia because many women find it very difficult to find modest bridal wear. I know a number of devout Catholic women, some who travel to Pure Fashion shows to talk about modesty, some who even design modest fashion lines, who wore strapless gowns to their weddings. Instead of condemning them as immodest, I tried to help other women preparing for such a joyous occasion by highlighting the best and the most fashion-forward lines of modest bridal wear.

One reason why I started Modestia was to reach out to a particular audience that is being ignored. That audience wasn’t necessarily homeschooled, or even brought up in the faith at birth. Some of this audience works in the entertainment industry, or is from an ethnic group that has felt ignored by Catholic blogs and other forms of new media.

I have been interviewed about this subject, and the point I always try to make is that as members of the Universal church, we should be pastoral to all people. Though one woman may not like everything I post or find it beneficial, another woman will. There are non-Catholic men and women who read both of my sites, and if I can present anyone with the beauty of the Church, than I have done what God has asked me to do.

PS: Dissenting opinions are always encouraged. If you, Lucy, or anyone else would like to write an article for Modestia, I will most certainly post it. Topics are limited to social justice, ecclesial matters, modesty, fashion, or something within the realm.

Being at a university in southern California, I meet a lot of different types of people, some gay, some fallen away Catholics, some atheists, etc. I’m sure many of you can echo my experience. Whenever someone asks me about my faith or why I do what I do (for example volunteering hours of my time to teach moody teenagers), I tell them I “do it” because I care. I’m not out to condemn anyone, or really even instruct anyone, but rather present the Church from my perspective, listen to others, and try to communicate the simple truth that God loves them, He always has, and He always will.

There’s a guy within my social circle that works as a film producer in West Hollywood. He’s a former seminarian with plenty of orthodox Catholic friends, but working in the film industry he also has many other non-Christian friends too. Every now and then he gets all of his friends together to teach them philosophy and lead short discussions afterward. They talk about everything from life issues to the existence of God.

One Catholic may look at that situation and say, “Why isn’t he preaching the faith to them?” Another Catholic, like me for example, looks at that situation and says a prayer of thanksgiving, because someone has reached out to a group of individuals who would never had encountered Christ otherwise.

As you may have noticed, there is no list of fashion rules on this site. Modestia is not about me preaching to you. But rather, I tried to build a site that I would enjoy—one that tackles important issues like feminism, but also one that appeals to the pop culture freak in me. I try to endorse women on this site who are role models. I try to talk about the unknown jewels of Catholic culture like Marie Miller and Ali Landry. I also try to talk about tough issues so that we can build up our minds for the glory of God.

If you want me to be preachy or define matters in black and white, than this isn’t the site for you. I’ve tried to cater to all women within the spectrum of the Church (notice the chapel veil category.) From the responses I’ve gotten both here and in my private inbox, most women have found Modestia to be beneficial to their personal spiritual walk.

I guess at the end of this rather long post (sorry!), my response to Lucy and to anyone else that may find this site questionable, let’s not grumble or condemn each other, let’s have a conversation.

Pax Christi, Rebecca.

In going through the apparel sites in the side bar, I just realized that I haven’t posted any maternity websites! Aaah, I’m so sorry! And I know for a fact that there are at least a couple of readers who are currently expecting a little bundle of joy. I will be adding some maternity websites this week as well as highlighting some designers of modest maternity wear, but in the meantime, check out some very fashionable celebrity mommies.

Gwen Stefani and family

Angie Harmon

Vanessa Williams and her son

Isla Fisher

Jennifer Garner

Ali Landry

Melanie Chisolm

Natascha McElhon…I like that Christmasy scarf!

Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Don’t forget to talk to your mother some time today!

~Rebecca.

I’m always interested in what organizations celebrities are endorsing. I know people say they don’t care what any actress has to say, but honestly if I was a celeb I would try to promote as many great causes as I could.

One of our fave Modestia chicks Ali Landry attended Baskin Robins’ “Wrapped With a Bow” event a few days ago.

I believe we’ve seen that bag before…LOL.

Gabrielle Union at the “Best In Green Awards” for environmentalists.

Some randoms:

JS at her perfume launch

Aimee Adams

Rosario Dawson

Your favorite Catholic gentleman Eduardo Verastegui recently visited “La Ciudad de la Alegría” in Cancun, Mexico and decided to have a ridiculously adorable moment with one of the Carmelite sisters.

Photo Credit

I’ve got final exams today and tomorrow, so I’ll be away from the blogosphere until Wednesday.

~Rebecca