19 of the Most Inspiring Quotes from the Master of Apologetics, C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis is widely considered to be one of the best Christian apologists of the 20th century. Though he was led to Christianity by his Catholic friend J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis became Anglican and remained one the rest of his life. His writings have helped lead innumerable people to the Catholic Church.

Here are 19 of his most powerful quotes:

1) “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

2) “I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”

3) “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”

4) “The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”

5) “God can’t give us peace and happiness apart from Himself because there is no such thing.”

6) “A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.”

7) “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.”

8) “True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”

9) “Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”

10) “A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is… A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.”

11) “Die before you die, there is no chance after.”

12) “No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.”

13) “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’: aim at Earth and you will get neither.”

14) “Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.”

15) “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”

16) “Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until he has something to forgive.”

17) “Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal.”

18) “I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?”

19) “God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than He is of any other slacker.”

SOURCE:
https://churchpop.com/2017/02/08/19-powerfully-inspiring-quotes-from-the-master-of-apologetics-c-s-lewis/

Mother Teresa (Suffering)

The Innocent Suffering - 

"All that suffering-where would the world be without it? Innocent suffering is the same as the suffering of Jesus. He suffered for us and all the innocent suffering is joined to his in the redemption. It is co-redemption. That is helping to save the world from worse things."

Suffering is a gift - 
 Like all gifts, it depends on how we receive it. And that is why we need a pure heart to see the hand of God, to feel the hand of God, to recognize the gift of God in our suffering. He allows us to share in his suffering and to make up for the sins of the world."

Wasting suffering - 
"The important thing, is not to waste suffering. Join it to the suffering of Christ; offer it up with his suffering. Don't waste suffering ."

To Die daily to self...... -
"Lord, help us to see , in your crucifixion and resurrection, an example of how to endure and seemingly to die, in the agony and conflict of daily life, so that we might live more fully and more creatively.... Enable us to go through trials patiently and bravely, trusting that you will support us; for it is only by dying with you that we can raise with you. Amen."


And from Mother Teresa's mentor - St. Francis of Assisi...  
"This is perfect joy - to share in the sufferings of the world as Christ did."



Source: http://www.suffering.net/servmo-t.htm
Diverse articles on suffering: http://www.suffering.net/detail.htm#theresa

What is this Dagger Before my Eyes?

Human nature has always acted in the same way. Let us go back to Shakespeare. In his great tragedy,  Macbeth, Shakespeare, long before we had any of the profound findings of psychiatry, described a perfect case of psychosis and a perfect case of neurosis. It was Macbeth who had the psychosis; Lady Macbeth, his wife, had the neurosis. 

Do you remember the story? In order to obtain the throne they had Banquo, the King, murdered. Conscience bothered Macbeth so much that he developed a psychosis, and began seeing the ghost of Banquo. He imagined he saw him seated at a table. The dagger that killed the king was constantly before him.

 “What is this dagger before my eyes?” Imagination was the projection of his inner guilt. Note the great wisdom in Shakespeare in pointing out that wherever there is a revolution against conscience, then skepticism, doubt, atheism, and complete negation of the philosophy of life follows. Macbeth reached a stage where to him life was just a candle and had no meaning:

        Tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And to all our yesterdays have lighted folls

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!            

Skepticism, agnosticism, and atheism do not have rational foundations. Their foundations are in the moral order with a revolt against conscience.

Look at Lady Macbeth; her guilt was manifested in a neurosis.

The maid said of Lady Macbeth that she washed her hands every quarter of an hour.

 There was a sense of guilt in her and instead of 

washing her soul, as she should have done, she projected it to her 

hands. She said, “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”

Notes for my class:

Wherever there is a revolution against conscience, then skepticism, doubt, atheism, and complete negation of the philosophy of life follows.

Q “What was the dagger before his eyes?”

A  Sin

Q "What is the dagger before our eyes?"

A  Same answer

And, on a lighter note:

Source: Your Life is Worth Living, by Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Graphic source

Contraception and Fig Trees

"The root principle of birth-control is unsound. It is a glorification of the means and a contempt of the end; it says that the pleasure which is a means to the procreation of children is good, but the children themselves are no good. 

In other words, to be logical, the philosophy of birth-control would commit us to a world in which trees were always blooming but never giving fruit, a world full of sign-posts that were leading nowhere. In this cosmos every tree would be a barren fig-tree and for that reason would have upon it the curse of God." 

Archbishop Fulton Sheen

You Cannot Multiply Wealth by Dividing It

‎You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. 

What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. 

The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. 

When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. 

You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

~Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931

Who is Dr. Adrian Rogers?
Rogers was instrumental in the Southern Baptist denomination's shift towards the right that began in the late 1970s, as he was elected president of the denomination during a theological controversy within the denomination.

Putting it into Perspective

Do Not Feed the Beasts!

Vices are like beasts! If you don't starve them, they will grow into monsters and may devour you if they are vicious. 

For instance, curiosity can be a vice if it leads you to know things that will get one in trouble, and leads one to gossip or commit the sin of detraction. Curiosity is not necessarily bad, but can become an evil if leads us to sin. 

We are to starve it by abstaining from unnecessary things.

 ~ Father Sama,OP

Words

Whatever words issue forth from your mouth, 

they should comfort and not irritate the other person(s); 

they should bless, and not curse others; 

they should affirm the goodness and not focus on condemning the vices of our neighbors; 

and above all they should praise God --- always.

 Father Sama CS,OP

Independence Day Quotables

“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”

~ George Washington (1789 – 1797), first President of the United States

“We recognize no Sovereign but God and no King but Jesus!”  ~John Hancock (April 18, 1775)

  “The care of human life and happiness, not destruction, is the first and only object of legitimate government.”

~ Thomas Jefferson, (1743-1826) third President of the United States, Principal Author of the Declaration of Independence

  

 As the Declaration of Independence was being signed, 1776, Samuel Adams declared:

“We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come.”

~ Samuel Adams (1722 – 1803) is one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

  “Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.”

~ Abraham Lincoln, (1809 – 1865) the 16th President of the United States

 “If the Declaration of Independence states our creed, there can be no right to abortion, since it means denying the most fundamental right of all, to human offspring in the womb. But if human beings can decide who is human and who is not, the doctrine of God-given rights is utterly corrupted. Abortion is the unjust taking of a human life and a breach of the fundamental principles of our public moral creed.”

~ Ambassador Alan Keyes

 This, then, is the state of the union:  free and restless, growing and full of hope.  So it was in the beginning.  So it shall always be, while God is willing, and we are strong enough to keep the faith.  ~Lyndon B. Johnson

What is the essence of America?  Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom "to" and freedom "from."  ~Marilyn vos Savant, in Parade

While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian. 

~ George Washington

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.  ~Ronald Reagan

Sources: 
Quotes around the web
Keiki Hendrix
Catholic Fire by Jean H. via Colleen Hammond

Receiving The Most Holy Eucharist

Here are some of the reasons I feel it important for me to receive Our Lord on my tongue and not in my hands.

~~> Council of Rouen (650 AD): "Do not put the Eucharist in the hands of any layperson, but only in their mouths"

~~> "If some nonbeliever arrived and observed such an act of adoration perhaps he, too, would 'fall down and worship God, declaring, God is really in your midst,'" explained Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Karaganda, Kazakhstan in the pages of L'Osservatore Romano.
[Exactly!  Kneeling is a symbol for the whole world to help non-believers see that we believe the Eucharist truly is our God]

~~> "Not very long ago I said Mass and preached for their Mother, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and after breakfast we spent quite a long time talking in a little room. Suddenly, I found myself asking her -- don't know why -- 'Mother, what do you think is the worst problem in the world today?' She more than anyone could name any number of candidates: famine, plague, disease, the breakdown of the family, rebellion against God, the corruption of the media, world debt, nuclear threat, and so on.

"Without pausing a second she said, 'Wherever I go in the whole world, the thing that makes me the saddest is watching people receive Communion in the hand.'"

(Father George William Rutler, Good Friday, 1989 in St. Agnes Church, New York City, a precise transcript taken from a tape of his talk available from St. Agnes Church. Note: Fr. Emerson of the Fraternity of St. Peter was also a witness to this statement by Blessed Mother Teresa)

~~> Blessed Mother Teresa: Blessed Mother Teresa said, "Further it is the custom in our Society, and my known wish, that the Sisters receive Holy Communion on the tongue, which to my knowledge they are doing everywhere" (Mother Theresa, India 1995; Athi Thoothan Editor, Aquinas, p. 13, Vol 2, No 1 March 2000).

~~>  Fr. John Hardon, S.J.: Whatever you can do to stop Communion in the hand will be blessed by God.” (November 1st, 1997 Call to Holiness Conference, Detroit, Michigan, panel discussion.)

~~> Pope John II: He only gave Holy Communion on tongue during private Masses in the Vatican. Concelebrating priests were told to do the same. Pope John Paul II said, "I do not revoke what one of my predecessors has said about this... ... here, my dear priests and my dear brothers and sisters, only Communion on the tongue and kneeling is allowed. I say this to you as your bishop!" (Sermon, March 1, 1989, Church of SS. Nome Di Maria)

When the wife of the President of France, Madame Giscard d'Estaing came before the Holy Father with outstretched hands, Pope John Paul II placed the host in her mouth. (Homiletic & Pastoral Review, March 1997 pg 24). He did likewise for a canon lawyer who was present at the 1981 Papal Mass in Chicago.


~~> Pope Paul VI: Memoriale Domini, a 1969 document, recognized that communion on the tongue was conducive to faith, reverence and humility. Specifically, the document states, "With regard to the manner of administering the sacrament, one may follow the traditional method, which emphasized the ministerial function of the priest or deacon, in having them place the host in the hand of the communicant." In the same document it is also written, "To preserve and defend the reverence, dignity and holiness due to the greatest treasure in the Church, only kneeling, not standing, to receive Holy Communion, always on the tongue, was allowed." Thus, the document not only allows Communion on the Hand but also Communion in the Hand. However, due to irreverence and a disbelief in the Real Presence in recent times as well as the common error of receiving Our Lord simply "out of habit", I urge fellow Catholics to receive the Eucharist joyfully on the tongue. Below is my final excerpt from the document:

A change in a matter of such moment, based on a most ancient and venerable tradition, does not merely affect discipline. It carries certain dangers with it which may arise from the new manner of administering holy communion: the danger of a loss of reverence for the august sacrament of the altar, of profanation, of adulterating the true doctrine.

~~> First of all, to receive is something that is passive. The priest takes Holy Communion because the priest is the one who offers the Victim in sacrifice. Therefore, the one who offers the Victim must also take part in that Victim. But the people of God are to receive Holy Communion. To take the Host from your hand and put It into your own mouth is to take Communion, not to receive Communion; and so it is an active thing, not a passive thing. The Lord desires to give Himself to you as a gift, not to be taken by you. We need to be very careful that we do not lose the symbolism of what is happening in the Blessed Sacrament.  (Father Robert Altier) Father's complete statement is copied and pasted below the SOURCES.

~~> Holy Scripture: In the Old Testament, it is recorded that only Levite priests were allowed to carry the Ark of the Covenent (1 Chronicles 13:2), and when a non-Levite priest touched the Ark of the Covenent he was struck dead (1 Chronicles 13:9). Today the Holy Eucharist is the Holy of Holiess, and only those who have been consecrated to touch the Eucharist (Summa, Pt III Q, Q2 Art. 3) should touch it.


SOURCES:
A Catholic Life
Vatican Newspaper: Receive Communion on Tongue, Kneeling
LifeSiteNews 
** Mission: Restore Eucharistic Reverence ** 
Catholic Apologetics Notebook
The Beauty and Spirituality of the Traditional Latin Mass




Fr. Robert Altier:

"In the first reading today Saint Paul, in his Letter to the Colossians, talks about how, in Christ, is hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge. This is because He is almighty God; He is the Creator of the universe; He is the Savior of the world; He is God, absolute and perfect. Saint Paul says at the beginning of the reading that he makes up in his flesh for what is lacking in the
suffering of Christ, for the sake of Christ's body, the Church.

"In Christ, now, there is no suffering, but only in the Mystical Body. But there is one place, which I would like to address this morning, where I believe that Our Lord is truly grieved. I want to challenge you in that area: That is, the manner by which we receive Holy Communion.

"The Church is very clear in Her documents that she desires that we would receive Holy Communion on the tongue and not in the hand.

"The bishops of America, as well as a few other countries in the world, have allowed Communion in the hand as a dispensation. But the Church is very, very clear that She does not want us receiving Communion in the hand.

"Let me explain a little as to why. First of all, to receive is something that is passive. The priest takes Holy Communion because the priest is the one who offers the Victim in sacrifice. Therefore, the one who offers the Victim must also take part in that Victim. But the people of God are to receive Holy Communion. To take the Host from your hand and put It into your own mouth is to take Communion, not to receive Communion; and so it is an active thing, not a passive thing. The Lord desires to give Himself to you as a gift, not to be taken by you. We need to be very careful that we do not lose the symbolism of what is happening in the Blessed Sacrament.

"Also, if you will notice, during Mass after the Consecration, my fingers remain together because of the particles of the Host that are there. When we take Holy Communion in the hand, there are particles of Our Lord that are on our hands and on our fingers. That is why, after Communion, the priest will purify his fingers - because of the particles of the Host. But how often the people of God, after receiving Holy Communion, simply brush the particles onto the ground and walk on Our Lord. Or they put their hands in their pockets, and Our Lord is right there on their clothing. The abuses that this opens them up to are very grave. Not that anyone is intentionally doing that, but I think it is something that we need to consider exceedingly carefully.

"What I always tell people is that you can look forward to the Day of Judgment and ask yourself how you intend to approach Our Lord, because He is your Judge. The same Lord you approach in Holy Communion is the same One you will approach on the Day of Judgment. Do you assume that you will put your hand out to Our Blessed Lord on the Day of Judgment?

"Is your view of judgment that you will shake Our Lord's hand and tell Him how wonderful it is to see Him? Or is your view that you will do great reverence to Our Blessed Lord? My view is that I will be flat on my face - not shaking His hand.

"We do not put out our hand to God. Scripture says that God holds us in the palm of His hand. We should not be holding God in the palm of ours. He created us; He made us in His image and likeness. He is the Creator; we are the creature. We must approach Him with the greatest reverence, the greatest respect.

"If we simply look at the fruit that has been borne by Holy Communion being taken in the hand, it is not good: the loss of reverence for the Blessed Sacrament, the familiarity.

"Thankfully it is not happening here, but go to most churches and ask yourself if you see people praying before Mass or if they are chatting, goofing around, and talking.

"We have lost the reverence for the Real Presence because Jesus is just "our buddy" when we put our hand out to Him; He is not our God when we do that. So we need to be very careful.

"But beyond that, we can look also at what has happened spiritually to the people of God. Since we have been receiving Communion in the hand, we have lost sight of the idea of going to Confession, of our own sinfulness, of the reverence we must have for Our Lord. We have made Communion so easy a thing and so nonchalant a thing that people have lost that sense of reverence, of awe, and of respect in the Presence of Our Lord.

"I challenge you to think very seriously about this issue. The bishops, like I say, have allowed it; it is not a sin if you receive Holy Communion in the hand. In some places in the early Church they did that; Saint Justin talks about it. But the Church stopped it because of the abuses against the Blessed Sacrament that were occurring. I ask you to really pray about that.

"Look at Jesus in the Eucharist and ask yourself, "Do I really, truly believe that this is God? That this is my Creator and my Redeemer? How, then, do I desire to approach Him?" I really believe, if you pray that through, that there is only one conclusion to which you can come.

"Then, I beg you, do not remain silent about it. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Bring that word to others because all those good people out there, I do not think that they are willfully trying to do anything that would grieve Our Lord; they are doing what they have been told to do.

"But again, look at what has happened in the last forty years of this particular practice and ask yourself if the fruit it has borne has been good. Obviously, you love Our Lord: You are here at daily Mass; you are here every morning. The love of Our Lord is evident in you. Bring that love of Jesus out from here. The love that is in your heart, proclaim it to others and ask them in the same way to consider their actions toward Our Lord.

"Let us bring the reverence to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament back so that we can give Him fitting worship and praise because He is God, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are contained."

Applause and Mass

There is clapping DURING Mass (in recognition of some person or persons) at least once a month at my parish. It makes me want to cringe. Hopefully I stand very still and do not let the horror show on my face. The applause is disruptive enough to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass which is a re-presentation of the Holy Sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
I do not want to heap my obvious disapproval onto the situation. I just want it to be over and done with so we can get back to focus on our Lord.
Now . . . clapping for the choir or cantor? Well, unfortunately, that happens after every Mass at my parish and it makes me very sad.

There is a great post about this over at The Journey: Almost Not Catholic.

Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI said this:

"Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment."

I know this is a backwards introduction Brent's great post over at The Journey: Almost Not Catholic but here is my comment.

I agree, agree and agree some more. And, since I am at my dining room table I am giving you a hearty round of applause!  ;-)
My family and I stand very still when clapping breaks out in or after Mass. Sometimes I think people feel were are cold fish. I sometimes wish they would ask why we do not clap. I hope our love for Christ would pour out in our answer and they could understand why we do not join in on praise for some kind of entertainment or "appreciation of human achievement".

The 1st and obvious reason we do not participate in applause is, as you stated, -- Mass is for and about our Lord.
The 2nd reason is that it seems very wrong that some people are celebrated and esteemed and congratulated and/or thanked when, in reality, there will be many left out.
Do we take time to thank the janitors, the people who volunteer time to keep the grounds clean, the men and women who run the nursery or those who take the Holy Eucharist to the sick? Do we get emotional and heap praise on the ushers or the readers?
Our Holy Father said it beautifully - thank you for that quote!

Be Still & Know That I am God! (Psalm 46)

If the heart wanders or is distracted, bring it back to the point quite gently and replace it tenderly in its Master's presence. And even if you did nothing during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back and place it again in Our Lord's presence, though it went away every time you brought it back, your hour would be very well employed.       ~~ St. Francis de Sales

The LORD himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still.   Exodus 14:14

                                                                                                                                    

Be still and know that I am God!

                                        Psalm 46:10 (RSV)   46:11 (NAB)

Fight for Your Joy

I find this a helpful way to check myself when I’m tempted to give in. I just say to myself,

“NO. Not today. This is my day to keep that joy, to hold on to the love of Jesus. Today, nothing is going to take that away. I know this situation stinks, but I AM going to fight for my joy. This is MY time; God made me for this situation. I can do this.”

So when you are frustrated, tired, disappointed, struggling—rebel against the world and against the devil.

Fight for your joy.



 
Full article by Peter Mirus over at Catholic Culture

The Bitter Tree

Bitterness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.     Ron McManus

The problem -- Ephesians 4:31

All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice.

The solution -- Ephesians 4:32

(And) be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.

H/T: My dear friend, Angela!! 

Pot Pourri

(1) First a funny and then (2) a serious . . . . .

Found this on FaceBook:

(1) Remember, there are three religious truths:

1. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
2. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the vicar of Christ.
3. Methodists do not recognize each other in the liquor store or at strip club. 

(2) A Mark Shea's quote and then a link that exemplifies it:  

“Show me a culture that despises virginity and I’ll show you a culture that despises children.”

Sadly, I think that thid is all too applicable in our world. Read The Anchoress' post,  Pedophilia Chic; Criminal Parenting?


SOURCES: Steve Shaffer & The Anchoress

No Can Do!

"We are living in an era where people believe in Christ, but not in his Church.

They want the king, but not the kingdom; they want to believe without belonging; they want the faith, but not the faithful.

But for the committed Catholic, the answer to that is, 'no can do.'

Jesus and the Church are one."

-- Archbishop Timothy Dolan

Pencil Wisdom

Life without God is like an un-sharpened pencil - it has no point.

~ Rev. Billy Graham.

For Trekkies Only

"If Vulcans had a church, they'd be Catholics." 

Science Fiction author John C. Wright

 Live Long and Prosper, ya'll!

SOURCES: 

http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/

http://www.dappledthings.org/mqa09/interview01.php 

http://quidsit.com/?p=671

http://www.impactwire.com/mbarticle.asp?id=773

Read This Slowly & w/ Your Full Attention

"a deconstruction of the very idea of ethics"

That's Richard Doerflinger's judgment on the teachings of Dartmouth bioethicist Ronald Green:

Doerflinger argues that Green's proposed "Copernican revolution" in ethics, to justify embryo-destructive research and abortion does this:

It "endangers a far broader class of humans, by elevating to a moral principle the tendency of powerful and articulate people in society to regard vulnerable others as undeserving of equal regard.
Its logical implication is that there are no such things as unalienable human rights, only socially constructed privileges granted to those who enjoy personal qualities and social roles deemed valuable by the majority at a given time." 

Read the whole thing:  http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_journal_of_bioethics/v002/2.1doerflinger.html

In America, do we recognize unalienable human rights or just socially constructed privileges granted to those who enjoy personal qualities and social roles deemed valuable by the majority at a given time? 

H/T: Mirror of Justice

Chesterton Quote - A Woman's Function

How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about [arithmetic] , and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? 
How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone?
No, a woman’s function is laborious because it is gigantic, not because it is minute.  
~ G. K. Chesterton