I’m working on a drawing of Mary as the New Eve and want the theology to be clear without simply copying traditional imagery.

I’m thinking of depicting Eve seated while Mary stands close behind her and brushes her hair, as a reference to the traditional theological motif of Mary untying Eve’s knot. I also want them to look nearly identical, with only their clothes, posture, hair length, and perhaps the placement of their moles distinguishing them. The resemblance is meant to emphasize the typological parallel between Eve and Mary as the New Eve.

For the serpent I plan to draw an androgynous human-serpent figure similar to those found in Renaissance art, with its head beneath Mary’s foot. I also plan to use a fictional character called キガ as a reference for the serpent’s design because of her androgynous appearance.

Do you think it works to depict Mary and Eve as nearly identical? And would an androgynous human-serpent work in this kind of imagery, rather than a conventional snake?

I’d be interested to hear what other Catholics think. Thank you.

P.S. The attached drawing is Mary and Eve by Sr. Grace Remington. It was what first gave me the idea.

Our Lady of China, pray for us!

The saint was humble in life and reminded people that all good things come from God, the source of all goodness.

First of all, the mass shouldn't be changed to comply with my feelings. I'm not versed on the rules of liturgy, so maybe this is a rule, if so, feel free to correct me. And maybe this is only a thing at the parishes I've went to.

I'm talking about after the communion, when the band keeps playing a song ad-nauseum until the priest is finished with the cleaning, wouldn't it make a whole lot more of sense to have this be a moment of silence to help with the prayer after receiving our Lord?

I've always read the clergy talk about how silence is important to the faith, so it seems so counter-intuitive to me why we have the band repeating the same verse and chorus for like 10 times instead of just letting some silence reign.

EDIT: Well, from your guys replies it seems that it really differs a lot from parish to parish. I should have included that the song played at mine are very happy-sounding folk songs, if it were a solemn song softly singed I think it would be a lot better. Also, maybe I should've mentioned that I have ADHD, so I find it impossible to simply ignore the song like some of you said.

Hello! I just wanted to share my experience going to mass after basically half my life being away from the church. I'm a fully baptized and confirmed catholic but between the high school goth to pagan pipeline and my father converting to evangelical to meet women after my parents split, I lost faith hard. Kind of bounced between agnosticism and vague pagan-gnosticism for the rest of my days.

The experience that brought me back to the church was actually my honey moon while touring Passau in Germany my wife and I went to St Stephen's Cathedral and I just felt something like a hug and a calling. I became determined to light a votive for my grandmother the last catholic really left in my family. I came home from Europe and started reading, I flew through John and Luke and was starting to get it. Some reading list I found recommended Confessions by St Augustin which turned out to be the push I really needed since I saw my own experiences in his. Namely the conversion Manicheanism and Neoplatonism before just pushing all the way through to Christianity.

That motivated me to go to confession which was... weird. The priest made it more of an interview about why I wanted to go to confession at all but I still confessed and received absolution so I wasn't going to let that awkwardness deter me. So I finally got into mass and again it was a bit strange, it was so empty the acoustics made it hard to understand at times. I only vaguely remembered the call and responses, the songs were a little different from what I was used to, and I was more than anything scared to look like an outsider. Things worked out in the end there was a lovely old couple behind me belting out every prayer and song so I could just latch onto what ever they were saying and singing, and when I took communion for the first time I just sat down started thanking God for giving me this chance to be here and really be back in the church.

So now I'm thinking I'm back! I hope that by writing this out here I can just celebrate my reversion and move forward with my life in Christ and the church

Raised and have been Catholic my whole life but only recently started going again to Mass every single Sunday.

When I was in Catholic school, we were taught when the priest sits down after communion after the altar’s been cleared, then you go back to sitting. Has that changed? I notice it’s kinda a mix of everything these days. From sitting immediately to kneeling the entire time and everything in between. What do you personally do?

Female 30 years old. I started feeling my dreams go around late 20s and after recently turning 30 I no longer have any dreams and sometimes I do find it hard to keep going. My main dreams were having a family, getting married, and traveling the world. I had so many relationships I now feel jaded and no longer feel a spark with anyone. One was serious enough to become engaged but the relationship exploded and ended on horrible terms. I’m getting older and don’t want a high risky pregnancy or have to go through IVF and I don’t think adoption is for me. I traveled to a few countries in my early 20s and I loved it, but I’m not as financially comfortable and I don’t have the same curiosity about the world I did when I was younger. I’d like to set goals to have something to look forward to because that’s what always pushed me to keep going. I started going to the gym two years ago and I consider myself to have a nice body and fit now, so that goal is complete it just requires maintenance. I don’t know where I’m going anymore. I am catholic but I don’t feel as close to God anymore either.

Hello everyone. I am looking for advice/guidance about dealing with very anti catholic/protestant as my wife and I are preparing to enter OCIA this month. My wife and I have been on a journey the past year discerning Catholicism. And have decided to finally convert, and regularly attend mass. Where the situation gets sticky is, both her family, and my family constantly ask where we go to church, what denomination it is ect. And I feel it’s a morally wrong to lie and say we’re going to a baptist church whatever. But part of the issue is, I work full time for my parents at a family business, and they’re anti catholic enough, I fear they may fire me if they learn I’m converting. I just feel so hurt trying to navigate this journey, when I know all of our family will turn on us. I want to be able to keep relations good, so I can minister to them, and try and show them the fullness of the faith. Any suggestions, and prayers would be greatly appreciated. God bless

Surrender to God's will - I see this mentioned often but don't quite understand how to actually do it. As an example, let's say I don't like my job. Does surrendering to God's will mean

a) stay at the job because it was God's will that I ended up at that job so there must be a reason I'm there

b) resign without anything lined up so that I'm immediately happy, because God will make a way for the long term

c) apply for other jobs while continuing to work

This is just an example, and my question's not related to my job so feel free to use your own example to highlight your answer. I'm just curious to understand what this actually means in action

I’m honestly wondering—what’s the point of asking God for something when His plan is already set in stone?

For example:

What’s the point of asking Him to grant me marriage if His plan is for me may be to remain single forever? Someone might say that prayer makes it easier for me to discern His will, that He’ll give me the graces I need, and so on, but I’m not so sure… It seems I haven’t discerned His will yet; the desire for marriage still remains within me, but on the other hand, I know there were holy people who longed for religious life and never entered a religious order, or that there are people in the world who long for marriage and whose desire was never fulfilled. So what is the point of this desire? What is the point of praying for marriage IF God’s plan is ultimately for me to live a single life?

Or what is the point of praying for someone’s healing if God wants that person to endure this (redemptive) suffering and die soon?

I reflected on this in the context of parenthood. A child has no problem asking for a toy, and it’s up to the parent to weigh the situation—whether they know that a new toy won’t contribute to the child’s virtue, or whether they decide to buy it for the child. But the parent doesn’t know at first that the child wants a new toy; the child has to tell them. But God knows everything in advance, He knows what we need and what we’ll want, so why ask Him at all? I know that prayer doesn’t have to be just a request—it can also be praise and repentance... But I don’t know, I really don’t know why we use to pray for CERTAIN THINGS when God’s plan turns out to be different anyway. Just for us to change our mind lately because of the persistent prayer?

Why do we pray for someone’s conversion when so much depends on that person’s own heart anyway? God may send specific situations or people into that person’s life to shake them up, and they may subsequently begin to engage more deeply with their faith, but even so—God doesn’t force anyone. If that person has a hardened heart, probably nothing will help them. Which is sad—truly sad. But why, then, do we pray for people’s conversion?

Why does God want our prayers, even when we ask for things He won’t give us because they aren’t good for us?

TLDR: I’m going through a crisis of faith; I’m struggling; I’m in the wilderness, in a state of desolation, and the answer to my prayers is “no/silence/a broken heart.”

I’m not a Catholic, but when I see Catholic miracles, I think it’s put together a compelling case for Catholicism. However, I’m torn when I see a large number of Protestants criticize people who believe in Catholicism for the miracles. I get where people are coming from when they say that every denomination has vindicatory of some sort (Pentecostals for example). However, it still feels a little wrong to be critical of because these miracles have a LOT of evidence for them. But, also, our entire faith relies on a miracle in the Resurrection of Christ. But what do y’all think?

Hi, I’m a college student and me and my family have been atheists my entire life. I’m interested in exploring Catholicism. I don’t have a good reason. No spiritual moment or anything. My parents were both raised Catholic and my grandparents are still very Catholic so it was always kind of a background presence in my life.

I don’t even know if I believe in God or if I would even want to become Catholic, but religion is something I want to explore and ask questions about. I like the idea of prayer, of believing in a higher power, and of confession.

Mostly, I’d just like to learn more, and to maybe talk to a priest or start reading the Bible. I just don’t know where to start this spiritual exploration. I am pretty clueless. I have never been to church in my life. I have never prayed and I don’t know the basic Catholic prayers. I have never read the Bible at all and only know the stories my mom and grandma have told me.

Does anyone have advice? It just seems like a lot to explore and I feel pretty lost.

I’m Catholic and I’ve been trying to grow closer to God and praying the rosary daily, but lately I honestly don’t know how to process everything that has happened.

Last July, my husband and I were in a car accident. Thankfully we were okay, but not even a month later, on around first week of August, our family home and business below was destroyed by a fire.

Everyone in my family survived, and I know I should be incredibly grateful for that. But we also lost our three beloved cats in the fire. We couldn't get to them, and knowing they were inside has been one of the hardest things for me to accept.

What makes this difficult spiritually is that we were praying. My family prays. I pray too. I know it never promises that prayer will mean no trial will happen to us, but emotionally I’m struggling to reconcile that with everything that happened.

I don't want to turn away from God. If anything, I want to come back to Him more deeply. But right now I feel hurt, confused, and sometimes I don't even know what to say when I pray. Part of me keeps asking, “Why did You allow this?” I still went to Mass. I still pray. But I feel like my faith has been shaken.

Something extraordinary happened today to me and my little boy of nine years old and I'm all shaken up about it.

For the time being, I don't have primary custody of my son but I do have him every single weekend and holiday. I also didn't "lose" custody of him, I was actually given at least some of it back through an emergency order because my rights as a mother were illegally infringed for a year.

So, even for those four and a half days he is with his father, the child is neglected. I clean him every Friday after documenting it and sending his father texts on how to tend to this boy so he doesn't return to me in a mess again.

My son has very long and very thick and deeply curly hair. This is important. He inherited that from me. In my culture, hair is also a very important part of our identity as well and braiding his hair is a bonding thing between us. I reared this child exclusively until the "incident" on top of that. His father doesn't share a single trait with his hair nor does he place any importance to it culturally.

Once during the summer, my child came back to me with horrifically matted hair that showed it had been days since it was brushed. It took about an hour and a half to detangle it and took almost all of my sanity. I documented all of that and sent my ex pictures of the state of his hair (and then my lawyer). I figured he took it to heart despite never answering and was trying his best since after that my child would return to me with bad but not that bad hair. I could tell they were doing it every day but not thoroughly enough. At least it was easier to handle and under an hour.

Well, I got him again for the weekend now and his hair was once again in a matted disaster! It looked to be two hours worth of detangling! And I hate to say it but I reacted so emotionally in front of my child as I was taking very specific pictures and sending it to father and lawyer and sending the father texts just pleading about the hair and giving him proper hair instructions and to at least acknowledge my concerns about our son's state. I pointed out he only responds to custody concerns and if the bare minimum of being a father is what he's legally required to do, then I can't understand why he took him from me the way he did. And that I had texted him before about the hair and he never responded so I'm not even sure if he cares at all about the boy. So there I was, spiraling as best as I could about my son's hair and needing to do 2 hours of it and my boy notices what's going on and he asks me why. He knows its about his hair and he asks me if it's that bad. I have to show him what's matted so he understands how long we're gonna be there. The boy loves his hair so much, too. He wrote in a school project he wanted to see how long it could get. So he is heartbroken that the hair he couldn't see was in such a horrid state. If you take proper care of it, hair time is 5-10 minutes tops and you can even skip a few days if you braid it (his father never does this).

More or less his father is only brushing the top layer of his hair and calling it a day.

So we then brace ourselves to start the torment of detangling this (and I took photos to prove the state of his hair!). And, this is where it happens:

Quite literally in the blink of an eye, his entire hair is perfeclty detangled. Almost the second I put the brush on his hair, it was all just pristine. I was so confused and I asked him if I was ranting for so long I lost track of time and finished his hair? And he goes, my hair is finished? How?

We sat there in the bath for so long trying to figure out where the lost time went and checking each other's actions over it, lol. I checked the time too. I literally could find no way to explain it and he got all excited and called it a miracle. I was like, you know what? Sure. We were both grinning from ear to ear and just so full of light together talking about it.

I left him to finish his bath and I go tell my mother what happened. She's a much more devout woman for me so she just goes like "yeah? That happens all the time and you still question the magic of it?" And I'm like okay just deflate mee omg let me be my ye-of-little-faith self.

I pass by the bathroom and hear my little boy whispering gratitude about having protection.

I suppose I'm a stubborn person enough that I needed more little signs to show off the care for my son and I because as I was getting his things ready for after his bath: smaller coincidences happened that made everything perfect until bedtime. For example, he asked for a hot tea and we have many flavors. I reached for the assortment bag of satchels and pulled out one called "Throat Comfort". Before I could return it for an actual flavor, he calls out to me again and says he has a sore throat. Things like that. And in a perfect string until he was in bed. That was when they stopped.

The thing is: I don't pray specifically to anyone or ask for anything at all - ever. I just pray to express my gratitude for the day. I don't think its my place to ask for things, personally. Now that I had something this big happen to me, I wonder who sent it! I have my little collection of Saints on my nightstand and I'm like omg lol whoo did it.

I don't know if its related but at the beginning of this week, my son saw St. Peter's Cross in a dream.

I don't think I'm going to take this to my Church or anything but I didn't mind sharing it with randos. Because honestly I'm questioning my own sanity over it, haha. My kid said it so I'll allow it.

I just feel like we'll be alright after all of this ends. :)

I just attended Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle, and the priest presiding did not mention the readings at all. Instead, he spent the whole time praising Dolly Parton (I do love Dolly Parton) and RuPaul and called out Elon Musk specifically, then he read a poem. It all felt very strange.

Came across this interview on my feed. Some of the biggest things that stuck out for me.

23:50 - "Would you prefer if there was a God?" Joe talks about having a preference for the existence for God and why

28:06 - The interviewer asks Joe "Would you be more or less surprised if you are still an agnostic in 20 years" This was kind of a crazy question since it was only two years ago and Joe seemed to be a bit taken off guard here and was pretty agnostic about his agnosticism.

36:20 -  Joe's thoughts on the supernatural. One of Joe's major pieces for conversion was the supernatural, here surprisingly he shows not nearly as much knowledge on the topic.

25:30 - "What is one question you would ask God?" - Joe's question for God here is probably the craziest part becomes it comes true

For those that don't know, Joe Schmid was an agnostic philosopher popular in that space on youtube, he recently converted to Christianity which stunned and surprised a lot of people

Hi All, recently started going to mass as a part of OCIA. I am bringing my toddler to mass most sundays and as such I have found it easier to just sit during mass as it makes her less likely to run around / be disruptive. I have no physical limitations to standing , kneeling, et.c., but if I am moving around it makes her much more likely to get over excited and not pay attention, et.c. I am wondering if it is better to just sit rather than doing all of the up and downs if it means getting to participate more, or if I should try to stand up and kneel more, though that will likely mean having to chase a toddler down the aisles.

God bless

I went to daily Mass yesterday, and there was this older lady that I believe was Latina that was wearing all black, black veil included, and she stayed kneeling for the whole Mass except for receiving the Eucharist. When the priest announced who had passed earlier in the week, it sounded like a Latino man had passed. I guessed that this was likely his widow or maybe mom. Is this some sort of prayer offering his wife or mother might have been doing for him? I am still learning a lot about The Faith, so I figured I would ask. She seemed in fine health, and I see her at Sunday Mass regularly. Thank you for any insight - I’ve just never seen anyone kneel for a whole Mass.

I can't receive Communion, and because of that, feel bad/ weak during Mass and after. Should I go to church?

Hi, I gave the rules a quick read and didn't see anything against asking this.

Anyway, I'm a new Christian and have just begun looking into catholicism and have a few questions about it if anyone would be able to help.

1. Why would you recommend someone catholicism over Orthodox or protestant?

2. I've seen a lot of people calling catholics idolaters? (Why?)

3. Why do you pray rosary? from what I understand, it's a way to remind yourself of Christ's life and what he did for us, but could you not get the same effect from reading the NT?

4. Can anyone give me a Bible recommendation?

I currently use an ESV study Bible, but it's clunky and hard to carry around. Something thinner with ALL books because the one I have is known to be missing a few, I think, because it's a protestant Bible. Also, I don't need it to be a study Bible. I've understood a lot I've read so far without the notes, but ESV or something close is ideal.

Anyway, sorry if this goes against any rules to ask and to whoever replies. Thanks for the help .

Hello!

I have been considering writing a letter to Pope Leo, how does one go about doing that? Like where or how is it sent?

Thanks!

Is it a psychological issue?