Princess Guide (eBook)

Faith Lessons from Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty

Jennessa Terraccino (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
192 Seiten
Servant (Verlag)
978-1-63582-459-9 (ISBN)

The Princess Guide uses the stories of three princesses (Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty) to inspire dignity, femininity, and fervent faith and explore issues important to women today. Scenes from the fairy tales are the backdrop for a new way to look at beauty, vocation, sexuality and chastity, modesty in fashion, and friendship. Personal stories and passages from Scripture, the wisdom of the saints, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church help you discover the princess within.

Chapter One

MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL

~ Beauty ~

Every young woman, if she is honest with herself, will admit that the word “beautiful” is often on her mind. Continually, she finds herself tossing about the question, “Am I beautiful?”—a question that motivates her actions, launching a routine of reflective glances. Whether at home, in the car, or in a passing shop window, she finds herself staring back in a glassy gaze as she internally questions, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”

You may recall the opening of Snow White. One of the first characters we meet is the crowned Queen. She is fierce, and, yes, she appears beautiful. Her obsession with beauty is deep, though her actual beauty is not. Her heart is afflicted with a diseased question. She, who models woman’s insecurity, interrogates the fire-filled mirror and asks, “Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who in this land is the fairest of them all?”1 Certainly, this is a question that has entered our own thoughts, but from where does this unsettling query arise?

Well, it began with one woman. Her name? Eve. Just as the Queen speaks with something known as her slave, Eve spoke with a serpent that tried to enslave. And every woman since then has done so. Eve must have been stunningly beautiful. After all, she, like all of us, was made in the image and likeness of God (see Genesis 1:26). Without a doubt, beauty is one of God’s many attributes, and I am sure Eve reflected it through a pure, untouched exquisiteness. Yet, she ached to obtain something more, and, with some light convincing, she became sure that God was holding out on her.

Once she eats, and defies the heavenly King, the battle between good and evil is set in motion. Eve’s vision is forever tainted, and a fatal fountain of curses springs forth. Instantly, she is ashamed of herself, and questions, “Am I beautiful?” Doubting, she hides her naked self. God finds her still, and when he does, he has a lot to say. In the midst of a list of repercussions, God says to the Serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman” (Genesis 3:15). What does that mean for Eve and any young woman? Satan is forever her antagonist. He hates her, and he rivals God for her heart. He whispers words of doubt and temptations to the soul, and he seeks to make her ill-willed toward God and others. And the worst part is that he’s not so obvious about his actions. He’s a trickster. Subtle, polluted thoughts and ideas are always in the mind, sprouting forth from the enemy’s secret promptings. All of this creates quite the drama, in which a woman is at war with herself and other women. How much we have bought into the lies that Satan feeds. For every woman, it is a daily struggle to identify one’s own beauty—and assess how it measures up to others’.

We see this in Snow White. The mirror does not affirm the Queen in her unspoken desire to be “most beautiful.” Instead, to the Queen’s query, the mirror says: “Young Snow White…she is most fair. For none with her beauty will ever compare.”2 She “who was as white as snow, with lips as red as blood, and whose hair was as black as ebony.”3

What a scene! Can you feel the intense passion building in her heart? Once the Queen feels that her beauty is under attack, she seeks to exterminate the threat. What does she ask, but for the assigned assassin to bring back Snow White’s heart? Just like the enemy, Satan, she is after the heart.

Is it like this in your community? Unlike guys, ladies are not as prone to break out in a fistfight, but they have been known to demoralize the heart of their projected rival. First, there are the silent glances filled with judgment: “I’ll glance at her earrings and recognize that they are cute, but not affirm her.” You know the destructive mind games that you play over a girl who makes you question your own beauty. Soon, soundless snobbery results in a vindictive verbal exchange filled with jealous talk designed to demoralize. By deflating someone else, we hope to inflate ourselves, especially at times when we feel threatened by another woman’s skills, status, stuff, or splendor. However, it is wise to embrace the words of St. Jerome, who said, “The face is the mirror of the mind, and a woman’s eyes without a word betray the secrets of her heart.”4 If your mind isn’t producing a good reflection, it is time to purify it.

Thus, we cannot continue in harshness, whether in thought, facial expression, or deed. Nor can we continue in vain self-focus. It’s time to break the curse. Time to stop picking rotten fruit from the wrong tree and start picking life-giving fruit from the tree of life. You haven’t forgotten about that tree, have you? Along with the tree of knowledge of good and evil, a second tree was also there in the garden. “And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden” (Genesis 2:9). That tree still remains; it is Christ upon the cross, with his arms outstretched to you, ready to embrace you, ready to forgive you, ready to redeem you, ready to love you. Christ is food for your soul.

Conversion from the curse of sin is imperative. We cannot live in our old ways and expect to be made new in Christ. A good conversion story is that of killer of Christians Saul-turned-to-Paul on the road to Damascus. It was there that Christ began to do his work in him (Acts 9:1–31), when he was given new vision. The worldly veil was lifted— he did not just wear Christ-colored lenses, he had corrective Christ-colored laser eye surgery. In Scripture we read, “And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized” (Acts 9:18). When St. Paul was changed, his conversion prompted action: He was immediately baptized. If we accept Christ into our hearts, then we too need to be motivated to act, to grow, to change.

Though St. Paul was not a woman, he definitely has a lot of wisdom to share with the ladies. For instance, he speaks about what women should focus on: “Women should adorn themselves…not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire but by good deeds” (1 Timothy 2:9–10). I assure you he isn’t saying you should wear a potato sack jumper and stop plucking your eyebrows. It is not bad to dress in a stylish way, but it is truly in vain if all of a lady’s energy is spent beautifying the exterior while neglecting her soul. Thus, he is encouraging each young woman to gaze more upon Christ and less on herself. Don’t throw out your mirror, but make sure you aren’t lingering in its shallowness. As Fulton Sheen said, “The more the soul is clothed with virtue, the less is the need for outer compensation.”5 Seek a true and deeper reflection, the one where you reflect Christ in all that you are and all that you do. Stop asking the question, “Am I beautiful?” and become truly beautiful in Christ. Don’t hide like Eve in doubt and darkness. Halt the hunt for a superficial beauty that will fade, and instead stand before Christ and let Jesus affirm you in your beauty.

We all have imperfections turned to insecurities that plague us, leading us to doubt our beauty, and so we often seek an unattainable physical perfection. In reality, our imperfection should lead us to what is perfect, but this perfection is found outside of ourselves. This perfection is Christ himself. In him, even our bodies will be transformed. “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:49). Our resurrected body will be incorruptible and glorious (1 Corinthians 15:42–43). In fact, on earth we have a foreshadowing of this in the saints known as the “incorruptibles,” saints whose bodies did not know the normal decay of death even after burial.

One of these saints is St. Bernadette, who had visions of the Blessed Mother under the title of the “Immaculate Conception” in Lourdes, France. St. Bernadette became a religious sister at a young age, and soon after passed away at the age of twenty-three from a terrible illness. Thirty years after her burial, her body was exhumed by the Church to find her exactly as she was on the day of her death. Her body now rests in the Convent of Saint-Gildard at Nevers, which is open to the public. Much like Snow White, St. Bernadette remains in a crystal and gold-clad coffin. Call her a sleeping saint who awaits her true prince, Jesus. It is as if her resting body is sharing this verse with all of us, “My flesh will dwell in hope…for thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades nor let the Holy one see corruption” (Acts 2:26–27). Who needs anti-aging cream when you have Jesus? Our hope and beauty are in the resurrected Christ! Jesus will “change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Philippians...

Erscheint lt. Verlag	24.1.2023
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
ISBN-10	1-63582-459-1 / 1635824591
ISBN-13	978-1-63582-459-9 / 9781635824599

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