The Dignity of Women

Nathaniel Binversie

Best known for his work as the original Director of Content for Exodus 90, Nathaniel has now tested his education with over 10 years of professional ministry experience. The majority of his career has been focused on the formation of adult and young adult men. He has served as director of mission teams, consultant to ministries around the world, launched a non-profit ministry, and authored a children’s book.

During his time at Exodus 90 he re-wrote the Exodus 90 Spiritual Exercise then crafted a formative content road map for men that transformed Exodus 90 from a single offering ministry into a three-year formation house for men with an industry leading 27 Spiritual Exercises. Having spoken in six different countries, and three continents, frequent speaking engagements around the United States took Nathaniel and his missionary family on the road full time in 2021. After two and a half years of speaking and traveling in an RV, Nathaniel and his family returned to Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Active members of their local church and neighborhood community, Nathaniel and his wife Sherry have four joyful girls with hearts for mission. If you can’t find Nathaniel and his family in Indiana, they either are back on the road speaking or making a retreat to one of their favorite spots in the Rocky Mountains to ski, hike, and encounter our Lord in the grandeur and solitude of the alpine.

Exodus 90

“For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)

It is normal for us as men to be distracted, addicted, and enslaved by so many things today. Alcohol. Pornography. Social media. Sports. Gambling. Work. Comparison. Achievement. Wealth. Legacy. It is so normal, in fact, that society’s stereotypes of men are often associated with the very idols that plague us.

What is uncommon in our time is men who are free. A free man is not a perfect man who has it all together, but one who remembers who he is: a son of God whom God has called forth for love. And he knows how much more he can become by the power of grace unfolding in his life over time, and with the support of brothers.

Through contemplative prayer, we open up to a vulnerable relationship with God. Through asceticism, we grow in the power to say “no” to the common things of the world that hold us back. Through fraternity, we have the essential support, encouragement, and mercy of other men striving after the same uncommon ideals.

The world defines freedom as the ability to do whatever you want, whenever you want, with whomever you want. True freedom is for commitment, sacrifice, and love. Like Jesus on the Cross, the free man takes up his life and then lays it down for others. What is returned to him is a life of integration, meaning, and eternal satisfaction.

Asceticism

Asceticism means training. Though it is often underemphasized in our time, throughout Church history we see the importance of asceticism in the teachings and lives of the saints, our fathers in the faith.

Asceticism is about saying “no” to lesser things so that we are able to say “yes” when God asks greater things from us. Though we should strive to reject evil in every instance, we should also abstain from good things for periods of time so that we can remain focused on what matters most in our lives.

Asceticism is not about proving something to yourself, showing that you are strong enough to others, or earning God’s grace. Exodus 90 is not a spiritual marathon or another secular men’s challenge. Exodus 90 is a spiritual exercise crafted for you to become uncommonly free for the love that God has called you to. And these ninety days are just the beginning of a new, more free way of life.

Acts of asceticism break us down in order to open us up to God. They should not lead to a puffed-up chest so much as a bowed-down head in prayer. Through the ascetic way, we are humbled. By denying ourselves, we learn to depend upon God for everything and to ask our brothers for prayerful accountability, support, and encouragement.

Links

Nathaniel Binversie

Called to More

Exodus 90

Bonus Round!

Paid subscribers to Where Wildflowers Grow can enjoy the Bonus Round Podcast with Nathaniel Binversie, where we hash out feminism, the Manosphere, and what women can do to spiritually motivate their husbands!

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Dr. Greg Bottaro

Dr. Greg Bottaro is a Catholic psychologist, founder of the CatholicPsych Institute and creator of the CatholicPsych Model of Applied Personalism (CPMAP). He received his Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Institute for the Psychological Sciences, and works to integrate Catholic philosophy and theology with relevant psychology. He leads the CatholicPsych Institute’s mission to, “Create a Catholic Standard for Mental Health.”

Before becoming a psychologist, Dr. Bottaro discerned a religious vocation with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFRs). He lived in the Bronx for four years following the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi. Under the mentorship of Fr. Benedict Groeschel, this experience formed him in the spirituality of Abandonment to Divine Providence, which he now integrates with his model of psychology, along with the discernment of God’s will he learned from Fr. Benedict.

In 2012, Dr. Bottaro returned to New York as a psychologist and founded the CatholicPsych Institute, which has continued to grow and serve clients around the world. Most recently he launched the CPMAP Certification to train others in their model of integrated accompaniment.

He currently lives in Connecticut with his wife Barbra and their eight children.

CatholicPsych Mentorship

Our approach combines faith and psychology, offering personalized mentorship to transform your daily challenges. We found that working every day with people, even if using the technology of voice messages with a phone app, worked more efficiently to build deep and effective relationships. Instead of getting to the end of a session realizing you’ll have to wrap it up to continue next week, only to then get stuck...

* Forgetting what you wanted to talk about

* Needing your therapist during the week

* Forgetting later what you discussed in the session

* Considering dropping out each week

What if you could speak to someone everyday?

* Share what you’re feeling, when you feel it.

* Get a response within 24 hours - you’re not left hanging

* Pick up the dialogue right there, that day, and keep going

* Your messages are recorded in a secure app - for you to keep

* Come back and listen to them anytime you want

Personalism

John Paul II’s personalism is rooted in the belief that each human person is a unique, unrepeatable being created in the image of God, possessing both a material body and an immortal soul, and capable of self-possession and self-donation. He argued that the human person cannot be reduced to mere material or social functions, and that respect for the person is fundamental to ethics, society, and the Church. This philosophy responds to modern challenges such as materialism, positivism, and the commodification of human life.

The mental health field has fully disintegrated from our Catholic principles, making it harder to find training that aligns with the truth of the human person. If you want to give people lasting change, you need an approach that integrates faith into science. However, most state-sanctioned programs are shaped by secular standards that undermine our worldview. This is why our training teaches psychology alongside spirituality and philosophy. We give you the tools to repair the world in a way that embraces the full individual.

No More Compartmentalizing. You are Body, Mind, and Spirit.

The world wants us to separate those things as if the human person is divided, but our Catholic worldview is that we are actually a unity of all three. The spiritual necessarily affects the psychological, and the psychological necessarily affects the spiritual. Priests and Psychologists should be working to build new models of the person that incorporate both. We’re doing our part.

Links

CatholicPsych

Fr. Benedict Groeschel

Being Human Podcast

CPMAP Certification

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Mary Rice Hasson, J.D.

Mary Rice Hasson, J.D., is the Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., where she co-founded and directs the Person and Identity Project, an initiative that equips parents and faith-based institutions to promote the truth about the human person and counter gender ideology. She is also currently a Visiting Fellow for the Veritas Center at Franciscan University. An attorney and policy expert, Mary has been a three-time keynote speaker for the Holy See during the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and serves as a consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, for the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth and the Committee on Religious Liberty. She was awarded the Cross Pro Eccelsia et Pontifice, a decoration of the Holy See, for her distinguished service to the Catholic Church by law people and clergy. She speaks frequently at national conferences, universities, and in dioceses across the country and provides expert advice to legislators, policymakers, and NGOs on issues related to gender ideology. The co-author of several books on education, Mary’s writing appears regularly in national media and academic publications. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Notre Dame Law School, Mary is married to Seamus Hasson, and they are parents of seven grown children and grandparents of nine. 

The Person & Identity Project

The Person and Identity Project assists the Catholic Church in promoting the Catholic vision of the human person and responding to the challenges of gender ideology. It responds with the answers to the questions about what is sex, gender, and the human person. The PIP stands at the intersection of the truth and a culture lost in confusion, offering a clear path toward rootedness in God’s plan for our lives.

“The impact of gender ideology extends far beyond the number of children and teens who personally experience identity confusion, however. Gender ideology has distorted the cultural meaning of “man” and “woman.” It is changing our language, dictating new words and meanings (e.g., “cisgender”), and altering our relationships. Every institution is affected. Employers and schools require new trainings on “transgender inclusivity” and institute new policies covering “gender identity.” Social media has become a minefield, where people who think biological sex is real, that males can never become females (and thus “transwomen” are not women at all), or that women’s sports and private spaces are worthy of protection, must tread lightly or face a virtual mob and social humiliation.

Catholics are called to respond. For Catholics, gender ideology is best understood as a troubling disconnect from the truth about who we are—the inevitable result of a culture that has forgotten God. As both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI have observed, gender ideology promises a false, androgynous “utopia” even as it wages a “global war” on marriage and the family.”

Links

Mary Rice Hasson

The Person & Identity Project

Books

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Emily Stimpson Chapman

Emily Stimpson Chapman is a wife, mother, and best-selling Catholic author of over dozen books, including The Story of All Stories: A Story Bible for Young Catholics (Word on Fire Votive, 2025); Letters to Myself from the End of the World (Emmaus Road, 2021), The Catholic Table: Finding Joy Where Food & Faith Meet (Emmaus Road, 2016), and These Beautiful Bones: An Everyday Theology of the Body (Emmaus Road, 2014).

In addition to The Story of All Stories, Emily’s newest books include Around the Catholic Table, a cookbook for everyday dinners and handbook for easy hospitality (Emmaus Road, 2025) and Sacred Wine: The Holy History and Heritage of Catholic Vintners (Marian Press, 2005). In recent years, she also has written studies for the women’s ministry Endow, edited the Formed in Christ high school textbook series (published by Tan Books), and published three children’s books with Scott Hahn. A fourth children’s book with Scott Hahn, this one about Saint Joseph, will be forthcoming in 2026.

Through the years, Emily has published widely in the Catholic Press, with her work appearing in First Things, The National Catholic Register, Our Sunday Visitor, Touchstone, Faith and Family, The Catholic Digest, and elsewhere. These days, you can mostly find Emily on Instagram and on Substack, where she both writes the popular weekly newsletter “Through A Glass Darkly,” and co-hosts the podcast Visitation Sessions. You also can also find her in a rambling old house in Steubenville, Ohio, where she and her husband Chris are raising their three young children, ages 7, 5, and 4.

The Theology of Hospitality

Long have I appreciated the insightful and humorist musings of Emily, all of which have encouraged me to let go of scrupulosity and embrace joy. Through the many years that Emily embraced her single state, I admired her honesty and the ways in which she encouraged others to live deeply meaningful single lives. As she entered marriage, struggled with infertility, and adopted three children, Emily lived the Catholic faith out loud and on the pages of her works. All of these moments of embracing God’s will through the struggles of life have formed her into the brilliant woman that she has become, and we are the benefactors of that wisdom!

One of the aspects of Emily’s work that most inspires me is how she and her husband actually embrace and live it. What I have come to understand as their theology of hospitality, is their lived experience of simplifying their lives in order to make room for others through community building. By opening their home to others and preparing a meal in order that they can share conversation and quality time together, they are preaching a theology without words. This receptivity gives home to weary souls in need of spiritual replenishment as well as a satisfying meal and smiling faces at the end of a long day. It is a way to step out of the busy rat race and journey with others through their weekly battles and successes, celebrating and grieving in community. In this podcast episode, Emily shares simple ways in which every Christian can respond to their call of charity and hospitality.

Links

The Story of All Stories

These Beautiful Bones: An Everyday Theology of the Body

Letters to Myself from the End of the World

Hope to Die

Around the Catholic Table

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Fr. Dave Pivonka

Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, is a well-known speaker and has served as the President of Franciscan University of Steubenville since May 21, 2019.

Father Dave has hosted multiple video series including The Wild Goose on the Holy Spirit, Sign of Contradiction on St. Francis of Assisi, Metanoia on conversion, and in 2024, 10th Hour Production’s My father’s Father on God the Father. He has written eight books, including The Breath of God, Living a Life Led by the Holy Spirit, and Joyful Sons and Daughters, Embracing The Father’s Love. Fr. Dave hosts Franciscan University Presents on EWTN, and cohosts the popular podcast, They That Hope.

My Father’s Father

In one of his most recent and certainly his most emotionally raw video series, Fr. Dave takes an in-depth look into fatherhood. He explores the ways in which our relationship with our earthly father forms and shapes our original perception of God the Father. The series sheds light on the importance of the relationship of a father with his children and how even his failings and the hurt a person may have encountered in childhood can be transformed into healing through Christ, who ultimately presents us to his father. Fr. Dave brings the viewer along as he reminisces about his own childhood, which was blessed with a father who was like a best friend and loved him unconditionally. Yet not everyone on the series has that same experience with their own fathers. Repairing the father wound requires necessary healing in order to embrace the reality of our sonship, because all of us must find our identity as sons and daughters of God the Father.

Spiritual Fatherhood

One of the most powerful points of my discussion with Fr. Dave was the insight into his spiritual fatherhood, as priest and president of Franciscan University. In his daily encounters with so many young people who are carrying their own woundedness, the priests on campus have a very important and redemptive role in the story of healing for those with father wounds. Their spiritual fatherhood is an imperfect reflection of the unconditional love of God the Father, which offers hope and a healthy reference point for those without one.

Links

My father’s Father

Wild Goose Films

Joyful Sons and Daughters

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Erika Bachiochi

EPPC Fellow Erika Bachiochi is a legal scholar who works at the intersection of constitutional law, political theory, women’s history, and Catholic social teaching. She is also the editor-in-chief of Fairer Disputations, the online journal of sex realist feminism.

Bachiochi is a Senor Fellow of the Abigail Adams Institute. Her book, The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision was published by Notre Dame University Press in 2021.

The Rights of Women

Bachiochi’s study on feminist history uncovers an underlying reliance on the cultivation of morality. This was as much for the betterment of individuals as it was for society. Author of the Rights of Men and the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft was strongly influential in British society. Her work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which was published in 1792, appealed for women’s education in order that they should have greater independence of mind and thus be better able to appreciate their duties and enter into marriages of reciprocal friendship.

Bachiochi makes the argument that “The trouble with the women’s movement today lies, rather, in its near abandonment of Wollstonecraft’s original moral vision, one that championed women’s rights so that women, with men, could virtuously fulfill their familial and social duties.” Wollstonecraft believed that in reforming themselves, women could reform the world. The weight she places on domestic duties is novel compared to the base regard we give it today. Reading her work, one is inspired by the heroic perseverance and resolution necessary to be a woman of purpose, particularly as wife and mother. Virtue is the measure by which all things should be judged.

Reimagining Feminism Today

My question to Erika mirrored the title of the final chapter of her book. As we find ourselves Reimagining Feminism Today in Search of Human Excellence, we again ask questions regarding men and women that are framed in virtue. This topic was key in my own research for the book Motherhood Redeemed: How Radical Feminism Betrayed Maternal Love. The conclusions point to the necessity of self-governance and independence of mind, which may only be formed through education and proper moral formation. For this reason, parents, above most, have a vital mission to cultivate these virtues in their children through guidance and nurturing care. These manifestations of human excellence are found in the fulfillment of the day-to-day responsibilities one has to God, self, family, and society, emphasizing sexual integrity, faithful marriages, and devoted parenting.

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One of the essential starting points in understanding ourselves is to know our purpose and mission in this world. Understanding that shared mission of our humanity then allows us to explore our differing modes of humanity, that is as women or men. When I asked Dr. Deborah Savage to delve deeper into these points, she answered that our mission, and the mission of all Christians is to return all things to Christ, to whom they originally belonged anyway. She added that woman reminds man that he cannot make a gift of himself to a bottom line or a project. He can only make a gift of himself to another person. Both of their work must be ordered toward authentic human flourishing. “Woman’s task is to bring the divine presence into the world.” This is the model that the Blessed Mother creates for all women through her fiat.

Therefore, if a woman enters a corporate boardroom, parish office, or her own home, her task is to bring the divine presence into that room. “Woman is responsible for reminding us all that all human activity is to be ordered toward authentic human flourishing.” When pressed to answer how individual women live out their mission in their particular vocations, Dr. Savage emphasized the critical importance of a woman’s prayer life, because she can’t give what she doesn’t have. Further, she added, “Whatever I do, I do it as a mother.” This was my favorite and the most compelling line that Dr. Savage spoke to me, because I believe that spiritual maternity is the gift that women bring into all situations. This spiritual maternity is imbued in her nature as a woman and is oriented toward the care of all of humanity. Understanding this truth gives women access to fully living their mission in Christ. As Savage so eloquently articulated, “Women are the guardians of the gift of life.”

Politicians have often debated about the capacity, roles, and therefore the rights of women. Philosophers have considered the differences of women and men in their mental abilities and trajectory of potential. Yet, theologians, inspired by the wisdom of the faith and the Scriptures, ask what mankind is to God, in the created partnership of male and female, and beyond that, how each individual relates to God and finds his own way back to Him. This is why I was struck when Dr. Savage stated that the real driving force behind the question of what it means to be a Catholic woman, is “what does it me to be me?” In asking this, I am asking, “How can I live out my womanhood in a way that God had in mind when he created me?” Now this is certainly a deep question to ponder in prayer, and one that all women should be dedicating far more time to than to any political debate about women. This question should shape us.

“It’s a principle of the natural law, that we’re born already in debt to our Creator for the gift of life, and the only way to repay that debt is to become that person God had in mind when he created me.”

Have I become the person God had in mind when he created me? This question has certainly resonated with me and I believe it should challenge any area of our lives that have become lukewarm or apathetic. Let’s pause to experience the great mystery of human existence! Living within my body and soul is how I discover the meaning of creation and my place in it, not by creating my own body or my own purpose.

Lovely Lady Linens

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Originally published in 1938 in German by Gertrud von le Fort, The Wedding of Magdeburg recounts the sacking of a German city, in 1630, by the Holy Roman Empire. It takes place in the wake of the Reformation and challenges both the wielding of power and religion in war. “The Wedding of Magdeburg tabulates the spiritual cost of war and shows how grace can dramatically imbue even the darkest moments of history.” The book was recently translated into English and published by Ignatius Press. I had the delightful opportunity to receive an advanced copy and read it in preparation to discuss the work with Vivian Dudro, a senior editor at Ignatius. Vivian has a great love of Le Fort’s work and is a wealth of information on the author. She has been a senior editor at Ignatius Press for more than twenty years. Prior to that, she wrote for Catholic publications including the National Catholic Register and Catholic San Francisco.

Gertrud von le Fort (1876-1971) was a German novelist and essayist. She was a baroness and attended the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Marburg. Le Fort converted to Catholicism at the age of 50, after which she wrote most of her influential works, including the Song at the Scaffold and The Eternal Woman.

Relevance: The work of Gertrud von le Fort is extremely relevant to the work that I am doing, in exploring the role of woman and mother in humanity. Le Fort visited St. Edith Stein in the Carmel in Cologne as well as exchanging letters with her. Both women were deeply impacted by the concept of woman and mother, elevated by the most perfect example of the “eternal woman,” the Blessed Mother. While The Wedding at Magdeburg does not focus on the concept of woman in the same way that Le Fort did in The Eternal Woman, she masterfully weaves in the concept of bride and mother, both in physical reality and as symbolism.

Motherhood Redeemed A Hermitage of Her Own

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About Erin

Erin has extensive experience coaching and training high-achieving professionals at all levels of their career. Her approach is informed by her diverse experience in project management, strategic planning, and human formation in the political, legal, nonprofit, and higher-ed industries. She spent her early career in public policy and project management in Washington, D.C. Often finding herself at the beginning phases of multiple start-ups, Erin enjoys the challenges of entrepreneurship. She currently serves of the Board of Advisors at the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship at The Catholic University of America. Erin holds a Bachelors degree in political science and coaching certifications from multiple programs including the Life Coach School. Her favorite city is Krakow, Poland where she lived for nearly 3 years. You’ll find her traveling on adventures with her husband and 4 boys.

SMART Goals

When you determine the goals that are actually meaningful to you and your family, the ones in which you really want to achieve, then you need to put them into SMART goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. These goals help us actually achieve what we set out to accomplish because we can measure and know when and how we have succeeded because of the specifics we outlined for ourselves. In evaluating through the SMART goals formula, we are also able to decide if our goal is relevant to the stage in life we are in and if it is the right time to set such a goal. If we decide that it is the right goal and time to accomplish it, then we need to have proper accountability and a deadline set in which to accomplish the outlined goal.

Questions to Ask

Begin with reflection, asking what I am grateful for in this last year and what goals I accomplished, what good habits I formed, and what drove the most happiness for me, personally and professionally. What am I most proud of? This kind of reflection helps to ground us and grow our self-reflection. If we skip this first step of reflection, then it is hard to move forward and we are not setting ourselves up to succeed.

Then ask, what it means if I succeed or fail at my goal? How long will this goal realistically take to achieve? What does this look like in the greater context of my life? How will I give myself parameters that will make something very big become practical? Am I allowing perfectionism to get in the way of meeting my goal? Do I need to adjust my expectations? Who is my accountability partner? How will I prioritize my goals?

Keeping in mind what it will look like to succeed and what I will do when I fail are important to beginning to set realistic goals. Sometimes the ultimate question to ask myself is whether or not my goal or the means of achieving that goal are realistic or if I need to shift the parameter of what success looks like.

First thing’s first! What is first for you?

Links

Goal Setting Guide

West of Perfection

The Busch School of Business CUA

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Angela Perez Baraquio was the first Asian woman to win the Miss America competition. As the eighth of ten children, Angela is the daughter of Filipino immigrants. Her parents immigrated from Pangasinan, Philippines to Hawaii, where she was raised. A faithful Catholic, Baraquio leaned on her faith through pageantry, tragic loss, illness, and family life. Angela Perez Baraquio joins me on The Dignity of Women to share the valuable lessons that she has learned and now implements at the Catholic school where she is principal.




















Me, Angela, and Michelle Hillaert






Angela Perez Baraquio 
Growing up as the daughter of two teachers, Angela always aspired to follow their lead into the classroom. Her second-grade teacher was another inspiration to her, creating a life-long impression. Finally fulfilling this dream as athletic director and elementary P.E. teacher at Holy Family Catholic Academy in Honolulu, she was challenged by two of her students to enter the Miss Hawaii competition, which she had already entered twice and had no plans to enter again. Accepting their challenge, Baraquio went on to became the first teacher to win the title of Miss Hawaii 2000. This would not be Angela's last time overcoming odds.
Angela went on to represent Hawaii in the Miss America 2001 competition and became the first Asian to win the Miss America title since the pageant’s inception in 1921. Baraquio's original intention in joining beauty pageants was to supplement her higher education. The two pageants together netted $14,000 in college scholarship money,  which she used to complete her bachelor’s degree in elementary education. The $81,000 scholarship assistance she received as a prize for winning the Miss American pageant went towards her master’s degree in educational administration.
Baraquio married her High School sweetheart, Tinifuloa Grey, in 2002, who is a Polynesian musician. Together, Grey and Baraquio have five children and live in California where Angela is the principal of St. Anthony of Padua School in Los Angeles county. Baraquio is outspoken about her pro-life views and has put her Catholic values above her fame, refusing calendar shoots and television roles that compromise her beliefs. 




















Angela and husband Tinifuloa 













Platform
Baraquio used her platform to promote her advocacy of “Character in the Classroom: Teaching Values, Valuing Teachers.” She believes that it is not enough to just aim for high grades. What is more important are the values instilled in the students and their character education. Negative behaviors of students can be turned around in an environment of trust, in which adults model good character traits.
 













Angela crowning my little guy!

















Tragedy, Loss, Illness
Five years after winning the Miss America pageant, and a few days before delivering her second child, Angela's younger brother Alfred committed suicide. This period of loss shook the Baraquio family and tested their faith. They went to counseling together and a priest walked them through the anxiety surrounding the state of Alfred's soul. This eventually allowed them to have hope and eventually peace in spite of the incredible pain of his loss. 
The Baraquia's would again face suffering when Angela's older sister Bernadette contracted and went through treatment for breast cancer. Two years later, Angela herself discovered that she also had breast cancer. Thankfully, she and her sister are both currently in remission.

“Here I was—a former Miss America who loves my hair!—going through hair loss and chemo. It was brutal. Laughing was the only way I could keep from crying.”

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