The Family: A Bulwark of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness

In the shadow of the Alps, where the Nigredo Monastery stands like a rock of eternity, far from the noise of modern-day Babel, Master Reding meditates on the mystery of the family. It is not mere convention, not a social construct of woke ideologues who seek to destroy it. No, the family is the sacred sacrament of creation, the divine dance of masculinity and femininity, as the Creator ordained it in the Garden of Eden. "It is not good for man to be alone," says the Lord in Genesis—and creates woman as a complement, not a competitor.

The Family

Without family, humanity disintegrates into the emptiness of the ego, the individual becomes sick in body and soul, and the state, that earthly order meant to reflect the divine, becomes a chaotic jumble of conflicts where men and women fight each other instead of embracing. Here, in the mysticism of Nigredo Monastery, where we endure the alchemical darkness of Nigredo to reach the gold of union, the truth is revealed: The family is the sanctuary of healthy masculinity and femininity, the bulwark against the spiritual abuse of our time.

Consider the family the mystical core of creation. It is the place where humankind learns what it means to be created in the image of God—male and female He created them. In marriage, this union of reason and religion, masculinity and femininity dance in harmonious complementarity. The man, as guardian and warrior, protects with the strength of a lion from the Book of Proverbs; the woman, as the source of beauty and life, nurtures with the wisdom of a Sophia, as she shines in Christian mysticism.

Together they beget children, not as mere products of lust, but as fruits of moral devotion. Brother Klaus, Saint Nicholas of Flüe, and his devout wife Dorothea Wyss shine as shining examples. In the 15th century, in the Swiss mountains, they lived a marriage of true complementarity: Nicholas, the brave soldier and wise judge, embodied healthy masculinity—strong, responsible, and ready for sacrifice. Dorothea, a faithful mother of ten children, five sons and five daughters, radiated healthy femininity: nurturing, steadfast, and devoted to God's will.

Brother Klaus and Dorothea

Their family was a bastion of morality and reason, where masculinity and femininity were united not in conflict, but in the dance of love. Even when Brother Klaus, called to mystical solitude, entered the Ranft—with Dorothea's blessing—the family remained intact: She managed the farm with a wise hand, raised the children in piety, and their bonds were strengthened by prayer and sacrifice.

Here, religion triumphs over the egoism of modernity; Brother Klaus and Dorothea show how family doesn't break apart, but becomes a bridge to the divine, where man burns with asceticism and woman blossoms in fidelity. Without such role models, healthy individuals cannot emerge. Human beings, uprooted from father and mother, become nomads of the soul, susceptible to the lies of wokeism—that modern heresy which blurs gender lines, brands masculinity as toxic, and degrades femininity to a caricature of independence.

Fathers

Where there are no fathers to guide with a firm hand and no mothers to nurture with gentle love, individuals grow up who are inwardly torn: anxious, self-absorbed, incapable of true love. And a state built on such souls is not a realm of reason, but a battlefield of ideologies—corrupt, weak, doomed to destruction, like ancient Rome, which perished from its moral effeminacy.

But woe betide us when families break apart! In our time, where divorce is celebrated as liberation and the woke movement condemns marriage as oppression, a deep rift is opening up in the fabric of creation. Masculinity and femininity, which should learn to support and dance together within the family—as in the mystical union of Christ and his bride, the Church—are becoming enemies.

The Man as Protector

The man, deprived of his role as protector, becomes aggressive or apathetic; the woman, detached from her calling as nurturing mother, becomes hardened or lost. This conflict is real and symbolic: real in households where fathers are absent and mothers overwhelmed, symbolic in society where the battle of the sexes is waged in politics and government. Look at the parliaments where laws are forged that destroy the family: abortion as a right, gender reassignment as freedom, quotas as equality. Here, the war rages—men against women, not in love, but in hate.

Mysticism teaches us: What is not integrated within erupts without. Within the family, husband and wife learn to honor their differences, as in the apophatic theology of Meister Eckhart.

Hardness, where the One emerges from the Different. Without this dance of complementarity, chaos ensues: authorities that disenfranchise fathers, schools that indoctrinate children, and a state that emasculates itself, as the desecrated church described in my earlier writings.

Wokeism

Against this wokeism, this spiritual castration, religion calls for a return. The family is goodness itself, the place of beauty where the child experiences the wonders of creation, and of morality, where virtues such as loyalty and sacrifice are practiced. At Nigredo Monastery, we practice this asceticism: masculine rigor in meditation, feminine devotion in contemplation, integrated within Christian mysticism.

We reject the soft “inclusion” that levels everything and demand the hard truth: masculinity is not toxic, but divine; femininity is not oppressed, but sacred. The state that protects the family—through laws that strengthen marriage and honor life—becomes strong and healthy. For from healthy individuals, formed within the family, arises a people of reason, serving the good.

Brothers and sisters, repent! Cast aside the lies of modernity, as the alchemist casts off the blackness of Nigredo. Build your families upon the rock of religion, where masculinity and femininity dance in love—as with Brother Klaus and Dorothea, whose holy marriage still shines for us today. Only in this way can you conquer conflict, only in this way can you heal the state. Mysticism whispers: In the family lies the secret of salvation. Sharpen your souls, honor the good, and let truth prevail. Amen.