Teresa Tomeo - Extreme Makeover: Transformed by Christ, Not Conformed to the Culture

Extreme Makeover

Teresa Tomeo

Women Transformed by Christ,
Not Conformed to the Culture

IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations (except those within citations) have been taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible, Catholic Edition. The Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible: the Old Testament, 1952; the Apocrypha, 1957; the New Testament, 1946; the Catholic Edition of the Old Testament, incorporating the Apocrypha, 1966; the Catholic Edition of the New Testament, 1965, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Excerpts from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America 1994 by the United States Catholic Conference, Inc.Libreria Editrice Vaticana. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica 1997 by United States Catholic Conference, Inc.Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

Cover photograph:
Mammuth/istockphoto.com

Cover design by Riz Boncan Marsella

2011 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-58617-635-8
Library of Congress Control Number 2011926369
Printed in the United States of America

Speak in the Light

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
of Denver Colorado

Cardinal Henri de Lubac once wrote that It is not true... that man cannot organize the world without God. What is true, is that without God, [man] can ultimately only organize it against man. Exclusive humanism is inhuman humanism.....

Living within the truth means living according to Jesus Christ and Gods Word in Sacred Scripture. It means proclaiming the truth of the Christian Gospel, not only by our words but by our example. It means living every day and every moment from the unshakeable conviction that God lives, and that his love is the motive force of human history and the engine of every authentic human life. It means believing that the truths of the Creed are worth suffering and dying for.

Living within the truth also means telling the truth and calling things by their right names. And that means exposing the lies by which some men try to force others to live....

The world urgently needs a re-awakening of the Church in our actions and in our public and private witness.... We need to really believe what we say we believe. Then we need to prove it by the witness of our lives. We need to be so convinced of the truths of the Creed that we are on fire to live by these truths, to love by these truths, and to defend these truths, even to the point of our own discomfort and suffering.

We are ambassadors of the living God to a world that is on the verge of forgetting him. Our work is to make God real; to be the face of his love; to propose once more to the men and women of our day, the dialogue of salvation....

The form of the Church, and the form of every Christian life, is the form of the cross. Our lives must become a liturgy, a self-offering that embodies the love of God and the renewal of the world....

Let us preach Jesus Christ with all the energy of our lives. And let us support each otherwhatever the costso that when we make our accounting to the Lord, we will be numbered among the faithful and courageous, and not the cowardly or the evasive, or those who compromised until there was nothing left of their convictions; or those who were silent when they should have spoken the right word at the right time.

Whats a Girl like Me Doing in a Church like This? Teresas Testimony

Media Mania and the Feminist Mistake: The Mass Media, Radical Feminism, and the Betrayal of Women

The Abortion Distortion: Media Falsehoods and the Fallout That Followed

Free Sex and the Contraception Deception: Bondage Sold as Freedom

Mirror, Mirror: Discovering Our True Beauty Inside and Out

Our Biggest Fan, Our Greatest Liberator: Jesus, His Church, and the Dignity of Women

Extreme Media Makeover: Your Personal Media Reality Check and Spiritual Beauty Plan

Hope Springs Eternal: Encouraging Signs from the Cultural Front Lines

Lets Hear It for the Girls!: Testimonies Based on Timeless Truths

What I tell you in the dark, utter in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim upon the housetops. And do not fear.

Matthew 10:27-28

I have many people to acknowledge for this bookfirst and foremost my wonderful husband, Dominick. Without your support, faith, and love my own extreme makeover would never have happened. I love you, and when I think of all you have done and continue to do for me and our marriage I can only recite the words of Saint Paul in Ephesians 1:16: I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.

To my daddy, Michael, who was born on the feast of the Annunciation, March 25, 1926, and passed on from this life on the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, September 15, 2010: Lo vi amo e mi manchi . I love you and I miss you. Thank you for always reminding me that I could do whatever I chose to do as long as I was willing to work and study hard. Thank you also for teaching me that all men and women are created equal and deserve to be treated with dignity. You told me everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time and no one was any better than anyone else regardless of their status in life. Your sound advice continues to make a difference in my work, especially now as a Catholic journalist. Daddy, pray for me.

To Ma, my mother Rosie. Thank you for showing me that real beauty begins on the inside and in turn leads to beauty on the outside. You are one of the most beautiful women I know, inside and out. Thanks also for keeping me humble and for never letting me forget my roots, and most of all for the sacrifices you and Daddy made to bring me up in the Catholic faith. I love you.

To the amazing team at Ignatius Press for believing in me and in this book project and for providing so much help and support. Thank you Mark Brumley, Father Joseph Fessio, S.J., Anthony Ryan, Diane Eriksen, Eva Muntean, and everyone at Ignatius. I am proud to be an Ignatius author.

To my dear friend and fellow Catholic author Cheryl Dickow, who was with me from the beginning on this project. Your friendship, feedback, and input mean the world to me.

To Amy, Marissa, and Gail; thanks for all your great work with Teresa Tomeo Communications and especially your amazing efforts to promote this book. Youre the best.

And last but not least to the women who were bold enough to share their testimonies for our Lets Hear It for the Girls chapter: Janet, Astrid, Kathy, Nina, Mary Lock-wood, and Mary Dudley. I know your stories will touch so many women. Thanks for joining me in my effort to help others experience their own extreme makeover.

Teresas Testimony

How in the world did I get here? That was the big fifty-thousand-dollar question running through my mind as I sat in the audience at a Vatican womens congress in February 2008. I was somehow chosen as one of some 280 delegates from around the world to attend this important event dealing with womens issues. The event marked the twentieth anniversary of John Paul IIs groundbreaking document Mulieris Dignitatem ( On the Dignity and Vocation of Women ). I remember the excited anticipation as I jumped in the cab, headed to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and boarded my flight for Rome. My head was spinning and my heart was bursting with all the events in my life, including an enormous U-turn, that had led to that invitation. It all seemedand still seems in so many wayssurreal.