38. Tammy's Catholic Conversion Anniversary: Easter Vigil 2024 Interview with Tammy and Dr. Jordan B. Peterson: Wrestling with God - How Tammy Peterson found God in the Catholic faith, through Mother Mary

Unexpected blessings often emerge from life's darkest moments. 

For Tammy Peterson, a terminal diagnosis opened the door to profound spiritual transformation, miraculous healing, and ultimately, reception into the Catholic Church. This episode pulls back the curtain on our conversation with Tammy and Dr. Jordan Peterson on the very day of her confirmation last year on March 30, 2024.

When doctors gave Tammy just months to live, she discovered the power of prayer through the Holy Rosary. On day five of a novena to St. Josemaria Escriva, she announced to her husband that she would be healed—a prayer that was answered on their anniversary. Her journey to Jesus through Mary led her to choose the confirmation name "Mary," and to embrace a new mission challenging the mainstream radical feminist narrative that has led to negative consequences for women and society.

Through her podcast, Tammy explores Biblical wisdom from Proverbs while offering young women an alternative perspective on feminine identity. She powerfully contrasts the "female heroine" embodied by Mother Mary—who was conceived without sin, and became the Mother of God, knowing Jesus' ultimate sacrifice—with what she terms "the whore of Babylon." As Jordan notes, "Young women are told more lies than it's possible to imagine," particularly about the value and necessity of motherhood. The consequences of these cultural deceptions, he suggests, are "catastrophic," leaving many women reaching their thirties without children and deeply unfulfilled.

The conversation culminates with reflections on "wrestling with God"—the unavoidable struggle with moral choices and conflicts of duty that defines human existence. "Life is the wrestling with God," Jordan states simply. For Tammy, this wrestling has led to a profound spiritual awakening and a platform to share feminine wisdom in a society desperately in need of healing.

Subscribe to hear more stories of faith, motherhood, and the courage to challenge cultural narratives. Share this episode with someone navigating their own spiritual journey or questioning modern definitions of womanhood.

Thank you + God bless!

To enter the Podcast Anniversary giveaway for Dr. Jordan B. Peterson's book, please subscribe to our email list: veilandarmour@gmail.com
Please put "Book Contest" in the subject line. Thank. you
The giveaway is only open to listeners/subscribers living in Canada (due to shipping costs and potential U.S. tarriffs. Our sincere apologies for this inconvenience). If the amount of the shipping is more than the book, an Amazon gift card will be sent. Conditions subject to change. Thank you very much for your understanding! The book giveway will close on May 20, 2025.

Thank you + God bless!

Chapters

• 0:00 Tammy and Jordan Peterson on Motherhood and Mother Mary
• 0:00 1:43 Welcome to the Veil + Armour Podcast!
• 0:39 Tammy Peterson's Journey of Faith
• 3:59 Tammy's New Mission
• 5:39 Challenges Facing Young Women Today
• 9:44 Wrestling with God

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Tammy loved being a mother.

Speaker 2: 0:02

And I loved being a grandmother it was the best.

Speaker 1: 0:04

Yeah, and she loves being a grandmother and it was certainly. That was the best part of your life, especially when you had little kids.

Speaker 2: 0:12

I was looking up at the stained glass tonight when there weren't any lights on and you could really see the images there, and we were looking at Mother Mary holding baby Jesus and the crucifixion was beneath and we were talking about how that was the message of the female hero. If Christ is the male hero, then Mother Mary having this baby, knowing what's going to happen, that's the female hero.

Speaker 3: 0:40

For Canadian podcaster Tammy Peterson, the journey towards Christian conversion and Easter vigil began with a grim prognosis 10 months to live At the hospital. She learned to converse with God and developed a daily practice of prayer. After being taught how to pray the Holy Rosary by an acquaintance at the time, queenie Yu by an acquaintance at the time, queenie Yu, and on day five of a novena to St Josemaria Escriva, she announced to her husband, dr Jordan B Peterson, that she had been healed of an illness that developed post-cancer surgery and that had mystified doctors. It was a healing, she reassured him would happen on their anniversary, which it did. Since that time, her daily practice of prayer continues, emboldened by the confirmation name that Tammy Peterson adopted at the Easter Vigil last year at Holy Rosary Parish in Toronto. She chose the name Mary Mary, the Mother of God, the embodiment of the feminine genius. Mary's example is what inspires the new mission that Tammy Mary Peterson has felt called to in her popular podcast giving women a new perspective on womanhood and women's pivotal role in society, a stark contrast to the mainstream radical feminist narrative that dominates academia, pop culture and the media.

Speaker 3: 2:05

In this week's episode, we pull back the curtains on the interview I conducted with Tammy Peterson and her husband, dr Jordan B Peterson, on the day of the Easter Vigil, when she was confirmed and received her first Holy Communion. What were her initial thoughts? Let's find out Before we hear the conversation. Please join me in a Hail Mary in your language. I will be praying the Hail Mary in Latin, which is an ancient language of the Church. In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen, ave Maria, gratia plena, dominus tecum. Thank you and a happy Easter to you and your families. God bless, hello and welcome to the Veil and Armor podcast. This is your host, sheila Nonato. I'm a stay-at-home mom and a freelance Catholic journalist, seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the inspiration of Our Lady. I strive to tell stories that inspire, illuminate and enrich the lives of Catholic women, to help them in living out our vocation of raising the next generation of leaders and saints.

Speaker 4: 3:38

Please join us every week on the Veil and Armor podcast, where stories come alive through a journalist's lens in mother's heart.

Speaker 3: 3:50

Thank you for joining us and congratulations. Thank you On entering the Catholic Church. Thank you. What is your confirmation name?

Speaker 4: 3:57

Mary.

Speaker 3: 3:58

Mary, and given that, what do you feel called to now with this new name? Given that, what do you feel called?

Speaker 2: 4:07

to now with this new name. Well, I am really at the very beginning of an investigation into the Proverbs, so I began to record a proverb and to comment on it. Comment on it I look at the proverb and then I go to actually an AI system that has been set up on the Bible, on scripture and on Jordan's writings, and so then I get an insight into some of the other interpretations of it, and so then I can understand it better and I write down a few of those and then I talk about my new understanding of that and what it seems to mean to me, and I'm hoping that through that, people can find a relationship, that through that people can find a relationship, and the Proverbs are supposed to be something that you can read to help you deepen your faith and to show you to broaden your scope of understanding and how to use the Bible to make your life fruitful, and so I'm hoping that that can be helpful to people.

Speaker 1: 5:24

Tammy loved being a mother.

Speaker 4: 5:26

Okay, and I love being a grandmother too.

Speaker 1: 5:28

It was the best, yeah, and she loves being a grandmother, and it was certainly that was the best part of your life, especially when you had little kids, and I think the best part of you came out then. And young women are told more lies than it's really possible to imagine, and one of them is that that's not necessary or desirable or valuable, and that's an anti-truth. It's really terrible for them. It's terrible for everyone. It pathologizes young women terribly. It, it, it bends and dements the entire culture in ways that we're barely able to understand.

Speaker 1: 6:09

And Tammy knows better than that, and her investigations in her podcast are at least in part an effort to find out why that's happened and to lay forward an alternative pathway. And part of the reason she's fascinated by the Catholic Church is because of its positioning of Mary right, and it's one of the things the Catholic Church has that's very powerful to offer on the Christian side. It's that insistence upon the divine nature of the mother, and that's something the West desperately needs. We're too demented to reproduce ourselves right. There's no more confusion deeper than that, and so, being female and having a voice as she does, she's in a position to investigate that with some depth. She's been doing with people like janice fiamengo, who's a brilliant critic of the feminist tradition, which is, in the, a very pathological tradition. It describes itself as pro-woman. I see no evidence for that whatsoever very, very little. And so well she's laying that out in her podcast and in her work, and good for her.

Speaker 2: 7:38

Yeah, and I'm going to continue to do that and I've been calling it the Tammy Peterson podcast. But I was looking up at the stained glass tonight when there weren't any lights on and you could really see the images there, and we were looking at Mother Mary holding baby Jesus and the crucifixion was beneath and we were talking about how that was the message of the female hero is. Is really that's, that's the if. If christ is the the male hero, then mother mary having this baby, knowing what's going to happen, that's the female hero, and what's the opposite of the female hero is the whore of Babylon. And so I want to juxtapose those two images and talk about. Talk about this if you're not choosing this, what are you choosing? Because this is what's, and so be very careful what you decide, be very careful what you discard.

Speaker 1: 8:44

You don't know what will pop up to replace it. Right, and at the moment it doesn't look that pretty, you might say. And so young women. They have very few sources of wisdom. They're taught very badly in universities. A tremendous number of them make it to 30 without having children. It's very hard on them and the cascading consequences of that are catastrophic. So and it's a tough nut to crack it's very difficult for a man to say anything about. If I ever say anything about young women, the most vitriolic commentary immediately comes my way, More vitriolic than if I touch on any other topic. How dare this old white man have anything to say to us?

Speaker 2: 9:33

It's like Well, people tell me. I'm out of touch too, but I don't care really Out of touch.

Speaker 1: 9:40

Out of touch with what. That's the real question.

Speaker 3: 9:44

My final question is my husband and I were at the Detroit stop of your we who Wrestle With God tour. Why is it so important to wrestle with God?

Speaker 1: 9:54

We don't have a choice. Moral choices are very difficult, especially when there are conflicts of duty, when you're, you know, trying to say divide your attention among the people you love, that's a good example. You're trying to do the right thing, but there's a variety of different ways to do that. Well, that's wrestling. No one escapes the necessity of moral decision. That's a complete delusion. If you think you can circumvent that, you can't circumvent that. And be alive. Life is the wrestling with God. Okay.

Speaker 3: 10:30

Thank you so much for your time, really appreciate it. Congratulations once again. In Genesis we read of Jacob wrestling with an angel believed to be God himself. Jacob perseveres in this monumental struggle and gains God's blessing. Struggle and gains God's blessing. Afterwards, jacob is renamed Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.

Speaker 3: 11:05

The Bible says Tammy and Jordan Peterson continue on their journey of wrestling with God. Dr Peterson's newest book we who Wrestle With God and Tammy's role in his recent book tour show an earnest and authentic striving for truth. To see how Tammy Peterson continues to explore her faith and the pressing issues affecting women in our modern world, you can catch her on YouTube, apple Podcasts and all podcasting platforms. And to catch up on how Dr Peterson explores the idea of wrestling with God, you can find his book we who Wrestle With God on his website, jordanpetersoncom. And because of our podcast anniversary this Easter, we're going to be doing a giveaway of Dr Peterson's book we who Wrestle With God. For more details, please. Who Wrestle With God? For more details, please check the show notes. Thank you and God bless. Thank you for listening to the Veil and Armor podcast.

Speaker 4: 12:15

I invite you to share this with another Catholic mom today. Please subscribe to our podcast and YouTube channel and please spread the word. Let's be brave, let's be bold and be blessed together.