Come Holy Spirit, feel the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love, send forth your spirit and they shall be created and you shall renew the face of earth.
Mother Mary, Saint Therese, & Saint Rita, pray for us!
What does it mean to be a Woman of God?
I’m so excited that we are having this retreat this weekend, because being a woman in today’s world can be pretty tough and I think it’s easy to think you are the only person that is going through the things that you go through on the day to day, but retreats like this show us we have more in common with one another than we might think. Today I’m tasked with the topic “What does it mean to be a Woman of God,” and I’m going to be honest, I probably should have started working on this talk a year ago because this is a pretty tough topic and while I am no expert, just know that everything I say comes from the heart.
In today’s society there are so many stipulations about how a woman should act and feel, how we should dress or wear our hair, what kind of colors we should identify with and the type of career path we should strive for.
Growing up in a biracial family, I’ve had a unique perspective on what it means to be a woman. For those of you who don’t know my mother is Mexican and my father is Filipino, my parents are also divorced and so I split my time growing up between two very different households. My mom’s side of the family is very machismo and male dominant, in her family it was expected that the women do the cleaning and cooking, and serve their husbands dinner, as opposed to them serving it for themselves. This is very different from my Filipino side of the family where my Dad loves to do the cooking and is happy to serve himself dinner and others as well. On my Mexican side of the family, the men are in charge of keeping the finances, where on my Filipino side it is usually the women who are more responsible with the family budget. So, while there are many similarities between both of my cultures, like being family oriented, and love of food, especially rice, to name a few, I’ll admit that it has been challenging for me to balance the different expectations and gender norms that stem from each of my families.
If we take a look at the world around us, we’ll see that there are so many gender norms and perceptions regarding women and if we aren’t careful we can get lost in the midst of all of that. The thing is however, norms and perceptions change! Over time the perception of women has changed, just as our culture has changed.
There was a time in our history where a woman couldn’t talk to a man outside of her family aside from her husband or father. There was a time where women were unable to attend school. A time where women couldn’t vote. There was once a perception of women that was you get married have kids and stay home, there wasn’t a such thing as having a career because a women’s place was not in the workforce, but at home with her children.
Then if we take a look at fashion, we’ll see that the perception of how a woman should dress has significantly changed throughout the years. In the Victorian era we had corsets and puffy dresses. There was a time where women were not allowed to wear pants, or business suits, but now women rock those outfits on the daily. In the 80s we had big hair and lots of hairspray and crimping. Thanks to Victoria Beckham, the A-line bob is now a thing. Two words: shoulder pads. One word, bikini. You getting the picture?
You see the perception of a woman may be different depending on the decade, country, or family etc. What is looks like to be a woman in the 1950s is a lot different than 2018. Yet there is still commonality between the two and that is while the perception and culture regarding women is always changing, depending on the place and time, the nature of women is constant. I will say that again the nature of women is constant.
But what is the nature of women? For me it’s our way of thinking, it’s our intuition, our empathy and the way we love. Saint John Paul 2 said that women have what is called a “feminine genius” this genius includes “beauty which mirrors the loftiest sentiments of which the human heart is capable: the self-offering totality of love; the strength that is capable of bearing the greatest sorrows; limitless fidelity and tireless devotion to work; the ability to combine penetrating intuition with words of support and encouragement. (Redemptoris Mater) That’s our nature as women.
We also have to think of our anatomy, we have two x chromosomes, we have different reproductive parts and our hormones, they are all over the place, men get testosterone, we get estrogen and progesterone. We also think differently then men. Dorothy Day says “Women think with their whole bodies and they see things as a whole more than men do.” We don’t just look at situations with our head, we use our intuition, we think with our heart too. We don’t just look at a problem and think quick let’s find an answer or solution, we consider someone’s feeing’s, we empathize.
All of these things are a part of our nature and the fact of the matter is that God created man and woman, so men and women, we’re different. But here comes the cool part, can anyone tell me what the last thing God created was when he created the universe and the world around us? Yes women!
There God was creating the universe and he was like “let there be light” and there was light, and he created land and water, this beach that we can get to spend the weekend at, he created our plants and the rainforest, he created the moon and the starts the birds in the air and the fish in the sea, and all the insects and wild animals, and as he created things they just kept getting better and better and more complex and dynamic, but the last thing that God created was man and yet the very last thing that God created was woman. After that God was like wow Woman, I can’t top that, this is the most beautiful and creative and dynamic thing, ok I think I’ll rest now on the seventh day. We laugh, but it’s true.
So next time you’re at home and your looking in the mirror and your feeling insecure or doubting yourself, (I know I’ve been there) next time you’ve had a bad day, or when you just aren’t feeling very beautiful, remember that the last thing that our amazing and all powerful ever-living God created in the hole universe was you. Because although the creation story tells us the first woman God created was Eve, he really had you in mind, he wasn’t just thinking about Eve he was thinking about all of us women.
So when I think about what it means to be a Women of God, for me everything comes back to this:
Genesis 1:27 “God created mankind in his image;
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.”
For me it comes back to the fact that over everything at the end of the day though I may wear all kinds of hats and identify as all kinds of things be it a Resident Minister, a Daughter, a Sister a Friend, at the very core of my nature I am a female created in the image and likeness of God created by THE CREATOR, God himself.
This is a powerful thing. This a beautiful thing, because at the core of everything we are as people, we are women created in the image and likeness of God, created to love and be loved. No matter where we end up in life, no matter how history or culture may change, this will always be constant. We will always be women created in the image and likeness of God, to be loved and to love. No matter what, our first identity has to come from God. We have to live our lives rooted in faith knowing whose we are and where we come from. One of my favorite quotes comes from Fr. Pedro Arrupe, he says this:
“Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”
There are so many things in this world that are transitory, life is constantly on the move, one day you’re a student, then you have a career, maybe you get married, and have kids, or maybe you don’t but either way time moves on and we get older and the roles we find ourselves in change. Yet despite all our changing roles, our first identity must be rooted in God, our faith must remain constant, this is why falling in love with God has to be one of our first priorities, it has to be embedded in our identity as Women of God.
On this retreat we are going to have so many opportunities to learn more about what it means to be a Woman of God, we’ll here stories and experiences from other women, we’ll also hear about women of faith that we look up to, and we’ll have more time to get to know one another and grow in community. My prayer is that this retreat will help you to grow in faith, I pray that you will meet new people and form lasting relationships, my hope is that you’ll learn something new or gain new perspective and find new insight about yourself, but more than anything I pray that this retreat will help you to fall more in love with the One who created you, because if we have God in our lives and we live our life rooted in faith I firmly believe that everything else will follow step.
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