Feast of St Augustine

On the 15^th Anniversary of my first public Yes to God as an Augustinian sister. To you Theotokos, my dearest Mother, Sister and faithful Friend, the Woman I love, and the Woman I want to be.

Why I am against the priesthood of women

It seems totally out of place in 2013, for a woman in her thirties, to take such a position and totally weird to choose to express my opinion today – the anniversary of my first profession and the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady… Today I should be celebrating womanhood and voicing the rights of women!

Priesthood is not a right but a gift

Without being judgemental and without generalising, the feeling I get, is that women who want the priesthood for women, regard it as a right. If men have access to priesthood, then, on the grounds that men and women are equal, women should have access too. But priesthood is no one’s right, it is a gift. Perceiving it as a right to be grasped, already reveals, that the motivations behind this fight are not right at all. Yes, priesthood is indeed a great privilege, but it is one which is translated into everyday humble service and sacrifice.

The right for women to be women

But yes, women do have a right which is not being respected enough yet; that of being women in the Church. Sometimes I hear or read words of women who think that it is only if we are given the chance to be part of the hierarchy of the Church, that we will be listened to and respected. I think that what we really need is a space in the Church, simply to be women, to love as women do. Being part of the hierarchy does not guarantee this space. Men will still perceive us as weak and illogical if a real space is not opened for us to be able to express who we really are and to grow as integrated persons.

Femininity and masculinity – integrated

Unfortunately, as I see it, women today are reacting to the many abuses they had to suffer because of their womanhood. Men are also suffering, trying to cope with woman’s reactions, and striving to rediscover their male identity. Many things in today’s society point to this, but I will not discuss these here; it’s not the point. I believe that the suffering of woman is very much linked to what womanhood stands for. The feminine characteristics of love are receptivity, passivity, gentleness, tenderness… they are all characteristics which have to do with being vulnerable; with being wounded. The female body is an expression of this – it is woman who receives the “other” in her, who makes space for the other and it is the virgin who is wounded in her body, in the act of union between a man and a woman. Femininity stands for the vulnerable side of love. But a love without vulnerability is monstrous! Unfortunately women today are fed up of being vulnerable and being abused for it. They strive to strengthen what seems to them as being masculine characteristics, while not preserving feminine characteristics. Their war against receptivity has one of its worst expressions in the crime of abortion. They think that being masculine is to be violent, to be strong on the outside, to be an abuser. But masculine characteristics are everything but these. Masculinity is to be brave, courageous, and protective, to have a strong will, a strong sense of commitment – this is real masculine strength. This is the masculine side of love, without which, love cannot last, no matter how tender and gentle it may be.

Humanity in its fullness

If we really want to know what it means to be a real man and a real woman, we might want to look at the scene on Calvary. There we will see a “He” who is naked, wounded, vulnerable, and a “She” who stands erect like a strong warrior. Her will is one with his, and in her, the strength of his will finds the most beautiful expression. In him her woundedness finds its full expression. They are both naked, having poured out themselves completely, they are both wounded and at their most vulnerable moment. At the same time, the strength of their will, keeps him hanging on the Cross and her, standing upright beneath it. This is what it means to be human – this is love fully masculine, fully feminine. This is what I desire for every man and woman; every child of God.

St Joseph

My heart is listening

Love

Grazie Mille Papa Ratzinger!

“Luke the Evangelist, places particular attention on the fact that Jesus was transfigured as He prayed. His is a profound experience of relationship with the Father during a type of spiritual retreat that Jesus undergoes on a high mountain in the company of Peter, James, and John, the three disciples who are always present at the moments of the Master's divine manifestation. The Lord, who had foretold His death and resurrection shortly before, offers His disciples an anticipation of His glory. Again at the Transfiguration, as at His Baptism, we hear the voice of the Heavenly Father: 'This is my chosen Son; listen to Him.' The presence of Moses and Elijah, who represent the Law and the Prophets of the Old Covenant, is very important. The entire history of the Covenant is directed toward Him, the Christ, who brings about a new 'exodus', not to the promised land, as in the time of Moses, but to heaven. Peter's exclamation, 'Master, it is good that we are here', represents the impossible attempt to stop this mystical experience. St. Augustine comments: “Peter … on the mountain ... had Christ as the Bread of his soul. Should he then depart from there to return to struggles and sorrows, while up above he was full of the holy love for God that inspired him to saintly behaviour?”

“Meditating on this Gospel passage, we can draw a very important teaching from it. First of all, the primacy of prayer, without which the entire commitment of ministry and charity is reduced to activism. During Lent we learn to give the proper time to the prayer, both personal and communal, which gives breath to our spiritual life. In addition, prayer is not an isolation from the world and its contradictions, as Peter would have wanted on Mt. Tabor. Instead, prayer leads to a path of action. 'The Christian life—I wrote in this year's Lenten Message—consists in continuously scaling the mountain to meet God and then coming back down, bearing the love and strength drawn from Him, so as to serve our brothers and sisters with God’s own love.'”

“I hear this Word of God addressed to me in a special way at this moment of my life. The Lord has called me to 'scale the mountain', to dedicate myself still more to prayer and meditation. But this does not mean abandoning the Church. If God asks me this it is precisely so that I might continue to serve her with the same dedication and the same love with which I have tried to give up to now, but in a way more suitable to my age and my strength. Let us call upon the intercession of the Virgin Mary: May she help all of us to always follow the Lord Jesus, in prayer and in works of charity.”

Pope Benedict XVI last Angelus

misericordias domini in aeternum cantabo

PSALMUS 121 (120)

1 Canticum ascensionum.
Levabo oculos meos in montes:
unde veniet auxilium mihi?
2 Auxilium meum a Domino,
qui fecit caelum et terram.
3 Non dabit in commotionem pedem tuum
neque dormitabit, qui custodit te.
4 Ecce non dormitabit neque dormiet,
qui custodit Israel.
5 Dominus custodit te,
Dominus umbraculum tuum
ad manum dexteram tuam.
6 Per diem sol non percutiet te,
neque luna per noctem.
7 Dominus custodiet te ab omni malo;
custodiet animam tuam Dominus.
8 Dominus custodiet introitum tuum et exitum tuum
ex hoc nunc et usque in saeculum.


Et Iesus dicebat: “ Sic est regnum Dei, quemadmodum si homo iaciat sementem in terram
27 et dormiat et exsurgat nocte ac die, et semen germinet et increscat, dum nescit ille.
28 Ultro terra fructificat primum herbam, deinde spicam, deinde plenum frumentum in spica.
29 Et cum se produxerit fructus, statim mittit falcem, quoniam adest messis ”. (Mk 4, 27)