The genius of God in creating the feminine genius is amazing. God created women to offer themselves for the good of the family, the Church and world in a way he chose only for them. God’s genius in first creating and then asking Mary to cooperate with his perfect plan is the premier example.
Mary, the most highly favored one of us all, stuns and inspires us in her response to God’s will for her and the salvation of the world: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). At the foot of the Cross, God chose Mary to be the mother of the Church, which includes each of us.
I thank God for his genius in creating and giving us Mary to spiritually help us. I also thank every woman who manifests the genius of God through her created, unique femininity and her “yes” (like Mary) to God’s plan for their cooperation for the good of humanity.
We are blessed to have so many heroic female saints, whether they were married, consecrated as women religious, consecrated virgins, or never married. The Church and the world have been so greatly blessed by the heroic sacrifices of wives, moms, religious sisters and consecrated virgins who labor in parishes, schools, hospitals, families, neighborhoods and so many other ministries.
So much of the fruitfulness of the Church today is because of the amazing generosity and feminine genius only women can offer and so many have and continue to do.
In our Set Ablaze initiative, it is my fervent hope and prayer that the feminine genius God endowed women with, along with the generosity of women in our diocese, will continue to help family life, the Church and the world by the gift of their “yes” to God’s plan for service. I love the insights of St. John Paul II in his letter to women (June 29, 1995) when he wrote:
“Thank you, women who are daughters, and women who are sisters! Into the heart of the family, and then of all society, you bring the richness of your sensitivity, your intuitiveness, your generosity and fidelity. … [Females] exhibit a kind of affective, cultural and spiritual motherhood which is of inestimable value for the development of individuals and future of society. Perhaps more than men, women acknowledge the person, because they see persons with their hearts. They try to go out of their way to help.”
Knowing that the family, Church and world today need the great giftedness and generosity of the feminine genius, I look forward to the help of women in the diocese during the pastoral planning process in each of the new pastorates. May the spiritual motherhood of Mary inspire girls and women to be heroic saints and to fulfill God’s plan for their lives and for the Church.
