"Mary is the most blessed vessel of receptivity. By her 'fiat' , she came to carry in her womb Whom the entire universe cannot contain." Alice von Hildebrand - The Privilege of being a Woman
Today I feel quite blessed for being created as a woman! I had the privilege of going on retreat today with a wonderful group of young women. The theme of the retreat was The Privilege of Being a Woman and was based off of the book written by Alice von Hildebrand of the same title. It was wonderful to hear her take on womanhood and femininity and also wonderful to see such a strong women in our Church.
As part of the retreat we were given a summery of her book and she says that the Pagan world valued masculinity over femininity and that they represented this in their phallic art. Von Hildebrand claims that the Church has been actively combating this with the opposite with femininity, simply with the words "Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus". This got me thinking about how different the shape of the rosary is from the shape of the phallic art created by the Pagans. It is in the shape of a womb! Then I also realized that not only is it in the shape of a womb it is in fact the same shape as the female symbol.
How wonderful! What a witness to the importance of women to the Church and to Salvation History itself. The same way that Christ became human through the womb of a woman so too are the mysteries of Christ brought into the world through the womb of the Church (who is also a woman)! By praying the Rosary and being receptive to the life and mysteries of Jesus we allow Him into our hearts and souls, and bring Him to the world. The rosary is a womb not only containing the mysteries of Christ, but it is a womb that nurtures the soul that prays and uses it for meditation. In it we are nourished by Our Mother with Jesus Christ.It is so unfortunate how in our world today the emphasis of feminism is not in valuing the woman and her femininity but in showing that the only way to be important or of value is to be a woman who is like a man! With sayings like "I am woman hear me roar!". I want to be valued for my womanhood not for my ability to mimic manhood. There is a value to manhood but with all fairness that is for men to be, not women. Our world is being attacked by a distorted image of womanhood and manhood for that matter. For all the women reading this, we need to take back our femininity by becoming receptive to the love of God, and give new life to the world.
I challenge you to enter in to the womb of the Church and let Our Blessed Mother nourish you with the mysteries of her Son. If you are just starting out praying the rosary I found a good website that teaches how to http://www.rosaryprayerguide.com/ . I also used the image of the rosary on the top right from their website with permission. The image of the female symbol that I used is public domain.
" The particular characteristic of woman is receptivity. This is not the same thing as being passive. Receptivity is a generous opening of oneself to another, allowing the possibility of fecundity. This is expressed in the sexual act, in which a woman allows a man into her intimate interior, thereby generating new life." Alice von Hildebrand- The Privilege of Being a Woman
