A Woman’s Role in the Church
August 25, 2009 [344 views]
I was asked to be a guest blogger on this topic for my friend’s blog Salvation is an Adventure. Here is my post…
When Tim asked me to be a guest blogger on this topic, I had a couple of different feelings. Naturally, I felt honored that he thought well enough about me to request my input on it. I also felt intimidated with the company I would be writing on this topic with, because not only am I the only convert in the group, I respect both of them so much, that I don’t feel that I have reached their spiritual maturity levels. Nonetheless, I trust Tim’s judgment; I have prayed about it and feel that God wants me to do it.
I realize this blog topic resulted from a previous blog of Tim’s regarding women being priests. I would like to voice my opinion on this issue first. It seems many people find it to be unfair that a woman cannot be a Catholic priest. Even when I was a Protestant child, I never felt right about women being pastors. I would grumble when my parents would discuss visiting a church with a female minister. It didn’t feel right at all. I believed and still believe God made the hierarchical family order for an important reason. Most women will end up having children and, in my opinion, there is no way a woman can successfully give herself completely to her congregation, when she is desperately needed at home. Now that I am catholic, I see even more that women cannot possibly be priests. At my parish, I watch both of our priests work all hours of the day and night to give themselves entirely to our church family.
In regards to having a female minister, one example comes to my mind. My next door neighbor was an adopted girl from El Salvador. Her mother decided when the girl was twelve that she was going to be a Lutheran Minister. She left her family for two years to go away to college for her studies. My friend ended up turning to drugs and promiscuity, which she believes happened because she didn’t have a mother to tend to her properly. Even after her mother returned, she was far too busy caring for her congregation to attend to her household duties. Their home was very broken.
So, where do women fit into the role of the church? Of course, there are various roles of religious orders, but I feel I would better answer this question in the perspective of wives and mothers, since I was personally called to the Sacrament of Marriage. I love being active in my church, but it is hard at this point in my life, as a homeschooling mother of four young children. My first responsibility is to raise my children in our Catholic Faith. We pray multiple times a day together and I teach Catechism to our two older sons. We read daily about a different Saint or Angel. We school with a Catholic Curriculum and this leads to many religious discussions during the day.
In church, I do what I can to participate in as much as can, without it becoming an overwhelming and, consequently, undesirable burden. I have always been an extreme believer in the right to life, so I joined our Respect Life group. I even find it difficult at times to make the once a month meeting. However, I still receive the emails and take time to pray for all aspects of life, from conception until death. I have a son in our parish’s Cub Scout Pack, so my husband and I volunteered to be the Webmasters for their website. My husband, Todd, does the content for the website and I update the calendar. We also help the pack out as much as we can fit into our schedule. Our oldest son is an Altar Server and I attend his meetings with him.
Through homeschooling, I have met other incredible Catholic mothers. Most of them do not attend my parish, which leads to yet another reason I love our faith. It doesn’t matter which parish we are members of when we are one in the Eucharist, because we are all a family. A few times a year, we attend a weekday Mass, pray the Rosary, visit retirement homes, pray for the unborn in front of an abortion clinic, make meals for new mothers or families in need, organize religious parties for our children, and offer each other support in different ways. I service the group by being one its communication administrators.
Above everything else, I have found the most important thing I can personally do for the Church is pray. I regularly pray for our priests and everyone that make up our church. I take some time before and during Mass to recognize and appreciate the Eucharistic Ministers, choir, Organist, altar servers and their Director, Deacons, Priests, Nuns, youth ministers, nursery caretakers, ushers, Sacristan, religious education teachers, and all the people that make up my wonderful parish. I appreciate all the roles that make up our church body. Without one of these special roles, we wouldn’t be whole. The physical body can’t work without every functioning organ and it is the same within our church body. I don’t know why God chose for me to be a wife and mother, but I graciously accept the role chosen for me. Our Blessed Mother is incredibly comforting and loving. I feel honored to have been picked to try and emulate her goodness. I pray more women will recognize and accept the role God has called for them.
Posted in Uncategorized
