What Women Need

Patti Armstrong considers our deep need to forge friendships with other faith-filled women.

Women are not just like “one of the guys” and that is our strength, not that we cannot enjoy untraditional activities or perhaps not even like the traditional ones. For instance, I’d rather spend the day fishing than sewing, but those are not the sort of things I mean. My point is that confusion within our culture often belittles the beauty of our feminine creation and brainwashes many to deny who God made us to be.

Jesus told us that the greatest among us would serve the rest (Matthew 23:11), yet society has come to undervalue the powerful ways that women nurture and serve their families and communities. The poem "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Is the Hand That Rules the World," published in 1865 by William Ross Wallace, praised motherhood as the force for change in the world. It celebrated women, through their love and service to their families as the real power in the world.

But what is it like to be a woman in the era of Pinterest and Facebook and to live amid the competing camps of mainstream feminism vs true femininity? There is overwhelming pressure to achieve. Many feel they don’t measure up. Some struggle with wounds from broken families and past regrets and the impression that others are happier and more successful is forever before our eyes.

Where can we find peace and comfort? With God. In Adoration and prayer. With the Blessed Mother, the epitome of femininity and goodness. And through friendships with other good Catholic women, seeking higher ground while understanding the trials of each day.

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I greatly value my friendships with women who reflect the Gospel. Sometimes we have at least some friends and family who don’t necessarily share our faith and even then, maybe they are not at the same level of commitment. The difference in our conversations with those seeking to live their faith is that we support one another in living to a higher standard so that we hear things such as: forgive … love them … I will pray for you … what do you think God is calling you to do? As opposed to: I have some juicy gossip for you … she deserves it … you don’t owe them anything.

As women, we can use our feminine touch to love, heal, comfort, and change hearts. And if we surround ourselves with godly women who seek to say "yes” to God in their roles as wife, mother, and friend, we will receive that same support.

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As women, we can use our feminine touch to love, heal, comfort, and change hearts. #catholicmom

It’s a journey of ups and downs and sorting through the people that cross our paths. For instance, if one is just beginning to take the Catholic faith seriously, she may find herself often among those with negative influences. When trying to move away from the worldly deeper into the spiritual, there are tugs to pull us back down and our own self-talk can tell us it’s not worth it or not attainable.

As I grew in my own faith, I began to be repelled by bad habits and attracted more to the things of God. For instance, I had belonged to a book study with other Catholic women for many years and found great inspiration through that. My former self would have thought that to be a terribly boring activity.

As our faith grows within us, God molds us and directs us along our paths to the women He is calling us to be. It often ends us surprising us compared to the person we were when we started. First and foremost, we are children of God. Secondly, we were made women, with gifts to share and enjoy as we walk the path he has laid out.

Blessed Mother, Mary, be our mother and please pray for us as we embrace our own womanhood.