Women in History: Ruth from the Old Testament

For Holy Women's History Month, Karen Estep discusses Ruth, an Old Testament woman who still inspires modern women.

Wherever you go I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God, my God. (Ruth 1:16)

These words were read at my wedding. At the time I meant for it to be a part of our family motto because my husband was a football coach and I wanted to support the teams he would coach. When you’re a football coach and a football coach’s wife, the teams eventually become your family, no matter which team it happens to be. I had no idea what Ruth would ultimately mean to me as a woman in a modern age.

How I Am Like Ruth

Ruth left her culture, her people, and the place she grew up in order to seek the Truth with her mother-in-law. Ruth not only left her culture because she had to but because she was on her own spiritual journey to find the truth. Her pagan culture did not have the God of Truth. I often think of how scary this must have been for her and how overwhelming it must have been to start a completely new life! Ruth would have gone into the unknown with only faith, trust, and hope.

When I joined the Catholic Church with my husband about four years ago, I was operating under the same three things as Ruth: faith, trust, and hope. What a lot of cradle Catholics may not understand is that even though I grew up as a Christian, in a Christian family, Catholic Christians speak a slightly different language. They worship differently, and at times I was overwhelmed.

There were days when I was going through the OCIA process that the only thing that kept me going was that I knew deep in my heart that I was coming into the true Church that Jesus Christ founded. I had to put my doubts aside a lot in order to let my trust in God take control. I had to have faith and hope that God had put me on the correct pathway so that, like Ruth, I would also know Truth.

A Mindblowing Realization

On my faith journey I, like many Catholics, completed The Bible in a Year. During the section that covers Ruth and her relationship with Boaz, I had a mind-blowing realization. Boaz allows Ruth to collect wheat for herself and Naomi to use to make bread. This bread would have been life-saving because Ruth and Naomi were close to starvation.

I then realized that Ruth is the great (however many times) grandmother of Jesus, our “Life-Saving Bread.” This blew my mind because God used Ruth in such a way that she went from collecting wheat for life-saving bread to being a part of the lineage that is the life-saving bread for the entire world, for eternity. It helped me understand that God ALWAYS has a plan, even if we do not understand it at the time. I cannot imagine that when Ruth set out to collect the wheat that would help save her and Naomi that she had any idea that she would be part of our Savior’s lineage. It gives me chills, and I praise God every time I think about it!

Ruth must have had doubts and fears all along the way, and I bet that she never could have known the plans that God had for her. I have so many doubts and fears, and there are days I question if my journey is the right one. Don’t hear what I am not saying: I love the Eucharist, I love Jesus, and I love that I get to partake in the Life-Giving Bread, I just have big questions and sometimes, big doubts.

But like Ruth, my faith is bigger than my fear and my trust in God is bigger than any doubt. Also, like Ruth, I don’t know what God’s ultimate plans for me will be. I just know that He has only good intentions for me and I need to wake every day doing my best to follow where God leads.

From Weddings to Life

When I chose the reading from Ruth to be read at my wedding almost 14 years ago, I had no idea what life would truly have in store for my husband and me. I had no idea that we would have children, experience loss, change football teams and schools, and even join the Catholic Church together. I had no idea that learning about Ruth’s journey and her lineage to our Life-Saving Bread would touch me so deeply as a woman who has come home to the Catholic Church. Ruth’s strong example of following God, wherever He may take you is the guidance all women need today.

Ruth, wife of Boaz, pray for us.

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Copyright 2026 Karen Estep
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