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A woman's experience of spirituality relates to her feminine qualities:
Nurture
Creativity
Love
Compassion
Reconciliation
Relationship building
Our spirituality tends to be inward and reflective as we search for
meaning and purpose.
I followed a traditional Catholic path of religious and
spiritual thinking. I was aware of God in my life, but thought he was
out there and not within. About twenty-eight years ago I experienced
the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and my whole interior life changed forever.
I began to realise that Jesus was alive and that he loved
me. I began to have a personal relationship with God, talking and listening
to him reading the Bible which became alive and meaningful and impacting
on my daily life, and mixing and sharing with other people who were
having a similar experience.
The long, slow process of change began and I became a
member of the Emmaus Family of Prayer and committed myself to God and
the community. Life became an adventure and God was in charge.
As women have done for centuries, starting with Mary
and Elizabeth sharing together, eleven women and I began to meet monthly
to share our experience of God and our lives. We called ourselves the
Woodhall group as we had initially been on a retreat together at Woodhall.
These meetings continued for many years and as we shared ourselves in
Jesus our mutual spirituality, discussions and laughter had a depth
and richness that created bonds that have lasted.
Our ability to share helped us to grow, change and stay
connected to each other. We had a sense of being part of something larger.
As women we helped each other find an awakening of inner wisdom and
intuitiveness as we found our voices and explored our dreams. This created
an intimacy that enabled us to discover our spiritual selves and develop
a freedom to be our true selves
The woman's role has changed over the years as we have found the freedom
to be and express ourselves. This is evidenced in the wider Church where
woman have become vicars (maybe bishops one day!) and in the Catholic
Church where women became Eucharistic Ministers and members of Parish
Councils and the St Vincent de Paul organisation. They began to gain
confidence to trust their own inner experience and listening to each
other they started to take a more pro-active part in Church life.
A wider community of women developed with the setting
up of Sandymount House of Prayer. This enabled many women to give expression
to their own unique creativity and spirituality. The retreats, workshops,
days of prayer and scripture study evolved in such a way that feminine
giftedness emerged. We could only wonder at some woman's ability to
use colour, dance, nature, poetry, music, love and compassion and relationship
building to give to each other.
Gentleness a female quality (which many men feel but
maybe have more difficulty showing) has a special 'bridge building'
effect that develops friendships and promotes trust and understanding.
It has a healing effect on both the giver and the receiver. When combined
with love and compassion, a gentle spirit can open up the shell that
people have built up around themselves and heal the deepest wound.
As women discovered their own and others giftedness,
knowing how dependent on the Lord we were we have tried to take this
experience into our families and wider communities and have discerned
as the Lord pointed the way, how we could take into the world what we
had received.
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