Living in a Man's World?

This phrase, found whilst trying to come up with a suitable quick post for facebook has really stuck with me today.  It's so simple, and yet there is such truth in it.
It's one of those phrases that you look and and go "Well, obviously".  Then you look at it again and have a moment of "Oh!"

The world today spends so much time telling us that, as women, to be valuable we need to be the same as men.  Equality has become the keyword, with equality meaning "the same as."  Any organisation who doesn't treat women exactly the same as men must, obviously, be part of the patriarchy and therefore evil.

On the other side, feminism seems to have become a dirty word.  It seems to mean women who are trying to be exactly the same as men. Women who fight too hard, women who aren't prepared to "know their place," women who are too outspoken.

In a world like this, what's a girl to do?

Me?  I look to the Catholic Church (as you may have been able to guess...)

Now I know that to many people, the Church is a symbol and symptom of the oppressive patriarchy. After all, it won't let women become priests, which obviously must mean that it doesn't value women... right?

Wrong.

So very very wrong.

Whilst I'll happily admit there are many things wrong with the administrative side of the Catholic Church, and women currently are not represented well enough, I don't think it's really any worse than many other organisations.  A lot of the problem comes not from the fact that they are women, but that they are laity.

There are plenty of high powered women in the Vatican - the archaeologist in me was delighted to hear about the appointment of Barbara Jatta as director of the Vatican Museums (and yes, Barbara is a female name). This puts them in a minority amongst major museums where the vast majority have male directors. The Pontifical Council for Culture and Voices of Faith are just a couple of examples of things that the Vatican is doing to ensure women's voices are heard more.

This isn't a new thing either.  Throughout the history of the church, there have been important women.  Most of the ones we know about now are because they've been declared saints, but there will be many more who have been forgotten about. It is worth saying at this point that this also applies to men.  Very few of those who have been declared saints have been lay people, although this seems to be changing more in recent years.

Another good place to look to see what the Church actually thinks of women is the veneration it gives to Mama Mary.

In the Catholic Church, we honour Mary because God honoured her first.  Whilst there is no doubt that women have perhaps not been treated as they should have been during history, this wonderful lady has always been held in extremely high regard.  Quite honestly, what higher honour can womankind be given than that one of their own was chosen to give birth to the redeemer of all mankind?  I love the quote above from Redemptoris Mater, because to me it shows the true regard that the Church holds women in.  What more do I need to say?

There are numerous examples of quotes from throughout the history of the church showing the high esteem women are held in. One of my favourites is from the Venerable Fulton J Sheen:

Whilst obviously a woman's value does not come from how inspiring she can be to men, we also need to remember that this is a part, and an important part, of the feminine beauty.  Throughout the Bible we see instance after instance of women inspiring men to better and greater things (Esther, Ruth, Mary to name just a few).  There are also, of course, plenty of examples of women doing the opposite: Delilah betrays Samson; Salome requests the head of John the Baptist; Eve encourages Adam to try the apple.

My message to all my female friends, no matter your age, race or religion is this.  I want you to remember that you have dignity and value because you are you. Not because of whatever successes you may have had, or because of your abilities.  Not because of the way you look or dress or act. Because you are you.

Don't try and be a man in a man's world. Be a woman, and try and make the world better by being you.  You are all that's needed.

You have been called "for a time such as this" (Esther 4:14)

More than Conquers?

Apologies for the hiatus, turns out getting and starting new jobs can be quite time consuming.  The final post about World Youth Day is on its way, but in the mean time, this is something else I got up to over the summer... This post was originally written for the Westminster Youth Ministry blog.  Go check them out, there's some fantastic stuff on there!

Since I ended this post with an encouragement to attend Youth2000’s Walsingham retreat, I thought I’d better write up a post about it.  This retreat is always a highlight of my year, and this one was no different.  The theme this year was Conquerors.

After arriving and getting all the usual bits and pieces out of the way – trying to find a vaguely flat bit of ground to set up the tent, realising I’d forgotten a rollmat so was going to have to sleep flat on the ground – rookie mistake for my 4^th time attending, registering, saying hello to old friends… we hit the ground running with Mass.  The homily given by Fr Christopher Joseph CFR really set the tone for the rest of the retreat.

To help you understand the importance of his homily, I have to explain something that some of you may find slightly shocking… Walsingham has very little signal.  If you’re lucky you might find a couple of spots where you can send a text or make a quick call, but internet?  Pretty much nowhere to be found.  I know! 5 days with no social media…

Okay, so you have the picture?  No facebook, no whatsapp, no Instagram, no twitter, no snapchat… but you know what?  It’s actually incredibly freeing.  Without being able to check my phone every 5 minutes to see if people far away were trying to contact me, I found myself being far more present to those who physically surrounded me.  And this is the point that was being made by Fr Christopher.  Our love for social media comes from our desire to be connected to everyone, but the real way that this can happen is not through faceappstagram, but through Jesus.  The Social Network of Christ is his body.  It’s us.  Linking back to the theme of the retreat, he challenged us to make sure we were conquering social media, and not the other way around.  Social media can be a fantastic way to evangelise, but we need to make sure we are not being controlled by it.

So, how to spend 5 days with no phone? Well, one of the great beauties of Youth2000 is that there’s always plenty to do – I was so busy attending talks and workshops, hanging out with old friends and making new ones that I didn’t even manage to find time for a nap this year!

Something that I really really love about Youth 2000 is how it's completely centred around the Blessed Sacrament - around Jesus.  From the end of the opening Mass to just before closing Mass, there is perpetual adoration.  Jesus is out, physically present for the whole weekend.  The talks are given with Him in the room, the praise and worship takes place around Him.  If you wake up at, say, 3am, you can go and sit with Him.  I didn’t manage to take advantage of this enough this year, but knowing that he was so physically close all the time was a great blessing.

If you missed out, it’s okay.  Fr Stephen Wang reminded us that nothing we receive on retreats like this is any different to anything we receive back home.  The point is to gain a greater appreciation for what we have when we go back home.  Whilst you may not be surrounded by priest, making it easy to find one for confession, they’re still there in your home parish.  All you have to do is ask (or turn up at the preadvertised times).  The Eucharist you receive in Mass in Walsingham, or in a field in Poland is the same as the one you receive at home. It’s the same Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament, whether you’re adoring him in a circus tent in Walsingham, in Westminster Cathedral, or in your local church.  The rosary is the same great weapon of prayer no matter where you say it.

In a later homily, Fr Stephen challenged those present to love your church, be proud of your faith and be prepared to stand up for them both, as well as to “Love the Catholic faith not only for what it has meant for us, but also for what it can mean for others.”

So use your social network following to evangelise.  If you love Jesus, let people know. If you go to a fantastic talk, share it.  We’re all very good at letting our friends on facebook know when we’ve had a delicious meal at a new restaurant, so why not share when we hear a fantastic homily during Mass?  You’d announce it if you were going to a music festival, so why not let everyone know that you’ll be in Sheffield from the 28^th – 30^th October for the next Youth2000 retreat

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go.  I’ve just had another friend request pop up on facebook from someone I met in Walsingham…

Are coach engines the new horses? (World Youth Day Part III)

My previous blog stopped off just as we were about to leave Łódź, so it's time to continue our journey.

We left Łódź bright and early on the Monday morning to head to Krakow, but en route we stopped off at the monastery of Jasna Góra in Częstochowa.

For anyone reading this who doesn't know, there is a beautiful icon here of our Lady of Częstochowa.  It's known as a Black Madonna (the phrasing of which itself has an interesting history - if you're curious, it's worth going and looking into it, but I'm not going to devote time to it here) which has long been a place of pilgrimage.

The (simplistic) version of the history of this icon is as follows.  It was supposedly painted by St. Luke, on a table made by the Jesus whilst learning the carpentry trade from Joseph, found by St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, taken to Constantinople until the 8th century, after which it was taken to Poland, eventually ending up in Częstochowa. There are a few different versions of how it ended up here, but the most common one is that the horses pulling the wagon in which the icon was contained refused to move on, with the Prince who had it at that point taking this as a sign that this was where it should stay.

The marks on Our Lady's face are from Tatar invasions, where an arrow pierced her throat, and a Hussite invasion where one of the invaders slashed at the image with his sword twice (whilst attempting a third, he died in agony).  Through history there have been attempts to fix it, but it always reverts to the damaged form.

Beautiful, huh?

Shame it was so busy I didn't really get to see it... There were so many people there that it was impossible to get in.  It was closed for for a lot of the day due to Masses being said.  Were were told that it should be open for a couple of hours in the middle of day, so headed back, but Mass was being said again with lots of bishops around the icon, so you can't really complain...  I did manage to get a slight glimpse from up in the choir loft.  Turns out having a friend who can speak French and blag his way in is quite useful!  Guess this just means I will have to return at some point to see it properly.

Despite not being able to properly see the icon, it was still an amazing day.  We got there just in time for Mass which was said in a small side basilica.

Photo WYM

Yup, that's a small side basilica!  As part of the music group, we'd been hoping to get there nice and early, have plenty of time to set up and get settled and plug in the keyboard.  Did this happen...? Not exactly... We arrived within a couple of minutes of when we were due to begin Mass, found a spot to set up, got out the instruments, arranged ourselves around the microphones and looked for a plug for the keyboard.  While we were still looking the bell rang for the beginning of Mass!  No keyboard for us.  Despite all these issues, Mass still went beautifully.  Our music director did a fabulous job of staying calm and carrying on, and although I had a minor panic moment when I realised that I'd only practised the psalm with the keyboard and was now going to have to sing it with only guitars, it all went wonderfully smoothly.  (Yup, that's right, I sang the psalm during Mass in Jasna Góra - number 27 ticked off the 30 before 30 list even if it did only get added on after I got back...)

Photo WYM

After Mass we had a while to wonder around (which is when we attempted to view the icon).  What I did really enjoy was looking at all the fantastic Catholic tat.  A couple of my favourites below (I didn't even bother taking photos of the glow in the dark rosaries/Mary statues because they seem to be everywhere!):

Beautiful bling gold fridge magnet

What a cute little football player

Oh wait... it's an angel!

This was an incredibly hot day!  It was wonderful while we were walking around/sitting and eating.   Not so wonderful when one of the coaches overheated and didn't want to start again... I did half wonder whether this was the new version of the horses refusing to move and whether someone had taken the icon, but I assumed there'd be a much bigger outcry if that had been the case.  The resulting wait meant that we had to just sit and talk and sit in the sun/attempt to find some shade to sit in.  Such a hardship...

(And just to avoid leaving you in suspense, we did eventually manage to get going and headed onwards to Krakow!)

Placing my job in the care of Mama Mary

So way back in February, I mentioned that I'd been invited to an assessment day...

Turned out I was successful, and got invited back for an interview for a specific job. I had a choice of two days, one of which was Wednesday later that week, the other a week later.  Since I'd started doing some hours at the local Tourist Information Centre, and had already agreed to work that Wednesday, I thought I'd better go for the second of the two options, so replied saying I'd like to come in on the 25th March please.

Come the morning of the 25th, I had a realisation.  25th March is the Feast of the Annunciation!  One of Mama Mary's big days.
Right then, I'd better place it all in her hands.  I decided that I'd give it all over to her, and trust that if I was supposed to get the job I would, and if I didn't, it was because there was something better around the corner for me.

To be honest, I wasn't convinced it had gone great.  The interviewers asked the same question worded in different ways a few times, I wasn't sure I'd given the right answers, etc etc etc...
So I asked when I'd hear, and was told that I should hear by the end of the week.

Okay, right, not too long to wait then. So away I went, still trying to be trusting.

Come the end of the week?  Nope, nothing, Come the end of the following week and Easter? Still nothing. Assumption made by me that I was unsuccessful. That's okay, I had Celebrate to distract me.

I had an odd feeling at the beginning of the week that by the end something would have happened with regards to a job.  What it would be I did not know.  Maybe someone would suggest a job that I should apply for, maybe I'd be offered an interview somewhere else. Who knows.

Turned out what it was to be was that I would hear that I was successful with this job!

So here I am, about to start a new job on Monday (which coincidentally is my mummy's birthday). Starting a job during the month specially dedicated to Mama Mary, when the interview for the specific job was on one of her big feast days? Definitely feels a little bit special.

On top of that, there is a church with 8am Mass about 5 minutes walk away from my new place of work, and I'm hoping to make sure I set aside time during my commuting for saying morning and evening prayer.

So yay for being able to justify spending more time in London and going to things that happen in the evening like Pure in Heart.

Any suggestions for Catholic stuff in London I could/should look into?