Offer It Up: The Feminine Genius

Offer It Up: The Feminine Genius
Mary, after receiving the news that she was to be the Mother of God, went to her kinswoman Elizabeth, an older woman whom Mary had just found out was pregnant. Her love and sensitivity to her relative's need overshadowed the shock of her own situation. She saw the need of another and responded to it.

That is the "Feminine Genius." It's no surprise that when Fr. Guanella saw the needs of the developmentally disabled people of Nineteenth Century Italy, as well as orphans, the poor, senior citizens, and whomever was marginalized, he turned to women for help. He founded the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence before he founded his congregation for men, the Servants of Charity. Though he may not have used these words of Blessed John Paul II--the feminine genius--he knew their reality.

Here are some excerpts from Pope John Paul II's writings about the feminine genius:

In our own time, the successes of science and technology make it possible to attain material well-being to a degree hitherto unknown. While this favors some, it pushes others to the margins of society. In this way, unilateral progress can also lead to a gradual loss of sensitivity for man, that is, for what is essentially human. In this sense, our time in particular awaits the manifestation of that "genius" which belongs to women, and which can ensure sensitivity for human beings in every circumstance: because they are human! --and because "the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor. 13: 13). [1988 Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatis (On the Dignity and Vocation of Women on the Occasion of the Marian Year), #30.

[W]omen have the task of assuring the moral dimension of culture, the dimension, namely, of a culture worthy of the person.... How great are the possibilities and responsibilities of woman in this area, at a time when the development of science and technology is not always inspired and measured by true wisdom, with the inevitable risk of "de-humanizing" human life, above all when it would demand a more intense love and a more generous acceptance. [1988 Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici (On the Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World), #51]

Progress usually tends to be measured according to the criteria of science and technology. ... Much more important is the social and ethical dimension, which deals with human relations and spiritual values. In this area, which often develops in an inconspicuous way beginning with the daily relationships between people, especially within the family, society certainly owes much to the "genius of women." ... Perhaps more than men, women acknowledge the person, because they see persons with their hearts.