This is the last in the series. Here are the other posts — start with those:
Are you a secret footnote fanatic? I love footnotes.
As a sometimes wildly non-linear person (whose thoughts and conversations consist mainly of digressions and barely intelligible metaphors, parallels, and connections, parenthetically expressed, the origins of which are known usually only to me and then dimly so), nothing delights me as much as being able to follow the subterranean (or sub-textual) workings of the author’s thought process. As dry as the skeleton of a reference can be (e.g., XXXIII, 140-145)*, it sometimes leads to delight.
How much more so when the footnote is chatty, don't you agree?
Instant gratification for the geeky, convoluted, or merely curious. And this habit of perusing footnotes proved most fruitful for yours truly! I’ll tell you how.
I’d no sooner second-guess the ultimate meaning of this adventure for me than I’d expect a priest to want to be a mother!
Not so. Realizing this has motivated me, over the years, to try to get to the bottom of equality and priesthood and just what it is that women are contributing, on an ontological level, to the big overall picture of the meaning of life.
Anyway, even though there are thoughtful, tradition- and scripture-based, convincing arguments on the topic of the male priesthood, somehow, for those who are determined to see things in terms of male power structures, it’s just always too easy to say that men keep the priesthood for themselves because they want to run things and are stronger, so they will.
The Pope cleverly decided on a different approach. He sought to show that women have their own calling that is rooted in the very beginnings of creation. He wanted to show that it’s love that brought forth the world – love of God for His creatures and creation – and love that defines the relationship between man and woman.
{As we’ve seen, this love takes a particular form for each. The love of the man takes the form of a gift – the desire of Adam to give himself to another, just like himself except with a unique capacity for receiving it.
And this is the vocation of the woman: She receives the gift for the purpose of returning it, and the gift and the response are so great that they can be expressed as another human being, also made in the image and likeness of God.}
Now, in the course of explaining the spousal relationship between Christ (the Bridegroom, and hence too the priest) and His Church (the Bride, a vocation perfectly expressed in the Blessed Virgin, who is the new Eve, the Mother of the living…the Church), the Pope makes an interesting point that adds another layer to the discussion on marriage and the sexes.
He speaks of the Church as two-fold (in section VII, 27); the Church can be thought of as “both ‘Marian’ and ‘Apostolic-Petrine.’”
In other words, yes, there’s the doing and saving and Christ-manifesting Church, represented by Peter and the Apostles (hence, Petrine)…which is always bringing the people of God towards the heavenly vision of the spotless Bride, represented by Mary (hence, Marian).
Here’s where that footnote comes in. Little old footnote 55, which is a bit long, for a footnote, and speaks of how Mary precedes Peter.
Then my world rocked on its foundations a bit, in a joyful way — it really did — I was very excited!:
A contemporary theologian [Hans urs Balthasar, not even a favorite of mine!] has rightly stated that Mary is ‘Queen of the Apostles without any pretensions to apostolic powers: she has other and greater powers'
Oh my.
Other and greater powers.
What could that mean? Greater than being an apostle? That would have to be pretty great, whichever way you look at it — that the priest serves the world or has power over it!
…To follow me where these words led — and I'm talking about philosophy, the leisure necessary for being contemplative, Sunday, family life, the current economic collapse, and how being a woman is at the heart of the restoration of human value, we have to take a look at Leisure: The Basis of Culture.
{And thanks for being so patient! I love you! You are good to come along with me in this exploration!}
*Do you recognize this citation?
It's a reference to the last lines of Dante’s Paradiso, just for footnote fun:
“Except that then my mind was struck by lightning
Here powers failed my high imagination:
But by now my desire and will were turned,
Like a balanced wheel rotated evenly,
CM says
Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you for posting the picture of your compost bin made from pallets! It proves that it is perfectly acceptible to have the slats running vertically, which is how I built our newest one. Dh was shocked, horrified, and insistant that the slats must run horizontally, I had done it all wrong. My reply ~ he could build it anew if he wished but it was done and so was I. 😉
Leila says
Haha CM! It never occurred to me that there was a choice…it's just how the dimensions work out (you know, the sides would be tall and the bin would have a smaller footprint). Maybe they should go the other way???Also, this way the one in the middle could be cut and be supported with that middle horizontal bar.I had him cut it so that you could easily toss the compost from one bin to the other.Now you have me questioning myself…
Elaine says
well, this post has made me think long and very hard, particularly the bit about…"I'm talking about philosophy, the leisure necessary for being contemplative, Sunday, family life, the current economic collapse, and how being a woman is at the heart of the restoration of human value".particularly since I made your macaroni cheese tonight, and now think that you are the source of all wisdom. Or at least, an incredibly valuable source of perspective. Thank you, Leila.
Barb says
Sigh, I don't suppose you enjoy reading thesauruses and dictionaries, too. You had me at the first paragraph, something that I've never been able to explain to my dear husband.Your raised beds look fabulous! I like the look of the compost pile, too. We are fortunate enough to have a cinder block wall along one side of our yard (we didn't build it) which makes for a great back wall for a compost bin. I wouldn't recommend building such a solid compost pile, but it serves its purpose.
Sue says
I never thought I was a "lover of footnotes," but I have been reading lots and lots of heavily footnoted books lately, and have discovered a new pleasure ;0).I'm patiently waiting your next thoughts…Oh, and I love your iris photo. My mom always had irises in our yard, and I loved to stick my nose in there and sniff – heavenly!
Breanna says
I love reading dictionaries! Especially old ones. And when footnotes are at the back of the book…sigh. The only solution is two bookmarks. Which my kids will promptly pull out. I can only read short things lately.Thanks for all the handy Marian links, Leila. 🙂 I'm still studying.Breanna
Mama Bean says
I had never thought of the two-fold nature of the church being masculine (petrine) and feminine (marian) before.I'm not sure it satisfies me as far as explaining why women aren't *allowed to be priests.But it is a satisfying thought-nugget to chew on for awhile.I suppose until the next installment, right? 🙂 Thanks, as always.
Jill says
I hope this doesn't offend you but…I love how your pictures just seem sort of random throughout your very deep and thoughtful post :). It gives the impression that you are glancing around as you are talking (or, like me, you are talking with your hands and being very expressive). I'm not explaining it well, but, somehow, the slightly disjointed pictures ARE footnotes to what you are saying.I also love how you post these wonderfully deep thoughts and the first comment is someone exclaiming over your compost bin! This also reminds me of the way conversation seems to naturally flow in our family with me trying to say something "important" and my very smart but very easily distracted husband saying something like, "Oh look…a squirrel!". Throw in a four year old, and a few teens carrying on their own conversations and it is quite the lively experience! (Much like compost…rich and pungent).
Katherine says
If you like digression you really should read St. Augustine of Hippo's works.
Leila says
Oh my, Jill, way to give me an anxiety attack. No, it doesn't offend me!!:)I too was quite amused about the compost bin comment…serves me right…and you know what, I'd rather talk about that too!
Kari says
Agreed! we get to walk through Auntie Leila's beautiful yard, picking a flower here, pulling a weed there, sniffing an iris next, looking at a squirrel, rabbit, what-have-you, and talking about deep meaningful things at the same time! Where better to contemplate than in a garden (or turning compost)? And snippits of conversation about compost keep us from taking ourselves too seriously right? :)Kari
affectioknit says
I loved all these pictures – and I'm definitely geeky enough to love footnotes as well…
messy bessy says
Actually, of course, it's not strictly true that women are not allowed to be priests. As baptized believers, we are all brought into priesthood, prophecy, and kingship. It's just that as we are not all the same, that priesthood has different manifestations, just as do the prophecy and the kingship.Only men can be ministerial priests. (Not because they are better, or smarter, or holier. But because it is a task the Lord only gives to men.) But in the beautiful document Leila is explicating, we see clearly what type of priesthood women are called to. It is every bit as important as the ministerial priesthood. I'm staying tuned!
Leila says
Yes, Messy, I kept meaning to go back and put in the word "ministerial"… There is the priesthood of all believers, and then there are ordained priests.Anyone who is really burning to know more about the ministerial priesthood, please PLEASE click on the link above, under the decrepit wicker chair.
Anne says
This post is very timely for me. Thank you for reminding me how much respect the Church truly does have for women. But there is still one issue that troubles me deeply: if motherhood is such a great vocation, why is that the Church has never canonized a woman who was "just" a mom? Not the founder of an order (like St. Elizabeth Ann Seton), not someone who joined a convent when widowed (like almost all the medieval and renaissance married saints), not someone who ran a business (Bl. Zelie Martin) or had a medical practice (St. Gianna) but who died before she could raise her children, and not a martyr (I can never remember whether it was Perpetua or Felicity who had children); a wonderful, saintly woman whose path to God was through her vocation as wife and mother.The lack of a SAHM saint seems to me like a glaring, hostile rebuke to women who are called to marriage. It may be what God wants us to do, but it certainly isn't worthy of sainthood. No matter how much I read from JPII, I still find this omission deeply offensive to women. I think it's my only serious beef with the Church.
Leila says
Dear dear Anne, Well, St. Monica springs to mind — does she not count?And there is the wife of St. Isadore the farmer <a href="http://www.savior.org/saints/isidore.htmhttp://www.savior.org/saints/isidore.htm<br />…Can anyone else find any others?
Breanna says
St. Anne, Mary's mother?
Breanna says
Mary herself… she wasn't martyred, didn't run a business, didn't found an order, didn't do anything but raise her Son. I've always found that the more attractive thing about the Catholic Church vs. Protestantism (although that's where I am right now), actually, because Mary is sort of the ultimate SAHM, isn't she?
LJ says
I, too, have often been bummed at the lack of mother-saints. My own mother wisely pointed out that this is most probably due to the fact that we don't all go around trying to canonize our family members, while the founders of orders quite naturally have an organization pre-disposed to bring their case for canonization forward. I'd imagine it's not so much that the Church denies the case for sainthood for "normal" mothers so much as these cases aren't brought forward. There obviously should be many more canonized wives and mothers, but on some level I think this is part of the beauty of the motherly vocation- the work of a mother is only fully known to God and only partly known to other family members. No one in my family would think of promoting my grandmother for canonization, but each one of us is a daily witness to her gentleness, generosity, service, faith, and love. She is the heart of our family, and we cherish and respect her as such. I can say the same of my mother and many other Catholic women I am privileged to know. In some ways, I feel like I don't need as many examples of heroic virtue given to me by the Church in this respect because I have so many heroically loving women all around me… is that odd?
Erica says
That glass plate in one of the photos….it has the little round balls all around the edge. Do you know what that style is called? I inherited my grandmother's dishes like that and love them and would love to add to the collection but I do not know what the style is called. I would ~so~ value hearing from you! ericajohns (at) hotmail (dot) com
Leila says
LJ, you're on to something. This is a hidden vocation… and you expressed it very well, with great love. Maybe it's the Feast of All Saints when we should be celebrating these hosts of devoted parents, eh?Breanna, I could kiss you! You are right! It's like the time I had a big crisis about my whole life, thinking to myself, Jesus addressed fishermen, harlots, even soldiers…he never said too much about the family that I can recall…where's my affirmation??And then it hit me! He LIVED the doctrine of the family. The God of all creation chose a family in which to place His precious son, and made it just the lovely, humble, quiet, and hospitable place it ought to have been. No words needed!And that's where my thoughts I'm working out here had their germination, really.Still, Anne, I do hear you. Even though I think there are more saints out there than we usually hear of (there are a LOT of canonized saints), we do need some regular wife-and-mother saints for sure.You know what THAT means, right? Get cracking on that holy life 😉
Melanie B says
St Anne, St Elizabeth, Leila, like you I never had any personal desire for priesthood or for anything but motherhood. But I encountered the arguments and didn't understand the answers. The complaints didn't seem unreasonable and it bugged me that I didn't know how to answer them.For me it was in part the realization that the priesthood is not about power but service that helped me to find peace with the Church's teaching. The pope, at the "top" of the "hierarchy" is not the CEO or top dog in charge of a business or earthly kingdom but "the servant of the servants of God." Comparing the Church to a corporation or a country does a great harm to our understanding of what the Church is. Also looking at the spousal imagery in both the old and new testaments. God as bridegroom Israel/the Church as bride, the Eucharist as the wedding feast of the lamb. In that context female priests are as much a confusion of signs as same-sex marriages. Of course if you don't see why those are problematic, then this line of thought won't help you. Finally, realizing that even for men desire alone doesn't give a man the right to be a priest. Many men who feel they are called to be priests are turned away for one reason or another. The Church gets to decide, from among the candidates who present themselves as being open to the call, who enters the seminary, how seminarians are formed, and who gets to be ordained. Thus women who say that they feel like they've been called because they have a strong desire are also ignoring that there are plenty of men with just as strong a desire who are turned away. A vocation to the ministerial priesthood is not discerned by the individual alone but by the Church as a whole.
Suki says
Melanie:I like all your points, but especially your last one. It's not that MEN can do this and we can't; just that some people are chosen. Those people are all men, which brings us to the rest of the argument, but it is important to remember that it's not so strictly divided along gender lines.Similarly, I find it very comforting and beautiful that, in the rite of Ordination, there is a part when the people must approve the candidate(s). Nobody is ordained simply because they want to be, and we all, as members of the Church, have a role and a responsibility in determining who will serve in this way.
Melanie B says
Anne, I do think Saint Gianna would have been canonized even if she'd been just a mom and not a doctor. It doesn't seem to me that being a physician was an element of her being declared a saint. Rather, it was her sacrificial love. Her path to Christ was lived out in her vocation of motherhood not in her role as physician. What is admirable about her as a role model is not whether or not she did any work that took her out of her home but the fact that she was willing to give her life for her child. (Incidentally, did you know she also suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum during all her pregnancies? Talk about sacrifice!) Likewise with Blessed Zelie, the fact that she ran a business from her home seems incidental in her life and not part of the criteria for her sanctity. Especially since most women in her circumstances in her era did some kind of small jobs at home to help support the family. She was a mother whose goal was raising up children to be consecrated religious and, hopefully, saints. It seems that in that any mother can emulate her and ask for her help. In the great scheme of history the idea of a "stay at home mom" as a distinct way of being "mother" is a very recent phenomenon and the debate about stay-at-home vs working mothers is still pretty much only an issue for certain classes in certain countries. (And the distinction and battle over it, I'd add, is driven by feminist ideology and not Catholic teaching at all.) It is really only applicable in industrial and post-industrial societies. Throughout most of history both women and men worked in or near their homes doing what was necessary to support their families as their circumstances dictated. This conversation raises the question for me: what is it that we should be looking for from the saints? Is it a validation of our life choices? Sometimes we seem to look to saints to be celebrities, endorsing our lifestyle by their choices, making us feel good like the pop star who endorses our brand of deodorant. That seems to me a dangerous place to go. Moreover, if we are looking for someone who had the exact same life-circumstances that we have we are doomed to disappointment because no one living fifty or a hundred or more years ago could have the same kind of circumstances and choices that we have. A saint is not only someone we can emulate and who shows us how to approach Christ. A saint is also someone who intercedes for us. Thus St Gerard intercedes for pregnant women even though he was not a woman and thus never experienced pregnancy. I'm not saying that we mothers shouldn't seek out and befriend saints who were also wives and mothers; but we shouldn't mistake what makes them saints in the first place: They followed Christ.Very funny: my word verification is "mater".
Melanie B says
Thanks, Suki. I didn't know that about the rite of ordination. How beautiful.
Leila says
Erica, I am hoping someone jumps in about the green glass dish, because I don't know what kind it is. It was a gift from my friend Therese and I love it…but I don't know anything about it!
Leila says
Thanks so much for all these comments!Melanie, I like what you said here: <>Our times are different in a way that I hope to address. For us today, staying home does take on a heightened significance — mainly because we don't live in villages or on farms, for the most part…alas.The important thing I'd like to focus on in future posts (God willing…takes me a while 🙂 is not so much staying at home (though for most of us it is just that) but MAKING a home…specifically on what those "other, greater powers" could be!And as for saints, I like your ideas there too. We have to remember that it's the saints' virtuous dedication to God we are to imitate, not necessarily their practices.Makes me think of what I just read in Fr. Rutler's book about the Cure of Ars about his curate: "…he made the mistake of wanting to be like the Cure instead of like Christ: Anyone can be Christ by grace, but no one can be anyone else, not even by imitation."
Jane says
What a beautiful meditation. Thank you! I love footnotes, too, both reading and writing them. This semester, I had to write a term paper for a professor who required APA citation style, rather than my preferred Chicago Manual, and APA has no footnotes. There were half a dozen things that I couldn't mention because they didn't fit in the paper and I couldn't write a footnote! My professor will never know which little kernals of my brilliance she missed because she wouldn't allow a footnote.
Raven says
i really enjoyed your posting!