WOMEN AT THE SERVICE OF THE WORD

John Charles Schmidt

For most of us, when we think of women at the service of Jesus the Word, the first name likely to come to our
mind is that of our mother in faith and Jesus' mom, Mary. If Mary isn't the first name to come to us then it is quite
likely that it was our mother, grandmother, a sibling, an aunt, or a family friend who came to us as the first of many
women in the service of Jesus. Thanks be to God for all the women whom God has placed in our lives!; Women who
have chosen to live in the service of him, bringing his life and love, so that we can live in the freedom of Grace and
Hope in the face of all life's challenges!
Mission
"The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived by the Holy Spirit.
Behold the handmaid of the Lord,
be it done unto me according to Thy word.
And the Word was made Flesh,
and dwelt among us." a
Just as in the life of Mary, women who have followed Jesus - from Mary Magdalene to Mary of Egypt,
Theoctiste of Lesbos, Catherine of Siena, Kateri Tekakwitha, all the unnamed Vietnamese Martyrs, Mother Teresa,
Catherine Doherty and Dorothy Day - have all heard the call of God to accept his will in their lives through allowing
Jesus to be conceived in them and borne to the world.
Today, who do we encounter in the most challenging, and often least acknowledged, places of mission in the
world? In the face of all family challenges and global tragedies the face of the Church, the face that we rarely see
but do increasingly acknowledge, is that of women. I do not speak only of the women who suffer, although many
have and do; rather I speak of the women who serve and save those who are suffering more and worse than they
themselves in many cases.
I speak of the mothers carrying their babies and tending to the sick, the hungry, and the dying. I speak of the
woman, consecrated or lay, who lives out her faith simply, in the choices of daily life that she makes while she
prays; The woman who seeks God's help to fulfill his will not only for her life but also for the lives of her children,
her spouse, parents, and all those others whom God has called her to serve. This woman is the face, hands and heart
of God for those who need so much to know His love, His tenderness; "Christ has no body now but yours, no hands,
no feet on earth but yours".b
I speak of believers whose call is to love Jesus in the regular, 'unacknowledged' life, that changes the world
every day by the hidden heroism of love, commitment, and sacrifice for the lives of others. A life conformed to
Jesus - because self-sacrificial love is God's love for us.
Beyond the exemplars of God's true love for us whom we know in our own families and communities, there are
those great women whom we look to as heroes of the faith; Women whose stories encourage us in our choices to
live heroic love in all simplicity and hiddenness. In our lifetime one thinks of Mother Teresa of Calcutta through
whom God brought his life and light to some of the coldest, darkest corners of human society. Lesser known to us
are two founders of communities serving the poor in North America and around the world, Catherine Doherty and
Dorothy Day.
Catherine Doherty came from the Russian aristocracy. She ended up in the United States as a refugee from the
Russian Revolution with her husband and infant son in 1921. After years of great trial and difficulty God called her
to serve the poor as a poustinik (Russian Christian hermit) and establish a community of consecrated laity in Canada
known today as "Madonna House".c Catherine Doherty and Dorothy Day, both converts to the Catholic faith,
collaborated in their service of the urban poor in New York during the Great Depression of the 1930's.d
 Dorothy Day was formally received into the Catholic Church when she was 30 years of age. Day had been
drawn to the faith after years of admiring poor Catholic believers for their convictions and devotion to God. She was
a single mom, a journalist, and zealous for the poor having spent a number of years in poverty as a young person due
to her father's loss of employment. Day recognised the needs of the poor and, in collaboration with Peter Maurin,
founded the 'Catholic Worker' newspaper in 1932. Day and Maurin gathered together a group of Christians who
lived in community to serve others in need. By 1936 the Catholic Worker Movement had been born with 33 houses
spread across the entire United States of America and flourishes to this day.e
Last but not least one thinks of Kateri Tekakwitha. Kateri is amongst the earliest of the outstanding North
American Christian women to have been raised up as an example to us by the Church. A young woman, 24 years of
age when she died in 1680, she suffered a great deal in her life before falling in love with Jesus. Kateri's mother was
a Christian. However, it was her meeting with French Jesuit missionaries whose faith impressed her deeply that
stirred her finally to seek baptism.f
When Kateri received the message of Jesus she knew she wanted to be all for him. Kateri had been betrothed to
marriage by her foster parents after her mother, father, and brother died, but she would not accept. Her refusal to
marry in light of her love for Christ led to threats against her life. Kateri was forced to escape from her own land and
people to a community of Christian Indian people north of present day New York State, in modern day Queùbec,
Canada.g
In Kateri's new life as a single Christian woman she lived in the service of all whom God brought across her
path. Kateri had a great love of the Rosary and meditated upon the Cross with deep devotion. In the last two years
of her life she was never far from the Blessed Sacrament.h
At the time of Kateri's passing from this world many miracles occurred that attested to her love of those she
served in Jesus. Kateri had chosen, in spite of all obstacles, to live entirely for Jesus. She chose God as her great
love by the will of her heart, the commitment of her life, and the blessing of her holy and wise pastor, Father
Jacques de Lamberville, SJ.i Today Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha is numbered amongst the holy lay women honoured
by Mother Church.
Women at the service of Christ the Word are literally innumerable in the history of our Christian faith. Again and
again God has chosen women to be the bright first light pointing to Christ in Church history, and in our own personal
histories.j
Holy Spirit - Holy God,
conceive Jesus
in our humbled hearts
so that we can bear He who is Life and Freedom
to all who have yet to know Him.
Amen.
(Endnotes)
a) The Angelus, http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/prayers/Angelus.htm .
b) Teresa of Ávila
c) Catherine Doherty - Her Life and Her Works, http://www.catherinedoherty.org/life/ .
d) Baroness calls Dorothy Day a Saint by Catherine Doherty, http://www.cjd.org/paper/baroness.html .
e) A Biography of Dorothy Day , http://www.catholicworker.com/ddaybio.htm .
f) "Kateri Tekakwitha", Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=283 .
g) Ibid.
h) Ibid.
i) Ibid.
j) "Like the morning star in the midst of the cloud and as the moon at its full she shines," (Eccl. 50:6). From 'ON THE BLESSED VIRGIN
MARY' by St. Anthony of Padua , http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/IC-PADUA.htm .
See also, Madeleine d'Houet, foundress of the international religious order, Sisters Faithful Companions of Jesus.