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TAN Books - Chloe Langr

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100 pages

English

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Together with women from across the country and all seasons of life, podcast host of "Letters to Women" Chloe Langr explores what it means to be a Catholic woman. Compiled together in these pages, you'll find letters from ordinary women living vibrantly faithful lives, each inspired by the teachings of Pope Saint John Paul II on the feminine genius. Their stories profoundly illustrate that the feminine genius is not something women do, but rather something that is inherent to womanhood, and yet uniquely expressed by each individual woman. After all, the feminine genius is more than a buzzword to throw around in conversation; it's meant to be lived out daily in every vocation.The letters in these pages are from stay-at-home mothers, professionals, missionaries, and single women striving to offer the gift of their feminine genius to those around them amid widely varying situations. For one woman, living the feminine genius meant making the courageous decision to leave a fulfilling professional career to stay home with her first child. For another, it takes the form of continually pushing the boundaries of her comfort zone to live boldly for Christ. For another, it means drawing closer to Mary in all things. For every woman, welcoming the feminine genius means embracing her identity as a woman and living out the Catholic faith as God uniquely calls her.

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Publié par	TAN Books
Date de parution	09 mars 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781505115178
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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L ETTERS TO W OMEN
LETTERS
TO
WOMEN
EMBRACING THE FEMININE GENIUS IN EVERYDAY LIFE
CHLOE LANGR
TAN Books Gastonia, North Carolina
Letters to Women: Embracing the Feminine Genius in Everyday Life
© 2021 Chloe Langr
All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts used in critical review, no part of this work may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in any form whatsoever, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible—Second Catholic Edition (Ignatius Edition), copyright © 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Cover design by Caroline Green
Cover image by oxygen_8/Shutterstock
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020948816
ISBN: 978-1-5051-1515-4
Kindle ISBN: 978-1-5051-1516-1
ePUB ISBN: 978-1-5051-1517-8
Published in the United States by
TAN Books
PO Box 269
Gastonia, NC 28053
www.TANBooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
To my sweet daughter, Maeve
What an honor it is to see you grow in your own feminine genius. I love you, little bird.
Contents
Foreword
A Letter to the Woman Reading This Book
The Original Letter to Women – An Excerpt from the Letter of Saint Pope John Paul II to Women
A Letter to the Woman Struggling to Look in the Bathroom Mirror
A Letter to the Woman Reconsidering Her Relationship with Her Body
A Letter to the Woman Searching for the Truth about Her Body
A Letter to the Woman Wondering How to Share Her Faith
A Letter to the Woman Witnessing to the Joy of Christ
A Letter to the Woman Growing Closer to Our Lady
A Letter to the Woman in a Season of Conversion
A Letter to the Woman Facing the Unexpected
A Letter to the Woman Looking for Her Place in the Catholic Church
A Letter to the Woman Longing to Belong
A Letter to the Woman Looking for Healthy Friendships
A Letter to the Woman Who Doesn’t Think She’s Creative
A Letter to the Woman Longing for Freedom
A Letter to the Woman Who’s Healing
A Letter to the Woman Struggling with Comparison
A Letter to the Woman Intimidated by the Idea of Hospitality
A Letter to the Woman in a Season of Discernment
A Letter to the Woman Struggling with Surrender
A Letter to the Woman Getting Ready for the First Date
A Letter to the Woman Who Loves Someone Addicted to Pornography
A Letter to the Woman Discerning Marriage
A Letter to the Woman Discerning Adoption
A Letter to the Woman at Home with Kids
A Letter to the Woman Who’s a Working Mom
A Letter to the Woman with Children in Heaven
A Letter to the Woman Whose Kids are Crying at Mass
A Letter to the Woman with Nothing to Wear
A Letter to the Woman Getting Out of Her Comfort Zone
A Letter to the Woman Sitting in Adoration
Conclusion
Foreword
A few years ago, when Chloe Langr first asked me to be a guest on her podcast, Letters to Women , I was not yet familiar with her work. A podcast devoted to exploring St. John Paul II’s concept of “feminine genius” was just the kind of thing I could get behind, though, and so I readily agreed.
In the course of that first conversation, I came to know Chloe as a young woman who was driven to know and share all she could about the dignity and worth of every woman. She was on fire to build up every woman in her identity as a precious daughter of God, a mission very close to my own heart.
So many women struggle to know who they are in the eyes of God. There’s so much in our culture today that tells us we’re not enough, that we’re falling short, that we’re messing up, and that we need to quash our feminine gifts and become more like men in order to find fulfillment and success in the world.
And yet, the beautiful teachings of St. John Paul II remind us that the ways in which women differ from men truly matter and that God made each woman for a special purpose. Every woman is called, in some way, to be a mother. St. John Paul II describes the world as “hungry and thirsty” for our motherhood; the world needs the gift that every mother is. What that motherhood looks like will be different for each of us, but every woman’s calling is a unique and worthy vocation.
The vast variety of ways that women hear and respond to God’s call is beautifully inspiring. What Chloe has done here in this collection of essays is to lay out a tapestry of those experiences in a way that affirms our feminine gifts and strengths while fully acknowledging that it’s hard sometimes and that each of us will respond to God’s call in her own way.
Motherhood has the power to change the world. When women come together to encourage and affirm one another in this honored calling, we are a powerful force for the good. We, with our gifts of sensitivity, compassion, generosity, and nurturing love, have the ability to make the people God places in our lives feel uniquely known and loved. Our feminine ways of loving others are often made up of small things, hidden things the world might not often applaud or recognize.
But motherhood, with its focus on relationships and life-giving love, is no small thing. It can be everything to the soul who is blessed by the gift of a good mother. Satan knows that, and so he does all he can in the world to distract us, make us second guess ourselves, and denigrate the dignity and worth of womanhood. But thanks be to God St. John Paul II and Chloe Langr know it too.
I pray that the voices and experiences of the women highlighted here will speak to your heart about who you are in the eyes of God. I pray that you will find in them the encouragement to explore what the feminine genius means for you and the unique way God calls you to love and serve him through loving service to the people in your home, workplace, and community today. These letters are written to you, and I pray they will inspire you to find the kind of peace and joy that can only come from fully embracing the gift of your own feminine genius and becoming the woman God made you to be.
Danielle Bean
A Letter to the Woman Reading This Book
“It is thus my hope, dear sisters, that you will reflect carefully on what it means to speak of the ‘genius of women’, not only in order to be able to see in this phrase a specific part of God’s plan which needs to be accepted and appreciated, but also in order to let this genius be more fully expressed in the life of society as a whole, as well as in the life of the Church.”
—Pope St. John Paul II, Letter to Women
Dear Sister,
What comes to mind when you think about the feminine genius? Maybe this is the first time you’re exploring what those words mean. Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase before and wondered if it’s just a buzzword that we throw around in our conversations as Catholic women. Or maybe you, like me, have spent quite a bit of time thinking about that term.
When I first heard about the feminine genius, I was in eighth grade confirmation class. I read it first in the writings of Pope St. John Paul II, a pope who recognized the beauty and dignity of women. My first impressions? I thought it was fascinating and intriguing. I wanted a part of this feminine genius, whatever it was.
But the further I got away from eighth grade and progressed through high school, college, and post-graduation life as a Catholic woman, the feminine genius became something less intriguing and more intimidating. The more I thought about that term, the more it seemed unattainable. In fact, I began wondering if the feminine genius was really for me.
There were parts of my story where I thought that I was too much for the feminine genius. Then, there were seasons of my life that made me think I would never be enough to claim that I was living out the feminine genius in my life. If I’m being honest with you, I was worried that I wouldn’t make the cut.
I was the woman who stood in line for confession with a long list of times I’d failed to be the woman the Lord created me to be, the wife my vocation invited me to be, and the mother my parenthood offered me opportunities to become. I’d stand in line, clutching a list of ways I’d missed the mark, and ask God if he was serious about this feminine genius stuff. “Really, me, Lord? The feminine genius? Even with this list of failures and mistakes?”
I’m impatient and I have a temper. I’ve struggled with making time for daily prayer, and it seemed to be a miracle if I could just make it through one Rosary. There have been seasons of my life where the only prayers I could get out were prayers of anger and mistrust. I wondered if God was really a good father who shows up and keeps his promises. “Lord, I don’t think you meant it to be for me, right? You can’t mean that the feminine genius is for me too. I’m struggling to just show up in prayer; I don’t think I can do the feminine genius too.”
I’m addicted to perfectionism. I’m the oldest of eight, so I embody every stereotype that you have about the oldest in a big family. I love organizing things, and labelers bring joy to my life. But I also struggle with comparison. Too often, it is easy for me to compare my thoughts, words, actions, life choices, and my body to those of other women in my life, and the women on Instagram and Pinterest too. “Jesus, I think the feminine genius is for those women who have it all figured out, who truly mean it when they say they’re fine. It’s not for me, it’s for them, right?”
In my marriage and journey to motherhood, I’ve carried the cross of miscarriage. Then, we couldn’t get pregnant and had no answers as to why that was our experience. It seemed that everything the Lord had given me that made me a woman was broken. In the darkest parts of that season, it felt as if that brokenness was irreparable. “God, really? The feminine genius? In my daily life? You can’t be serious.”
So I started to dig back through the words of Pope St. John Paul II that I hadn’t read since eighth