“The one sole thing in myself in which I glory is that I see in myself nothing in which I can glory.”

                         -St. Catherine of Genoa

For Reflection:

St. Catherine is not denying her gifts and talents, nor the graces that God has given her. Rather, she is recognizing that all that she has belongs to God and comes from God. To what extent do her words resonate with me?

Full of Grace:
Women and the Abundant Life
Johnnette Benkovic
Pb 238 pgs
Click Here For More Information

Chapter One   Page 19
The Special Call and Gift of Woman

The Blessed Mother:  The Perfect Model of Womanhood

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger refers to this stage of Mary’s motherhood as her becoming “a field for the word”.  To be a field for the word means to be earth which allows itself to be absorbed by the seed, which assimilates itself to the seed, renouncing itself so as to make the seed germinate.  With her motherhood, Mary transfused into it her very substance, body and soul, so that a new life might come forth….Mary makes herself completely available as the soil, she allows herself to be used and consumed so as to be transformed into him.