The Feminine Soul

When Holly invited me to check out her blog and this meme, I couldn't resist since Pay It Forward is one of my favorite movies. This is my first post for this meme so I hope I do it right~here goes!
ThereseRita has a wonderful blog called Zeal For Your House Consumes Me. Yesterday she posted an article written by Fr. Benjamin Bradshaw called The Unique Nature of the Feminine Soul. The article used the writings of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) and Blessed John Paul II's Theology of the Body.
The lines of what it truly means to live our femininity have become severely blurred, if not completely erased in our current culture. Fr. Bradshaw used the writings of these great saints to help clarify them.
St Teresa Benedicta sums up the heart of what I believe is meant by the "unique nature of the feminine soul" when she says: "I would also like to believe that even the relationship of soul and body is not completely similar in man and woman; with the woman, the soul’s union with the body is naturally more intimately emphasized…Woman’s soul is present and lives more intensely in all parts of the body, and it is inwardly affected by that which happens to the body; whereas with men, the body has more pronouncedly the character of an instrument which serves them in their work and which is accompanied by a certain detachment.'(Essays p.95). 
Men and women are different in the obvious ways but the difference and uniqueness goes deeper than the surface. I think that when more women start to understand and embrace this, true femininity will flourish and become more than what the "feminists" of today have reduced it to. Too many try to work against what St Teresa Benedicta speaks of. I came away from this article with a deeper appreciation of the gift of womanhood, and the sense of freedom that accepting this gift as God intended it brings.
Don't let the mention of the Theology of the Body scare you~ the post is easy to read and understand.
Thanks to ThereseRita for sharing this insightful post with us. You can read it by clicking the title of ThereseRita's blog above.
Please be sure to visit Holly at A Life~ Size Catholic Blog where you can more about what's good and useful in the blog world.