Giving - at the Heart of every women's vocation

Last week I started a series of blogs on Marriage, and in the blog post, The Cross of Marriage - Part II, I listed a series of five things that help me as I grow in my vocation of being a wife.

I also stated that at this point in our life Mr. T and I are at a wonderful point in our marriage, one where we both seem to see the beauty of the vocation of marriage as well as the beauty of each other. A few months ago though we were not at this point, we were at one of those points where I thought he was insufferable, 24/7 and that was making me crabby and definitely NOT the women that I should be.

It was at that point that I attended a day long women's retreat, the theme was on Giving.

The truth is that giving is at the heart of every women's vocation I realized this on the retreat, that is why this is the number one element in my list of five. We are called to give until it hurts. However we cannot give what we don't have. I have found that that means spiritually, emotionally, and even intellectually.

The second truth is that God gives us everything that we need so we can give.

First and foremost, he gives us two amazing examples of what it means to give. The first one is himself, He gave us himself on the cross, if the cross is not an example of giving until it hurts, I don't know what is. The second example that He gives us is the gift of His Blessed Mother Mary. Mary gave us her Fiat, as an example of giving. Mary said yes, to being the mother of Jesus when she was only a teen. Giving her whole life to Jesus the son of God, giving of herself time and time again.

Jesus also gives us the Catholic Church all of the Sacraments including that of Baptism. The amazing sacrament where we are claimed by Christ, claimed as his own daughter. Christ will never take back that promise, he will never take back His grace. Grace is one of the things that we need so we can give. Another one of the amazing sacraments that Christ gave us is the Eucharist, where we receive His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, talk about giving us that strength so we can give. Including the strength to give not ourselves but to give Jesus.

The last bit that I want to leave you with is the prayer that we may each learn to "renounce the boundaries of our love".

Blessings,
Joy