The Task of Woman in the Modern World ~ Single Life / Mother of Mankind / Woman’s Dedication

by Janet Kalven, 1946

Single Life

The task of the unmarried woman is, by her whole-hearted surrender to God, to make virginity spiritually fruitful in the world. In embracing virginity, she should radiate purity and nobility of soul.

Her very existence, like that of the virgin consecrated in religion, should be a strong positive influence upholding the dignity of womanhood and the sanctity of marriage.

By developing her capacity for spiritual motherhood, she should become a source of strength and comfort and inspiration to mankind. Never has the world been so full of misery, so desperately in need of the healing influence of woman’s love.

The mission of the unmarried woman in this time is to give the full riches of her maternal love and devotion to alleviate the sufferings and renew the hope of mankind. In order to accomplish her vocation, the single woman must find an appropriate sphere in which she can carry out her dedication to God through loving service of human beings. She must strike out on new paths, searching for types of work in which she can use her womanly talents and develop her woman’s nature.

In the education and formation of the young; in agriculture, tending growing plants and animals; in the care of the sick, the weak, the poor, the helpless, woman finds fields of activity appropriate to her capacities as nurturer of life.

Unfortunately, work as it is carried on in these fields today often affords small opportunity for the use of woman’s characteristic talents. In medicine, in education, in social work, we suffer from depersonalization, from too much large scale organization and mechanical routine, from too much concern with the physical aspects of the process.

We need women to pioneer in these fields again, bringing with them their gift for warmly personal service and creating truly womanly occupations.

We need women who will help to restore the emphasis on the spiritual, and who will make the work of healing, of teaching, of relieving the distressed a full expression of living charity between human persons.

Woman As Mother of Mankind

Woman helps to lead society Godward by her direct service of mankind as well as by her example. Total dedication to God implies wholehearted service of man. A loving care for one’s neighbor is but the necessary practical expression of a genuine love of God.

In woman, the care for one’s neighbor has the character of maternal love, with its warm personal devotion and generous sacrifice of self. Spiritually as well as physically, woman is the mother of mankind, the fountain and nurturer of life.

Through her relation to “man the maker” woman exercises a strong spiritual influence on the whole of a culture. Man leaves the imprint of his personality in the creations of his mind—works of science and art, monumental buildings and commercial empires.

But woman’s masterpiece is life itself. She is not interested in abstract or technical achievements but in persons, and in bringing persons to God.

She stays in the background, the great inspirer, whose warm sympathy and encouragement spur man on. Intuitively she perceives what is best and noblest in his proposals and helps to develop it.

With her deep awareness of the sacramentality of life, she helps man to see matter as the image of spirit, inspiring him with her vision of the divine poetry of creation and the symbolism of human action.

In the life of every great man one finds this vital influence of a noble woman—Monica and Augustine, Paula and Jerome, Scholastica and Benedict, Clare and Francis, Blanche of Castile and King Louis, Clothilde and Clovis, Beatrice and Dante. Woman’s influence is subtle and hard to define but nonetheless real. When she no longer fulfills her role as spiritual mother, culture becomes gross, materialistic, brutal, and loses grace and beauty.

The Three Spheres of Woman’s Dedication

Woman must needs fulfill her universal mission of dedication to God and loving service of mankind in some concrete set of circumstances.

There are three spheres in which she can carry out her primary task: religious life, marriage, and single life in the world. In the designs of God’s Providence, some women in every generation, the “first fruits,” are meant to consecrate themselves to God in religion; most women are called to dedicate themselves to Him in marriage; and very few are intended for the life of the unmarried woman in the world.

But whether she becomes a nun, a mother of a family, or a single woman in the world, her essential function remains the same: to be a living example of the spirit of surrender and love, the spiritual mother of mankind.

The virgin consecrated to God by her vow of chastity has always been regarded with highest honor in Christian civilization. Consecrated virginity diffuses a fragrant atmosphere of purity and spiritual integrity throughout society, which contributes to preserve the sanctity of marriage and the dignity of womanhood.

The greater the respect and esteem shown to virginity in a society, the higher the position of all women will be.

It is significant that the Protestant revolt which has had so many unfortunate consequences for the position of woman began with Luther’s attacks on virginity and his liquidation of convents and monasteries.

“Youth is at the same time the most beautiful and the most dangerous period of life; it can be the most blessed, or the most fatal of seasons. It is the time of poetry and romance, of dreams and visions, of aspirations and ambitions, of the noblest impulses and the grandest resolves. But it is also the season of inexperience and immaturity, of impulsiveness and impetuosity, of conceit, of hasty ideas, undigested plans and precipitate action. By one heroic decision a young person can lay the foundations of future greatness; and by one misstep a youth can start headlong and irresistibly to utter and irretrievable ruin.”-Rev. Fulgence G. Meyer, 1920’s

In 1093, shortly after learning of the deaths of her husband and one of her sons in battle, Margaret died peacefully. She was canonized in 1250 by Pope Innocent IV and is honored as the patroness of Scotland.

“My Child, do not become discouraged because your interior dispositions change so easily. At one moment you are filled with a burning desire to serve Me, and a short while later you feel alone and uninterested….” From My Daily Bread, A summary of the Spiritual Life, 1954

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My Daily Bread ~ Available here.

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