Today, I continue with the third of four reflections on the New Evangelization, to which our Holy Father continuously directs our attention. The following address was given at the Mass for the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women on March 16.

As we continue our journey through the season of Lent toward Easter, we pause today to be reminded of two things: that being academically learned or having advanced degrees in theology is not as important in the Christian life as having a personal relationship with God, and, secondly, that our mission as Christians is to bring others to Christ. Our Holy Father in his Apostolic Letter on the New Millennium, echoing the words of Jesus to His disciples, has invited us to "set out into the deep" for a catch. As Catholic women how are you to responding to this invitation?

Pope John Paul II is a man renowned for learning and for his deep relationship with God. In a speech to Catholic women in Rome, he said: "Feminine holiness, to which each of you is called, is indispensable in the life of the Church … The Church’s presence and action in the new millennium passes by way of woman’s capacity to receive and keep God’s word" (Canticle, Issue 12). Each of you is called to be on the forefront in bringing the feminine genius to the world in all of its splendor and creative beauty. As the Church "sets out into the deep" in this third Christian millennium, she needs the genius of women!

When God created man, He created them male and female, and when either one of those two components is missing, then everything suffers. This is why it is so important to have Catholic women involved at every level of life. Our Holy Father tells us: "Women will increasingly play a part in the solution of the serious problems of the future: leisure time, the quality of life, migration, social services, euthanasia, drugs, health care, the ecology, etc. In all these areas a greater presence of women in society will prove most valuable, for it will help to manifest the contradictions present when society is organized solely according to the criteria of efficiency and productivity, and it will force systems to be redesigned in a way which favors the processes of humanization which mark the ‘civilization of love’" (Letter to Women, 4).

Concretely, how are you to go about fulfilling this great mission? Many might say they need degrees in theology or social work or public speaking. As we see in our readings today, that is simply not the case. Our first reading comes from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah. He was a youth, not educated in the law, yet, sent by God to proclaim God’s call to conversion and repentance. And, our Gospel reading describes the educated Scribes and Pharisees rejecting God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. The point is clear. We do not need formal education to preach the gospel to others, but it is indispensable for us to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified (cf. I Cor 2:2).

I would like to propose three women as role models for you who are to be role models for others. The Church has three women Doctors of the Church: St. Theresa of Jesus of Avila, St. Catherine of Siena and St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face of Lisieux. None of these three women was formally educated at the college or university level. All three had the modest education of their day, often being tutored at home. Yet, it is indisputable that these three women have impacted history and the Church in such a profound way that their presence, their feminine presence, is still felt and admired by all today.

St. Catherine of Siena was a Third Order Dominican. Born in 1347, St. Catherine lived in a period of deep division and turmoil in the Church. She worked tirelessly to bring the papacy back to Rome after it had moved to Avignon, France, because of terrible rivalry and feuding within the Church. History credits the return of the papacy to Rome to the efforts of St. Catherine of Siena. She also published a series of conversations between herself and God, which have remained a spiritual classic to our own day.

St. Theresa of Jesus of Avila was born in 1514 in Avila, Spain, to parents of modest means. Lively and enthusiastic about worldly things, she eventually entered a Carmelite monestary. She began to feel God’s call to deepen her spiritual life, and, later on, founded a Carmelite order that more strictly adhered to the rules of religious life. God used her to found many of these convents which impacted the religious and secular societies around her. Her writings on the spiritual life comprise her major contribution to the Church. Her deep penetrating insights did not come from studying theological manuals, but through deep prayer and reflection on the person of Jesus Christ coupled with common sense and practical wisdom.

The Little Flower, St. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, was born on January 2, 1873, in Alencon, France. The youngest of five daughters, she followed her sisters to Carmel. With no formal advanced education, St. Therese of Lisieux has left for us her "Little Way." This spiritual classic continues to help generations of women and men grow in holiness. Her life was a continual dying to self that was marked by love.

These three women are only three of thousands of saints and ordinary women who have used their feminine genius to impact the world around them in the everyday events of life. The distinguishing features that enabled them to so impact the world, to "set out into the deep" in their era, was the fact that they brought their feminine genius to bear on their surroundings. They used the genius that God has given exclusively to women to act as leaven in their environment, and this impacted society in a substantial way.

Our world is in desperate need of women to inject society with the feminine gift that God intends for the world so that it follows His plan. Today, as a nation we are at war, we face terrorist threats, violent crime is on the rise and children are dying through unregulated scientific research, abortion, abuse and neglect, kidnappings and sexual exploitation.

It is clear from the problems in our world and from history that the feminine genius is lacking, and that is probably one of the major reasons why we are experiencing so many difficulties. Society and the Church need you – Catholic women – to get involved in the world by bringing your feminine gifts to bear on the questions of our day, by getting involved in all levels of the Church and society. God has entrusted the human person to women in a special way. Pope John Paul II wrote: "The moral and spiritual strength of woman is joined to her awareness that God entrusts the human being to her in a special way….precisely by reason of their femininity – and this in a particular way determines their vocation….A woman is strong because of her awareness of this entrusting, strong because of the fact that God ‘entrusts the human being to her,’ always in every way, even in the situations of social discrimination…" (Mulieris Dignitatem, 30).

By getting involved in the "real worlds" in which you live and work, you can strengthen society and family life through availability, communication and the resetting of priorities. You can further strengthen society and family life by finding ways to recognize better and to eliminate fully domestic abuse and by involving yourself in the support and protection of human life, from conception all the way through to natural death, through prayer, education and witness. You can also help by participating in parish-based efforts which implement the Church’s mission regarding vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life, ecumenism and social justice, as well as the life issues. Your membership in pastoral and finance councils on both the diocesan and parish levels is invaluable. These are but a few tangible arenas in which your feminine genius and gift can be brought to bear with positive influence.