This is a wonderful post about women in the Bible and their role.
by Virginia Harris, C.S.B.
It is striking to me how often in the New Testament a woman is the one anointed for the holy task of bearing witness to the Christ-presence. The one to confirm that the Christ is come to a dark and waiting world. Read more
“Let the ‘male and female’ of God’s creating appear.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Eddy, p. 249)
What does this mean to you?
To me, it points to spiritual manhood and womanhood, which is included in who we each are.
Although, we might see each other as limited, mortal genders, we are spiritually created in the image and likeness of God and are already whole and complete including both the masculine and feminine within our being.
For instance, the balance of my spiritual masculine and feminine qualities makes me strong, intelligent, independent, nurturing, supportive and caring. They are in perfect balance and equality, not competing with one another.
Sometimes we see one gender as dominating over another. But right there we can recognize that each individual includes spiritual womanhood and manhood. Because the “male and female” of God’s creating are spiritual, they have to be seen in everyone.
When watching a burly guy walk down the street, I love to acknowledge, despite the rough exterior, that he includes gentleness, peace and spiritual intuition.
When we recognize our completeness, it frees us from sensuality, lust and a false desire to dominate one another.
It can require humility to see that one gender is not superior over another and that we are all in fact equal. But I know that as we do this our relationships will become more kind, trustful and spiritual.
For instance, how can a woman walking down the street fear a man when she sees his spiritual womanhood as well as manhood? How can he be attracted to her in a malicious way when he sees her as complete – capable, strong and beautiful – acknowledging both her spiritual masculinity and femininity?
“Let” means to allow or permit. So allow the spiritual manhood and womanhood that God created in to your consciousness. It will completely expand your view, enrich our divine family, and foster safer communities with more opportunities. Misconceptions about who we are get cleared up. And we will no longer be limited by harmful stereotypes.
“Let us … give up imperfect models and illusive ideals; and so let us have one God, one Mind, and that one perfect, producing His own models of excellence. Let the ‘male and female’ of God’s creating appear.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Eddy, p. 249)
by Mark Sappenfield, Staff Writer for The Christian Science Monitor
I came across an article with a provocative headline the other day. It read, “Study: Ogling women makes them worse at math.” Basically, the study wanted to figure out what happened when men and women felt objectified, something the researchers defined as people being “judged on body parts or sexual function without regard to other aspects of their personality.” So several members of the study team were trained to stare at men and women in an inappropriate way, then the men and women were asked to take a math test.
The women who were objectified did worse than women in a control group who were not. (The men showed no difference.) Moreover, other research has shown that women do worse on math tests when they are told before starting: “Girls are bad at math.”
We often think of contagion as being a process of microbes and viruses. But how often do we think about mental contagion? Yes, we admit that we are influenced by our friends, our parents, our co-workers. Still, these studies are shocking – showing the degree to which we unconsciously allow others’ thoughts to shape our experience. This is mental tyranny, and thankfully it is something that we can summarily reject.
How? We can start by understanding our origin and nature. Mary Baker Eddy, the author of “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (see p. 525), refers to the Icelandic Bible translation of this verse from the first chapter of Genesis: “And God said, Let us make man after our mind and our likeness; and God shaped man after His mind; after God’s mind shaped He him; and He shaped them male and female” (verse 27).
So all that we are is the likeness of God’s mind. We are not a body to be ogled or a brain of doubtful mathematical aptitude. We are an image of God’s thought, and the allness of God precludes the intrusion of anything unlike this perfect likeness in this image. This frees us from aggressive mental intrusion… Read more
Spirituality & Healing 