There’s No Such Thing as a Coincidence

By Gigi Zapiain

There I was, minding my own business, finally getting some work done when yet another email lands in my inbox. At first I resisted the temptation to look at it, but upon seeing it was from ENDOW, of course it had to be opened immediately. It was an invitation to contribute to this blog – so here I am. But if there is ever an issue with anything I might set down here – you know to send your grievance to The Management – and perhaps I can get more work done again. But if I’m lucky, that won’t happen.

I became involved with ENDOW studies about 18 months ago pretty much out of pure skepticism. I had read Letter to Women, Mulieris Dignitatem, Redemptoris Mater, and studied St. Thomas’ Summa Theologica in graduate school back in Washington, D.C. World-class philosophers and theologians like Pope John Paul II and Thomas Aquinas aren’t particularly easy to read – not anything you would take to the beach – so can this little outfit out of Denver really claim to make their writings accessible to the average woman? Especially since they use the real stuff, not summaries or paraphrases. So I joined a new ENDOW group. Not as a facilitator, mind you. I just wanted to be “one of the gals.”

My first surprise came from the documents themselves. I had read Letter to Women as an academic requirement. I could tell you what it was about and the major points the Holy Father was making – but I had no idea part of the strategy had been to influence the U.N. World Conference on Women taking place the same year the Letter was published. “Pretty crafty,” I thought – but that’s JPII for you – thinking globally and acting both on the world stage and as an individual, writing to every woman in the world. Interesting insight, but not a stunner. Then the study guide points out that the whole Letter is written in the form of an extended Examination of Conscience – whoa – I had never picked up on that and my professor had never mentioned it. During an intensive Ignatian retreat I once did, a daily personal examination of conscience was included for us to confront ourselves, face up to our sins and shortcomings, and resolve to do better. Was this what the Holy Father was doing? I had to know…and so did everyone else in our group.

Then there were the women. There were eight of us all together, a random collection of housewives, single working women, and retirees who were willing to come out one evening a week. Our only discernable common traits were love of the faith and a curiosity about what it might be like to talk with perfect strangers about the writings of Pope John Paul II. As would surprise no one, we did not remain strangers for long – and I was hooked. As someone once said to me, “In the Providence of God, there are no coincidences, only our recognition of His hand at work.”