(Kelsey Teran, a 23 year old participant in ENDOW studies in Boulder, CO...and my daughter ;) , was asked to share her thoughts about her participation in ENDOW studies at an upcoming event called "Date with Dignity." Below are Kelsey's thoughts.... )
One best comes to know an artist by examining his work. Who is an artist more worthy of examination than our God? Every beauty we can see with our eyes or imagine with our minds is the Art of our God, for he Himself is Beauty. The world as we know it, and far beyond what we know, is the wonder-full creation of The Creator. Should we not examine his work? And upon examining his work, should we not realize that we are his masterpiece? Are we - humans, that is - not the only creatures of this world given the prize of being made in His own image and likeness? We are his greatest work of art! St. Clement of Alexandria said, “To know ourselves has always been the greatest of all lessons. For, if we know ourselves, we will know God. And in knowing God, we will become like God.” Is it not our duty to examine ourselves, in order to know the Artist who formed us? So what are we, us humans? The most simple answer comes from The Beginning: Male and Female he created us (Genesis 1:27). And just as is the mystery of our faith and our existence, the most simple answer is also the most deep and awesome adventure. Endow is a journey of exploring what it means to be a human female - the perfect complement to a human male - the necessary component of the human race that allows us to exist in the image and likeness of our God. The human race is not complete as God’s artistic masterpiece without female, without woman. Women exist to humanize the world - to complete God’s image and likeness in this existence where “we cannot see him as we do an apple tree or a neon sign, that is, with no interior commitment” (Pope Benedict). We must look interiorly, look inside ourselves to know ourselves and thus to know our God, the perfect artist. Endow sets out to do just this. In our current world the idea of a female has become just that - an idea - and an idea does not have to be true to exist. We need to examine the human female on the level of Reality to know what she is, to know what she is as a human, body mind and soul. We deserve to be only exactly what we are. And this discovery of what we are and thus what we should be is in no way disappointing - it is as gazing upon the perfect work of the perfect Artist.
I will leave you now with two more things: first, a few lyrics from the song that has been playing repeatedly on my iTunes and also in my head which I find rather apropos when contemplating the beauty of male and female complementarity (from a song called January Wedding by the Avett Brothers):
“I hope that I don’t sound too
insane when I say there is darkness
all around us.
I don’t feel weak but I do
need sometimes for Her to protect me
and reconnect me
to the beauty
that I’m missin’ ”
and second, with a recommendation to seriously consider embarking on the journey of discovering what it means to be a woman, the woman you are intended to be, by walking the beautiful path Endow, through the work of the Holy Spirit, has put before you.
Thanks for listening :)
Kelsey Teran
To find our more about ENDOW and ENDOW studies which are beginning soon, please click here.
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