Mary Malone returned to her native Wexford in 1998 after living in Canada for over thirty years and teaching Feminist Theology and Women’s Christian History in Roman Catholic seminaries and universities in the Toronto area. She is a prolific writer the author of the three volume Women and Christianity (2000 \u2013 2004), Praying with the Women Mystics (2007)<\/p>\n
Speech :<\/strong><\/span> Mary T. Malone, Theologian.<\/strong><\/p>\n Returned to her native Wexford in 1998 after living in Canada for over thirty years and teaching Feminist Theology and Women’s Christian History in Roman Catholic seminaries and universities in the Toronto area. \u00a0 She is a prolific writer the author of the three volume Women and Christianity (2000 \u2013 2004), Praying with the Women Mystics (2007)<\/p>\n ———————————————————— Theme: \u2018Are the people of God powerless?\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n In my mind I have two other titles for this presentation. One is Back to Square One. \u00a0I have been astonished at the process of the current General Election. \u00a0The country is in great peril and politicians seem to be acting as if this were just another election with the usual sniping and self-congratulations. Similarly, the Church is in peril with its people disillusioned, broken-hearted, and many of its members struggling, with enormous grace, to recover their cruelly damaged lives. Church leaders, however, seem to think that when the dust settles, we can go back to business as usual and call on ancient loyalties, without any real challenge to the clerical abuse of power that has \u00a0caused so much damage. \u00a0As in politics, so in the Church: those who led us to this pass may not be the best equipped to lead us in the absolutely necessary transformation So we need to go back to Square One.<\/p>\n The politicians like to say that we were all to blame, but this has not been my experience. \u00a0In the Church\u2019s case, however, some blame does rest on many of us, and hence the second provisional title for this talk \u2013 Catholic Boot Camp. I am not thinking here of a militaristic process, but something along the lines of the recent TV program of the ICA Boot Camp, that is the often hilarious, but revealing and sometimes moving event organized recently by the Irish Countrywomen\u2019s Association. \u00a0 Three gifted elderly women welcomed a group of young women from various parts of the country and initiated them into a kind of organic lifestyle, based on the women\u2019s long life experience. What came to my mind as I watched was the RCIA process (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults). This is not the place to spell out the details of this 5th century initiation process, but the final stage of the six-stage process is called Mystagogy. This is where those of us who have made the journey are invited to \u201cname what we have come to know\u201d<\/em>, to bring to expression our particular experience of the journey of faith for the benefit of the \u00a0whole community. \u00a0 The power of speaking a word of truth has been officially consigned to the ordained members of the community, but we must all take up the task of speaking our own word of truth, of doing mystagogy, in our own church contexts.<\/p>\n What I want to awaken here is the awareness of our effective historical consciousness, and a realization of the consequences of a truncated understanding of the tradition. Each of us has a kind of potted version of the history of Catholicism which, whether we know it or not, guides our lives of faith to some extent. One element of this history is the notion that we were always divided into a clergy\/laity arrangement, and that this constitutes God\u2019s gift to the Church. \u00a0As Bernard Lonergan has said, \u201cDoctrines have dates\u201d,<\/em> and so the theological understanding of both clergy and laity comes from our patriarchal\/hierarchical past, where the laity were seen in a dualistic manner as the less qualified members of the Church institution. \u00a0This emerged particularly in the 13th century when the powers of clergy were increased and sacralised, while the role of the laity was decreased and secularized. It is for this reason that I am using the word disciple here as the one designation that includes all of us without exception, from pope to peasant, as Augustine of Hippo would say.<\/p>\n A disciple is a learner, a seeker, one who is part of an egalitarian inclusive community. \u00a0A disciple is learning to embody the vision of the teacher, Jesus, and as any teacher knows, the teacher\/learner transaction is wholly reciprocal. The teacher teaches and learns simultaneously, as is illustrated in a recent liturgical gospel reading where Jesus learned something about inter-racial respect from the Syro-Phoenician woman and was amazed at her faith. (Mark 7:24-30). \u00a0Discipleship is based on an inner conviction rooted in a wholly new vision of freedom and possibility. \u00a0A disciple\u2019s view of self is changed radically as is the disciple\u2019s view of God. \u00a0It is a vision rooted in a total reversal of values where the poor are brought in and the rich cast out, the lowly are exalted and \u201cthose of high degree\u201d are brought down. \u00a0Disciples are invited to take sides with justice and against injustice. \u00a0Disciples practise commensality (John Dominic Crossan\u2019s word) and break bread together at the same table, in imitation of Jesus who \u201cwas a friend of publicans and sinners\u201d and scandalised those of more discerning taste with his choice of associates. \u00a0These are the gospel values that gnaw at the heart and urge us to move beyond our narrow tribal boundaries. \u00a0Whenever, in the history of Christianity, these values are rediscovered, leading to new evangelization, something extraordinary happens, and the kin-dom of God seems to take shape among us.<\/p>\n I am not talking, however, about generic discipleship. Disciples come as male and as female. The gospels tell us that the male disciples were led by Peter and this we have remembered well. It is a well established fact in our effective historical consciousness. \u00a0The female disciples were led by Mary Magdalene, as the gospels relate over and over, but this has escaped our historical consciousness and been replaced by silence about the women and a fictionalization of Mary Magdalene. \u00a0Instead of the disciple and eventual apostle and first witness and preacher of the Resurrection, we remember a prostitute who actually never existed, but was concocted by Pope Gregory !, among others, from an amalgamation of the sinful and repentant women in the Gospels, especially the woman in Luke who \u201cwashed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair\u201d<\/em> (7:36-50)<\/p>\n Mary Magdalene and the other women from Galilee constitute the sole biblical witnesses to the final foundational events of the life of Jesus and form the link between the death of Jesus and the beginnings of Christianity. \u00a0The male disciples, as Mark tells us, had fled (Mk.14:50) Nevertheless the infant church with its male and female disciples assembled, all received the Holy Spirit, and much of the rest of the story illustrates the tension between the two Greek terms for the first \u201cfollowers of the way\u201d, kyriakos and ekklesia, both of which are translated by the English word church. The Greek word Kyriakos signifies the \u201cLord\u2019s house\u201d<\/em> and takes shape in the hierarchical and patriarchal church which has more or less prevailed through the centuries and which we know so well. \u00a0The word Ekklesia signifies the gathered community of equal disciples, which seems to have been the shape of the Church for the first few decades and continues to lurk as hope and longing among believers, but never as a complete reality. \u00a0One catastrophic result of the hierarchical institutionalization of the church is the marginalizing, silencing and rendering invisible of the women disciples.<\/p>\n So what happened to the women disciples? \u00a0Why did and does the Church think that the theological contribution of women is entirely unnecessary to the full understanding of Church? \u00a0Why, in the development of Christian understanding is the voice of women absent from the formation of every Christian doctrine and every Creed? Why is there not one reflection in the whole history of Christianity by a mother on the miraculous experience of conceiving, carrying, bearing and nourishing a child? \u00a0Why instead was this miraculous life-giving event regarded, for much of our history, as sinfully tainted? And why has the preservation of this injustice and loss of so much richness been justified by a false theology down the long years of our history, ending in the distorted theology which forbids the priestly ordination of women. It is obvious from his abundant writings that Pope John Paul 11 agonised over the place of women in the Church, not with a view to restoring the Gospel vision of discipleship, but with ever more mangled theological reasoning, culminating in his \u201cnew feminism\u201d rooted in \u201contological complementarity\u201d<\/em>. This is his teaching about the essential characteristics that constitutes a woman\u2019s life and, specifically, her role in the church. There are mountains of Christian literature on this subject, but not one page of it is informed by the voice of women. Women, in the church, are required to lead prescribed lives. Most women and many men have moved beyond this state. Every time I see a young man with a tiny infant on his chest, I realize that history is lurching forward and have to say \u201cSo much for ontological complementarity\u201d. The distancing of men from the lives of infants and children can be seen as one of the building blocks in our recent disastrous history.<\/p>\n The charter of discipleship is Galatians 3:26-28. \u00a0This pre-Pauline baptismal formula is a recipe for discipleship and a ground-plan for the kingdom of God All baptized in Christ are all one. \u00a0There is no more Jew or Greek, no more slave or free, no more male and female, but all are one. It is a vision of a Church without racism, without oppression of the poor and without sexism. \u00a0It is a vision that has never been realized, though it remains as one of the reversals of values that constitutes the true disciple. On the contrary, even within the biblical record itself, this has been contradicted. I will mention only two of the modifications of this vision that form part of our heritage.<\/p>\n Around the year 55CE, Paul wrote to the Corinthians (1Cor.14:34 \u2013 36) As in all the churches of the saints, women should be silent in the churches. \u00a0For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says. \u00a0If there is anything they need to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. Several decades later, the author of the letter to Timothy gives the first theological reasoning for such a silencing of women. Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. I permit no woman to teach or have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. (1Tim.2:11-15) \u00a0 This formula from the Letter to Timothy became the oft-repeated mantra about the place of a woman in the church: created second, sinned first.<\/p>\n Some male church teachers were always conscious of the intra-biblical contradictions here, and throughout history, there are at least five \u201cintrusions\u201d<\/em> of women on the ecclesiastical scene who chose to live as disciples beyond this dichotomous provision. Of these, the medieval women mystics are, perhaps, the most significant example as we have several thousand pages of text from them. Another huge and yet to be explored source is the volume of writing from the post-Tridentine women founders of religious communities. The Council of Trent had barely noticed women, but of their own initiative, these extraordinary women set out as teachers, healers, preachers and missionaries to all corners of the world. The history of almost every community is the history of the taming of the original woman\u2019s vision in order to make it fit male ecclesiastical requirements.<\/p>\n One leader who sought insight on the subject was Pope Paul VI who asked the Pontifical Biblical Commission at the end of the 60s to explore the above quoted text from Corinthians in order to discern whether or not this was the Word of God, or whether it was a pastoral decision made by Paul in a particular place at a particular time and therefore could be changed in another place and at another time. \u00a0The response was that it was the latter \u2013 a pastoral decision, and therefore changeable. The response of the Church was symbolic and barely noticed at the time or since. \u00a0Teresa of Avila was named a Doctor of the Church, representing all religious women, and Catherine of Siena was named a Doctor of the Church, representing all \u201clay\u201d<\/em> women. \u00a0The consequences of this event were barely noticeable except, to some extent, in the religious communities concerned. A further consequence was that the 1983 revision of Canon Law eased somewhat the total ban on official teaching of women, again with barely discernible consequences.<\/p>\n A second modification of the original inclusive discipleship occurred in the case of the slave. Whereas originally convert slaves were required to be treated as \u201cbrothers\u201d,<\/em> eventually, in the later pastoral writings, when wealthy slave-owners have become Christian, slaves are instructed to accept the authority of your masters, with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle, but even those who are harsh. \u00a0For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly\u2026In the same way, wives accept the authority of your husbands. (1Peter 2:18 \u2013 3:6) \u00a0 Thus begins the long Christian tradition of placing the burden of suffering on the poor and the weak and women. \u00a0This has the potential to be toxic teaching as both weak and strong internalize, through constant teaching, their respective positions of power and weakness, suffering unjustly and \u201cjust\u201d punishment. \u00a0 It is not a recipe for discipleship.<\/p>\n The story of discipleship weaves in and out of several other Christian teachings and practices such as the naming of sin, vocation, the virtues of resignation to one\u2019s lot and obedience to superiors. \u00a0But perhaps one of the most significant has been in the understanding and practice of Eucharist. There have been two Eucharistic traditions weaving in and out of our history from its earliest days, that related to Good Friday and that related to Holy Thursday. \u00a0It is a question of emphasis, but with differing results in terms of the experience of the participants. \u00a0The Holy Thursday tradition is rooted in the experience of a shared meal where all are welcome, and where the symbol of shared bread and fish was primary. \u00a0This follows the tradition of the many meals celebrated by Jesus, and was always aware of the hunger of the world and those who had no bread. \u00a0The Good Friday tradition is rooted in the notion of sacrifice and the necessary worthiness of those who participate. This Eucharistic celebration has been hedged around with notions of reverence and has led to the magnificent liturgical celebrations shrouded in Latin and incense and music, which were so familiar some decades ago. Our current controversies about Vatican 11 innovations, about language and about priesthood stem, in some sense from these two understandings of Eucharist. My own experience is that there is a kind of parallel church where officially or unofficially both traditions exist side by side. \u00a0Perhaps the perceived tragedy of non-attendance at Eucharist today is tha t one tradition is rooted in invitation, the other in commandment. \u00a0\u00a0What is the authority of discipleship? It is invitational evangelisation. In the early Catechumenal process, evangelisation constituted the second stage. It was preceded by the stage of Enquiry, a stage we so often tend to ignore. The Enquiry stage was designed to discover the life and death questions of the individual and of the culture. \u00a0The Murphy Report spoke about what was endemic in the Church, that is what is characteristic of us as a people. In the early days of Liberation Theology, theologians spoke of the ability to name the sin and the grace of a culture and to respond to that with the Good News. \u00a0In the Enquiry stage no question is seen as peripheral. \u00a0There are no set contexts for the Gospel to be preached, and, as in the life of Jesus, the result will be a kind of reciprocal evangelization, followed by a deepening catechesis. In catechesis, the word echo is at its heart \u2013 where an echo of response rebounds between disciple and catechist. \u00a0This is so much deeper than \u201cteaching the catechism\u201d where both questions and answers are pre-ordained.<\/p>\n This is an inner authority, an authority that increases (Latin: auctor, augere) the effect of one\u2019s presence through the sharing of a biblical spirituality. \u00a0It is an authority rooted in prayer, the prayer of integrity, the prayer that arises from the heart and is expressed in words that aim to express fully the mingling of humanity and divinity in the life of a person. \u00a0It is a prayer founded in our humanity and in the shared humanity of Jesus. \u00a0In many ways we have not allowed Jesus full humanity, but have limited the incarnation to a chosen set of super-human values. \u00a0When the followers of Jesus said \u201cHe speaks with authority<\/em>\u201d they were speaking of an authority that they could recognize humanly.<\/p>\n The authority of discipleship, of women and men disciples, is an authority that arises in a reclaimed ekklesia. It is the authority of Mystagogy, of naming what we have come to know of our God and our Church and of the Good News. \u00a0This authority most likely has as a prerequisite a huge task of education, but the actual authority of the Christian community and its most unlikely members, conventionally speaking, should never be underestimated. \u00a0Whenever Canadians speak of holiness, they always first refer to Jean Vanier, the founder of L\u2019Arche. In his writings he speaks of making two great discoveries. \u00a0The first is that we are healed and transformed by the \u201cpoor\u201d, that is the most negligible among us. And the second is that we are all in some sense the \u201cpoor\u201d. \u00a0 Here is the locus of real Christian authority.<\/p>\n The goal of discipleship, the proof of the pudding, so to speak, is the public exercise of compassion. \u00a0 Compassion has traditionally been envisioned as a virtue best exercised in private. It constituted a large part of the private lives of women, as envisioned by Pope John Paul 11. \u00a0There is little point in saying that Church leaders, politicians and others are much nicer in private than they appear in public. \u00a0This just conceals the public use and abuse of power. We have been involved in a cover-up that is deeper than the institutional decisions of leaders. \u00a0The cover-up is of our addiction to the abuse of power shrouded in a kind of sacred clericalism. \u00a0 All of us have fed the addiction of our leaders for our own purposes. This is not the action of disciples. Why Not Soar?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n You have the wings of longing, (Mechtilde of Magdeburg, 13th century Beguine and Mystic)<\/em><\/p>\n Bible References<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Mark 7:24-30<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0New International Version (NIV)<\/p>\n Jesus Honors a Syrophoenician Woman\u2019s Faith<\/p>\n 24\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre.[a<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret.\u00a025\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit\u00a0came and fell at his feet.\u00a026\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.<\/p>\n 27\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>\u201cFirst let the children eat all they want,\u201d\u00a0he told her,\u00a0\u201cfor it is not right to take the children\u2019s bread and toss it to the dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n 28\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>\u201cLord,\u201d she replied, \u201ceven the dogs under the table eat the children\u2019s crumbs.\u201d<\/p>\n 29\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Then he told her,\u00a0\u201cFor such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n 30\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.<\/p>\n 36\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee\u2019s house and reclined at the table.\u00a037\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee\u2019s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.\u00a038\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.<\/p>\n 39\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, \u201cIf this man were a prophet,\u00a0he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is\u2014that she is a sinner.\u201d<\/p>\n 40\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Jesus answered him,\u00a0\u201cSimon, I have something to tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTell me, teacher,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n 41\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>\u201cTwo people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,[a<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0and the other fifty.\u00a042\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?\u201d<\/p>\n 43\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Simon replied, \u201cI suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou have judged correctly,\u201d\u00a0Jesus said.<\/p>\n 44\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon,\u00a0\u201cDo you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet,\u00a0but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.\u00a045\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>You did not give me a kiss,\u00a0but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.\u00a046\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>You did not put oil on my head,\u00a0but she has poured perfume on my feet.\u00a047\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven\u2014as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.\u201d<\/p>\n 48\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Then Jesus said to her,\u00a0\u201cYour sins are forgiven.\u201d<\/p>\n 49\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>The other guests began to say among themselves, \u201cWho is this who even forgives sins?\u201d<\/p>\n 50\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Jesus said to the woman,\u00a0\u201cYour faith has saved you;\u00a0go in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n 50\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Then everyone deserted him and fled.<\/p>\n 26\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God\u00a0through faith,\u00a027\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>for all of you who were baptized into Christ\u00a0have clothed yourselves with Christ.\u00a028\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free,\u00a0nor is there male and female,\u00a0for you are all one in Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n 34\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Women[a<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak,but must be in submission,\u00a0as the law\u00a0says.\u00a035\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.[b<\/a>]<\/sup><\/p>\n 36\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Or did the word of God\u00a0originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached?<\/p>\n 11\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>A woman[a<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0should learn in quietness and full submission.\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man;[b<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0she must be quiet.\u00a013\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For Adam was formed first, then Eve.\u00a014\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.\u00a015\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>But women[c<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0will be saved through childbearing\u2014if they continue in faith, love\u00a0and holiness with propriety.<\/p>\n 18\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters,\u00a0not only to those who are good and considerate,\u00a0but also to those who are harsh.\u00a019\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God.\u00a020\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.\u00a021\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>To this\u00a0you were called,\u00a0because Christ suffered for you,\u00a0leaving you an example,\u00a0that you should follow in his steps.<\/p>\n 22\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>\u201cHe committed no sin, 23\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>When they hurled their insults at him,\u00a0he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats.\u00a0Instead, he entrusted himself\u00a0to him who judges justly.\u00a024\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>\u201cHe himself bore our sins\u201d\u00a0in his body on the cross,\u00a0so that we might die to sins\u00a0and live for righteousness; \u201cby his wounds you have been healed.\u201d\u00a025\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For \u201cyou were like sheep going astray,\u201d[b<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0but now you have returned to the Shepherd\u00a0and Overseer of your souls.<\/p>\n 3\u00a0<\/strong>Wives, in the same way submit yourselves\u00a0to your own husbands\u00a0so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over\u00a0without words by the behavior of their wives,\u00a02\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.3\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes.\u00a04\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Rather, it should be that of your inner self,\u00a0the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God\u2019s sight.\u00a05\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God\u00a0used to adorn themselves.\u00a0They submitted themselves to their own husbands,\u00a06\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord.\u00a0You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.<\/p>\n
\nSpeaking Notes: 12\/2.2011<\/span> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nWe are disciples of an outrageous leader who left us an outrageous gospel which demands of us outrageous discipleship. \u00a0 I end by naming some of our outrageous tasks: radical self-critique, radical reconciliation, radical conversion from alienation to integrity, radical public compassion, radically inclusiveness, and to celebrate it all, radically expressive ritual.<\/p>\n
\nYou know the pull of hope,
\nYou feel the flowing of desire:
\nSo why not soar?<\/em>
\nFish cannot drown in water,
\nBirds cannot sink in air,
\nYou cannot fall from my sight:
\nSo why not soar?<\/em>
\nWoman, I have adorned you,
\nWoman, I have delighted in you,
\nWoman, I have made my home within you:
\nSo why not soar.<\/em>
\nBe as the dove, I soar in her,
\nLighten your heart, I soar in you,
\nUplift your spirit, be an Easter song:
\nWhy not soar?<\/em><\/p>\nLuke 7:36-50\u00a0New International Version (NIV)<\/span><\/h1>\n
Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman<\/h3>\n
Mark 14:50\u00a0New International Version (NIV)<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n
Galatians 3:26-28\u00a0New International Version (NIV<\/span>)<\/span><\/h1>\n
1 Corinthians 14:34-36\u00a0New International Version (NIV<\/span><\/span>)<\/span><\/h1>\n
1 Timothy 2:11-15\u00a0New International Version (NIV)<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n
1 Peter 2:18-3:6\u00a0New International Version (NIV)<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n
\nand no deceit was found in his mouth.\u201d[a<\/a>]<\/sup><\/p>\n