# Pastebin 2Ay0p2it
A WORLD CRUMBLING FROM disease, war, and societal upheaval, God empowered a young woman to become a powerful voice of reform, mercy, and love. Catherine of Siena was born into a world ravaged by the Black Death, the Hundred Years War, and deep-seated political corruption in the church. From a young age, Catherine witnessed profound visions of Jesus.

Despite her parents' wishes, she refused marriage and spent most of her time in prayer and contemplation in the basement of her family’s home.

Catherine emerged at age twenty-one, having been commanded by the Lord to enter public life. At first, this command meant re-engaging with family members and caring for the poor in her neighborhood. Soon her ministry expanded, and Catherine became a prophetic voice on political, social, and global church matters. Through a rare combination of strong conviction and humility, she spoke out against clerical corruption, denounced insur-rectionist political movements, and called for aid for Christians suffering in the Middle East. "O alas, be silent no more!" Catherine wrote. "Shout with a hundred thousand tongues. I see that, through silence, the world is broken, the Bride of Christ has turned pale. She wrote letters to kings, queens, and bishops, boldly calling them to reform. In the fourteenth century, popes of Rome resided in Avignon, France, where for seventy years they enjoyed political favors and protection. Catherine worked to end this long "Babylonian captivity" of the papacy. She journeyed to Avignon and petitioned Pope Gregory XI, calling on him to return to Rome. Catherine spoke before cardinals and bishops, urging them to preserve the church's integrity and end the season of corruption and confusion. She died at age thirty-three, exhausted from her rigorous service for the Lord.

Catherine's life disproves the common assumption that only ordained clergy can speak boldly within the kingdom of God. Catherine is now considered a doctor of the church, an exclusive title given to a small number of saints who made particularly significant contributions to theology and doctrine. Catherine was the first laywoman to receive this prestigious distinction.

MEDITATION:
The very first people to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus were women.

Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other women found the empty tomb and had an encounter with the risen Christ. They returned to the disciples with the astonishing news, only to be dismissed as hysterical women. At that time in history, not only were women viewed as inherently inferior to men, but women were rarely permitted to testify in court, because (in the social imagination of the time) who would trust the word of a woman?

Sadly, much of church history bears the tragic tale of women disbelieved, demeaned, and discouraged. Many (not all) Christians are reclaiming, from Christ and the first-century church, the belief that women are coequal with men in dignity, value, and personhood, but the church has a long way to go to fully embrace this gospel vision. And yet-and yet!-the consistent witness of history is that the Christian faith is good for women. Everywhere the church has spread, women are more elevated, protected, and valued than they were before.
History is complicated. Has the church often suppressed the voices of women? Yes. Have the non-Christian cultures and societies of the world oppressed women to an even greater degree? 

Again, yes.

The solution to the oppression of women is not found outside the church, but rather in the fullness of what the church was always meant to be. We see this in the way Jesus himself dignified, elevated, and encouraged women, and we see it in the impact that women like Catherine of Siena had on the world in her time. Thank goodness for those few who listened to Catherine! What if they had all dismissed her as a hysterical woman? The world would have missed benefiting from her wisdom.

When the church practices the way of her Lord, the voices of women are heard and believed on the merit of what they have to say, and this bears good fruit-both for the church and for the world.

If you are part of a local church, where are the voices of women invited, listened to, and believed on merit? Are there any areas where women's voices are not invited? With the patience, grace, and gentleness of Jesus, where might you create venues where women's voices are invited and dignified in new ways?