Natura i powołanie kobiety w ujęciu św. Teresy Benedykty od Krzyża

The article discusses the dignity and the vocation of women as seen by Saint Teresa Benedict of the Cross (Edith Stein). When God created of the man and the woman he gave them three tasks: being his image, populating the Earth and having the dominion over it. The woman has a greater gift, which is having custody of people, rather than of fighting. The original sin entered the human nature and weakened it but did not destroy it completely. The woman’s relationship with the man has changed. The woman, unsure of her dignity, strives to gain it by fighting with the man. The deepest desire of the female heart is, however, to love and to belong entirely to the loved one. The nature of women, though hurt by the original sin, can be reborn submitting to God. That does not mean that all women must become nuns but that each of them must become “the servant of the Lord”. The paradigm of it is the Mother of God. Mary is an example of three crucial virtues: obedience, trust, and the common life with the husband. The deepest feminine desire, when the woman can forget about herself and have her heart open to the needs and the suffering of others, can be achieved only in Eucharistic communion with Jesus.