In classic fairytales, the princess gets the prince and they live happily ever after. We’ve been watching movies and reading books for years on that premise. The boy gets the girl. The girl gets the boy. If relationships were automatic and everything fell into place perfectly, then that storyline would also always happen in real life. But it doesn’t.
There is a Hero’s Journey and a Heroine’s Journey. I don’t believe the Heroine’s Journey is necessarily a feminist take on the Hero’s Journey, just a different route. To learn more about the differences, please take Kate Farrell‘s class as she can explain it better than I can.
Oh, the many choices we can have in life!
Hildegard was a very gifted child who had visions early on. The best place for her in the 12th Century was to be sent to a monastery. She could be best educated there and use her talents for God. St. Hildegard’s path was not to marry a nobleman.
Why do women of the 21st Century still pursue religious vocations? In this time of so many modern advancements in the home, more equality in the workplace, and the still strong call to motherhood, why choose to be a nun or a sister?
The Sisters of Social Service say,
“The charism of the SSS is firmly rooted in the dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit at work within each sister as she engages with the larger community in making decisions that take us into places and situations where we are being led…Many SSS have engaged in the field of social work in various manifestations – from legislative work, community organizing, and one on one social services.”
Redwoods Monastery, is a small Northern California community of Roman Catholic women monastics founded in 1962 from the Cistercian Monastery of Nazareth in Belgium. They say,
“Our life is a pattern of prayer, study, meditation, and manual labor that is woven into the fabric of community, centered on Christ as our Lord and brother. We meet Him daily in the Eucharist, in lectio divina, and the “everydayness” of our monastic vocation.”
There are so many religious orders to choose from that offer different vocations in different locations. There’s nothing antiquated nor boring in that, especially when the Holy Spirit inspires it.
But back to Vasilisa: As mentioned above, I created the featured graphic as part of a class I took on The Heroine’s Journey. Kate introduced the class to the story of Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Beautiful. As more of a memoirist than a fiction writer, class assignments led me to compare my personal story with Vasilisa’s.
My life’s path didn’t end in getting the “prince”, at least not the one in fairytales. Instead, my life has led me to come to know Jesus, the Prince of Peace. I’m a single woman, but I don’t have a religious vocation. I still have too much of a feminist spirit to choose one vocation. Or I’m just too much of a free spirit. (But neither of those makes me right necessarily.) As a writer, I explore different worlds and I want to walk down more paths. But I do so with Jesus and my Catholic faith.
Women are single for many reasons, and not always permanent ones. Life changes so whatever state in life a woman is in, she is okay. Single doesn’t mean wrong. Single is a moment in time or it’s a lifetime. It just depends on so many variables. In today’s upside down world, how does anyone find anyone anyway?
I really like this inspirational video about women who are alone with no husband.
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