Mary Ward ~ Dangerous Visionary - a woman ahead of her time . . .

January 30 – Feast of Venerable Mary Ward

http://www.ibvm.us/content.php?pageid=1&secid=1&subsecid=

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ward_(nun)

http://www.loreto.org.au/Home/Our-Story/Our-History/Mary-Ward-(A-Painted-Life).aspx

http://www.marywarddocumentary.com/who.htm

“She was a pioneer for women’s role in Church ministry and a woman ahead of her time in shaping apostolic religious life as we know it today. Mary Ward expected much and believed with all her heart that, ‘Women in time to come will do much.’”

Excerpt below from:
The Little Book of Mary Ward (Introduced by Evanne Hunter, IBVM, compiled by Don Mullan)
“In her day, Mary Ward encountered tremendous opposition because of her belief that girls should be educated and women empowered to assume leadership in the Church and in society.   Countless women and men who teach in Mary Ward Schools around the world continue that mission today.  Others work with street and slum children and child-domestic workers and victims of HIV.AIDS. Still others meet the needs of girls and women in our time by empowering them to resist the feminization of poverty, the traditional ritual of Female Genital Mutilation, the travesty of child marriage and child labor, and the trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and girls for profit.

We, Mary Ward’s followers strive, as she did, to read the signs of our times, to discern God’s will, and to respond with love.  All for the greater glory of God.”

Quotes of Mary Ward:
“I listened to God’s deep dream for me and felt a longing to respond.”

“I hope in God it will be seen that women in time will do much.”

“Let us be wise and know what we are to believe and what not, and not to be made to think we can do nothing.  If women are so inferior to men in all things, why are they not exempted in all things as they are in some?”

“In quiet confidence, do your best and God will do the rest.”

“The true children of this company shall accustom themselves to act not out of fear but solely from love, because we are called by God to a vocation of love.”

“With me all is as it were done. It only remains for me to be found faithful when I must appear before God.”