Elena 
Learned something about myself this week. Something I’d been thinking about for a while. I’m not good at starting plants from scratch. Seedlings, don’t like me because I kill them off in great numbers. Transplanted plants in a new environment – uh… better let Mr. Pete handle it because I tend to over water, over fertilize, over fuss, and they burn out. Oh, domestic varieties that I know really well I do fine with, but anything from a different nursery is kind of iffy. But give me a plant with a fairly stable root system that just needs to be guided, guarded and encouraged, and I do pretty well! In fact they thrive.
Some months ago I wrote some thoughts on being the Titus 2 woman. I realize that St. Paul didn’t have a laptop and perhaps couldn’t flesh out his ideas as much as he wanted when he wrote letters like this, but perhaps he wouldn’t object to the Titus 2 woman being a specialist of sorts. Perhaps one older woman would be great with seedlings, or new women in the faith, converts and re-verts. Maybe another older woman would just serve to inspire the younger women of faith who just need encouragement. Maybe yet another would mentor younger women who want to serve the Lord but need more practical hands-on mentoring. It just seems to me that the ways to serve the Lord in this way are many, and that the older woman trying to answer the Lord’s call to step up and serve, as it says in Titus 2, needs to find the right niche for doing so. One that won’t burn her out, discourage her, hurt her, or worse…drive HER away from the Lord. Maybe the true “niche” or fit for a Titus 2 woman is one that also enriches her life, encourages her and brings her closer to the Lord, particularly through Mary. Perhaps it’s one that gives her peace instead of strife and joy instead of heartache.
Of course I’m not saying that being a Woman of God is always going to avoid those things. In fact Christianity by its very nature entails a certain amount of persecution. But I don’t think that is a key part of what St. Paul had in mind when he instructed the older women in Titus 2. This was a role for teaching and mentoring, not martyrdom.
Additionally, I think the Titus 2 woman has to have time to be mentored, loved, encouraged and supported by her peers who are going through similar things in life and in their walk as Christian women. In fact, I’ve come to the conclusion that without that, the Titus 2 woman loses a lot of her inner reserve and resolve and when that happens, it’s not the Lord’s work that gets advanced!
So for me, just as I know it’s Mr. Pete or even my kids who will have to start his year’s garden from seed, and plant the little seedlings, I think with the Garden of God, that’s clearly not my role either. Even with new plants that have had a short time of garden growth – I better leave them alone too.
That’s just clearly not my talent. But that rose bush we started a few years ago, and that yucca plant, even those volunteers that came up from other plants we started…those I look forward to working with!
An Addendum:
I read the words of your new pope elsewhere: “Without love, truth is sterile.” Unless the Word is sown with love, it won’t grow.
I’d take that a step further. Sometimes even with love, you can’t make the truth grow either. You can’t pound a seed into the rocky soil, or a soil devoid of nutrients, or surrounded by weeds and expect it to flourish. Regardless of how much you love that seed, or til it, water it and get it the proper amount of sunlight! The gardner simply can’t reach into that seed and push roots out, or force a stem to poke its little head through the seed shell, through the dirt and into the sunlight!! Only God can do that. And if the gardener thinks s/he can do this she’ll burn out quickly with deep disappointment. This is why I think it takes a special kind of gardener to “start out” new plants or stick with seedlings.
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