Faith and Feminism Quotes

“The point of telling our stories, even if only to ourselves, is to help us resurrect the parts we have buried. When we unearth them, even if it's difficult, we can integrate them into our sense of who we are. Often in our buried self our true power lies.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“To me, relationship is sacred because the spirit of God is manifest in empathic connection.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“Her way of being religious was as nonconformist as her nonreligious life had been. She was skeptical about many of the practices of the institutional church. She preferred to trust in the personal relationship she had grown to experience with God. This relationship transformed her ability to be in community and enabled her to see the essence of those around her: "The longer I live, the more I see God at work in people who don't have the slightest interest in religion and never read the Bible and wouldn't know what to do if they were persuaded to go inside a church."

For Dorothy [Day], the bread broken at Mass wasn't any more holy than the bread broken at shelters and soup kitchens. Church didn't happen in a building. It happened in the way people related to each other. Christ wasn't any more present in the liturgy than he was when on person listened with compassion to the pain of another.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“One way to respond to these "sins" is found in The Divine Comedy, in which Dante is ultimately led to the vision of God by his guide, Beatrice. In first traversing through the Inferno, Dante reveals that the inhabitants of the Inferno are not there because they are sinners. Sinners also make up the populations of Purgatory and Paradise. Rather, those souls are in the Inferno because they are sinners who refused to admit to their own sins. They denied their faults and projected them onto others, blaming everyone around them. The lesson we learn is that only when our sins become acknowledged and deeply felt can they be integrated. Deep reflection and prayer are an important part of the integration of the [inner] shadow. Once we admit to our shadow with honesty and an open heart, the shadow has the potential to become transformed.

Once the shadow is integrated, the Seven Deadly Sins can become aspects of a healthy self. Greed and lust become passion, imbuing our journey with heart and fire. Anger transforms into righteousness that acts compassionately for own and other's behalf. The healthy side to gluttony is self-care, something many women have to learn. Envy, once integrated, becomes an appreciation of others. And in a society where doing is valued over being, sloth turns into the ability to be still. Pride enables us to feel good about our accomplishments and grow in confidence and strength. But the path to authenticity is to admit these qualities are within us. It is shadow work that enables holy women to make their hidden struggles into levers with which to free themselves.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“The movement has kept itself from full development by denying, ignoring, and rejecting parts of itself, including its spiritual legacy.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“When we fracture our potential for united action and divide ourselves along social, political, economic, or religious lines, we diminish our power.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“My deepest wounds and greatest strengths lie in my ability to see the potential for relationship in my life.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“While we know it is possible to work for justice without being religious, we believe that religious faith presupposes a mandate to write, speak, and act for social justice.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“Each holy woman in this book made specific decisions based on her individual feelings, but her decisions represent universal impulses. In this sense, her private life translated into political and cultural statements. Whatever form it took, her mission was to end separation and restore connection. She opened her arms and brought others into the experience of love and belonging. Her actions sent the message that no person is excluded from the human family and the love of God.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“By seeing ourselves honestly, we have the capacity to understand others more deeply.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“A version of the golden rule to do unto others as you would have them do unto you is present in every major religion for a reason. Relationships are the place where the mystical experience can become alive.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“Her vision was one of sacramental living, in which the giving of ourselves to others does not diminish, but enlarges and fulfills.

To experience this enlarged reality is to awaken to Life. If we are of God, then everything we do matters. We have a responsibility to manifest the divine -- in matters great and small, when people are watching and when they're not. To wash the dishes can be a sacrament if we do it in the spirit of attention and love. Any of the tasks of our everyday lives can be done with thanksgiving and praise.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“The questions raised by Lucretia [Mott]'s life are "How are you called into action?" and "Are you faithful to that call?" Your actions might be public or so quiet that they are never notices, which Emily [Dickinson] would have applauded. Your act of courage might be taking the time and developing the spirit to reconcile a relationship. Or it might be simply getting out of bed if you suffer from depression or going to that first A.A. meeting. You might be quietly writing letters to political prisoners through Amnesty International or sending anonymous donation to help the orphans in South Africa. You might take time each week to go to the hospital nursery to rock the neglected babies with AIDS. You may have a strong desire to cultivate your own garden and participate in growing the food you eat, allowing time for your inner spirit to grow and be nurtured as well. You may be protecting and valuing time as a parent.

It is not important whether our actions are considered large or small; it is important that they stem from the center of our being. When we learn to live from our own authenticity, we activate our still inner voice. Although Lucretia [Mott] was a lead singer on the world stage, she would have been perfectly happy singing backup for someone else -- as long as the music was right and all the people were included in the dancing.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“This love in action, the commitment to right relationship and integrity, is essential to the success of any professed sociopolitical agenda.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“While Lucretia [Mott]'s public life was inspirational, I also want to to discuss her private life: her quiet actions. I agree with Lucretia's ethic that private acts of integrity are the foundation of a more just and more equitable society. She taught us that small moments of love in action can add up to potent agents of change.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“The value she gave to the power of relationship was fundamental to Lucretia [Mott]'s sense of social activism.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“While women have come far in their ability to speak on their own behalf, there are many women who compromise what they want to say and what they actually say. Almost all women experience a dissonance between inner and outer. As a matter of emotional and sometimes physical survival, women have found it necessary to split their speech into two parts. One kind of speech is suppressed, occurring only in safe settings with intimates or within the ultimate safety of a woman's own mind.

The second kind of speech is the publicly acceptable type that conforms to social expectations. The injunction to suppress certain feelings or thoughts can be so powerful that a woman may not be aware of it and may honestly believe that publicly acceptable speech is all she has in her. Carol Gilligan's work describes the destructive effects of this splitting of voice, especially in young girls who, as they embark on adolescence, have trouble speaking with clarity and strength.

An emphasis on listening cultivates a stronger expression of voice. Listening is a crucial component in Imago Theory, where couples are taught to mirror, or repeat back, each other's thoughts, feelings, and needs as a way of building not only their partner's sense of self, but their own. Our core self becomes stronger when it is mirrored back. Voice that is not mirrored dies. When the process of mirroring is followed by validating and empathizing, a deep listening is done with feeling. All of us need validation -- that who we are, what we think, and how we feel does make sense. And the deepest form of listening is empathy, by which we are able to resonate on a soul level with the feelings and needs of one another.

A wise proverb states that "Speech is silver, Silence is gold," reminding us of the forgotten value of silence. Feminist theorist Patrocinio Schweickart chose those words as the title of her article on talking and listening that parallels the inward and outward rhythm of Imago dialogue. She points our attention to the value of quiet as a tool that helps us notice the complex interplay of inner and outer that characterizes any creative process. For something new to happen, we need silence and receptivity as well as action and productivity. While some theorists see speaking as active and listening as passive, Schweickart and Imago Theory both point to the reality that both speaking and listening are active. Listening is a way of meaning-making. Theologian Nelle Morten refers to this dynamic as "hearing each other into speech."

Ultimately, the development of authentic voice is a process that involves that involves a flow between speaking and listening. In listening, one becomes attuned to the surroundings so that speech becomes relevant and meaningful. This undulating rhythm of speaking and listening is the bedrock for dialogue in Imago Theory and for all of us who care about relationship.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“Voice is an important aspect of wholeness. Feeling our pain moves us into shadow, where we reclaim denied parts of our selves. This leads to developing a voice that grows increasingly more authentic and full-throated with each newly claimed aspect of our identity. We are no longer speaking from a foundation of self that is riddled with fault lines. The more unified we are, the more authority our voice contains. We voice ourself into being.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“Sojourner [Truth]'s voice was the instrument that enabled her to claim her full self. Once she had done this, she was able to use her instrument and life story to help gain freedom for others.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“Sojourner [Truth]'s life exemplifies the process that occurs within ourselves as we grow to understand that we hold the authority to shape our own lives. This inner authority came when she embraced all of herself, which enabled her to speak from an authentic voice.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“Claiming our voice, and our selfhood, is a sacred act.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“Like Teresa [of Avila], each of us is a mix of unseen strengths and conflicting desires. While it is easy to understand our suffering in terms of external difficulties, most of us aren't aware of the significant role we play in our own difficult dramas. Like Job, we rail against the heavens for sending us trials at times, while in actuality, our own [inner] shadow is our most formidable opponent. One of the keys to living deeply is to learn how to befriend our shadows instead of demonizing them.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“She traversed the spectrum of human emotion, and found herself to be flawed, but trusted God to accept all of her. Her vulnerability and openness led to her empowerment.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“Teresa [of Avila]'s story dismantles the common belief that all those chosen for sainthood are flawless in personality and character. Indeed, she would want us to consider her contradictions and struggles as integral to her sainthood.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“In sixteenth-century Spain, women had little opportunity for meaningful lives outside marriage, except as members of religious orders. While convents were often filled with dissatisfied young women, it must also be said that convent life empowered women in many ways. A convent was an acceptable place for women to be free of many of the social constraints of the time.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“The history of women has been the history of a destructive kind of suffering, and I do not suggest moving further into that experience. My point is that walking away from pain altogether is equally as destructive. The debilitating suffering come when we do not allow ourselves to feel and work through our pain. Facing pain honestly and surviving gives us strength.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“When we work through our own grief, we can cut to the heart of the common universal experience, which opens us to feel for others.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“Pain shapes us, breaking us open so that we can reconfigure ourselves in a way that more deeply mirrors our authentic self.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“Given Emily [Dickinson]'s unwillingness to function more actively in a social context, she doesn't seem to fit the stereotype of a feminist in action. You might wonder why she is included among the five empowered women in this book. It is important to remember that not all feminists are activists, and I am including Emily as an opportunity to expand what it means to be a feminist. In her daily life, she was shy to the point of being a recluse, while in her writing, she revealed herself with a level of honestly that took enormous bravery. Her life is an example of the richness that can be found when one follows one's deep inner voice rather than conforming to societal pressures.

This is a quality that Emily shares with other feminists who stayed on their own path despite the pressures of the status quo. Her life and her words make a unique contribution to the chorus of women's voices. They remind us that there is room for all of us in our uniqueness. There is no one kind of feminist. There are times in life when we may withdraw or set firm boundaries to protect our inner life and experience. The purpose of this is often to gain the strength and knowledge we need to communicate on a deeper and more honest level.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance

“In the journey to become whole, a woman will be confronted with various forms of these stages [of personal evolution]. In doing the hard work that is required, she learns important lessons about herself and increases her capacity to see the meaning of her actions. She is then able to bring more experience, wisdom, and skill to the next challenge she must face.”
― Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance