International Women’s Day commemorates the struggle of women for their participation in society. What began as a female workers’ struggle, has been expanding its causes throughout history.
This year, under the theme “Women leaders: For an equal future in the world of Covid-19”, the UN proposes to “celebrate the enormous efforts made by women and girls around the world to forge a more equal future and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic”.
This March 8, celebrated in the context of preparation for 150 years after the birth of the Congregation, we are invited to look at Mother Candida. Would the feminist movements that took place in America and Europe at the end of the XIX and early XX centuries demanding equality in working conditions or in participation in social life? Maybe no, or yes, but she did realize the need for training that women in 19th century Spain. She realized this and, moved by the Lord, consecrated her life in the world of education to Him.
Juana Josefa (Santa Cándida María de Jesús), from her youth, was sensitive to the promotion of girls and women. Do we, the Daughters of Jesus, together with the rest of the Mother Candida Family, feel urged by the situations of women in today’s world? How do we approach the issue in our training, what leaders do we train in our schools and in our non-formal education areas? What leadership do we exercise in our positions of responsibility? Do we work for a more egalitarian world from the inclusion and recognition of the worth of each person?
On this new March 8, we bring to our prayer and renew, with gratitude and responsibility, our commitment to the pastoral care of women who live in the different presences where we are. We want to leave quickly and without delay to contribute to the creation of structures that can reverse the current circumstances of the pain of women and of all human life.
On the way to the # 150FI, we ask for the grace to return to our origin to strengthen our being as consecrated women sent to care for life wherever our own unfolds. We are not going alone, the meaning and strength come from God “to forge a more egalitarian future and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
