McGrath Institute Blog

When a good friend proposed the idea of a weekly prayer group to our shared circle of friends, I jumped on the idea. My confession is that the eagerness I felt had less to do with the idea of praying and more to do with the thought of seeing this group of women regularly. We’re in a long-distance series of friendships, spanning two time zones and four states, and the prospect of having a particular reason to meet through video chatting every Tuesday thrilled me.

The Church designates July 26 as a relatively quiet “memorial” of Saints Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary. For me, however, there are few days in the liturgical calendar that evoke more energetic memories of a geographical community and parish family than this one. This is a feast of visceral evangelization that immerses all five senses and brings people together—close together.

The questions “Who am I?” and “Where do I belong?” are complicated for any high schooler, and perhaps even more so for young women attending a competitive, all-girls Catholic school. Sarah Shutrop, Director of Campus Ministry at Immaculate Heart Academy in Bergen County, New Jersey, helps many young women navigate the journey of self-realization and understanding one’s place in the community. On Church Life Today Shutrop discussed how the academic rigor of the college prep school often creates a culture of competition among women, making it difficult to feel a sense of belonging during a particularly formative period of their lives. The increasing influence of social media, especially Instagram, in which one’s image is carefully curated, adds to this problem by making it easier to label and define girls in superficial ways.

“They want to ‘save’ us,” says Obianuju Ekeocha, “but there are a lot of disturbing things happening within the donor and recipient relationship.” Ekeocha, founder and president of Culture of Life Africa , delivered the annual human dignity lecture for the Office of Life and Human Dignity at the McGrath Institute for Church Life on March 26, 2019. On an episode of Church Life Today , Ekeocha explains the problems that arise when Western philanthropists intercede in Africa with an agenda that undermines African values, including the sanctity of life, beauty of marriage, blessings of motherhood, and the dignity of family life.

Why midwifery? This is often asked when I share with others what I have been pursuing the past few years. I suppose the answer is summed up as this: when you feel a calling deep within your soul, you cannot always explain or understand why, but because you are known by a God who knows your heart’s deepest dreams and desires, you respond and trust. As I reflect on my desires as a child, I never imagined this journey of life would bring me to such a sacred place of caring for new families and being the first to hold a precious new life in my hands.