* This is our first guest post from Marilyn Steinberger. Marilyn is a junior speech-pathology major from South Dakota. Feel free to read, disscuss, comment and pass it on!
-LG and MJ

Dear Woman,

I want you to know this. You are worth more than the world tells you. You are beautiful. Incredibly beautiful, in fact. I’ve been facebook stalking some of my old high school friends lately, and as I see the emptiness and struggle in their new lives, it breaks my heart. I see them taking drunk, half naked pictures of themselves, posing in provocative stances, and being used and broken by men who can’t be bothered enough to learn how to truly be men. And then I see the women at the Newman center. Women who know who they are as children of God, but perhaps women who don’t get as much attention as my scandalously clad friends. I want to encourage you, woman, to continue being a light. I know it’s hard and I know it’s frustrating, but the world needs you to be who you are. The world needs you to be the kind of woman you were created to be. Mary Jaros has talked a lot this year about how women need to be scandalous in a different way, and I would like to add my voice to hers. There are hundreds of women on this campus who have allowed themselves to be used. There are hundreds more who didn’t and don’t even know what being loved looks like. This is where you come in. Behind every single one of those women is a boy, or several, who have told her that she is not dignified, that she is not pretty enough, beautiful, or loveable. By your presence on this campus, you need to show women that we are, in fact, amazing, beautiful, capable, and precious. And we need to show men that we are as well. While talking with many of you, we’ve discussed that we need men to be men, and if they will not be men for us, that we do not enable their ineptitude. Unfortunately, we cannot teach men how to be men; that is something only another man can give. However, we can become more and more the women that we are called to be, and allow men to love us. As hard as it may be, it might mean waiting a lot longer to start dating someone, it might mean leaving a friendship that is becoming more use than love, it might mean spending more time in the chapel praying for strength for us and for our brothers, but as a woman in a beautiful (although definitely not perfect) relationship, I know that having a true man who is willing to protect you, take care of you, and even give up his life for you, the sacrifice of patience and prayer is completely worth it. I, like many of you, have been with men who have not treated me well. I’ve been with guys who have undermined my beauty, my intelligence, my very heart. They’ve told me I’m too much, I’m not enough, I’m not beautiful or loveable. But (and I know this sounds cheesy) Jesus told me otherwise, and then he sent me a man to tell me otherwise as well. And I am so grateful for both of those gifts. And I’m grateful for you, and the witness that you are to me and to this campus. Thank you again for being beautiful, brilliant, and whole.

newomen events fall 2009

hello newomen! because we know that you really want to come to a lot of events this semester, we're giving you the dates ahead of time! plan accordingly. more details to follow.

sept 18 8 pm newomen unslumber party

oct 6 6p.m.volleyball game

oct 25 3 p.m. heart to heartte

nov 8 3 p.m. newomen service project

nov 22 3 p.m. newomen speaker

dec 8 7 p.m. "our lady of the snows" christmas party

Fearless

"perfect love casts out all fear" 1 john 4:18

We want you to be fearless. We want you to be scandalous. We want you to be new.
Surprised? Well, this women's ministry isn't your Great Aunt Millie's bridge club at church. This is a group that we hope will make you come alive, will challenge you, will give you the zeal and boldness for our Lord that so few women show or even have.
Are we prepared (or even qualified) to lead such a revolution? Absolutely not. But God doesn't call the equipped; He equips the called. Plus, we're not doing it alone. We have all of you to inspire us, the Holy Spirit to guide us and Our Holy Mother to inflame us.
A call to be part of this rising might make you question your own worthiness or limits, but Mary's call was the epitome of such a task. Mary wasn't influential in the world of politics. She didn't have a PhD, and she definitely wasn't on the cover of Vogue (also, it didn't exist then). But her humble yes is the most paramount event in history.
It's easy for us to see now that Mary was an extraordinary woman. But at her time, she was an ordinary woman with extraordinary love.
Now we are asking you, a band of ordinary women, to expose yourself to the same extraordinary love. This love is eternal. This love is beyond. This love will make you fearless.
This year, we want you to be a contradiction on campus. Live out your "yes." Become a model of truth. Let's be scandalous, because women of God are not whom the world expects to be heroic.
So we are inviting you to join us, not because we need more members in our Facebook group (although it doesn't hurt) and not because we need an excuse to get together. But because we need and want you and the gifts that only you have.
We want you with us in this world and in heaven.

In His love,
Your newomen co-chairs
Lauren Garcia and Mary Jaros