52 Dresses: The Heart of a Woman as Seen by God

A new weekly series of meditations by Fr. Guillermo Serra, LC.  See all chapters here.

INTRODUCTION 

This summer I had the chance to visit my family and spend some time with my nieces.  Being with them has taught me a lot. One thing I noticed was that even though they are very young, only two and five years old, dresses are very important to them.

I was amazed, for example, by the excitement of my older niece when she dressed up as a princess. Her delight was so intense that she wanted to sleep with her princess dress on, as though if she took it off, the magic of being a princess would disappear. For her, despite her young age, wearing the dress and being a princess were one and the same. There was a complete identification. Dressing up as a princess transformed her into that character. The dress opened the door to a world that was magical but real, where she felt like she was the heroine.

I saw this truth again when my youngest niece, who is a little more than two years old, began to complain one morning, mildly at first, but more intensely as time went on, because she was determined to put on the dress that she liked, and not the one that my sister had ready for her to wear. In my innocence, I thought, “How it is possible that a girl so young can know which dress she likes and which she does not?”

Through these experiences, I discovered something about the magical world of women, where a dress is more than just a piece of clothing. Dresses are like windows into their dreams, to the point that they can come to identify themselves with them.

One day, while I was in the midst of other projects, the thought occurred to me to write some reflections on the heart of a woman – a heart that appears at the center of the lives of all human beings. Our first contact with the world is through the heart of a woman, our mother. We know its beats, its rhythms, its worries, and its dreams.  This project is a tribute to those hearts that have taught us to love since the very beginning of our existence.

Putting these two experiences together, the idea came to me to me to write a collection of reflections on the heart of a woman as seen through different kinds of dresses, reflections from God’s perspective, about how He loves, seeks, and desires the happiness of heart of all women.

The dresses that I will present in each meditation are the gifts that God wants to give to every woman, expanding her wardrobe, which is so often limited by the world and its demands.  They are spiritual and symbolic dresses; for example, a sundress, a princess’ dress, an explorer’s dress, a rainbow dress, a dress of silence, etc…, dresses that dignify and celebrate the heart of a woman.  These dresses become more than just clothing: they become gifts from God.  But they also become challenges to undertake. It requires humility to accept them, to wear them, and to integrate them with everything that already exists in her heart.

The chapters will follow this structure:

1. Each dress will be presented along with a quote from the Bible that illuminates the meaning and function of that dress in the heart and life of a woman.
2. Next is a reflection directed at the heart of a woman, a deep look at her reality and the gift that God wants to give you through the dress.
3. Then, I will share a quote that you can keep in your heart and reflect on during the next week.
4. There will be a challenge to undertake in the week ahead, one which will help you to go deeper into the ideas that are presented, and to create a journal that belongs to your heart. I will also invite you to take concrete action in your life because the love of God expressed in each dress cannot leave you unchanged.
5. Finally, I will offer a prayer taken from one of my two books: Sal de tu Cielo and Jesús a mi Alma, which are available on Amazon (in Spanish only).

The meditations will be posted weekly, every Wednesday.

I hope you are ready for this project.  The first chapter will be next Wednesday and others will follow weekly until we complete the 52 dresses, corresponding to the 52 weeks in a year. I welcome your comments at saldetucielo@gmail.com .

The meditations are also available in Spanish on my YouTube channel: P. Guillermo Serra, L.C.