A few weeks ago at our chapter meeting, as we were all settling into our seats, we prepared for the usual line of guest speakers. This usually consists of a string of people from sororities and fraternities down the row with invitations to events, representatives from local businesses, or local/campus-wide politicians campaigning. This time, a young man walked in and had something different to offer us. Anthony DeLello, a campus minister of Christ the King Church on campus, came simply to let us know that we are all beautiful and more incredible than we could imagine. He invited us to a talk he would be giving in our chapter room in the next coming weeks to discuss the "Feminine Genius." When the day came, despite being exhausted and having plenty else to do, I felt compelled to go listen. What Anthony had to say touched my heart in a way it hasn't been touched in a long time, and he pointed out to all of us things we didn't realize about the beauty of who we are as women.

Anthony's message to us young women was that God made us beautiful; He made women beautiful in a way that is more powerful and unique than the world realizes. The qualities that are unique to women are what has been termed, "The Feminine Genius." According to St. John Paul II, the Feminine Genius includes qualities inherent to womanhood such as strength, beauty, intuition, fidelity, self giving, acceptance, and receptivity. These are qualities that God placed in our natures that empower women for who we are.

Anthony focused on four features he, himself, has found remarkable and unique to women. The first was receptivity. This lays the grounds for so much of who we are as women. Woman has a special way of receiving those she loves into her heart and loving them there. Anthony said, "Within the heart of the woman, they are refreshed and born anew." When you truly consider this, in all of your relationships, between your friends, your family, your mothers, your boyfriends, you will likely find this quality is true within yourself. Women are compelled and meant to try to form these deep, loving relationships with others, and in those relationships her power is apparent. "The feminine heart is given as a gift for the benefit of the other."

This leads to the next uniquely feminine quality: generosity. We as girls and women so badly desire to give ourselves freely to everyone we come into contact with. We pour our heart and soul into our relationships with other people. We even go so far as to give up our own bodies for the lives of others, through our unique ability to carry a life within us. Anthony mentioned, "No man can ever say he carried another life in his body. This is something only women have been given the ability to do." Through our generosity of our soul and body, others are built up and strengthened, guided towards who they are and are meant to be.

The third quality is sensitivity. Anthony pointed out that this is too often seen as a weakness. However, the sensitivity of a woman is what allows her to enter into another's perspective in a way a man is unable too. Through sensitivity a woman is able to exist in another's situation and be their strength.

The final quality is one that extends to all aspects of our being: maternity. This is the height of the feminine vocation. Through motherhood we are perfected as women. As Anthony pointed out, motherhood extends past the relationship of mother and child. According to St. Theresa Benedicta, "Motherhood means to protect and safeguard humanity and bring it to its full development." Through her receptivity, her generosity, her sensitivity, and her maternity, woman is able to constantly strengthen humanity with love and care. Another quote by St. John Paul II states, "The moral and spiritual strength of a woman is joined with her awareness that God trusts the human being to her in a special way. A woman is strong because of this."

This is who we are, girls. This is how we were built. However, due to centuries in a world full of sin and evil, and a society that has lied to us, so many of us have lost our identity. We have forgotten who we are and are constantly striving to understand it in all the wrong ways. We have no idea how special we truly are as daughters of God, and neither does most of the world. So many of the issues in today's world come as a result of a loss of reverence for the feminine person.

And so many of us have been hurt. Our receptivity and generosity have led us to give ourselves away to people who have not truly received us. This is how our hearts become so broken. Our sensitivity and maternity is ridiculed and as a result we have tried to do away with it. The feminist movement today has somehow become twisted so that rather than trying to demand equality for women as we are, so many women are trying to deny their femininity altogether, to take offense at it. Can't you see that we were made this way and that it is not only beautiful and incredible, but powerful? We do not need to be like men to be respected; we deserve respect for the simple fact that we are women. Our dignity and our beauty is our femininity itself.

Where is man's role in all of this? Anthony, who has come to enlighten us on our femininity as a masculine person, has come to realize that, "Manhood is confirming everything that a woman's heart is by laying down his life for her every single day and by being courageous so that she can be who she is." He also says that, "When women can again claim again who they truly are in their feminine hearts, it will cause man to be stirred up."

Women, who are we? We are more than our past, we are more than what we are told to be, and we are more than our bodies.We are the daughters of God, and He created us exactly as we are. The dignity of a person comes not from society's definitions, or even from our own. It doesn't come from what we've done or what we believe. It comes from what we were made for and who we are. Going to listen to Anthony revealed to me that I am meant for great things and that no matter what, I am a daughter of God and He has made me beautifully, and it is because He has loved me infinitely.