Sabbath Devotional :: Women and Work; Goodness and Mercy

For this Sabbath devotional I want to share two things that have been in and on my mind lately. The connection between them may be a bit tenuous, but these things have had a similar resonance for me in the last week and fit together in my mind as I was considering what to write for this week’s devotional.

I was asked to speak in church last week for Father’s Day. My bishopric member who invited me to speak first discussed with me my thoughts on how I might approach speaking on that day, knowing that the holiday can be fraught with melancholy or sorrow, or simply complicated for many people, for any variety of reasons. We had a good conversation about how to potentially navigate that complex emotional territory, while also holding space for people for whom the holiday does resonate and marks a time they want to recognize and celebrate their relationship with their father (or spouse, or in-law, or other loved ones). In the end, I focused my talk on the nature of God, who is so frequently referred to as our Father in heaven — the emphasis seems to be most often placed on this particular type of relationship that we have with God. In preparing for my talk, I also kept coming back to the many instances in scripture and in my own life experiences where the overwhelming glimpses I have of divinity are of God’s love and mercy, perhaps best exemplified in His beloved son — our Savior Jesus Christ and His atonement. Again and again, our sacred texts illustrate through parable and through direct experience the love and mercy God continually shows to us, His children.

One of the sources I read and pondered during my talk prep was a chapter in “At the Pulpit” (a collection I am sure many MWEG women know and love), titled “Season of Awakening,” a Young Women fireside given by Elaine Cannon in 1981. One of my favorite parts of “At the Pulpit” is the biographical excerpts that preface each talk or address or writing, sharing a glimpse into the woman whose words follow and her gifts and contributions to the Church and to our heritage as women in the church. I had been previously unfamiliar with Sister Cannon but loved learning about her involvement in the YW organization and her influence in advocating for designated Sunday meetings for the Young Women to receive gospel instruction, similar to the young men of the church (prior to the standardization of the Sunday block of meetings). To read about this history, and then to read her lovely address, which centered on God’s love for us and how to recognize our divine heritage as children of God, delivered to a group of Young Women, really struck me. These reminders were central in Elaine Cannon’s message but alongside them she quoted poetry (Walt Whitman!) and I loved this glimpse into the literature that may have inspired or influenced her and how it shaped her view of the gospel and of much else. I loved the message of her talk, and how much she wanted the Young Women (and anyone reading or hearing those words) to recognize where and who we come from, and how we may return. And I loved learning about the remarkable woman whose words I was reading and how she used her education and brilliance to bless the lives of so many young women in the church through her work in the Young Women’s organization.

Now for the second part of this two-part devotional. I live in Philadelphia and one of the many perks of living here is my student membership to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I have especially been appreciating this of late to enjoy the intensely cold air conditioning during the current heat wave, but even more so, I have gone to see, and loved, the current exhibit “Mary Cassatt At Work,” now for the third time in a couple of weeks. Each time I have been so moved by this exhibit, which moves through a large selection of Cassatt’s body of work, exploring how she depicted women and children in her work, as well as the ways in which she explored the themes of labor and work (often invisible and unseen) of the people who were her subject matter (often women working as paid caretakers of unrelated, as well as mothers with their own children in other works). On top of these themes of the subject matter of Cassatt’s work, the exhibit explores the theme of work in a material context as well through an in depth exploration of Cassatt’s work process and practice — how she physically labored over her art, dedicated her time to it, and mastered complex technical processes, especially in her printmaking. The show is a celebration of women on many levels, and as you move through the successive galleries, the paintings, pastels, prints, and sketches on display depict women in many different settings, both public and private, engaging with the world around them and the world within themselves — their inner lives evident through many small moments in Cassatt’s works. One of my favorite paintings is installed on a wall of images of women and girls, all in private, all reading — showing women engaging their minds and nurturing their intellect and curiosity and interests. The painting “On A Balcony” depicts a woman sitting (as titled) on a balcony, surrounded by flowers and plants, reading a newspaper — the placard next to the painting says “Engrossed in the front page of a newspaper, this woman begins her day by reading the latest political and business news. Her intellectual engagement with these topics is mirrored in the hands that firmly grasp the paper.” Taken as a whole, the exhibit (each time) has made me so grateful and has inspired awe for the ways women show up in the world and take part in it, to labor and work and engage with the world around them.

These two separate experiences — reading Elaine Cannon’s Young Women’s fireside and learning about her personal history with the Young Women organization, and seeing “Mary Cassatt At Work” yet again and leaving feeling (still!) so inspired about the, at times quiet but always significant, ways that women move through the world — felt very resonant, both experiences on a common theme, and one that again and again appears in my work with MWEG and my associations with the women in this organization. Again, perhaps the connection is a bit tenuous and a stretch to draw from it a Sabbath devotional, but I think the reason these things have deeply resonated with me, and to such a degree, is because I resonate with the notion that as a daughter of loving and merciful heavenly parents, as part of my embodied mortal experience I have also been blessed with a mind and intellect that feel central and vital to my existence and how I navigate and move through a complex and confusing world and the many conditions existing within it. And part of the challenge and opportunity of this time on earth is to discover how I might probe and explore the vast capabilities and potential of my mind and soul, particularly in ways that are bent toward goodness and mercy and love — how I might extend these things that God continually shows me by how I show up in and move through the world.