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There is a crisis in our society for both men and women, and all of us are hungry to know who we were truly created to be. – Kara Klein
Edith Stein once wrote, “The world does not need what women have. It needs what women are.”
And do we ever need it today. Women just can’t win. They’re being lied to all around: On the one hand we have progressive feminism tearing down the sexual difference completely, and on the other is the culture that uses every medium to send the message that a woman is worth as much as her bodily appeal.
This is why we need the women of His Own: Kara Klein, Maria Spears, and Christine Simpson. These three young ladies are on a mission, giving concerts, retreats, and talks, inspiring women to become all that God has created them to be. A spark of feminine genius in a culture that relegates true feminine dignity to the shadows.
Cecilia Music caught up with Kara Klein, one of the founders of His Own, to learn more about their ministry.
Tell us about the beginnings of His Own. What brought the three of you together into this ministry to women?
—Kara: The three of us came together in Nashville two years ago and formed a real sisterhood in which we prayed and shared our hearts, joys and struggles as women. We also sang and began writing music together. Toward the end of last year we started to feel a desire to share our music and this community we were building with others. We wanted to really unite with other girls and women in their walks toward holiness, and in becoming the women God has destined us all to be.
This message you share – feminine dignity and worth and the joy of the feminine heart – is this a message you received growing up? Or it something you had to “learn the hard way” as you grew older?
—Kara: The message to be holy and the freedom to truly embrace all that we are in our feminine dignity and worth was certainly not something that was enforced by the culture around us (although we were all privileged to grow up in Catholic homes and be brought up with the truth!). We each battled the lies of the culture, like any other girl does today: that you’re never beautiful enough or good enough; that your beauty and dignity is based on the size of your body, what you can achieve, and not in who you are as a child of God. We each had to fight against the lies of society by developing a personal relationship with Jesus in order to know not just in our heads, but within our hearts, the truth about who we are in Christ. And we still have to come to Him for our true identity and security on a regular basis.
The “feminine genius” that John Paul II spoke about is frequently referenced in talks on women and the Theology of the Body. If you had to summarize what it means in a few lines, what would you say?
—Kara: When we speak about the feminine genius, it is about discovering who God truly created us to be as women: discovering the depth of our feminine beauty, identity, dignity and worth. We want to discover and live all these uniquely feminine gifts: our great capacity to love and serve, to bring forth life, to “humanize” society as St. John Paul the Great has said. And we want to encourage others to do the same.
We live in an age not only where women are so often abused and exploited, but in a time where we are losing the sense of masculine and feminine—that mysterious, beautiful (and very much needed!) complementarity which God created. We want to proclaim to other women that God created us female, and it is good!
Speaking of the masculine, you also have a talk for men. Why have you chosen to extend your ministry to men, and why do you think it’s so important for them to hear this message specifically from women?
—Kara: We have been so amazed and excited at how responsive men have been to our ministry! First, our music is for everyone, and we do many events in which we lead worship or give concerts to general audiences. But we have come to find that many men are hungry to see women who fully embrace and live their feminine gifts. The reason for this is that true femininity arouses true masculinity.
There is a crisis in our society for both men and women, and all of us are hungry to know who we were truly created to be. Our primary message to men is that we need them! As we are striving to be truly feminine, and the women God has created us to be, we need men who are truly masculine, and who are working to be the men God has destined them to be!
Pick up His Own’s single “Nothing Can Separate Us” on iTunes, and check out their websiteto find the girls on tour or to book them for a concert, talk, retreat, or evening of renewal in your city.
Libby Reichert
And today we celebrate...