Single Women

It seems that more and more people are living alone, and growing old alone.  Once there were the Beguines.  These were lay women, with jobs, self-supporting, who decided to live together with some common purpose, though they each had their own working lives.  Why not do that again for the modern woman?  I suppose you could do it for the modern man too, but the place would be a pigsty!  I think that guys have a harder time in expressing their feelings, and sharing their thoughts with others.  Women tell me this.  A community of lay women would not be living separately under one roof, but living with a combination of their own interests, work and friends, but with some common bonds that give them a sense of belonging, and a sense of shared service and care for one another.  I could be their chaplain!

If you live with someone because you "have to" as in religious orders or some rectories, there is not the same effort to truly live in community of a shared heart.  If it is a chosen way of life, people will work more at the common bonding that takes this sharing of the heart.  Some common meals, common cleaning, some shared expenses is a real leap of faith.  But isn't all faith, if it is faith, a leap?