Having at heart the advancement of women’s place in the world I organized for the second consecutive year an event on the theme “The interior strength of women” following last years theme which was “Woman’s interior beauty.”

In my presentation I invited women to become more deeply aware of their interior strength – what was the source of this strength... Within us is something much greater than ourselves, something divine which will remain forever. Woman is a multifaceted diamond, resilient and fragile, that reflects many qualities and strengths. (Upon arrival each had received a token diamond.)
It is through love that she is resilient and through love that she is fragile.

Created in God’s image to love, give life, care, sustain growth, encourage, support and heal - without expecting any return, all of which arise from the heart of God as Mother. Indeed, could God have created woman if he himself did not have a mother’s heart?
This interior strength of woman is seen in her action, in her capacity to rise up to challenges, making of obstacles a spring board to go beyond with courage, faith and adaptability. It is this energy that gives soul to the home and workplace, soul in sports and in education. Her reaching out reveals the woman’s readiness to value the happiness of others ahead of her own.

Recognizing this strength is not a matter of undue pride but of standing up in full awareness that it is God gifted. This strength is the Love from which arise all other qualities we have received and that we develop by putting them at the service of others.
We heard Danièle Paré with her magnificent voice pay homage to the Virgin Mary with her rendition of Gounod’s Ave Maria. Then, Simone Desgroseilliers, harpist, accompanied with music her witnessing of the interior strength that sustained her during trials that become the source of life and hope.

Since men were also guests at this event the next witnessing was that of Jean-Marc Gaudreau who relates how he discovered his wife’s interior strength through her five-year battle with cancer. He acknowledged that, as a couple, these were the best years of his life because he learned to express his true feeling: Why wait for tragic events to recognize the beauty and the strength one’s partner, he said.

The last witnessing was that of Diane Labranche-Lampron, a business woman, wife and mother of 11 children. She discovered interior strength that she developed as she coped with a multitude of experiences which she shared with us with sprinkles of humor. Her interior strength carried her through dramatic situations that ultimately ended happily.

Over 160 guests attended the event. Video in french only

Paulette Chenard, March 8, 2019