CWIB Book Review: “With All Her Mind”
“When I grow weary of writing or reading or thinking or searching, I crawl underneath the mantle of Our Lady. She covers me in her cloak and whispers away the distractions that say I am not a thinker, that this is too hard, that this is all for naught. And she whispers them away with one word: 'Fiat.' Yes to this. Yes to his will. Yes to becoming woman fully alive and in pursuit” (Rachel Bulman).
When I first picked up “With All Her Mind: A Call to the Intellectual Life,” I was expecting something a bit didactic in nature—that is, how to live out our feminine genius in the modern world. But this gorgeous collection of essays, curated and edited by Rachel Bulman, was different than I expected. It reads more like a series of short stories, incorporating the words of 17 different Catholic women and writers hailing from a range of vocations. Among them are mothers, writers, authors, and academics, both lay and religious, with a variety of talents and creative callings.
As a whole, the collection encourages the modern Catholic woman to embrace the call to sharpen and refine our intellects in service of our family, our community, and the Church. Yet each essay addresses a very different facet of the intellectual life, from becoming a “bibliophile” to the complementarity of women’s minds and hearts to “the school of leisure” and a compelling case against workism.
The Intellectual Life and Moral Formation Are Intimately Connected
A theme running through the entire collection is the interconnectedness of intellectual and moral formation. One of the opening essays shares the example of Our Lady under the title “Seat of Wisdom.” Mary pursued and loved wisdom, and if we seek to be more like her, so should we. A commitment to the intellectual life is our own fiat. As Mary made hers, so, too, do we by committing to sharpen our mind, read, learn, study, and engage in the life of the mind.
In her essay, Susanna Spencer (theological editor at Blessed Is She) discusses how the intellectual life also necessarily involves a commitment to a life of virtue. She writes:
“The intellectual life is so much more than engaging ourselves intellectually. One must also form oneself in a life of virtue. Along with all the other virtues, we need prudence to determine what and when we will study, temperance for self-discipline, studiousness to focus on important knowledge, and internal recollection to help us focus on the truths worth pursuing.”
The various authors emphasize that in order to have this focus on truth, we need to commit ourselves to periods of contemplative silence, prayer, and study. In her essay, Sister Josephine Garrett (a Sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth) pushes us to study, in particular, primary sources (like the Word itself), urging:
“In your intellectual life, fix your gaze back on the Father, who reflects you in his eye. Seek to know him as he knows you—to the depths. Soar to the heights of love by surrendering the gifts of your intellect, given to you by the Father, back to the Father.”
The Universal Call to the Intellectual Life
The authors, though from different vocational backgrounds, share the same message: It doesn’t matter if you are an academic or a cloistered nun or a working mother in the trenches; the call to the intellectual life is for everyone. Even if we are busy businesswomen or mothers working within slim margins, we can still grab small windows to read, study, and think deeply. As Susanna Spencer writes, “Prudence does not negate a plan but allows for the plan to be executed according to one's reality.” This means seizing opportunities that complement your vocation rather than abandoning your responsibilities or yearning for a different situation.
To illustrate, author and mother Jackie Francois Angel writes about taking the intellectual life from theory to practice, saying: “No matter which stage of life we are in—single, married, or consecrated—there will always be distractions and roadblocks to forming the intellectual life. But there are immense benefits in the intellectual life that must not be overlooked.” She further shares that as women, whether we are self-proclaimed academics or not, the world needs our feminine genius: a special insight that nurtures communities and enriches society.
“Not only do we form our intellect for our own growth,” she writes, “but we also form our minds to lead others to the true, good, and beautiful.”
Living out Our Feminine Genius
The collection beautifully incorporates diverse voices and encourages women across vocations that the intellectual life is for all of us. It is a clarion call to the modern woman to embrace her unique gifts no matter her stage or season. Some essays may resonate more than others based on where you find yourself, and that is OK. I recommend reading the entire collection from start to finish, bookmarking and then rereading the essays that speak to you the most.
Alexandra Macey Davis is a wife, mother, and writer who shares her take on issues at the intersection of faith, culture, and family life. Her work has been published in Verily Magazine, Coffee + Crumbs, Public Discourse, FemCatholic, Everyday Mamas, She is Kindred, and many more. By day, she runs Davis Legal Media - a ghostwriting service for lawyers - and in the margins, you can find her wheeling her double stroller through vintage furniture stores, hoarding her favorite recipes, or writing at coffee shops. You can connect with Alex on her website, on Instagram, or by joining her monthly newsletter, where she encourages working moms to pursue goodness, truth, and beauty in their vocations.