I am a Catholic. It is a part of me - not as a label, but as a quiet inner guide. I do not talk about it first of all, I do not wear it like a banner. But this is what shapes my answers to many "why" in life. Why I forgive. Why I do not lose hope. Why I try to see more in people than they want to show.

But at the same time, I am a woman. Not an icon. Not a strict mistress in restrained tones. I have a bad mood. There are stupid crushes, there are days when I just want to eat pizza and not say a word. I laugh, sometimes I say too much, sometimes I dream about things that maybe I don’t really need. That’s all me. I don’t give up on faith by accepting myself, and I don’t give up on myself by remaining in faith.

I once had a conversation with a good woman. She said, “I’m afraid of religious men. They’re always so… serious. As if they’re not allowed to just be alive.” And I felt a little sad. Because, perhaps, we believers really do sometimes give that impression. We’re afraid of seeming too easy — because faith, they say, should oblige us to be strict. But for me, faith isn’t meant to cut you off from life, but to fill it with meaning. To warm you from the inside, and not limit you in form.

I like being a woman. Not in the glossy sense — but in the real sense, with subtlety, with soft power, with attention. I don’t want to make my faith a barrier behind which I stand and check if someone is worthy of approaching. I want it to be like a flame that gives warmth — to me and to those around me.

Femininity is also about faith. In yourself. In others. In the fact that everyone has depth. It’s not weakness or an attempt to please someone. It’s a choice to be open, to be subtle — not because you can’t be tough, but because you choose a different path. This is also strength.

Sometimes it seems to me that we don’t allow ourselves to be whole. Faith is about the spiritual, we say. Femininity is about the physical, about the sensitive. And as a result, it’s as if there’s a constant struggle going on inside. I’ve been through this. There was a period when I tried to “be good.” Exemplary. Modest. Almost sterile. And at some point I realized that I was becoming not alive, but correct. And it wasn't the path to Christ, it was the path to simply not annoying anyone. Not standing out.

But God doesn't call us to be neutral. He calls us to be alive. With a loving heart, an open mind and free will. And being a woman is a huge gift. Not a punishment, not a "test", not a set of difficult roles. It's a blessing. Not to be "someone's", but to be yourself - in fullness, in light, in motion.

I believe that a real meeting of two people happens when no one pretends. When you don't play the role of a saint, but you're not afraid of your values. When you don't remove God from the conversation, just because it might confuse someone. But you don't shout about him, as if it were a leaflet. But you just live - with this light inside. And if a person is able to feel it, then you are already somewhere on the same wavelength.

And what do you think, passion and faith are compatible?

Laena Banana