About Us
The mission of Ruah Woods is to restore the family and renew the culture by educating and training leaders and teachers to understand, embrace and evangelize the message of Theology of the Body,
a vision of authentic sexuality that appeals to the deepest yearning of the human heart for love and union.
About Our Name -- About Our Logo -- About Theology of the Body
About Our Name
What Does "Ruah" Mean?
Picture this:
Fifteen people huddled around a couple of tables, laboring for close to two hours trying to brainstorm a name for this new venture, when one person, feeling exasperated, muttered under her breath, “C’mon Holy Spirit…we need some inspiration here!” And upon hearing this, another got all excited and exclaimed, “Wait a minute…what’s the word for Holy Spirit? Isn’t there another word or name for that?” And feverishly poking at his Blackberry, he typed in Ruah and up came the word with its definition. Eureka…we found the name…Ruah Woods! After our protracted, creative struggle to find the moniker something just felt “right” about this name and miraculously within 20 seconds everyone breathed a sigh of relief, packed up their papers, clicked their briefcases, shut their portfolios and called it a morning. Pope John Paul II’s spiritual retreat master, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa explains further, the meaning of Ruah.
The Roots of the Meaning of Ruah
“So…what does Ruah mean? The Third Person of the Trinity has a name…He is called Spirit. Spirit, however, is a translation of his name. The real name of the Spirit, the name by which the first recipients of revelation in the Old Testament knew him was Ruah. What is the meaning of this Hebrew word? Its first meaning is the space, the air between heaven and earth, a space that can be sometimes calm, sometimes turbulent, a space like the open prairie where it is easy to see how the wind blows. By extension, ruah means the life-space in which we human beings move and breathe. So, the Holy Spirit is the spiritual space, the life-sustaining ambience, in which we are able to be in touch with God and with Christ.”
The Usual Significance of the Word Ruah
“Ruah means two things, closely linked to one another: wind and breath. Wind and breath are symbols of the Holy Spirit and we see this often in scripture. Wherever we read “wind” in the Scripture, people of biblical times also understood “spirit” and wherever we read “spirit” they also understood “wind.” It was not the Holy Spirit that gave his name to wind, but wind that gave its name to the Holy Spirit. In other words, the sign came before the reality signified, because in human experience, we do not come to know spiritual reality first, but on the contrary, we know material reality first and only then do we come to know what is spiritual.”
So How is This Related to The Theology of the Body?
“The body, in fact, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God, and thus to be a sign of it.”
- Pope John Paul II
> The entire Theology of the Body catechesis hinges on this point.
> A sign is something that points us to a reality beyond itself and, in some way, makes that transcendent reality present to us. Wind and breath are physical realities that point us to the Holy Spirit. For human beings, wind and breath make visible the invisible mystery of the Holy Spirit, in a concrete way.
> Similarly, the body, which is made in the image and likeness of God, is a physical, concrete sign that makes visible that which is invisible. The sign (the body) is indispensable in “making visible” the invisible divine mystery of God.
Go With the Spirit at Ruah Woods
The image of the free-blowing wind and of the whirlwind both help to convey the strength, the power, the freedom and the transcendence of the Holy Spirit. Wind, in fact, in the Bible as well as in nature, is par excellence the embodiment of a sweeping force, a force that cannot be tamed. The Holy Sprit is the one and only true strength and real power that keeps the Church alive. It is therefore from the Holy Spirit that the Church and every preacher of the Gospel, has the power to convince and to lead to conversion, to get through to the very heart of a culture and to destroy with it all the bulwarks erected against Christ, and to lead people to the obedience of faith.”
“What effort it takes to walk or to row against the wind! What joy to do the same thing with the wind in your favor! Try to go about doing what you do without the Holy Spirit: how heavy that is! Work with the Spirit; how very much lighter everything becomes!” Harness the power of the Holy Spirit as you learn about the Theology of the Body…If at first you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Springtime Tree
You’ll notice the tree in our logo, with its leaves just beginning to bloom, is a springtime tree representing John Paul II’s call for a new “Springtime of Evangelization.” The pope's call to a new evangelization is a prophetic and revolutionary calling to the Roman Catholic Church. As we reach the third millennium, Pope John Paul II is re-directing and re-focusing the Church's priorities. John Paul II proclaims "the moment has come to commit all of the Church's energies to a new evangelization and to the mission.
No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples." While the notion of evangelization may seem foreign to Catholics, in light of the times we are living in, the changing world scene, the deterioration of western civilization, and the weak condition of the Church in many parts of the world, Pope John Paul II's urgent call to a new evangelization is imperative. The entire Church must come to embrace this calling and make it a normal part of Catholic life.
Inspiring the Culture of Life
Ruah means “breath”, “air”, “wind” and so it is related to the word “inspire” meaning to breathe life into. Another meaning of inspire is to affect, guide, or arouse by divine influence. Ruah Woods will inspire and nurture the growth of the Culture of Life in today’s world.
The Apple
An apple is prominently displayed on the tree. Theology of the Body is all about before and after the apple…before and after the fall of Adam and Eve. It is a meditation based on:
- Our Origin. This concerns man’s experience of the body and sex before sin. It is based on Christ’s discussion with the Pharisees abut God’s plan for marriage “in the beginning” (see Mt 19:3-9).
- Our History. This concerns man’s experience of the body and sex affected by sin yet redeemed in Christ. It is based on Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount regarding adultery committed “in the heart” (see Mt 5:27-28).
- Our Destiny. This concerns man’s experience of the body and sex in the resurrection. It is based on Christ’s discussion with the Sadducees regarding the body’s glorified state (see Mt 22:23-33).
The Theology of the Body refers to a series of 129 lectures given by Pope John Paul II during his Wednesday audiences in Rome between September 1979 and November 1984. These addresses were later compiled and published as a single work entitled The Theology of the Body According to John Paul II. The Theology of the Body covers such topics as the bodily dimension of the human person, the nature of human sexuality, the human need for communion, and the nature of marriage.
Christ's mission, according to the spousal analogy of the Scriptures, is to “marry” us. He invites us to live with him in an eternal life-giving union of love. This is what the union of the sexes is meant to proclaim and foreshadow – the eternal union of Christ and the Church. As St. Paul says, quoting from Genesis:
"For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the church” (Eph 5:31-32).
By helping us understand this profound interconnection between sex and the Christian mystery, John Paul II's Theology of the Body not only paves the way for lasting renewal of marriage and the family; it enables everyone to rediscover “the meaning of the whole of existence, the meaning of life” (Oct 29, 80).
John Paul II's Theology of the Body is especially important for our culture today which is permeated by messages that challenge faith and encourage permissive attitudes. The Theology of the Body is a new understanding of the human person that takes one beyond the "thou shall nots" often associated with Christianity to a fresh, new approach to the gift of love and human sexuality. As John Paul II says, "Love demands a personal commitment to the will of God" (October 1, 1979).
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