Proverbs 31:19

"She has also braced her arms on the spindle." About this spindle let me say what the Lord permits me to. After all, this business of spinning wool is not completely foreign to men. Listen to what it means to say, "She has braced her arms on the spindle." It could have said "on the distaff." It said spindle, not without reason, perhaps. Though you could, of course, take it, and it wouldn't be at all absurd, that the spindle seems to signify spinning, and spinning signifies the good works of a chaste woman and a busy and careful housewife. All the same I, dearly beloved, will not keep from you what I understand by this spindle.…Look at these two instruments for spinning wool, the distaff and the spindle. The wool is wrapped round the distaff and has to be drawn and spun in a thread and so pass onto the spindle. What's wrapped on the distaff is the future; what's collected by the spindle is already past. So your good work is on the spindle, not on the distaff. On the distaff is what you are going to do; on the spindle is what you have done. So see if you have anything on the spindle, that's where your arms should be braced.

She put her hand to strong things, etc. By strong things are meant the perfect works in the charity of Christ, to which the Church joyfully subjected herself in the expectation of certain heavenly reward; for example, "You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you," etc. (Matthew V); and concerning the preservation of virginity: "He who can accept this, let him accept it" (Matthew XIX); and concerning the disdain of riches: "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have," etc. (Ibid.). For the people of the Synagogue, to whom it was said, "If you are willing and obey me, you shall eat the good things of the land" (Isaiah I), were much weaker in the work of justice, the less they were elevated by the hope of eternal reward. But the Church, which heard from the Lord, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near" (Matthew III), rightly endures anything difficult for the sake of receiving it. Therefore it is again said of her strength, "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force" (Matthew XI). And her fingers, he says, grasp the spindle. Women are accustomed to hold the spindle in the right hand and the distaff in the left. For the wool wound on the distaff, which must pass into the spindle to be spun into thread, is often referenced in the Scriptures as the right hand signifying eternal life, and the left hand signifying the present gifts of God, namely, the abundance of things, peace of times, health of bodies, knowledge of the Scriptures, and understanding of heavenly sacraments. When we receive these and similar goods from the Lord, it is as if we carry the wool wrapped on the distaff in the left hand. But when we begin to practice them wholesomely for the love of the heavenly, we transfer the wool of the spotless Lamb from the distaff to the spindle, from the left to the right, because from the gifts of our Redeemer, from the examples of His works, we make for ourselves the robe of heavenly glory and the wedding garment of charity. The fingers, by which it is said she grasps the spindle, signify the very intent of discretion with which one works, for there is no part of our body more divided by joints and apt for flexing than the fingers. Therefore, whoever can truly say with the Apostle, "Our citizenship is in heaven"…