Catholic Women Preach

Preaching for Pentecost, M. Shawn Copeland offers a reflection on 'Spirit of God Different':    "At Pentecost, Spirit God Different missions us to live out the command of Jesus to ‘love one another.’ Spirit God Different opens us, teaches us to live in and live out active compassionate, loving solidarity with those whom our society chooses to oppress––those whom our society exploits and...

Preaching for the Solemnity of the Ascension, Stephanie Boccuzzi offers a reflection on ascending - rising up - to the realities of today:   "This Solemnity asks us to Rise! Get up! Be empowered to be a light to the world! And, to do so, we ask ourselves, 'What does ascending mean after these past two years of global, national, and individual suffering?' 'How can we rise up to meet the challe...

Preaching for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, M. Patricia Ball, M.S.R.N. offers a reflection on finding peace in our turbulent lives by actively inviting God into them:   "We can pray unceasingly and live the gospel if we find sustenance in remembering that we are engulfed in God’s loving embrace. In that embrace we can find the peace he gives and that we so desire. It is good that God is here"....

Preaching for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Mariann McCorkle invites us to consider how we can embody Christ's command to "love":   "Who accompanied you and made an impact on your spiritual life.  Join me in giving thanks for that accompaniment. How then do we embody that love for ourselves and others?"   Mariann McCorkle is Co-Director of the Ignatian Legacy Fellows Program, Loyola U...

Preaching for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Sr. Jane Nesmith, SBS, offers a reflection on listening for the voice of the Good Shepherd in our world and lives today:    "Our very lives depend on our choosing the option of following the Good Shepherd, and to declare with our lips and our lives that he is indeed the Way, the Truth and the Life. This one and only Good Shepherd calls out to us...

Preaching for the Third Sunday of Easter, Kelly Meraw, reflects on Jesus' final  post-resurrection appearance and what it means for our Church today:   "In his threefold affirmation of love for Jesus, Peter is guided to the most integral mark of an intimate lover of Christ: limitless love and mercy. Peter must be reminded of his need for Christ’s mercy in order to ultimately be the condu...

Maureen Glavin, RSCJ preaches for the Second Sunday of Easter, offering a reflection on seeking and believing:   "On this topic of deep knowing or mature belief, I often think of the founder of my congregation, Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat.  She wrote regularly about the interior life or interior spirit. Her own contemplative practice provided her with the kind of ongoing experiences whi...

Preaching for Easter, Kimberly Lymore encourages us to find resurrection in our own lives:    "Today is a reminder that we are a resurrection people who have the power to resurrect those things in our lives that have been buried. Take off your burial clothes and put on your garment of praise. Scripture tells us that God has turned our mourning into dancing. Today is the day we resurrect...

Lifting up the experience, faith, and wisdom of her ancestors and elders, Valerie D. Lewis-Mosley, OPA preaches for Good Friday:    "Whenever I would ask my grandparents and great-grandparents about their experiences in the Jim Crow south of segregation and the terror of the Ku Klux Klan, their response was 'A burning cross has no power over the Cross of Calvary.' It was their abiding fa...

Remembering the lunch counter sit-ins of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Kim Harris preaches for Holy Thursday, offering a reflection on creating a welcome table:   "Are we looking and bending down, to wash the feet of a neighbor? Or even allowing our own feet to be washed in the ritual…? While feeling other than, feeling above or even feeling disdain for those who are in deep need. Unhoused,...

Preaching for Palm Sunday, Cecilia González-Andrieu, Ph. D., offers a reflection on "stubborn hope":   "And so – we are called out of ourselves to take this road with Jesus – to take up the gift of the reign of God we are called to bring, while knowing that there will be murderous opposition to that gift.  As we step out of our comfort into the starkness of what is real, we transcend fea...

Preaching for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Teresa Delgado, Ph. D., redirects our attention toward the systems, powers, and structures that use that use vulnerable people for their own benefit:    "How is it scandalous to say that Jesus enacts no punishment, no condemnation, for an 'adulterous' woman, that he just lets her go; yet not scandalous that the religious power structures of the tim...

Preaching for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Sr. Anne Celestine Ondigo, FSJ offers a reflection on reconciliation and re-entry:   "Today’s readings announce the good news of acceptance where all, irrespective of their dispositions are eligible to a warm re-entry.  During this Lenten period, eligibility to God’s mercy is more emphasized as the Church draws its faithful to the penitential natu...

Preaching for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Sr. Anne Celestine Ondigo, FSJ offers a reflection on reconciliation and re-entry:   "Today’s readings announce the good news of acceptance where all, irrespective of their dispositions are eligible to a warm re-entry.  During this Lenten period, eligibility to God’s mercy is more emphasized as the Church draws its faithful to the penitential natu...

Jaime L. Waters preaches for the Third Sunday of Lent, offering a reflection on repentance:   "Repentance allows us to turn our attention to aspects of ourselves and our lives that need more care and correction. The gardener acknowledges the ways that the tree has failed and commits to cultivating the earth and adding nutrients to nourish the tree and help it grow. The gardener asks for time,...

Preaching for the Second Sunday of Lent, Vivian Cabrera reflects on the dynamic between longing and doubt:   "Our hearts can tell us what our minds can’t comprehend. They urge us to stay. As we enter Lent this year, let us sit in the certainty of what our hearts tell us, these hearts that were created by God, for God. Let us cry out what the psalmist says: ‘Hear, O Lord, the sound of my call;...

Preaching for the First Sunday of Lent, Melissa Cedillo reflects on inviting God into our work for justice:   "As Lent begins, let us remember that we cannot survive on bread alone. Just as we cannot produce all the food we need for a happy and full life on our own. Let us remember to lean on Jesus in our most justice filled fights and in our moments of weakness...Where do we seek nourishment...

Preaching for Ash Wednesday, Sr. Cora Marie Billings invites us to live each day of Lent intentionally:    "We know the scriptures also tell us that today is the day of salvation. So today - each day of Lent - as I go through it, I will focus on one thing that day. And the scriptures say a lot about almsgiving. For me, almsgiving is giving every part of my body - my voice, my heart, my l...

Preaching for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jennifer Theby-Quinn offers a reflection on being rooted in Jesus' radical, boundless love:   "That’s what the firm foundation looks like: a tree, with roots reaching deep to her source, who stays near the water that gives her life, a person unafraid of vulnerability, unafraid of being wrong, because I am deeply, deeply rooted in the radical a...

Preaching for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (February 20, 2022), Deborah Wilhelm offers a reflection on pausing before springing to action:   "That pause for conversation is a gift; it only takes place because everyone’s asleep--and as the text says, that deep sleep is the work of the Lord. This conversation is in that liminal space, neither here nor there, in which decisions are made a...

Bridget Bearss, RSCJ preaches for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, offering a reflection that invites us to move beyond polarity:   "We live in a divided world and we are the instruments of the heart of God, who choose to build bridges of relationship in places, structures, attitudes and experiences of difference. We do not remain in the polarity, but live from the unity of knowing that we...

Bridget Bearss, RSCJ preaches for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, offering a reflection that invites us to move beyond polarity:   "We live in a divided world and we are the instruments of the heart of God, who choose to build bridges of relationship in places, structures, attitudes and experiences of difference. We do not remain in the polarity, but live from the unity of knowing that we...

Colleen Dulle Preaches for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, offering a reflection on the ongoing nature of conversion:   "Each of the conversion stories we heard today were preceded by doubt and a sense of unworthiness...Each of these people, all towering figures in salvation history, need a word of encouragement to overcome their hesitancy and begin their work. So here’s a last question to...

Flora x. Tang preaches for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, offering a reflection on loving and belonging:   "At the end of our gospel reading, Jesus passed through the midst of the people and went away. In walking away, he began his ministry, found his new family in his disciples and friends: friends who gave him room to proclaim the gospel, friends who do not underestimate him or re...

Jennifer Reyes Lay Preaches for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, bringing the readings into conversation with her work to end human trafficking:    "Go, and be the Body of Christ in the world, proclaiming Good News to the poor and the vulnerable, liberating those held captive and oppressed through human trafficking, and opening the eyes and hearts of those who would rather not see this...