Catholic Women Preach

Preaching for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Paige Byrne Shortal offers a reflection on God's abundance and revisits her "Prayer for the Missing Instruments":   "Like the overflowing abundance of wine at Cana,   there is an abundance of gifts, of voices, of vocations.   The poverty we live with is not necessary,   and I dare say, is not from God.     &n...

Preaching for the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus, Mariángel Marco Teja offers a reflection on living into our identities as beloved children of God:    "Celebrating the baptism of Jesus is a good opportunity to renew our own baptism, to listen again in the intimacy of our hearts, until it is engraved in fire in our hearts: 'You are my beloved daughter/son'; and to know that we are sent li...

Preaching for the Feast of the Epiphany, Genie Natividad, MM offers a reflection on today's standing with seekers and refugees:    "To stay in their homes and in their own land, therefore, is not an option. They must leave. But where?...Like the Magi who follow the star, the asylum seekers too must follow their own star hovering over them, trusting, believing, and moving forward and onwa...

Anne Arabome, SSS preaches for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God:   "As I see it, Mary’s contemplative posture teaches us that the quality of our presence to one another, the depth of prayer in which we hold one another, and the expanse of our love for others can be life-giving beyond words and healing beyond all remedies, especially at times of anxieties and worries, loss and pain, uncert...

Preaching for the Feast of the Holy Family, Emily Garvey offers a reflection on complicated people and complicated relationships:   "Today celebrates Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, complicated people who behaved in complicated ways. But they loved God, they loved one another, and they loved others. Their humanity probably leaked out in some messy ways. But they kept trying - they kept putting on he...

Ann M. Garrido Preaches for Christmas:   "And Christmas and Easter are two sides of the same coin.  Both tell us that there is nothing—nothing—that is human that God is not willing to enter into in solidarity with us. Neither conception and birth, nor life and death.  None of this is foreign to our God.   Yes, Christmas and Easter are two sides of the same coin: the coin w...

Preaching for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Dr. Nontando Hadebe offers a reflection on the history-making relationship between Mary and Elizabeth and its power for women today:   "There was another power operating in the most unlikely place - that is in the lives of these two women from an oppressed nation who had no significance, status or power. The two women had no male presence or authorit...

Carmen Nanko-Fernández offers a reflection on the intersection of the readings for the Third Sunday of Advent and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe:   "We need to remember that today is a day of rejoicing, of fiesta—a time to affirm the gift of life, no matter how fragile; a time to confirm that we are indeed accompanied by the divine. Fiestas are not escapes from daily misery, but necessary...

Catherine Mooney, Ph. D., preaches for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary:    "Mary”s Magnificat foretells of a magnificent future already happening. It is being borne into our Fallen world by every person who, like Christ, lives in solidarity with the outcasts and fights for a world of love and justice."   Catherine Mooney teaches church history and the history of C...

Preaching for the First Sunday of Advent, Crista Carrick Mahoney offers a reflection on “staying awake,” even when we’re already tired:   “We’ve been on high alert for nearly two years, so sometimes these Advent reminders to stay awake, pay attention, be ready, only feed the weariness.  It’s ok to feel tired!  In that barely awake state, in those moments when we feel more anxious, l...

Preaching for the Solemnity of Christ the King , Jordan Denari Duffner offers a reflection on experiencing and enacting the Reign of God - even in unexpected places:   "God’s reign is not only something that we look forward to at the end of time, nor is it simply a realm that we will someday reach. It is also something that we can experience here, even if only in glimpses, and that we can wor...

Preaching for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time , Sr. Christa Parra, IBVM offers a reflection on accompanying each other - and especially asylum seekers - through terrifying times:   "Life is not as terrifying when we know that we are not alone.  The Psalm today is similar to the song Stand By Me as it emphasizes that with God at my right hand, I will not be disturbed.  My heart, bod...

Preaching for the Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time , Phyllis Zagano offers a reflection on belonging in the Church:   "The Church, our Church, your Church, has leaders, rules, and boundaries. You are part of the people of God, and so am I. The difference with Church, I think, is that the leaders must continually learn from the others. Hierarchy—and all clerics are part of the hierarchy—h...

Preaching for the Solemnity of All Saints , Yunuen Trujillo offers a reflection on the Beatitudes and shifting our notions of holiness:  "How can we know the saints fully, if we don’t recognize those saints who are unknown, who come from sections of the population we consider 'less than.' We are called to be a Church of encounter, a Church of accompaniment, and listening Church. As we begin o...

Preaching for the Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time , Simone Campbell, SSS offers a reflection on the Greatest Commandment:   "So let us this week embody the care and community that I experienced in Texas by the end of our gathering. Let us have space for those who disagree and find our connections before the Divine together in a love that overflows all bounds. Then may we be marked by lov...

Preaching for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time , Allison Connelly-Vetter offers a reflection on disability, consent, inclusion, and access:   "Those of us who are disabled, those of us who have long known these truths in our bones and synapses, can find in these readings divine validation and affirmation of our naturalness, worthiness, and on-purpose-created-ness. And all of us, abled an...

Preaching for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time , Jocelyn A. Sideco offers a reflection on liberation:   "We know the world is far from perfect or ideal. AND we know that Jesus’ teachings, Jesus’ example, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection give us an opportunity to live in a way that is most liberatory, most free, most loving.  To live and to love is not to subjugate yourself un...

Preaching for the Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time , Sarah Attwood Otto offers a reflection on welcoming others:   "Today’s readings make clear that our joy, as well as our salvation, is to be found in welcoming and being in relationship with each other...There is no path to God that we can take independently of our spouse, our children, or our neighbor – the Word made flesh in those ar...

Jacqui Rémond preaches for the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time - the Fourth Sunday of the Season of Creation:   "Until the human family can embrace what Pope Francis calls an integral ecological conversion, can cut out of our lives the sinful, destructive patterns of living on Earth that are driving climate change, we will continue more and more to face the fiery abyss, the unquenchable...

Rose Marie Berger preaches for the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time , reflecting on this time of transformation in light of the readings:   "Today, all of us are living in a Great Transformation. The old is falling away. A new center is emerging. Let us draw one another close and find new ways of building that put Jesus’ foundational people at our center. Let us be intentional in choosing...

Preaching for the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mary C. McGinnity offers a reflection on overcoming our illusions about ourselves and the world and to act:   "...We are challenged to look at the realities of those who suffer and address them.  No illusions.  We are challenged then to look at our own suffering and the sufferings of others and address them – address them prop...

Preaching for the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Ann Carr offers a reflection on our need to be opened by Christ:   "To hear, to speak, to breathe.  What does it mean for us to have our own grace filled, life transforming encounter with Jesus in this time of epochal change?  Do we have the courage of the deaf man and his community of companions to approach the Christ and be o...

Preaching for the September 3rd Feast of Saint Phoebe, Carolyn Osiek, RSCJ offers a reflection on Romans 16:1-2, which never appears in the Roman Catholic Lectionary:   "Phoebe is another woman silenced in the lectionary, but who was not so silent in her own context. She was a woman of influence: minister, deacon, and sponsor of one of the earliest churches. Phoebe was a woman who used her so...

Preaching for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Lisa Frey offers a reflection on passing on the treasures we've been given:   "How are we keepers of the fire? How are we adapting and reinterpreting the teaching for a new generation…in our home and in our church and in our nation? The role of bishops is to preserve the tradition of the church, yes. But the letter from James says today...

Elise Dubravec preaches for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time , offering a reflection on staying in the Church despite difficult teachings and practices:   "How can I stay when our readings tell me to subordinate to patriarchy, or when I see LGBTQ+ Catholics fired from their jobs, or when women are still denied a place at the altar, or when Catholic parishes and schools serving black c...