Catholic Women Preach

Preaching for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time , Maureen O'Connell offers a reflection on resisting the thinking, habits, and solutions of empire:  "We aren’t chosen by the authority figures of empires, no matter what religious or political guises they moralize with or campaign in or what certainties they claim to offer or platitudes they attempt to ply us with. We are chosen by God. And the...

Preaching for the Twenty-eight Sunday in Ordinary Time, María Soledad offers a reflection on preparing for the feast God has planned for us:   "...in these moments of history in which we feel so deprived and unsatisfied with our present, let us remember that the God of Jesus is a God that has prepared a big feast for us. That our hope and our future is a feast, and that we can prepare fo...

Preaching for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - through the lens of Saint Francis - Ramona Miller, OSF offers a reflection on finding our own goodness and peace by living into community with all creation:   "As we desire to develop a vineyard that pleases God and deepens our inner peace we come to realize that there can be no fences around the perfect vineyard.  We are being c...

Preaching for the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Marge Kloos, SC offers a reflection encouraging us to go out and work in the vineyard today:   " Today, we are a planet awakening to multiple injustices cascading over our consciousness. Our journey to the vineyard cannot be put on hold. The urgency of this moment calls us to go to work in the vineyard where the weeds of hate and indiffe...

Preaching for the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time , Jessie Bazan offers a reflection on the familiar parable of the workers in the vineyard:   "Our God is a God of infinite possibilities, whose ways are high above the human ways to which we’ve grown accustomed. Our God cannot be tamed within the made-up constructs of in or out, worthy or unworthy, last or first. Our God is near to all wh...

Preaching for the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time , Jacqueline Regan offers a reflection on forgiveness:   "Seventy times seven? Really? Jesus knew that we needed practice. With hearts opened wide to the amazing grace of God’s mercy, can we trust that Jesus’ instruction is a sign of solidarity with the human condition?  Can we live as if it is a piece of wise advice that shapes and...

Preaching for the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time , Dr. Julie Welborn offers a reflection on our call to be on the watch -- for ourselves and for one another:   "When we engender these kind of healthy relationships; when we sharpen others and allow others to sharpen us, in the end we become better people, and position ourselves to be available to represent and serve God."   Julie We...

Preaching for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time , Sr. Nicole Trahan offers a reflection on persistence as we seek, in the words of St. Paul, not to be conformed to this age:   Let us challenge ourselves to keep learning and growing, allowing God to transform us by the renewal of our minds, so we might act with courage in spite of the obstacles and struggles to bring about a time accep...

Preaching for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time , Elyse Raby offers a reflection on authority:   "This is the kind of lived authority, the kind of witness and testimony, that opens the doors to the kingdom of heaven. This  is the authority that makes Christianity credible. It is the kind of authority that we so desperately need from our church leaders who are in positions of autho...

Preaching for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time , Sr. Gerardette Philips offers a reflection on the universality of God's love and compassion -- regardless of race, culture, or creed -- and the invitation to be in relationship with one another:    "The Breath of the Compassionate God breathes on all alike, extending the invitation and making God’s mercy available for all. However we...

Preaching for the Solemnity of the Assumption , Pat McDonough offers a reflection on the wholeness and holiness of each woman:   "Mary’s 'yes' made her whole, a wholeness for which we all long. She shared so singleheartedly, so fully in the life of Jesus, that God invited Mary to share fully in his resurrection. If heaven could welcome a female body, why can’t the hierarchy?"   Pat McDon...

Preaching for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time , Emily R. John offers a reflection on living out of our connectedness with God -- especially during tumultuous times:    "That still point, that everyone has within, helps us see that every moment of our lives is reverent. Resting in the love of God not only changes us but also invites us to take on the injustices and systematic oppre...

Casey Stanton preaches for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time , offering a reflection on acknowleding and channeling our anger and grief:   "Come turn that hot anger into fuel that sustains your love of creation and the people of God entrusted to your care. Come and be changed, be renewed, be fed -- by the same one who promises that no creature will be able to separate us from the love of...

Preaching for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time , Anne Koester offers a reflection on finding and sparking joy:   "We should find joy simply in sharing the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ and in building up the reign of God by loving others – as in everyone – not a select few, not just the ones we like or could benefit us, not just the ones whom we think are like us – but loving...

Preaching for the Feast Day of Saint Mary of Magdala , Nontando Hadebe offers a reflection on claiming the apostolic tradition of Mary Magdalene:    "As we celebrate Mary Magdalene, we rise up as women and we say we have a tradition that can be traced to a direct commandment from Jesus to speak. And we shall speak: we shall speak with authority; we shall speak with intelligence; we shall...

Preaching for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time , Ruth Fehlker offers a reflection on growth and progress even in times of injustice, pain, and uncertainty:   "And so I cling to this unlikely hope: the hope that many small people in many small places who take many small steps will eventually change the face of the earth."   Ruth Fehlker holds a master’s degree in Catholic theology fr...

Molleen Dupree-Dominguez preaches on the familiar parable of the Sower and the Seed, offering a reflection on the seeds of racial justice being sown today:    "The weeds and thorns of racial superiority have set excruciatingly deep roots in the institutions of the United States of America as well as in the hearts of Americans. Any skilled gardener will tell you, uprooting entrenched weed...

Preaching for the Fourteeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time , Christine Elisabeth Burke, IBVM offers a reflection on Wisdom-Sophia's message of hope during time of struggle and invitation to live in a new way:   "Can we have the humility to come as little ones', asking Wisdom to help us to understand, to change, to live in a new way? Can we let go of some good things to a allow a greater good to em...

Preaching for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time , timone davis offers a reflection on living and loving a "Life According to Jesus":   "See, to truly love God is to love self. The love for self manifests itself in how we treat others. My love for Gaud causes me, calls me, to see my goodness and worthiness... and I can't help but share that with others -- evangelization"   After work...

Preaching for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time , Joan S. Grey offers a reflection on overcoming fear:   "How do we overcome fear? It’s more complicated than someone saying: don’t be afraid. Taming this emotion requires more than a command or suggestion, even from a trusted source."   From being first-generation American to being in the first class with women at West Point and a 2019 H...

Preaching for the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ , Susan Haarman offers a reflection on being a Eucharistic people:   "Eucharist isn't a spectator sport. We participate in the body of Christ when we break the bread. We participate in the blood of Christ when we drink from the cup. Living into a Eucharistic reality means participating in it. It means saying yes to that relationship...

Preaching for the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity , Sharon Chipman offers a reflection on our invitation to join the Trinity in the dance of life even in a time of pandemic:   "We are being saved, and we are being called to save others in every possible way we can. Keep dancing my sisters and brothers. Follow the hesed steps of the Creator and Redeemer, and may the music, the rhythm, the kiss a...

Preaching for Pentecost , Dr. C. Vanessa White offers a reflection on listening to the Holy Spirit during a time of Pentecost, while weaving African American Spirituals throughout:   "Like those first disciples in the Upper Room, may we be open to the coming of the Holy Spirit during this time of pandemic to use us and transform us for the good of all."   Dr. C. Vanessa White is Associat...

Preaching for the Solemnity of the Ascension , Cathe Shoulberg, RSM offers a reflection on what the readings for the Ascension might offer to our uncertain and frightening times:   "This feast speaks so directly to each one of us amid these uncertain and frightening times - WE are called like the Apostles, WE are being sent, to open our hearts to Jesus; to stand, serve and be with the poor am...

Preaching for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time , Mary Ann Hinsdale offers a reflection on hope, particularly at a time of pandemic:    "...these precarious situations caused by the Coronavirus pandemic: joblessness, food insecurity, our elders and veterans dying alone in nursing homes and hospitals, exhausted parents trying to balance working at home and overseeing their children’s educ...