Catholic Women Preach

Lupita Vital Cruz preaches for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time , offering a reflection on hospitality: "I invite you to be hospitable by embracing immigrants, embracing those with no voice, embracing our neighbors, and embracing our families and ourselves. " Lupita Vital Cruz is currently the director of the Hispanic Apostolate for the Diocese of San Jose, California. She holds a master's de...

Preaching for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time , Julie George, SSpS offers a reflection on how the parable of the Good Samaritan calls us beyond our traditional boundaries, laws, and rules with a particular emphasis on how the institutional Church might respond faithfully to the parable:  "Jesus taught us to transform the law as per the signs of the time, and to stand in solidarity with...

Preaching for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time , Emily Rauer Davis offers a reflection on finding strength, comfort, and hope in God our Mother: "In spite of the hardships we face, or creeping feelings of despair, we are invited to recall the love of God as Mother: nurturing us, consoling us, and reassuring us of our place in the world. We are called to be a people of hope as we go about our...

Preaching for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time , Elizabeth Turnwald offers a reflection on surrendering to God's personal invitation to discipleship: "We can get so caught up in the preparation that we don’t appreciate the invitation. But the marvelous thing about God, this all-forgiving, all-patient Universal Love, is that even when we don’t answer 'correctly,' she finds a way of repeating...

Preaching for the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ , Rita Ferrone offers a reflection on how "“The Eucharist commits us to the poor:” "Eucharist commits us to the poor, because Jesus chose to identify himself with them, and he tells us again today: 'Give them something to eat.'" Rita Ferrone is an award-winning writer and frequent speaker on issues of liturgy and church renewal in the Rom...

Preaching for Trinity Sunday , Lynn Cooper offers a reflection on entering more deeply into the mystery of the Trinity:   "My friends, this Trinity Sunday, I invite you to dwell in this reframing of mystery – the forever understanding –and marinate in one or two of these provocations:    How might unity in multiplicity inspire us to be in solidarity with people of other faiths...

Boreta Singleton preaches for Pentecost Sunday , offering a reflection on making use of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, already given to us: "You and I may be surprised-- the same Spirit that urged Jesus to pray and fast in the desert for forty days, the same Spirit that enabled him to heal the sick, the same Spirit that forgave his executioners is present in you." Boreta Singleton is Director of Fa...

Preaching for the Solemnity of the Ascension and from her experience as a mother, Gretchen Crowder offers a reflection on looking outward and forward, not upward or backward, to the see Risen Christ in our midst: "[Jesus]is something completely new. And at this moment, if the disciples fail to recognize this newness, if they dwell on what has passed they might miss so much ahead that is truly spec...

Hilda Ortiz Mena Preaches for the Sixth Sunday of Easter , offering a reflection on contributing to the Kingdom of God by creating a culture of reconciliation and encounter: "We cannot solve all of [the world's problems]. But we can dare to open the door and start a life of reconciliation and encounter everywhere we are." Hilda Ortiz Mena is finishing her master's degree in Theology and Contempora...

Melinda Brown Donovan preaches for the Fifth Sunday of Easter , offering a reflection on discipleship: "As receivers of that redemptive love, we are called to embody the love of Christ: to become a community of healing mercy, kindness, inclusion, compassion, and forgiveness." Melinda holds an MA in Pastoral Ministry, with a concentration in Religious Education, as well as post-graduate certificate...

Preaching for the Fourth Sunday of Easter , Colleen Gibson, SSJ offers a reflection on becoming God's people, God's flock, in a divided world:  "As the psalmist sings out: “We are God’s people, the sheep of his flock.” God knows us and loves us, even when we don’t hear so well. At a moment in our church and our world when people have stopped listening to one another or are selectively listeni...

Mary Kate Holman preaches for the Third Sunday of Easter , offering a reflection on how the Risen Christ sets us free from past faults and failings for the work of the gospel: "Where can we as Church heed Jesus’ invitation to cast our nets differently when our present practices aren’t working? Where can we joyfully, boldly rush out to meet Jesus on the shore? How can we call our Church to repent o...

Preaching for the Second Sunday of Easter , Noella de Souza, MCJ offers a reflection on touching and allowing ourselves to be touched by the wounds of those who suffer, while seeing and taking consolation in the signs of resurrection in our world: "Reading the gospel of John, we ask for that grace that we touch and are touched by, that we feel interiorly the depth of suffering there is in the worl...

Inspired by the full Resurrection narrative in the Gospel of John, Annie Burns preaches for Easter , offering a reflection on moving  through the current pain and fear toward healing and reconciliation and new ways of being Church: "I think it is time for myself and for our Church to move through these moments of fear and pain. It is time for us to turn around and see Jesus risen. To get up,...

Preaching for Holy Thursday , Kathy Baroody, informed by her years of experience with the L'Arche Community, offers a reflection on Christian love, saying: "So the question for us this evening is, Can we say yes to Jesus’ invitation? Can we choose to love to the utmost? To engage humbly with one person at a time, to offer refreshment and tenderness to the weary soul, to look with extraordinary lov...

Preaching for the Fifth Sunday of Lent , Kaya Oakes, offers three insights from the passage about the woman “caught” in adultery: 1. “Jesus instead chooses not to condemn her. And that’s not the same thing as forgiveness, because, perhaps, in her case, there’s nothing for him to forgive;” 2. “What if she didn’t do it?... It’s entirely possible the ‘adultery’ this anonymous woman was caught in was...

Preaching for the Fourth Sunday of Lent , Paola Piscitelli offers a reflection on joyful reconciliation and radical welcome: "That is what God is like: he always precedes us in love and runs towards us, sinners, to embrace us and to teach us to embrace each other. This Lenten season is a good time for us to experience the richness and joy of reconciliation and welcome. May this time of Lent help u...

Preaching for the Third Sunday of Lent , Kristin Heyer offers a reflection on standing on holy ground: "We don’t have to walk in the desert or witness a miraculous sight to recognize that we are standing on holy ground. As with Moses, God interrupts our ordinary lives, as well. We experience moments when something perceptibly shifts and we become aware of the sacred quality of the encounter." &nbs...

Preaching for the Second Sunday of Lent , Sr. Jane Wakahiu, LSOSF offers a reflection on the ways we encounter God and how we might respond to those encounters: "God meets us right where we are, and in the ordinariness of our own lives, but we too have a responsibility to pause, to listen, and to open our eyes to see what God is asking of us."   Sister Jane Wakahiu, LSOSF, Ph. D. , is a membe...

Preaching for the First Sunday of Lent , Sheila Kinsey, FCJM, offers a reflection that encourages to consider Jesus' temptation in the desert and to reflect upon our own desert journeys:  "We are to become the presence of God for others. In our lives, we will face temptations, but God is there to guide us so that we don’t fall into sin." Sr. Sheila Kinsey, a member of the Franciscan Sisters D...

Preaching for Ash Wednesday , Christine E. Boyle, Director of Campus Ministry at St. Peter's University in Jersey City, NJ,  offers a reflection on how we might enter into this Lenten season, especially in light of the clergy sexual abuse and coverup scandal: "And so as I enter my forty day journey of Lent, like many in the church, I am praying to discern a grace-led and grace-filled pathway...

Preaching for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time , Jaclyn Newns offers a reflection on imaging "God as a vine grower and gardener admiring us, proud of us."  Jaclyn Newns is a spiritual director and retreat consultant based in the Philadelphia area. As a campus minister at Saint Joseph’s University, she supports students through faith-sharing communities (CLC) and weekend retreats grounded in...

Preaching for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary time , Sister Rhonda Miska, offers a reflection that reveals the true meaning of Jesus' sayings in today's gospel and presents a new way of understanding and acting upon them in our own time: "2,000 years ago Jesus called for his followers to act with love, in joyful resistance, in creative non-violence. Today Jesus offers the same, beautiful, demanding...

Preaching for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time , Jennifer Owens-Jofré Preaches offers a reflection on hope. "How might we practice hope in the face of disheartening circumstances?," she asks. For her, practicing hope is bound up in our work to partner with God in bringing about the Kin-dom here and now: "Let us become a people of radical Christian hope.  Let us place our faith in the Kin-dom...

Preaching on the readings for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary time , Neomi De Anda focuses on "what Latina theologians call 'lo cotidiano,' the everydayness, of today’s Gospel." What does such a reading mean for leadership in the Church? What does it mean for our everyday lives of discipleship?" Neomi DeAnda, a Tejana scholar/activist and Catholic Lay Marianist, was raised between El Paso and Corpus...