Catholic Women Preach

Preaching for the First Sunday of Advent, Valerie D. Lewis-Mosley offers a reflection on hope in God's righteousness and justice: "When we seek a life centered in abiding in God’s way - we are walking humbling with God. It is then that God guides the humble to justice and teaches us in the way of truth." Valerie D. Lewis-Mosely, RN, OPA, is the retired Director of Religious Education at the Church...

Preaching for the Solemnity of Christ the Kind, Olivia Hastie offers a reflection on belonging: "When Jesus says, 'everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice,' I think he’s asking for more than simple obedience and piety. He’s inviting us to create spaces of true belonging by connecting through shared stories and experiences. I believe he’s calling us, not just to spread his message thr...

Preaching for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Martha Ligas offers a reflection on being open to the Promised One who draws near in times of despair: "Maybe Jesus is reminding us of something that we need to hear when we’re at our lowest. When we feel the most despair, the most fear, the most anxiety, that is when God is the closest to us. That is when we are the least alone. That is when the Pro...

Preaching for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jen Frazer offers a reflection on the offerings and sacrifices of the two widows in today's readings: "In the end what meaning should we take away from these readings? It is the very generosity of our two widows (in the first reading and in the Gospel) that highlights their social oppression. Even if the sacrifice is unjust, God who knows our hearts,...

Preaching for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Eilis McCulloh, HM offers a reflection on loving God with our whole being and our neighbor as ourselves: "Before we can love our God with our whole being, we must practice active and holy listening. We must open ourselves to the movements of the Spirit–to the little fires of God around us. This is the only way we can authentically be in relationship...

Preaching for the Solemnity of All Saints, Christine Firer Hinze offers a reflection on the invitation to live in solidarity today's feast offers: "But let’s be real—the record shows that to live as a finite-sinner-saint -- beatitudinally, in spiritual and practical solidarity with our neighbors and against the powers of sin and death— is beautiful, but it’s a difficult, scary, and costly path. We...

Preaching on the healing of the "Daughter of Abraham" (Luke 13:10-17), Sr. Christine Schenk, CSJ offers a reflection on the abundant love and vision of our healing God: "Jesus decries the rigidity of the rule keepers—a perennial affliction of religious leaders of every denomination even to our own day— 'Don’t you understand? Freeing this woman, this daughter of Abraham is more important than freei...

Preaching for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Courtney Esteves offers a reflection on the freedom of choice that God gifts to us: "I invite us, on this Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time, to receive this 'What do you want?' question in two ways: First, let’s put ourselves in the place of Bartimaeus and respond through honest prayer – what do we want God to do for us? And secondly, let’s follow Je...

Rebecca Malone preaches for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, offering a reflection on what it means to share in Jesus' glory: "In Jesus, glory can be so much more: serving, giving, caring. His glory is a radiance, a glow, a place to remain and abide. We want to be close, not to push ahead of everyone else, but so that the warmth of his glory becomes our home . . ." A resident of Montreal, Canada,...

Preaching for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Donna Orsuto offers a reflection on responding faithfully to God's call in our lives today: "So, this week, as we ponder Jesus looking at us, loving us, and calling us to follow him, I encourage you to pray for Wisdom. Plead for this precious gift which will put your heart right. Make an effort to read the Word of God each day and let that Word do it...

Preaching for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mary M. Doyle Roche reflects on the the ways Church teaching and the lectionary relegates women to the recesses of life in the world and in the Church: "Perhaps you too are trying to hold a place for the scriptures, for the lectionary, for the Church even as you face squarely the harms that they have perpetuated and given theological significanc...

Preaching for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Veronique Dorsey offers a reflection each person's calling to share the word of God: "Would that all the people of God were prophets… oh what a time it would be! We gotta stop gate keeping and telling people who can and cannot proclaim the word of the Lord." Veronique Dorsey is a New Orleans educator and musician. In 2013 she obtained a...

Carolyn A. Wright preaches for the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, encouraging us to participate in the continuing unfolding of God's plan: "Let us deeply grasp that we are on a journey with God and others and because of our relationship with God, let us each contribute to the fullness of the realization of God’s Kingdom through our one precious life in real and substantive ways.&qu...

Zulma Tellez preaches for the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time: "If all Creation is good and God is omnipresent within us and the cosmos, then salvation is available to all creation. We are to be an inclusive church by all means and see Jesus’ cross as an instrument of resurrection, redemption, mercy, and salvation." Zulma “Zully” Tellez is a Hispanic Mexican-American woman with Sep...

Preaching for the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mary Jo Iozzio offers a reflection that challenges us to expand our understanding of Jesus' healing miracles: "Perhaps another direction for the healing was uttered, maybe it was Jesus and the crowd who began to understand the man’s manner of communication. The 'Ephphatha' challenges us to welcome the deaf, the mute, the blin...

Preaching for the Feast of St. Phoebe, Rose Lue offers a reflection on the Holy Spirit's invitation to rethink women's participation Church leadership and ministry: "Knowing about Phoebe, the role she played in the early church, and Paul’s recognition of her, however, affirms my call and gives me hope! Hope that one day women like me who are answering the call to serve can also be rec...

Preaching for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Susana Réfega, offers a reflection to begin the Season of Creation: "We are first fruits, we are the coming promise of a greater promise and hope. Only when we work together and are united with God and Creation can the first fruits of hope be born. As my children approached the first fruits on my in-laws table with eagerness, let us also begin t...

Preaching for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Anna Robertson offers a reflection on the fullness of God's faithfulness and promise to all people - and particularly women: "When the Church’s failures to honor my dignity threaten to undermine my sense of God’s fidelity to me, I look to the women who followed and continue to follow Jesus. They—you who are listening now—have been leading me...

Sarah Hart preaches for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, offering a reflection on the wisdom of the feast: "And this is our call and charge; to invite all to the table, to make endless room for others, to leave no one out. Because Wisdom , in love, welcomes everyone to the feast. May we remain in Christ, and in communion with the world, and in the love of God." Sarah Hart’s enthusiasm a...

Preaching for the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, Dr. Angela McCarthy offers a reflection on Mary's witness to us to live as a Resurrected people: "God’s presence in the world and revelation through the person of Jesus of Nazareth, culminates in the salvation of all creation through Christ’s death and resurrection. We are called to live as resurrected people, no longer afraid of the...

Preaching for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, and weaving in the witness of St. Clare of Assisi, Kascha L. Sanor offers a reflection on living into our truest selves: "When we are called on to make sacred sacrifices in order to ‘live in love’ – it is not our very self - our created self - that we are losing. It is the assumptions and projections of who we should be, the expectations a...

Preaching for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Ariell Watson Simon offers a reflection on God meeting us in our spiritual hunger: "That feeling of holy discontent doesn’t mean that yesterday’s prayer didn’t work; it means that God is building a relationship of trust with you. Just like the Israelites’ physical hunger kept them looking to the heavens for manna, our spiritual hunger turn...

Kelly Meraw Preaches for the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, offering encouragement and inspiration to women responding to Christ's call in their own lives: "We are reminded year after year on this feast day of Mary’s profound courage. We must apply her courage to our own lives and continue to respond to Christ’s calls of our very own names. We need Mary’s bravery to not deny Christ’s voice....

Preaching for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yolanda Chavez offers a reflection on making space for rest and spiritual renewal: "Reflecting on the message of Psalm 23 with the example of Jesus in the Gospel, we find a refreshing and luminous call to be compassionate shepherds and caregivers, always seeking the balance between serving others and taking care of ourselves. May Jesus, the...

Preaching for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Katie Laskey offers a reflection on what we need and have been given for our lives of discipleship: "So today, I hope we can hear Jesus’s summons and missioning as directed to each of us - so we can find our companions, let go of what we think we need, and root ourselves in the confidence the Holy Spirit provides, so we can fully embrace ou...