Catholic Women Preach

Preaching for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Carolyn Jacobs, MSW, Ph. D. offers a reflection on community: "The challenges of our church and our world are invitations to continuous discernment of how to dialogue, to forgive, and to be obedient to the urgings of the Spirit. We live in a time when we need to step out and invite others to prayer, dialogue, and action. We need to trust the Hol...

Preaching for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Phyllis Zagano offers a reflection - inspired by Saints Phoebe and Gregory - on our Christian journey: "When called, they went, and when they got where they were going, they knew (somehow) just what they had to do and to say. As days turned into weeks, then months, they understood more deeply what it was all about. It is the same with e...

Preaching for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mary Margaret Schroeder offers a reflection on answering the question "Who do you say I am?": "That joy I feel as my favorite 7-year-old, Blue, runs into my arms at school pick-up—that’s Christ. When I’m on a run, silently admiring the creation that surrounds me, and I feel another set of footsteps guiding me along—that’s Christ. The o...

Preaching for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Margaret Susan Thompson offers a reflection on persisting in pursuit of God's promise for all: [This gospel] resonates especially with me because I’m a woman, but it has much to say to all of us who feel like we don’t fit into a box, and who sometimes feel tormented by a demon, like the daughter in need of healing. In other words, it speaks to us...

Sr Chioma Ahanihu, SLW preaches for the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, offering a reflection on Mary's capacity to bring about peace and unity, if we - like her - say 'yes' to God: "May today’s feast remind us of our own Yes to God’s call as consecrated people of God in our different spheres of life. May we be the voice for the voiceless and the less privileged in our societ...

Sara Fairbanks, OP preaches for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, offering a reflection on God's love conquering all: "Elijah whispers to us across the centuries, what keeps hope alive in the shadow of the cross is God’s ever-present, unsurpassed love, making us 'participants in the divine nature' (2 Pet 1:4) and 'friends of God, and prophets' (Ws 7:27)...Rooted in God’s l...

Preaching for the Feast of the Transfiguration, Julie Vieira, IHM offers a reflection on our own "transfiguration" encounters with God: Today on this feast of the Transfiguration, we, the disciples and seekers of today, are likewise called not just to celebrate the revelation of Jesus as Messiah. But we are called to perform our own gut check and to draw courage, energy, and determinatio...

Preaching for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Anne Hansen offers a reflection on living the will of God "on earth as it is in heaven": " I hope it is a place where gang members and socialites converse. A place where women preach and are involved in all seven sacraments, a place where the LGBTQ community is part of the fabric and a place where immigrants from everywhere feel...

Preaching for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Erin McDonald, CSJ offers a reflection on rooting ourselves in and living out of God's unconditional love: "We do not measure our success on the great things we have accomplished but on how much we loved, how we put that love into action and become sowers of justice, peace, and kindness." Sr Erin is a member of the Congregation of...

Preaching for the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, Antoinette Gutzler, MM offers a reflection on peering into our tombs and letting go of old ways that do not bring life: "So we must 'let go' and we must announce. On this great Feast, we follow Mary of Magdala into the Garden as she meets Jesus and has her whole life and way of understanding life in Jesus turned around. There was a “crack...

Preaching for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Joanna Arellano-Gonzalez offers a reflection on making ourselves fertile soil for the mission of the gospel: "Just like scaring the birds and throwing out the rocks. How are we making our heart and soul fertile soil where the Word can bear good and holy fruit? Where instead of making excuses about our time, energy and comfort level, we say '...

Preaching for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Shannon K. Evans offers a reflection on receiving the loving kindness of God through others: "Because if it is true of you that you are the hands and feet of God, then it is also true of those who touch and serve you. It is also true that when they hug you, when they cook for you, when they mail you a card, when they pick you up a coffee unasked...

Preaching for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Bridget Deegan-Krause, M.Div., BCC offers a reflection on making room for the prophet: "I promise you if we make the time, God shows up. God always shows up. In fact, God is waiting for us in places and spaces like that. So let's get ourselves there. Let's think about how we can make room for the prophet in us." Bridget Deegan-Kraus...

Preaching for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cameron Bellm offers a reflection on the "intimate, hair-counting love of God": "My children are growing now, no longer newborns with golden threads of hair. They go to school each day while I wrestle with how to entrust them to a dangerous world, how to manage my own heartbreak when their little hearts are broken. I don’t have any...

Preaching for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sr. Cathy Murray, OP, reflects on exercising Christ-like authority through compassion: "Jesus grants the apostles authority and credibility to engage in his mission - authority that does not come from domination, from command and control, but from compassion. Compassion is the power driving Jesus into action; Compassion shapes his plan. Comp...

Preaching for the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, Dr. Julia D.E. Prinz, VDMF offers a reflection on witnessing to the Body of Christ in the world: "Carrying the burden of the presence of God is no easy quest...We are called to a witness, out of which no fainting is going to liberate us, because bearing witness is nothing for the faint of heart." Dr. Prinz is Adjunct Lecturer i...

Preaching on the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, Laurie Brink, O.P., offers a reflection on allowing God to remake us in God's image: "Instead of trying to make God in our image, perhaps we could take a cue from the Trinity, and allow love, grace, and fellowship to remake us in God’s image. Let’s start by hearing voices—the voices of people in need, the hurting, the forgotten, and the quak...

Preaching for Pentecost, Sr. Nathalie Becquart invites us to embrace the Pentecost opportunities we are given in our individual lives as well as our collective life as the Body of Christ: "Today again, through this synod 2021-2024...we have received the promise of living a new Pentecost. We are together on this journey led by the Spirit towards a new birth of the Church in the process of comi...

Preaching for the Solemnity of the Ascension, Emily Southerton offers a reflection on following the Spirit's lead through times of change and transition: "There is a time to stop looking up and to start looking to our left and our right sides. There is a time to focus on drawing out what is from within. There is a time to move with the Spirit towards ministry and social justice, to work f...

Preaching for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Kristina M. Ortega offers a reflection on the lessons her students have taught her over 20 years in light of the readings for the day: "Whatever lessons the future holds for all of us teachers or not, may we always remain open to the movement of the Holy Spirit, live a life of joy, find hope in the young people around us, and keep love at the center o...

Preaching for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Elizabeth Young, RSM offers a reflection on restoring women deacons as one way of responding to the current needs around us: "So what are the needs around us today? Who are the Hellenist widows who cry out for ministry at their own tables? ... How will each of us respond? How will we reach out? Our personal efforts can be strengthened by the response...

Preaching for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Sonia Caus Gleason offers a fresh take on the familiar sheep and shepherd imagery: "The sheep metaphor can sound all soft and fluffy, strictly comforting, but we have to do our part. Sheep hear, recognize, and respond, with a little help. It can be more complicated for us humans. Sometimes we hear technically, but don’t listen. In our moments of brav...

Preaching for the Third Sunday of Easter, Svea Fraser, M.Div, offers a reflection on our common journey: "We walk by faith and we know that the Holy Spirit will not deny what the Church needs. Through Phoebe’s intercession, women (and men) are seeking her support as our steps quicken and our hearts burn within us for the renewal and transformation of a church that truly welcomes the gifts of...

Preaching for the Second Sunday of Easter, Jenny DeVivo offers a reflection on embrace the whole of the paschal mystery every day: "Last Sunday, we heard the narration of the resurrection of Jesus, and today we have the disciples testifying to the resurrection. Apart from the glories of Easter Sunday and its celebration, in the ordinary days of Christian life we need the testimony of one anot...

Preaching for Easter Sunday, Nichole M. Flores offers a reflection on witnessing and testifying as Easter practice: "As we enter into this season of rejoicing, how can we create space for the practices of witnessing and testifying in our daily lives? How might these practices help us to attend to our confusion, our suffering, and our wounds in the context of our daily lives, in 'lo cotidi...