Catholic Women Preach

By Catholic Women PreachReligion & Spirituality Christianity

Catholic Women Preach episodes

November 15, 2024 November 17, 2024: "Hope at our door step" with Martha Ligas
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 Promised One is right at our door."
Martha Ligas (she/her) serves as the Pastoral Minister at the Community of St. Peter in Cleveland, Ohio, and Program Associate at FutureChurch. Both spaces give her room to ride the coattails of the Spirit by reimagining what it means to create faith communities of belonging. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Ministry from Fordham University. Martha lives in Cleveland, OH with her partner and their pets.
Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11172024 to learn more about Martha, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.
8 min
November 08, 2024 November 10, 2024: "Injustice and generosity" with Jen Frazer, OSB
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, honors that sacrifice as the act of love that it is. God is on the side of the oppressed because they are in need of God’s protection. Both are true. Sic et non."
Jen is an Erie Benedictine sister, currently living in Erie, Pennsylvania. There Jen shares time with some of the terrific people of L’Arche as her full-time gig, and for fun teaches a couple of classes at Mercyhurst, a local Catholic college. Jen has a couple of graduate theology degrees from Boston College, and a degree in studio art from Hampshire College.
Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11102024 to learn more about Jen, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.
8 min
November 02, 2024 November 3, 2024: "Witnesses to Love" with Eilis McCulloh, HM
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 with those around us…how we are to Hear the invitation from God–to truly love our God with our whole heart, our whole mind, and our whole body."
Sr. Eilis McCulloh is a member of the Sisters of the Humility of Mary (Villa Maria, PA) and currently serves on the Grassroots Mobilization Team at NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice. She is a frequent contributor to Global Sisters Report and is also a co-host of the Just Politics podcast. Prior to joining the staff at NETWORK, she spent more than 10 years ministering in refugee resettlement and immigration services in St. Cloud, MN, Akron, OH, and Cleveland, OH.
Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11032024 to learn more about Sr. Eilis, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.
7 min
October 31, 2024 November 1, 2024: "Saints and Solidarity" with Christine Firer Hinze
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 cannot do it alone, and we need all the help we can get. Today’s great feast promises us exactly that."
Christine Firer Hinze is Professor of Theological and Social Ethics in the Department of Theology at Fordham University. She holds a PhD in Christian social ethics from the University of Chicago. Her teaching and research focus on foundational and applied issues in Christian social ethics with special emphasis on the dynamics of social transformation, Catholic social thought, and economic and work justice for vulnerable women, families and groups.
Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11012024 to learn more about Christine, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.
8 min
October 28, 2024 Hidden Sister: "Daughter of Abraham" with Christine Schenk, CSJ
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 freeing the ox and ass as your religious rules allow?' The phrase 'Daughter of Abraham' occurs nowhere else in either the Hebrew or Christian scriptures. Jesus is saying 'This woman is a fully equal member of God’s own people, and her dignity and well-being must be the priority here.'"
Hidden Sister: The Gospel of Luke is the only one that recounts Jesus’ healing of a woman who had been bent over for eighteen years (Luke 13:10-17). This passage is assigned to Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time. Although Jesus recognizes her as a “daughter of Abraham,” this touching story of her faith and Jesus’ willingness to break the Sabbath law in the synagogue and heal her is not proclaimed on any Sunday. Moreover, in 2024, this reading is replaced by the proper readings for the Feast of Saints Simon and Jude.
Christine Schenk, CSJ has worked as a nurse midwife to low-income families, a community organizer, an award-winning writer-researcher, and the founding director of an international church reform organization, FutureChurch. Schenk also writes a regular column for the National Catholic Reporter and is one of three nuns featured in the award-winning documentary "Radical Grace."
10 min
October 25, 2024 October 27, 2024: "What do you want?" with Courtney Esteves
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 Jesus’s example by asking those around us, 'What do you want me to do for you?' What response might we receive if we ask this question in earnest?"
Courtney Esteves (she/her) is a third-year Master of Divinity student at Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School (ANS at YDS). Courtney is formed by two decades of Catholic education, as well as many years spent within lay-led Catholic ministries such as her spiritual home, Benincasa Community. A proud alumna of Saint Gabriel School (Bronx, NY), Marymount School (New York, NY), and the College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA), she is grateful for a faith infused with the charisms of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary and the Jesuits.
Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/10272024 to learn more about Courtney, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.
8 min
October 18, 2024 October 20, 2024: "Sharing in Jesus' Glory" with Rebecca Malone
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, Rebecca Malone serves in children’s ministry at her parish. Her particular focus is the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. Raised in New York, Rebecca attended the Academy of Mount Saint Ursula in the Bronx, where she was inspired and formed in faith by the Ursuline sisters. Today, she pursues a Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies at the Aquinas Institute of St. Louis University and serves on the board of the Center for Children and Theology.
Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/10202024 to learn more about Rebecca, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.
8 min
October 11, 2024 October 13, 2024: "On Wisdom and Generosity" with Donna Orsuto
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 its work in you each day. This is really important because we have practical decisions to make. Jesus is calling us to follow him now — today — and we do not want to go away sad."
Donna Orsuto hails from Ashtabula, Ohio (USA), but has lived in Rome for nearly five decades. She is currently serving as the Director of the Department of Moral Theology and Spiritual Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University where she has been teaching since 1990. She has authored two books and numerous articles in the area of spirituality. Orsuto is also co-founder of The Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas (www.laycentre.org), which is dedicated to creating community and offering formation and leadership opportunities for lay women and men studying at pontifical universities.
Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/10132024 to learn more about Donna, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.
8 min
October 04, 2024 October 6, 2024: "Transforming the Recesses and Shadows" with Mary M. Doyle Roche
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 significance. I hope that we as Church can honor the reality of these experiences and all of the emotions that come with them, without looking away or glossing it all over. I hope we can allow ourselves to transform these recesses and shadows into spaces of resistance and solidarity from which we might emerge sure of our dignity, sure of the Spirit moving through us, and sure of God’s love."
Mary M. Doyle Roche is Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. She earned her PhD in theological ethics from Boston College and has pursued teaching and research interests in feminist ethics, health care ethics, and ethical issues that impact families, children, and young people. Most recently, she has co-edited with Jacob Kohlhaas, "Modern Catholic Family Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations" (Georgetown University Press, 2024).
Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/10062024 to learn more about Mary, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.
6 min
September 27, 2024 September 29, 2024: "You Cannot Gate Keep The Spirit" with Veronique Dorsey
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 Bachelor of Arts degree Cum Laude in English with a minor in Theology from Xavier University of New Orleans. She has spent the last ten years sharing her gifts as an English educator. In addition to being an educator, she has a passion for ministry and the people of God. She is drummer on Sundays at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church and a trumpeter as a member of the award winning Original Pinettes Brass Band.
Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/09292024 to learn more about Veronique, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.
5 min

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Catholic Women Preach offers the theologically informed perspectives of Catholic women on the Sunday readings readings and on some feast days. Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org to view preaching…