Catholic Women Preach

Preaching for the Second Sunday of Advent, Joanna Williams offers a reflection on cooperating to bring about God's peace, justice, and freedom: 

 "And if we have the grace of that hope, we are better equipped to do the hard work of the journey to get there. Which means winnowing and clearing and cutting down and burning what doesn’t bear fruit."  

Since 2021, Joanna Williams has been the Executive Director at the Kino Border Initiative (KBI), a binational Catholic ministry in Nogales, Arizona and Sonora that works towards a vision of migration with dignity through humanitarian services, holistic accompaniment, education, and advocacy. Joanna graduated with a Bachelor's in Science from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where she researched the role of the Latino Church in creating social change. She was also confirmed into the Catholic Church her senior year at Georgetown. In 2019 she received a Master's in Public Policy from Arizona State University.  

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/12042022 to learn more about Joanna, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the First Sunday of Advent, Teresa Maya CCVI offers a reflection on what it means to prepare:  

"Preparing the way is not just decorating, reading, or meditating- though, all those practices are graced reminders of the season we begin. Preparing the way is moving, walking in Jesus’ paths, and finding those he blessed, healed and accompanied...May our first candle of Advent remind us to prepare our souls, home, and community to celebrate God’s promise to be with us always."  

Sister Teresa Maya is a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio since 1994.  Her education ministry has spanned several decades: she has served as teacher, history professor, administrator, and speaker.  She has passion for formation of ministers for Hispanics/Latinas/os in the United States. She has a commitment to life-long learning and a strong conviction in the future of consecrated life.  Sister Teresa got her B.A. at Yale University, her M.A. at the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley and the Ph.D. in El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City.  She served fourteen years in the leadership of her religious institute and on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) presidency from 2016-19. She currently accompanies other religious congregations as facilitator and consultant.  

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11272022 to read Sister Teresa Maya's text and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Solemnity of Christ the King, Angélica N. Quińónez offers a reflection on the "kingship" of Jesus:  

"It is easy to call Jesus King, to proclaim his Kingship, to sing hyms of praise to Christ our King, but it might still challenge us to understand that Jesus flipped what it meant to be a King with a kingdom. We are called to build that kingdom of mercy and love. But, until we see the crucified and resurrected face of our King in the faces of those on the margins, we will not and cannot understand the Kingship of Jesus."  

Dr. Angélica N. Quińónez is an educator and serves as the Director of University Ministry at the University of San Francisco. She is a proud graduate of the University of Southern California where she earned her Doctor of Education degree in Organizational Change and Leadership. She is a double USF Master’s graduate in Theology and Teaching with an emphasis in Catholic schools, and earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from Santa Clara University. She is a native San Franciscan passionate about Ignatian spirituality since her high school days at St. Ignatius College Preparatory.  

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11202022 to learn more about Dr. Quińónez, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Rita Houlihan, offers a reflection on integrity and gratitude : 

"Can personal integrity and deep gratitude transform our grievances into prayers and actions? – that’s my question – actually it’s my challenge to myself...With today’s chaos of wars, famines, natural disasters, compounded by political factions and grievances we need to maintain faith in the God of the Living and Practice Gratitude."  

Rita Houlihan is a member of Ascension parish in New York City where she teaches Confirmation. She is on FutureChurch’s Board of Directors and is committed to restoring our historical memory of early Christian women leaders with a special focus on Mary Magdalene and the women omitted from our Sunday Lectionary readings. Rita had a 32+ year career at IBM, in sales and Change Strategy Consulting and has a BA in Psychology and Philosophy (Newton College of the Sacred Heart, now Boston College) and an MA in Educational Psychology from NYU.  

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11062022 to learn more about Rita, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for All Saints Day, Grace Salceanu offers a reflection on "Beatitude love":  

"Thank God for the ways that community shows up to love us when we are suffering or simply too small in our vision. Thank God for the communion of saints who are too steeped in God’s love to be petty and small. They are blessed, drawing us into the improbable ways of the Beatitudes, urging us to choose in humility the ways of mercy, righteousness, and peace."  

Grace Salceanu is an educator and campus minister in the Bay Area.  Her work has spanned co-directing global education programs in the Philippines and El Salvador, leading retreats, organizing spiritual formation for youth and adults in San Francisco, and teaching theology.  She is a director of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.    

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11012022 to learn more about Grace, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Dr. Rachel Bundang offers a reflection on belonging: 

 "Jesus recognizes that Zacchaeus is also kin-- "son of Abraham"-- and wants to belong-- "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost." Isn't that desire for kinship and belonging also our own? Let's take a step back to recognize when and how the desire surfaces for us. Let us also follow Jesus' lead to extend that invitation to someone else: offer an opening to someone looking for a place to land, to call home, to be loved unconditionally."  

Dr. Rachel Bundang is a Catholic feminist ethicist. Presently based in the Bay Area, she teaches on the Religious Studies faculty at Sacred Heart Preparatory in Atherton and the Graduate Program for Pastoral Ministries faculty at Santa Clara University. She has written multiple articles and book chapters and until recently served on the editorial team for the journal Theological Studies. A founding member of the Asian Pacific American Religious Research Initiative (APARRI), her areas of interest lie at the intersections of race, feminisms, technology, inequality, and Catholic social teaching. As a liturgist, she preaches and leads music regularly at her home parish in the Bay Area and also offers retreats and workshops nationally.  

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/10302022 for Dr. Bundang's text and for more preaching from Catholic women.

FutureChurch hosts “a Celebration of Women’s Wisdom and Witness” to launch the first volume of Catholic Women Preach: Raising Voices, Renewing the Church (Orbis Books, 2022).

We are joined by Carolyn Osiek, RSCJ, a leading authority on the role of women in the early church; Nicole Trahan, FMI, vocations director for the Marianist sisters; Virginia Saldanha, a theologian-activist in Mumbai, India; and Kerry Alys Robinson, founding executive director and partner for global and national initiatives at Leadership Roundtable.

Visit the Orbis Books Website to purchase your copy. Also available on Amazon as a paperback and Kindle edition(Nov. 3) as well as many other booksellers for those residing outside of the United States.

Preaching for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Ellie Hidalgo offers a reflection on humility, especially as we seek to become a synodal Church:  

"It requires humility to become a People of God capable of encountering one another, listening, dialoguing, and able to do the hard work of communal discernment. All this synodal listening can be fruitful if we are curious and believe that every person we meet has God-given dignity and has something of value to share and that we too have something of value to share."  

Ellie Hidalgo is co-director of Discerning Deacons, a project that engages Catholics in the active discernment of our Church about women and the diaconate. She graduated with a Masters in Pastoral Theology from Loyola Marymount University and received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. Ellie was commissioned as a pastoral associate for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2013; she preached for Catholic Women Preach in 2020 and in 2018 and helped to facilitate national prayer services in 2020 and 2021 to commemorate St. Phoebe, one of the early Church’s female deacons. Previously, Ellie served as a staff writer for The Tidings Catholic Newspaper writing news and feature stories about Hispanic ministry, restorative justice, youth ministry, and immigration reform.  Ellie is the first of five children born to Cuban parents and a proud aunt to eight nieces and nephews and numerous godchildren. She returned to Miami, Florida, USA in 2020 to live closer to family.  

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/10232022 to learn more about Ellie and Discerning Deacons, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jessica Kerber, aci, offers a reflection on resistant hope:   

"It is interesting, then, in our Gospel reading, that when Jesus speaks about the need to be persistent in prayer, he does not pull out the example of Moses, but rather, he turns to the widow: a poor widow who has not actually seen manna falling from heaven, a poor widow who has not witnessed water being poured forth from a rock, and a poor widow who is not watching the Israelite forces defeat the great forces of Amalek’s army. She is a poor widow, rather, who desires that justice be done for her…in her daily life, in the smallness of the life. This is the example that Jesus pulls out. Here too we experience - in the daily, in something that relates much more to us and to the people that we know and love – Jesus speaking of this need of continued persistence and resistant hope. For this poor widow must resist three things..."  

Sister Jessica Kerber is a Handmaid of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an international congregation of Women Religious with Ignatian Spirituality and a charism of Eucharistic Reparation. As a sister, she completed her philosophy and theology studies at the Jesuit Pontifical University in Madrid, where she also studied about the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and spiritual direction. Sr. Jessica currently coordinates the Ignatian Service Minor at St. Louis University and teaches a course within this program. Her primary role, however, is as formator for her sisters, offering opportunities and accompaniment for the sisters of temporary vows to continue to explore, deepen, and discern their vocation as Handmaids.

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/10162022 to learn more about Sr. Jessica, to read her text, and for more preaching from Catholic women. 

Preaching for the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Margaret Susan Thompson offers a reflection on living with a spirit of gratitude:  

"Truly, as today’s Psalm proclaims, Yahweh is faithful and has done wondrous deeds. What has God done for you? There are miracles all around us. Have you said 'thank you' today?"  

Margaret Susan (Peggy) Thompson is a professor of History and Political Science at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.  She is also a Senior Research Associate at the Campbell Public Affairs Institute, and holds courtesy appointments in the Departments of Religion and Women & Gender Studies.Prof. Recently, Professor Thompson’s work has focused on the history of American Catholic nuns. She has written and lectured extensively on the subject, and has an 18-lecture audio series available through Learn25.com. Her research is from an explicitly feminist perspective, emphasizing the agency and social significance of sisters to American religious and secular history.   

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/10092022 to learn more about Thompson, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.