Catholic Women Preach

Preaching for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Mary Katharine Deeley offers a reflection on seeing ourselves as God sees us:  

"It is sometimes hard to see how God is working in a world that is darkened by pandemic and civil unrest, and injustice toward the marginalized and vulnerable among us. Because of that, Advent is precisely the time to learn how God sees us. It is the time to ask ourselves all the questions: What might God be building in us? By what new God-given name will our Gabriel call us – full of grace, full of peace, full of joy or love, or hope? And will we listen when Gabriel cries out, 'Behold,' begging us to see our new relationship with God and how God is working through us to reveal Christ to the world."  

Mary Deeley  has taught and ministered in academic settings since 1978.  Currently, Mary serves as the Pastoral Associate and the director of the Christ the Teacher Institute for the Sheil Catholic Center at Northwestern University where she works with young adults and others in discernment processes, leadership development, spiritual direction, and education and formation. She earned her M.Div at Yale Divinity School and her Ph.D., Northwestern University. Mary is the author of a Mothers, Lovers, Priests, Prophets, and Kings:  What the Old Testament Tells Us About God and Ourselves; Daybreaks:  Daily Reflections for Advent and Christmas; and Remembering God: Resting in the Midst of Life all published by Liguori Press, as well as numerous reflections on lectionary readings, scripture, campus ministry, and young adults. 

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/12202020 to learn more about Mary, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Dr. Pearl Maria Barros offers a reflection on the "dangerous memory of Mary":  

"[R]ecalling the 'dangerous memory of Mary' challenges depictions of Mary’s life that attempt to neutralize its radical implications for pushing against injustice and its call to stand in compassionate solidarity with all who suffer....It is this dangerous memory of La Virgen of Guadalupe that empowers nos/otrx to push against all that keeps us from recognizing the presence of God in ourselves, and each other."  

Dr. Pearl Maria Barros is assistant professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University.  She holds a Th.D. in Religion, Gender, and Culture from Harvard, an M.T.S. from Harvard, and a B.A. from Santa Clara University.  She is a Catholic feminist theologian whose work engages Latinx cultural studies and decolonial theory.  In particular, her research focuses on the relationships between sexuality, subjectivity, and spirituality in Latinx women’s writings, especially in Anzaldúan thought.   

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/12122020 to learn more about Dr. Barros, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

"What is clear is that to be a Catholic is to proclaim that bodies matter.  We are not simply concerned for the state of a soul, but for the whole person, even as the world tells us that women’s bodies in particular are fragile and disposable. Yet, a first-century pregnant teenager teaches us otherwise."

Preaching for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Angela Howard McParland offers a reflection on honoring the sacredness of each and every body.  

Angie McParland serves as Campus Minister and Religion teacher at La Salle Academy in Providence where she lives with her husband and three young children.  A Kentucky native who has called New England home for over a decade,  she earned a B.A. in English and Religion from Centre College and and served for a year with Americorps*VISTA before earning a Master of Divinity at Vanderbilt Divinity School as well as a certificate in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in 2007. She has worked in ministry for more than fifteen years in parish and campus settings from Nashville to Boston.  

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/12082020 to learn more about Angie, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Second Sunday of Advent, Katherine Greiner offers a reflection on proclaiming God's promise of salvation especially in this fraught Advent of 2020:   

"This Advent, more than ever, we are called to be both listeners and proclaimers, to be contemplatives and prophets, to let the silence prepare us to speak truth to oppressive power and to speak tenderness to the oppressed. As we continue to wait in joyful hope for an end to this pandemic, may this time of bewildering silence become a holy silence, one in which we hear God speak words of comfort and tenderness. There, in that silence, God will transform our cries of anguish into a chorus of Advent hope so we may proclaim: Maranatha. Come! Lord Jesus Come!”   

Katherine A. Greiner is associate professor of theology at Carroll College in Helena, Montana. She holds a Ph.D. in Theology and Education from Boston College. Her research interests include Christian spirituality, lay ministry in the Catholic Church, and feminist and contextual theologies. She currently serves on the College Theology Society Board. She has been regular contributor to the blog Daily Theology and is a regular contributor to Liturgical Press’s Loose Leaf Lectionary.  

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/12062020 to learn more about Katherine, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the First Sunday of Advent, Sr. Terry Rickard offers a reflection on being awake to the continual coming of the God of hope, even as we lament our current realities:  

"Be awake, be woke to the God of hope who comes to us now in midst of our lamentations. Lamenting the surging virus, a divided country and a sinful and suffering Church. Lamenting racial injustice, lamenting our wounded earth and 545 children still separated from their families. As we enter Advent time, we lament with our eyes wide open, asking the God of hope to awaken us to the comings of God into our lives and into our suffering world."  

Sr. Theresa Rickard is a Dominican Sister of Blauvelt, New York and the President of RENEW International. She holds the degrees of Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri; Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City; and Master of Arts in Religion and Religious Education from Fordham University, New York.   

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11292020 to learn more about Sr. Terry Rickard, OP,. to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Solemnity of Christ the King, Ellie Hidalgo offers a reflection on building el reino de Dios -the kingdom of God as engaged citizens and Catholics: 

 "As Catholics, what we believe to be the shape of the heart of Christ the King, determines how we respond and the kinds of communities we construct. And if in our communities we have laws that treat the lives of the hungry, the poor, the sick, the stranger, and the imprisoned unjustly, then it is up to us to take courageous stands and change those laws. The kinship community is constructed when we allow ourselves to be guided by eyes and the heart of the Good Shepherd who sees each one of us and loves each one of us."  

Ellie Hidalgo served for 12 years as the pastoral associate for Dolores Mission Catholic Church and School, a Jesuit parish in Boyle Heights, just east of downtown Los Angeles, California. The parish is known for its restorative justice ministries, including special liturgies and support groups for families who have lost loved ones to homicide and for families with loved ones in prison. The first of five children born to Cuban immigrant parents, Ms. Hidalgo graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) and a Master of Arts in Pastoral Theology from Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles). She was commissioned as a pastoral associate for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2013.  

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11222020 to learn more about Ellie, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Rose Lue offers a reflection on using our God-given gifts fearlessly to cooperate in building God's reign: 

 "Consider the Gospel’s invitation to share the talents entrusted to you in trust and without fear.  Know that when shared in this way, there’s a promise of the talents being multiplied!  And if we all used our God-given talents in this way, we would be, in fact, cooperating with God in building, in realizing, a world where love, peace and justice reign. "  

Rose Lue is a community organizer, justice advocate, and spiritual companion.  An Advanced Lay Leader in the Diocese of San Jose, California,  she has completed 7 years of formation along with the candidates for permanent diaconate. She currently serves on the Justice Commission of the Diocese, Youth Council of her parish, the diocesan committee for Catholic Campaign for Human Development, and the strategy team for Silicon Valley Sponsoring Committee (a group that’s growing a broad-based organization in the Bay Area).  She is also a board member of Bay Area Conference for Associates and Religious, co-founder and leader of the Student & Alumni Network for the Graduate Program in Pastoral Ministries at SCU, and the co-founder/co-director of a community called GoGatherAsOne whose mission is to promote and honor our universal unity as one humanity and one people of God.    

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11152020 to learn more about Rose, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Patricia Smith, RSM offers a reflection on returning to the ancient practice of living in communal anticipation of the return of Christ:  

"In their time, Matthew’s audience were ardently awaiting the final coming, the end of the world as they knew it.  As that didn’t happen, later generations transferred the hope of Christ’s coming to one’s own personal life at the moment of death. I suggest returning to the original practice . . . And so, in each and every moment, we must be ever vigilant to continue to share the oil of justice, mercy, and all the blessings  so critically needed in our world today."  

Pat Smith, a Sister of Mercy, is the former Chair of the Board of Mercy High School Baltimore, and a Theological Consultant.  She received her Bachelor’s degree in Latin Education from Mount Saint Agnes College, Baltimore; her Master’s degree in Theology from the University of San Francisco; her PhD in Theology from the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto.  She has taught in high school, colleges and at the graduate level.  She was Professor of Theology and Academic Dean at St. Mary’s Seminary and University, Baltimore, and served as community theologian for the Sisters of Mercy, Baltimore.  

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11082020 to learn more about Pat, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Pauline Hovey offers a reflection on the Greatest Commandment in light of her experiences serving at the US-Mexico border:  

"Who does this? Who gives half of what they have to a stranger? Or one-third of what they’ve earned when they don’t even know when they will next receive any income? Who does this?  Imitators of Christ. Such actions make no sense in 'our' world with its desire for security and certainty. But in Jesus’ world of reckless, extravagant love, these actions are life-giving. And my 'alien' brothers and sisters understand that."  

Pauline Hovey spent most of her life on the East Coast, but began accompanying asylum seekers in El Paso, Texas in 2013 and ultimateely relocated there in 2016. Prior to moving, Pauline operated a writing and editting business for more than 25 years. She now writtes from the boarder and heer articles appear on various Catholic online publications, including National Catholic Reporter and US Catholic.   

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/10252020 to learn more about Pauline, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Maureen O'Connell offers a reflection on resisting the thinking, habits, and solutions of empire: 

"We aren’t chosen by the authority figures of empires, no matter what religious or political guises they moralize with or campaign in or what certainties they claim to offer or platitudes they attempt to ply us with. We are chosen by God. And the God who chooses us has a dream for us—the individual us and the collective us—that surpasses the imagination of empire."  

Maureen H. O’Connell is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion and Theology at LaSalle University. She authored Compassion: Loving Our Neighbor in an Age of Globalization (Orbis Books, 2009) and If These Walls Could Talk: Community Muralism and the Beauty of Justice (The Liturgical Press, 2012). She is a member of POWER (Philadelphians Organizing to Witness, Empower, and Rebuild), an interfaith coalition of more than 50 congregations committed to making Philadelphia the city of “just love” through faith-based community organizing.   

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/10182020 to learn more about Maureen, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.