Catholic Women Preach

Preaching for the Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, Mary Jo Iozzio offers a reflection on realizing joy in this world through inclusion:

 "Indeed, where anyone is absent or excluded from our assemblies, it is there that our joy will be incomplete: all are called to something different, that is, through the joy in the world as a whole that may only be realized when inclusion prevails."  

Mary Jo Iozzio, Ph.D. is Professor of Moral Theology at Boston College School of Theology and ministry. She recently earned the License in Sacred Theology-STL with a focus on disability from Boston College (2019). She served as inaugural member on the American Academy of Religion, Committee on the Status of People with Disabilities in the Profession and now serves as co-chair of its Religion and Disability Studies Group.   

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/12152019 to learn more about Mary Jo, to read her text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Second Sunday of Advent, Amy Woolam Echeverria offers a reflection on listening to prophets -- from all of creation -- today:  

"In these days of Advent, let us prepare the way for the Incarnation by opening our hearts to the song of trees as prophets.  Let us hear the tree-prophets of today in a way that creates understanding and space for the ache of God’s love and that the sap of life will once again flow through all Creation to bud, bloom, and bear good fruit for all." 

Amy Woolam Echeverria serves as the International Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Coordinator for Columban Missionaries.  In recent years, she has contributed to the founding of international networks and projects such as the Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM), the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative (CNI, a project of Pax Christi International) and the Ecclesial Network for the PanAmazon (REPAM). She has served on several Boards and Steering Committees for national and international organizations and coalitions dedicated to peace, social and environmental justice.     

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/12082019 to learn more about Amy, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Jeannine Gramick, SL Preaches for the First Sunday of Advent, offering a reflection on where she finds hope -- particularly for the global LGBT community -- this advent:

"But isn’t Advent a season of hope? Do I find hope despite this kind of discrimination against LGBT people in Poland and other parts of the world? Yes, I really DO have hope. Many things give me hope for a future of peace, justice, and mercy, but I’ll mention only three..."

Jeannine Gramick is a Sister of Loretto, born and raised in Philadelphia, where she was educated in the Catholic school system, where she felt her call to religious life, and where, almost 50 years ago, she began a ministry to lesbian and gay people, which has transformed the Catholic Church in the United States and beyond. In 1977, along with Father Robert Nugent, she established New Ways Ministry, an international Catholic ministry of justice and reconciliation for the LGBT community and the Catholic Church.

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/12012019 to learn more about Jeannine Gramick, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Solemnity of Christ the King, Julia Walsh, FSPA offers a reflection on what it takes to see and live in the Kingdom of God here and now:

"The criminal next to Christ shows us how the reign of God can be known and experienced if our gaze is totally on Christ, on the power of God--and not on one’s self.  From a cross, the criminal gained a new perspective and was able to see the truth. He was free to be authentic, to see the big picture, to know the love of God. Following the criminal’s example, let us also see the kingdom of God around us and live like the saints we were made to be!"

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11242019 to learn about Julia Walsh, FSPA, to read her text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

On the thirtieth anniversary of the martydom of six Jesuits, their cook, and her 15-year-old daughter in El Salvador, Katie Lacz preaches for the Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, offering a reflection on unreasonable hope:

"The deaths of martyrs can feel like total loss. Like victories for the powers that be. A reminder of our insignificance in the face of the wars, insurrection, earthquakes, famine, and plagues that Jesus names in the Gospel today. But we are a people of unreasonable hope. Hope that in the final say, the evildoers will be stubble and God’s love will heal like the rays of the sun, as the prophet Malachi writes. Hope that, as the second reading reminds us, how we are in community matters and reflects who we are as Christians. Hope that beyond the violence and chaos in this world – even peeking through it, if you look hard enough – is the reign of God, the upside-down reign where the last are first, the lowly are lifted up, the hungry are fed, and all people are revealed in their fullness as beloved children of God."

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11172019 to learn more about Katie, to read her preaching text or see her video, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Elizabeth O'Donnell Gandolfo offers a reflection on resisting Empire in our own time and place:

"We debase our God-given dignity by giving in to the demands of Empire. And we are therefore faced with the task of ejecting and rejecting that pork, of undoing all that which binds us to the ways and means of Empire and severs us from covenant with the divine, with creation, and with our fellow human beings."

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11102019 to learn about Elizabeth O'Donnell Gandolfo, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yvonne Prowse offers a reflection on living as God's beloved:

"As we grapple with climate change, as we look to the struggles throughout our world, as we hear of further violence in our schools and city streets, and carry many other concerns in society and in our personal lives, there is a great deal of anxiety and fear. And there are people, like Zacchaeus, and systems – social, political, cultural systems – that cause or perpetuate violence and suffering, and instill fear, anxiety, resentment, self-defensiveness, and more. And when we’re acting out of those fears, etc, we’re not living as the beloved of God. "

Yvonne Prowse, M.A. is a spiritual director at the Ignatius Jesuit Centre in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. She chairs/co-chairs their training programs in spiritual direction; teaches many aspects of spiritual direction and Ignatian spirituality; and supervises other spiritual directors.

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11032019 to learn more about Yvonne, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for All Saints Day, Jessie Bazan offers a reflection which illuminates the Beatitudes today:

"Holy people, past and present, bear witness to what WILL happen by living fully into what IS happening."

Jessie Bazan is a theologian and writer. She edited and co-authored the book, Dear Joan Chittister: Conversations with Women in the Church, released in September 2019 with Twenty-Third Publications. Jessie also serves as the program associate for the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research. 

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11012019 to learn more about Jessie, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Verónica Rayas offers a reflection on how God responds to the cries of the poor:

"Through our hands and feet, the steadfast mercy, love, and justice of God is experienced by those most in need today. Isn’t that amazing! God invites us to incarnate that love, mercy, and justice in the world."

Verónica Rayas, Ph.D., is the director of the Office of Religious Education in the Diocese of El Paso. She holds a Ph.D. from Fordham University in religious education.

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/10272019 to learn more about Verónica, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time -- World Mission Sunday -- Margaret Eletta Guider, OSF offers a reflection that brings World Mission Sunday; the witness of Dorothy Stang, SNDdeN; the Synod on the Pan Amazon Region; and today's readings into conversation: 

"They  invite us to do more than see and judge; they require us to act, to make connections and to put into practice what we say we believe..."

Margaret Eletta Guider, OSF, is Associate Professor of Missiology at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry and department chair of the Ecclesiastical Faculty.

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/10202019 to learn more about Margaret Guider, OSF, to view her video or to read her preaching text and for more preaching from Catholic women.