Catholic Women Preach

Boreta Singleton preaches for Pentecost Sunday, offering a reflection on making use of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, already given to us:

"You and I may be surprised-- the same Spirit that urged Jesus to pray and fast in the desert for forty days, the same Spirit that enabled him to heal the sick, the same Spirit that forgave his executioners is present in you."

Boreta Singleton is Director of Faculty Formation at St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, NJ. She holds an MA in Theology from University of Notre Dame, an MS in Pastoral Care and Counseling from Neumann University and will graduate with a Certificate in Spiritual Direction from Fairfield University on Pentecost Day, 2019. 

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/06192019 to learn more about Boreta, to read her text or watch her video, and for more preaching from Catholic women. 

Preaching for the Solemnity of the Ascension and from her experience as a mother, Gretchen Crowder offers a reflection on looking outward and forward, not upward or backward, to the see Risen Christ in our midst:

"[Jesus]is something completely new. And at this moment, if the disciples fail to recognize this newness, if they dwell on what has passed they might miss so much ahead that is truly special. If they continue to raise their eyes up to Heaven instead of looking forward to the Christ in their midst, they will miss the point."

Gretchen Crowder is the Director of Campus Ministry at Jesuit Dallas. She is a regular contributor to the sites IgnatianSpirituality.com and JesuitPrayer.Org and a collection of her writings can be found at gretchencrowder.com.

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/06022019 to learn more about Gretchen, or to view her video and read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Hilda Ortiz Mena Preaches for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, offering a reflection on contributing to the Kingdom of God by creating a culture of reconciliation and encounter:

"We cannot solve all of [the world's problems]. But we can dare to open the door and start a life of reconciliation and encounter everywhere we are."

Hilda Ortiz Mena is finishing her master's degree in Theology and Contemporary World at the Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA) in Mexico City. Her research is directed at developing ethical responses to inequality, such as gender inequality, and how it is made manifest through migration and ecology. Hilda’s current work considers feeding the hungry and considers how to give in ways that maintain the dignity of people and how to follow models given by Jesus of Nazareth. 

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/05262019 to learn more about Hilda, to view her video or read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Melinda Brown Donovan preaches for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, offering a reflection on discipleship: "As receivers of that redemptive love, we are called to embody the love of Christ: to become a community of healing mercy, kindness, inclusion, compassion, and forgiveness."

Melinda holds an MA in Pastoral Ministry, with a concentration in Religious Education, as well as post-graduate certificates in Ecclesial Ministry and Spiritual Formation, all from Boston College.  For ten years she served in various parish ministry positions within the Archdiocese of Boston, and began working for Boston College in 2006.  Currently, she serves the School of Theology and Ministry (STM) as Associate Director for Continuing Education, coordinating a robust roster of on-campus events on current topics of theology and ministry, and working with non-credit online faith enrichment courses for STM Online: Crossroads. 

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/05192019 to learn more about Melinda, read her preaching text, view her preaching video and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Colleen Gibson, SSJ offers a reflection on becoming God's people, God's flock, in a divided world: 

"As the psalmist sings out: “We are God’s people, the sheep of his flock.” God knows us and loves us, even when we don’t hear so well. At a moment in our church and our world when people have stopped listening to one another or are selectively listening to the voices they agree with, we must remember- no one is greater than the others- we are all sheep."

Sister Colleen Gibson is a Sister of Saint Joseph who currently serves as the coordinator of services at the Sisters of Saint Joseph Neighborhood Center in Camden, New Jersey, which provides opportunities for connection, enrichment, and empowerment with and among neighbors and neighboring communities in Camden and the surrounding areas. Author of the blog Wandering in Wonder, Sister Colleen is a regular contributor to Give Us This Day, National Catholic Reporter, and Global Sisters Report, and has been published in various periodicals, including Commonweal and America among others. 

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/05122019 to learn more about Sister Colleen, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Mary Kate Holman preaches for the Third Sunday of Easter, offering a reflection on how the Risen Christ sets us free from past faults and failings for the work of the gospel:

"Where can we as Church heed Jesus’ invitation to cast our nets differently when our present practices aren’t working? Where can we joyfully, boldly rush out to meet Jesus on the shore? How can we call our Church to repent of our shameful denial of Jesus, and, in an affirmation of our love for him, feed his sheep?"

Mary Kate Holman is a PhD candidate and Senior Teaching Fellow in Fordham University's Department of Theology. 

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/05052019 to learn more about Mary Kate, to watch her preaching video, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Second Sunday of Easter, Noella de Souza, MCJ offers a reflection on touching and allowing ourselves to be touched by the wounds of those who suffer, while seeing and taking consolation in the signs of resurrection in our world:

"Reading the gospel of John, we ask for that grace that we touch and are touched by, that we feel interiorly the depth of suffering there is in the world today, symbolized by Jesus’ passion, suffering and death. We ask for the consolation to capture the footprints of the Resurrection in life, in the Church, in the world..."

Noella de Souza belongs to a community of women religious, the Missionaries of Christ Jesus, and has trained in Education, and Psychotherapy and Counseling.  She has been working in the field of education for the last forty years.

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/04282019 to learn more about Noella, read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Inspired by the full Resurrection narrative in the Gospel of John, Annie Burns preaches for Easter, offering a reflection on moving  through the current pain and fear toward healing and reconciliation and new ways of being Church:

"I think it is time for myself and for our Church to move through these moments of fear and pain. It is time for us to turn around and see Jesus risen. To get up, blinking through our tears, and to share the hope of the Resurrection with the people around us. To restore our communities in justice, through reconciliation and atonement. To let go of past ways of being Church to make room for healing, growth, and prospering as we begin a new chapter. I know I can’t do this by myself. I need all of my church, all of you, all of my brothers in positions of power, to join me in this Resurrection moment. It is time to listen to the unattended to prophets, to seek out the voice of the Spirit in the most unexpected places, to put as our new cornerstone that which had previously been rejected."

Annie Burns is a graduate of Loyola University, Chicago and a former Maryknoll Lay Missioner. She currently serves on the FutureChurch board. 

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/04212019 to learn more about Annie, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for Holy Thursday, Kathy Baroody, informed by her years of experience with the L'Arche Community, offers a reflection on Christian love, saying:

Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/04182019 to learn more about Karen, watch her video, read her text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Preaching for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Kaya Oakes, offers three insights from the passage about the woman “caught” in adultery: 1. “Jesus instead chooses not to condemn her. And that’s not the same thing as forgiveness, because, perhaps, in her case, there’s nothing for him to forgive;” 2. “What if she didn’t do it?... It’s entirely possible the ‘adultery’ this anonymous woman was caught in was really something else,” and 3. “the woman never asks for forgiveness. Unlike those who’ve been accused, who’ve been found guilty and who have publicly begged for forgiveness, she is silent, until Jesus asks who has really condemned her, and her answer is no one.”