No Periods

Happy New Year!

I am writing as a fledgling Women’s Ordination Conference board member, just starting my first term. As I hope to be an ongoing contributor to this blog, I wanted to introduce myself and hope to get to know you better through your comments and feedback.

I am not a fan of resolutions, but I have three words that I will use as a hope/prayer for this year, and they include:

Clarity
Abundance
Wholeness

St. Teresa of Calcutta cautioned us that we should not put a period, where God/de has placed a comma.

So, with these words and St. Teresa’s caveat I am moving into 2024 and am genuinely excited. I know there are enormous issues we are dealing with on a global scale, and it seems scary. OK – some of it is scary. As a history teacher, I choose to believe we are living in a historic and incredibly transformative time, and God/de’s got us.

I could also say the same for the Catholic church – it is equal parts scary and interesting.

I am a cradle Catholic. Baptized at three days old, Catholic school, and a Catholic college. I have to say my years at the College of the Holy Cross, under the direction of the Jesuits, have been the underpinning of my feminist liberation perspective. I studied feminist theology, and my final paper addressed the ordination of women to the priesthood. Much to my chagrin, I discovered there was no true barrier to women becoming priests. Tradition and Jesus being male is the best I could ascertain, based on church teaching. Those arguments did not resonate, and I knew at my core the Catholic church was (and is) sinning in its exclusion of all people from the priesthood.

I went back to the scene of my awakening in June 2023 for my 30th college reunion. I am not exactly sure where those thirty years went, but there I was.

Just being on the campus energized me and going into the library and seeing throughout the campus they are celebrating 50 years of women’s acceptance into Holy Cross. It was fantastic knowing I am part of this community of barrier breakers.

After college, life took over and I just slipped back into my ‘traditional’ Catholic faith. Comfort and ease won the day. I had grappled with a calling to religious life, but I knew it was not to a religious order of women. It was something “more.” I recognize now, I was called to the priesthood.

Now, I am six and a half years away from retirement. My life has been upended – I lost my Dad, my Mom, and my husband within six years. I moved from the home my parents built and my husband and I bought to a more “Terry-sized” dwelling and have dubbed it “Sophia’s Sanctuary.” And in all of that, I am realizing my journey to wholeness. I am learning that we can hold space for opposites, that both/and serves me more than either/or, and that non-binary options seem more reasonable, to move our world forward in a more compassionate and caring way.

God/de has blown my mind and my world – wide open. I found WOC on Instagram (Who said nothing good happens on social media?!) From there I learned about the Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP) and the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP) and now there is no going back. I am participating in women-led liturgies that truly feed me – not only the Body of Christ, but feeds that part of me who wants to be whole – who wants to hold space for both/and. Now, I am discerning a call to the priesthood, as my vocation in my retirement.

I am looking forward to sharing this journey with you. I honestly do not know where all of this is going to lead, but I do know I am eternally grateful for finding WOC and appreciate the opportunity to serve on the board. I am learning so much. As a lifelong learner, this opportunity is exciting, and gives me a purpose and a springboard for whatever will come next…no periods!

I invite you to come along with me. I invite you to embrace the comma as together we journey together in wholeness.