Author: Ellie Harty

No matter what gender you are, how do you react to that statement? Much to the surprise of my female colleagues reading this statement with me for the first time, I found it insulting, supercilious, and patronizing. (They thought it was more or less true!) I, however, had immediately thought of Mary, mother of Jesus,…
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Back in the day – and that day would be sometime in the early 1970’s – my then-young family and I walked into a church community about which we had heard vague but enthusiastic praise. What we saw first amazed – and then completely captivated – us.  All around the worship space, we saw folding…
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Just as spring brings us a fresh – and exhilarant – experience of the world and newly minted lenses through which we can see more deeply and fully into lives and landscapes around us, I propose we also try out new lenses to see ourselves and our own mission for inclusion and ministry in a…
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Suppose you held out your hand, and I – or any member of your community or parish or friendship circle – placed into it three gifts: one corn kernel, one speckled bean, one pumpkin seed. You would then hold in your hand the Indigenous people’s “three sisters” which Native American writer and professor of botany,…
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“Am I able to trust that the tombs of my life are all gateways to resurrection?”                                                                                      – Sr. Joan Chittister The silence after Easter seems so different from the silence of Lent. We have just been through a terrible and magnificent drama. We have been through a period of wrenching, profound questioning followed by a…
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Early in our marriage, my husband and I were reading side by side in bed when I burst into laughter. I was reading a book called Seeds of Hope, and he was reading one called The Coming Disaster. Talk about competing world views! We did manage to get through over twenty five years of rosy-colored-glasses…
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[Editor’s Note: This blog post is originally about a Philadelphia-specific action for women’s ordination. To read how you can participate in our worldwide Day of Prayer for Women’s Ordination, no matter your geographic location, scroll to the end!] On the Sunday of the Baptism of Jesus in which he is told he is God’s beloved,…
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I love Molly Burhans’ story as told in the February 8 issue of The New Yorker (titled “Promised Land” by David Owen) because it shows, once again, what women, if they assume leadership in the Church, can do. I also love that she is a young Catholic woman with all the energy, hope – and…
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Well, I probably made a fool out of myself once again. It often happens when I am holding onto ideas, concepts, beliefs, opinions especially tightly as if they would break. And, of course, they do invariably break – out – of my mouth – for all, including me, to hear. Sometimes I feel all proud…
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As we take those glorious stretches of limbs so long compressed and cramped by wintery days and nights, we might as well stretch our minds as well. After all, it is Lent, and, alas, we still have work to do.  How about a stretch into the world of Dante? Yes, that Dante, he of the…
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