France always makes me smile, whether or not I ever get to return. On a river barge cruise, we stopped for a home-hosted visit on a national holiday, Pentecost Monday. What? After the French Revolution and the secularization of society, the French still celebrate Pentecost Monday? Our small group was fortunate enough to be hosted…
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In these trying days, I thought I’d start with the “humiliation” (at my own expense) part to give us a few laughs and something to muse on not related to current viral or political happenings. Then I’ll add the more serious bits. Below is a picture of me – on the right – about to…
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Way back in the 1990s when John Paul II issued his order not to discuss women’s ordination, very soon the debate shifted to whether it was infallible. While subsequent popes seem to be treating it as if it is, plenty of theologians demonstrated that it isn’t. I use this to introduce what’s happening this week…
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Last week I turned in my MDiv thesis, the culmination of three years of graduate work at Union Theological Seminary. This obviously happened under strange and unforeseen circumstances. I have been living with my parents in Vermont rather than in my Manhattan dorm, for one, and my cats have been unexpected writing partners over the…
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I took this picture from inside the ruins of a dwelling in Qumran where they discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls. It haunts me because it is like the caves we are in today, staying in but staring out.  It also haunts me because the outer world in the picture looks the same as the inner:…
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The day after I wrote my blog on spiritual communion last week, the Pope addressed it. I don’t claim there was a causal relationship, but it’s clearly an issue that deserves examining again. I also appreciate the comments I received on and off-line, especially those of my sister, who spelled out the way the Archdiocese…
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“Everything comes from love. All is ordained for the salvation of [humankind]. God does nothing without this goal in mind.” St. Catherine of Siena A thousand years or so, and half the width of Europe, separate Catherine of Siena from Brigid of Kildare, but I’m thinking a lot about both these women during these quiet,…
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Here we are, Regina and Ellie, two of your Catholic Feminists, Women’s Ordination champions, faithful WOC bloggers. What on earth – or heaven? – happened? In order to enter a mosque in Jordan for a tour and talk on Islam (part of our Israel/Jordan trip experience), the men in our group had to remove their…
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Those of us around this TABLE are united in our belief that women should be ordained priests in the Roman Catholic Church. We probably have many different ideas about what that actually means, how and when that should happen, whether it already has happened. I started thinking about fundamental issues when I heard the Rector…
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In this first Tuesday after Easter, we still have that haunting question: who rolled away the stone? And why is it important to seek the answer? The poet poses the question below and reflects on it in verse. I add a thought at the end. Easter What I want to know is simply this:Who rolled…
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