Would you believe that Nine to Five is almost forty years old? NPR’s Morning Edition on Thursday featured the song as one of its American Anthems. It’s fun to wake up to, and interesting to hear the examination of the lyrics by Lynn Neary, Karen Nussbaum, Rebecca Traister, and Merrill Garbus. It’s not as simple…
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Commencement speech time has just ended, and those of us who attended graduations, from eighth grade through college and beyond, may have heard one or two or too many! Still, wherever we are in life, I think we need these pep talks yearly – maybe even daily. And we need them especially to inspire us…
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Hum this to “America the Beautiful.” It’s my favorite line from Miriam Therese Winter’s version of this classic: “Indigenous and immigrant, our daughters and our sons, O may we never rest content till all are truly one.” I am inspired to write about “indigenous” by the July page in the calendar of the National Museum…
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“We Used To Think Photos Like This Could Change The World. What Needs To Change Is Who We Are” is the provocative title of a commentary by Philip Kennicott in the June 26 online edition of the Washington Post. (Content warning: The link contains a graphic photograph of people who drowned.) The photograph is the one…
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Just thinking – what would happen if leadership Catholics, 10 at a time, were able to be on a national stage and asked hard questions that revealed what they are passionate about? How do we get our information about church issues that matter to us? The written word. NCR, America, Commonweal – all have podcasts,…
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We talk about – or more often mourn the loss of – the gifts of women to our Church. Last week I wrote about an article touting women’s gifts as a resource to “save the world” and added, “and also the Church.” The reach and vision was universal. Now I’d like to focus on some…
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When Frank DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry and I first discussed expanding this blog to be more regular, we joked that not much is happening about women’s ordination – not like the many bishops leaping into the fray to condemn, fire, and otherwise attack LGBTQ people. Well, the latter has not abated and Bondings 2.0…
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“Can Women Save the World?” an author of a recent New York Times article asked. Wow, I thought. I was just hoping they could save the Church!  Tina Brown, founder of the Women in the World summit, former New Yorker editor-in-chief, and host of a podcast TBD, argues that “a new paradigm of female leadership…
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“Sexism masquerading as theology” is what I’ve always said about the church’s position on women’s ordination, and I see no reason to modify my position based on the new document from the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education, which presents itself as a “Path of Dialogue.” “Male and Female He Created Them” is a really useful…
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Looking for where we find happiness as an inspiration for creating a new inclusive church for a new day? Worth a try, I think. I was originally inspired in this quest by an article in the November 2017 issue of National Geographic entitled “The World’s Happiest Places”.  Not to keep you in suspense, they are:…
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