What am I reading this week? Of course, the great novel by Leo Tolstoy. How do I relate it to the data collected about Catholic women that I wrote about two weeks ago? Marriage, Love, and Children, three topics I did not cover then. The 96-page study published by the Center for Applied Research in…
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For a while now, maybe a long, long while for all I know, we have been challenged to see God in feminine as well as masculine terms. We experimented with using “She” as a pronoun for God and then progressed to using gender neutral terms. At least, the “progressive progressers” did. I like to think…
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My Jewish week began with my local book group discussing Geraldine Brooks’ novel The Secret Chord (2015). It’s the story of David – yes, that David, in the Bible. Much I did not know. Goliath may not have been a giant, just big. David sang beautifully – the secret chord – and wrote poems to…
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Many of my favorite signs at Saturday’s Women’s March had arrows pointing outwards in all directions proclaiming, “I’m with her!” (My only wish was that at least one arrow would have said, “And him!” since I went with my 13 year old grandson and had many men and boys surrounding both of us, too.) A…
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The why: Is it “propitious” or pure chance that this week the National Catholic Reporter and America both feature the results of major surveys about American Catholic women? Are you reading this before or after the march in your community? Are you going as a Catholic feminist?  I hope you do. The who: The surveys…
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This may betray my age, but I have to admit, I hated those pussy hats that people wore to the Women’s March last January and probably will wear to the protest this January 20 as well. It’s not, however, as if the organizers did not have good intentions and a powerful message in advocating for…
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It is not my habit to read New York Times obituaries, but my friend Marjorie Jones sent me a link to one with the message, “It seems Mormon women face similar issues.” In what was as much an update on Mormonism than the story of a life, the Times reported that during the approximately ten years…
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I so want to think and write about new birth right now. We’ve just gone through that most glorious season of celebrating it in all its possible meanings. I’m fired up to start anew in envisioning a mesmerizing version of Church, embracing all genders in leadership, in ministry, in priesthood. I want to dream about…
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I woke up on Thursday morning to a white curtain outside my window – swirling snow. After two weeks of unusually cold weather and at least one more to come, we are having a real winter after a rather warm fall. “What is Carmela Apolonio Hernandez and her family thinking today?” I wondered. Carmela went…
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Okay, I ask myself, what do we – i.e. our church – do wrong? Before we continue working for renewal, maybe this is the critical question that we only think we’ve answered. On Christmas Eve, I took the secular side of my family to church. My daughter had been raised when I was in my…
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