Catholic Women Bearing the Word: An Evening of Preaching with the Women of PROCLAIM

On the evening of Wednesday, June 24, in the beautiful Holy Cross Sisters’ Church of Our Lady of Loretto, over 150 people gathered for a Catholic women’s “Preaching Slam.” The event’s attendants came from around the country, joined by local guests from the South Bend, Saint Mary’s College and Notre Dame communities. The event featured the preaching and proclamation of women, serving as a highlight of PROCLAIM’s week-long formation intensive hosted on campus by Saint Mary’s College Center for the Study of Spirituality. For this evening prayer, each preacher was asked to break open the familiar story of Mary’s encounter with the angel Gabriel, her visit to her kinswoman Elizabeth, and her singing of her great Magnificat.

The evening’s presider, celebrated liturgist Diana Macalintal, gracefully led the candlelit service. Cradling the book of the Gospels with pieta-like gentleness, she reminded us of Mary’s role as bearer of the Word. She then presented the large book, which was passed slowly and lovingly among the preachers, each graced in an essential white alb, a reminder of these women’s baptismal power and liturgical role. 

After a shared proclamation by PROCLAIM faculty, the three women lovingly and expertly preached for us. Each woman brought a distinct angle on the truth, with varied styles, drawing on her own experiences of the paschal mystery, “naming grace” as our evening’s guest and theologian Mary Catherine Hilkert, OP, has famously described the work of preaching. As rich as their carefully chosen words, their collective presence as preachers in women’s bodies leaves a lasting impression. Witnessing the embodied gifts of these women, we were reminded of Mary and Elizabeth, who over the course of their lifetimes bore witness to their deep embodied knowledge of life’s mysteries of living, dying and rising.

Encounters In a Round Church

The Church of Our Lady of Loretto’s extraordinary church-in-the-round design contained the evening’s prayerful words, music and movement. The unique worship space also allowed us to take in the faces of those with whom we worshiped.

Across this sacred space one could see friends, old and new—students, scholars, campus ministers, community organizers, animators, artists, spiritual guides, leaders of mission, and more. Scattered throughout were the 27 members of the inaugural PROCLAIM cohort and the many faculty, leadership team members and formation companions supporting their formation. 

Even with the joy of being together, lament was not far from this sacred space. I was keenly aware that many of those present have given the best years of their lives to the Church, while longing for the voices of women to preach and proclaim God’s saving word. And yet, faces aglow with tears and laughter, hearts full of wonder and delight, hope was greater as we glimpsed what the Church could be in its fullness. 

As the evening prayer unfolded, I noticed a person in the middle of the gathered crowd whom I had not seen in over three decades. Here among us was the first woman I ever saw preach in a Catholic mass while I was a college student years ago. I recall the profound impact her dignified pastoral presence on the altar in her white alb had upon me as a young woman discerning a call to ministry–a reminder to me of the importance of this evening’s visible presence of women’s leadership, how one must see it in order to be it. 

Throughout this special evening, I was honored to be seated with my longtime kinswoman in ministry, and the PROCLAIM Program Director, Lisa Orchen. Together, we sensed the communion of delighted heavenly companions, mentors, teachers, and more, surely gathered with us this evening. Here we were in the Church of Loretto, a space where she and I developed our own craft of preaching as MDiv students 30 years prior. In our own mature Mary-Elizabeth embrace, on this sacred night, Lisa and I knew ourselves as part of something much bigger, in a moment where life meets life, with older and wiser bellies. Together we rejoiced: this is the magnificent unfolding of God’s dream. And we get to be part of it. 

PROCLAIM’s inaugural public celebration, an evening of great preaching and prayerful encounters on the Saint Mary’s College campus, brings a deep longing for more: the proclamation of the Word made flesh, the unpacking of the great Paschal Mystery, brought to us through the preaching of Catholic women. It also brings hope, as we can imagine and proclaim what is possible, holding the Word together in a rounder space. 

On this Feast of Mary Magdalene, may the Spirit continue to enliven the prophetic work of all who courageously share the saving news of Christ’s resurrected life among us.