The holy witnesses of Martha, Mary, Mary Magdalene & the Syrophoenician woman

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/fgmf2Eyrwm4

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/fgmf2Eyrwm4

Greetings during these weeks of summer. I hope they provide opportunities for you to enjoy parks, swimming pools, beaches or mountains, to reconnect with family and friends, or to engage in a fun hobby awaiting your slower pace.

We had hoped to be sharing our synthesis report this week and apologize for its delay as a member of our design team needed to tend to the health emergencies of relatives. Thanks for your prayers for needed healing. We are using this time to translate the synthesis into Spanish and hope to share both the English and Spanish versions soon.

About this week’s newsletter

Sunday’s Gospel reading highlighted the sisterly quarrel between Martha and Mary over “diakonia” – service. It’s an interesting and multi-layered text to contemplate, and in our preaching section below we feature a couple of reflections from Dr. Susan McGurgan on Catholic Women Preach and myself in U.S. Catholic (posted below). 

This week our Church celebrates the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, and I invite you to join me in pondering how the holy witness of Martha, Mary, Mary Magdalene and the Syrophoenician woman continue to ripple out and influence our own times as we discern the Holy Spirit’s call today.

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Witness
“Being able to be educated on who St. Phoebe is and giving others the chance to meet her, being part of a community of women who promote an inclusive model of the church, and seeing my own community come alive and heal from division provides a vision of what can and will be possible one day in the Catholic Church.”
Kathleen O'Brien
Maryknoll Bay Area Regional Coordinator in the Mission Formation Department
Witness
“I have witnessed these women become Catholic high school teachers, professors, writers, administer parish life and leaders of prayer services. Women have been my peers and supervisors, except in diaconal ministry. I continue to hold out hope that women’s gifts for ministry and service can and will be acknowledged by the church.”
Fr. Tom Cwick, SJ
Pastoral Minister, North Side, St. Louis, MO
Witness
“I am grateful as a pastor and a part of the BCCs here to learn and journey together with others. As a priest in our community, I am proud to be a part of this ministry to uplift women who are struggling. It is great joy and fulfillment. In my personal life, I have experienced the richness of acknowledging and uplifting the witness of women in the early Church and also in our Church today.”
Fr. Vincent Dsouza, SJ
Pastor and Base Christian Community Leader, India

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