Link to The Mystery of Thomas Merton | Soul Waves Radio

www.soulwavesradio.ie/2015/12/10/the-mystery-of-thomas-merton/

Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests Asks for Your Prayers and Generous Support This Christmas

Association Roman Catholic Women Priests, Inc.

3041 Stuart Drive

Macon, GA 31204

December 2015

Dear Friends of ARCWP:

The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP) wish to thank you for standing beside us as you support our ministries through sharing in our Eucharistic communities, Your enthusiasm, prayers and donations during this past year have enabled us to grow and serve our communities, especially by adding three new bishops to our beloved association, bringing us to a total of four bishops.  Joyfully, we number forty-two priests, fourteen deacons and six candidates along with three support personnel.

         

Ordination of our three new bishops

Our branch of the international women priest movement is working to renew priestly ministry through administrating the sacraments and sharing our Sacred Table in the future with our brothers in the Roman Catholic Church.    

ARCWP is located in the United States, Canada, and South America leading inclusive, enthusiastic, egalitarian communities where all are welcome to share at the Eucharistic Table.

 

The Spirit is calling more women and we are answering “yes”.  During this “Year of Mercy”, we ask our church leaders to extend mercy and acceptance of all women priests.

Yearly, we come to you dear friends, family, communities, and supporters to humbly ask for your financial assistance. Our greatest needs are two-fold: supporting ordinations and travel to the local community for these ordinations. Any gift, no matter the amount, makes you part of our movement for justice and equality in our beloved Church.  Please give as you are able.

Asking God’s blessing for you and your loved ones this Christmas Season.

Rev. Barbara Anne Duff

Treasurer 

For: The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests.

www.arcwp.org

Happy Birthday, Papa Franceso!

http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/happy-birthday-papa-francesco

Two Books on Women in the Bible: "Lovers, Tricksters, and Victims" Women in the Bible/US Catholic, and Praying with Women of the Bible by Bridget Mary Meehan

Enjoy two books on Women in the Bible!

http://www.amazon.com/Praying-Women-Bible-Bridget-Meehan/dp/097937670X

Meet spirited, compassionate and courageous women who have left us a legacy of faith and inspiration that will help you grow in your personal relationships with God and with others. These women heroines from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures provide us with wisdom for our journey in the 21st century. They are gutsy and strong, passionate and loving, women truth tellers and justice doers. This rich source of inspiration by Bridget Mary Meehan presents the stories of twenty of these women- along with discussion questions, prayer experiences, and reflections- to help you heighten your spiritual growth. Perfect for either individual prayer and/or bible study groups, or small faith communities.

New Book:

http://www.uscatholic.org/articles/201512/lovers-tricksters-and-victims-women-bible-30498

"After the birth of Jesus, three wise men came to visit him carrying gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The story is more than familiar. The scene is immortalized in art, folktales, and even the crèches under our Christmas trees.

The Bible says Herod sent the wise men (Matt. 2:1–12). But the story never actually states that there were three magi. It does say, however, that there were three gifts.

If we’re missing the details of one of the most often-repeated stories in the Bible, what else are we getting wrong?

T.J. Wray, an associate professor of biblical studies at Salve Regina University, has devoted her life to writing about those overlooked details of the Bible. “The more I learn, the more I love what I do,” Wray says. “I like to think that I make a difference.” 

Much of her work has centered on telling the story of biblical women. Her book Good Girls, Bad Girls: The Enduring Lessons of Twelve Women of the Old Testament (Rowman & Littlefield) explores the stories of women such as Ruth, Rebekah, and Tamar. Wray has just finished a second volume, Good Girls, Bad Girls of the New Testament: Their Enduring Lessons, which will be published in March 2016. Both books examine biblical women in a new light and suggest lessons for modern readers...."

http://www.uscatholic.org/articles/201512/lovers-tricksters-and-victims-women-bible-30498#sthash.YCaT2saP.dpuf

Music Video: "I Believe in Angels" / What Little Children Believe About Angels!

Something to make you smile during these busy days before Christmas!

Created by:  Michelle Sherliza, OP

Music by:  Daniel O’Donnell

Click the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy29i9nYanI

Olga Lucia Alvarez ARCWP Presides at Liturgy in Barranquilla, Colombia

https://evangelizadorasdelosapostoles.wordpress.com/2015/12/16/colombia-4-diciembre15-en-galata-encuentro-con-la-red-acoger/

Caring for life and articulating hopes.

The Community "Patiecitos Bible" greeting to different groups.

Gladys and Stella, are preparing to serve with love, Those attending the meeting.

Young people Actively collaborated in the decoration of meeting space.

We Have to start the Meeting with the celebration of the Eucharist.

Welcoming responsible, Team Requested That the Eucharist will be held in memory of Consuelo Arnaiz (QEP) a founder of Embracing. Those present Gave Their testimony, revealing very human and commitment to the life of Consuelo, Both in the Church cone Funsarep details.

Adolescents,, Although helpful, do not hide Their expectations of what happens around them.

Encarnacion Garcia, mother and grandmother, intervenes reflecting on the readings of the liturgy

Camilo, smiling happily With His colleagues offer gifts.

"All is Yours, Divine Essence and what we offer is Yours"

The whole community, Especially young people, together consecrating the species involved.

Two grandmothers and two young distribute communion.

PERSONAL REFLECTION ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE:

I was super-shocked and impressed, the job of welcoming and Its subsidiaries. It's amazing the progress of the Village Church of God, without laws, without dogmas, canons, only the Gospel. I think the "institutional church" does not reach to imagine, the "here and now" present among us / os

Young people, children and grandchildren ladies present to the meeting, When They Were Having Eucharist we saw HAD not clothed me, Were Only signs in the table, almost in unison Said, "we do not want mass not want Eucharist" ... impossible to describe the chill That ran Through my body! But the grandmothers Said, "We are the Mass, the Eucharist we are, and we will celebrate!".

What did I do? Young people got Involved in the readings, the presentation of the gifts, and distributing Communion With grandmothers!

Rejoice comments Eucharist and impressed a different mass! It was a treat to Share with them.

I Remembered the answer of my nephew, When mom invited him to go to church: "No, Grandma, there does not need me."

Share:

https://evangelizadorasdelosapostoles.wordpress.com/2015/12/14/cronica-grafica-del-diciembre-315-barranquilla-barrio-las-malvinas/

Dec. 3/15 IN THE CULTURAL CENTER the Falklands.

In the Educational Cultural Center of Las Malvinas, the door is open. Parents expect the entry of Their Children Have Their successfully completed course of study and Receive Their diplomas.

We Have had the opportunity to be back in the neighborhood Las Malvinas Barranquilla, We Have Met With The Principal, teachers / as and students of the College, to celebrate and deliver the diplomas to Children Who Have Their successfully completed primary education.

Master of Ceremony salutes Parent, to the directives of the table and students.

Greeting, congratulating and blessing attendees

Attendees will sing the National Anthem and the school.

With Teresita Garcia, the Rector of the College, the girl and her sister Who has received the degree diploma.

IMAGES OF DAILY LIFE IN THE DISTRICT OF THE FALKLAND.

Offering rich fruits: Who wants to buy me?

Share:

Pope Francis: Catholics Should Not Be Slaves to Church's Institutions, Amen, Francis! Affirm Women Priests' Movement and Honor Primacy of Conscience During Holy Year!

Bridget Mary's Response: I agree with Pope Francis that we must not become slaves of religious structures, institutions or laws that violate our consciences. The Holy Year of Mercy is a perfect time to affirm the international Roman Catholic  Women Priests' Movement and honor primacy of conscience. A first step, Francis could take, is to lift all excommunications and punishments against Catholics who follow their consciences including Roman Catholic Women Priests, our communities and supporters. Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, www.arcwp.org

http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/francis-if-church-forgets-mercy-even-one-moment-its-work-useless

Joshua J. McElwee  |  Dec. 9, 2015, National Catholic Reporter

"

Any efforts at reform or renewal of the Catholic church that do not place God's mercy at the center of their work are "useless" because they make Catholics "slaves" to the church's institutions, Pope Francis said Wednesday.

Speaking in his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square just one day after launching his global Jubilee year of mercy, the pontiff said that "only a merciful church shines."

"The necessary work of renewal of the church's institutions and structures is a means that must bring us to make alive and enlivened the experience of God's mercy that alone can guarantee a church that is a city upon a hill that cannot remain hidden," said the pope."If we were to forget, even just for a moment, that mercy is 'that which God likes most,' every one of our labors would be useless because we would become slaves of our institutions and our structures, however renewed they might be," he said. "We would always be slaves."

Francis was speaking Wednesday during a reflection on the meaning of the Jubilee year, which he formally started Tuesday with a Mass in St. Peter's Square and by opening the holy door in St. Peter's Basilica."

Homily at Holy Spirit Catholic Community on 4th Sunday of Advent C, December 20, 2015 by Beverly Bingle, RCWP

When we listen to these birth and infancy narratives
in the Advent and Christmas gospels,
it's helpful to remember what Marcus Borg said:
the Bible is all true,
and some of it really happened.
Scholars tell us
that the birth and infancy narrative in Luke's Gospel
contains four facts:
Jesus was born during reign of Herod the Great,
Nazareth was his home town,
Mary was his mother's name,
and his name was Jesus.
Luke's Gospel, written about 70 AD,
originally began with what is now Chapter 3.
The narratives in Chapters 1 and 2 were added
very late in the first or early in the second century.
Fr. Raymond Brown calls today's story of the Visitation
“a second-stage development.”
It's been called an “elaborate fiction”
used to make a connection between
the annunciation stories of John the Baptist and Jesus.
__________________________________________

So if this didn't really happen, what's true about it?
Fr. Brown sees the Visitation
as pointing to a truth about discipleship
because it pictures Mary traveling cross-country
to share the good news with Elizabeth.
Sharing the good news, Brown says,
is the first duty of a disciple.
More truth comes in the actions of Mary:
she doesn't hesitate to share the good news;
she greets her cousin in a way that brings joy;
she, in the words of Elizabeth, is blessed
because she believes and then acts on what she believes.
Written to second- and third-generation Christians,
this passage gives a straightforward lesson
in what they are to do as disciples:
to believe in God,
to share the good news,
and to act on their belief.
__________________________________________
Mary's actions show all of us disciples
how to live our belief and, doing that,
we make the incarnation of Jesus possible.
We become Christ-bearers by accepting the word of God
and living it out in our lives.
As Meister Eckart wrote in the 1300s,
“What good is it to me
if Mary gave birth to the Son of God 1400 years ago
and I do not give birth to the Son of God
in my own person and time and culture?
We are all meant to be mothers of God.”
__________________________________________
How are we carrying Christ?
Whenever you speak peace in the face of conflict,
whether it's with our family members or co-workers
or neighbors or strangers at the grocery store,
you carry Christ to our world.
Whenever you welcome the stranger
or respect the dignity of the poor,
you carry Christ to our world.
Whenever you reach out to help or to comfort
or just to smile in greeting,
whenever you lift a prayer for someone in pain,
you carry Christ to our world.
Whenever you stand up for the oppressed
or speak out against injustice,
write a letter to the editor,
make a phone call to your senator, or sign a petition,
you carry Christ to our world.
__________________________________________
I look around and see each of you here as a Christ-bearer,
in all the things you do,
preparing to once again give birth to Christ
through your own actions,
in this time,
in this culture so very much in need of his presence.
Thanks be to God for you!
Because of you,
there will be Christmas again this week,
and all year long.

--
Holy Spirit Catholic Community
Saturdays at 4:30 p.m.
Sundays at 5:30 p.m.
at 3925 West Central Avenue (Washington Church)

www.holyspirittoledo.org

Rev. Dr. Bev Bingle, Pastor
Mailing address: 3156 Doyle Street, Toledo, OH 43608-2006

"Silent Night" ft. Plácido Domingo -ThePianoGuys #ASaviorIsBorn on YouTube

https://youtu.be/sMvURdq8V6U

Angels We Have Heard on High,/Over a Thousand People Help Make this Video with the Piano Guys!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrLoWt2tfqg&feature=youtu.be

Third Sunday of Advent The Spirit’s Winnowing of our Hearts By Donna Rougeux ARCWP

Zephaniah 3:14-20

Luke 3:7-18

Have you considered how many changes you have encountered throughout your life? Do you like it when things change? Are you a “go with the flow” kind of person or do you try to keep things the same at all cost? I have a mantra that life experiences have taught me; it is “you never know what is next.” Change is a given. We can have many different reactions to it. We can fear change, we can look forward to change, we can deny change and we can accept it.

Think about the change that happens when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. How does the metamorphosis happen? The change that a caterpillar encounters is as natural and miraculous as childbirth. We can't really stop it from happening and it is bigger than us. What would happen if the caterpillar said, “No, I want to stay a caterpillar all of my life. I don’t want to become a butterfly?” What would happen if a baby who was going to be born into the world tried to stop the birth process and said “No, I will stay in my mom’s womb forever?” The changes that happen in birth and in a metamorphosis do not usually get stopped. And if you think about it why would we want to stop these changes?

When we hear the prophet Zephaniah say “Fear not, God is in our midst,” he is talking about something much bigger than us. It is a metamorphosis kind of change that God’s very presence evokes. You see God’s righteousness is being born in our midst every time shame is transformed into new life or oppression is transformed into freedom.

John the Baptist also teaches about transformation. In today’s gospel he is trying to let people know that being baptized by the Holy Spirit is not just about being immersed in water. John is talking about the transformative changes that happen when the Spirit sweeps the “threshing floors” of our lives so that we can be transformed into children of God. He talks about the winnowing fork. Do you know what that is? I had to look it up myself because I didn't know how wheat is harvested.

One part of the process in harvesting wheat is winnowing. The wheat is lifted up either by a fork or in a basket and the air blows through so that the “good fruit” of the wheat is sifted out of the dirt and husks. This process is similar to what can happen to us when we encounter the transformative love of God. The good fruits of our lives can be harvested.

John is teaching the people that he preached to and is teaching us today about what happens to our hearts when we are baptized in the Spirit. A metamorphosis-like change will transform our hearts so that God’s purpose will become our purpose. The spirit blows through us winnowing out the good fruit of our lives leaving the husks and dirt of fear and hatred to be discarded and put on the fire.

Both Zephaniah and John are giving us good news about how God’s presence evokes transformation and new life. But with these changes, that are bigger than us, comes experiences that can be painful and even frightening. God’s ways are not our ways. God’s presence winnows out sin and evil so that righteousness prevails. God’s righteousness is, according to theologian Deborah Block, “the humble ethic of living toward others in just and loving relationships.”

It is tempting to be like a caterpillar that doesn't want to become a butterfly. We can get weighed down with fear. We never know what is next. Sometimes what is next can seem to us to be unbearable. The good news is God is with us. God is in our midst. God changes fear into joy and transforms death or loss of any kind into new life. Transformations do not happen instantly. Our part is to just be open and allow God in our midst to cleanse and purify us.

People often naively believe that stepping into God’s kindom is like stepping into a spiritual utopia filled with no problems or worries. To the contrary, stepping foot into the kindom as a follower of Christ leads to transformation.

The Spirit sweeps the threshing floor of our hearts often. God does not overpower us rather God offers us a love that miraculously births us into a place of growth and change. The pain in childbirth and the struggle that a caterpillar encounters as it comes out of the cocoon are images of the similar changes our hearts encounter when we open them to the transformative love of God.

We encounter pain and a need to let go of the dirt and the husks that try to keep us in a place of fear, shame and oppression. But what comes next is well worth the pain and the letting go. What comes next is God’s purpose becomes our purpose and we begin living toward others in just and loving relationships. Fear will become joy and the oppressed will be set free as we live into God’s transformative presence. What kind of changes have you encountered lately? Have you experienced any pain or struggles? Could that be the Spirit sweeping the threshing floor of your heart?  If so, hear the words of Zephaniah, “Fear not for God is in our midst.”

Third Sunday of Advent: Rejoice! Rejoice! God is always and forever near!

Zephaniah 3:14-18
Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! 
Shout for joy, O daughter,____________
(Substitute your name or the name of your community)
Sing joyfully O Israel
Sing joyfully O ______________
Be glad and exult with all your heart.
O daughter Jerusalem
O daughter _____________

Philippians 4:4-7
Brothers and sisters, rejoice in God always!
I shall say it again rejoice!
Your kindness should be known to all.
God is near.

Have no anxiety at all,
but in everything by prayers and petitions, with thanksgiving, make your requests know to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Gospel 3:10-18
...."Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none.
And whoever has food should do likewise...."

Marta Soto in Colombia


Let us rejoice always in God's loving presence everywhere, in everyone and in everything !
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, www.arcwp.org

Bridget Mary Meehan

Shout for Joy: Reflections of a RC Woman Priest on 3rd Sunday of Advent- 12/13/15

https://judyabl.wordpress.com/2015/12/13/shout-for-joy-reflections-of-a-rc-woman-priest-on-3rd-sunday-of-advent-121315/

The Scripture readings on this joyful, Gaudete, Sunday in Advent begin: “Shout for joy,O daughter Zion!” (Zephaniah 3:14-18a). The prophet encourages Israel (and the people of God) not to be discouraged for “God is in your midst, a mighty savior who will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in God’s love, will sing joyfully because of you, as one sings at festivals”. Imagine God rejoicing over each one of us and renewing us in God’s love. Imagine God singing over us,singing like a mother sings over her children, like a full choir sings the Hallelujah Chorus or like my church sings: Soon and Very Soon ,we are going to meet the king”.  Imagine God’s joy and all encompassing love  in your life. Imagine a world where this is so for all, leaving no one out, and indeed it would be the reign of God heralded by the prophets and the coming and living and dying and rising again of Jesus the Christ.  Imagine in the words of Julian of Norwich, “all shall be well”. I am feeling better already but I know that we will need to help to build this new Jerusalem,this new world.

God is in our midst, not only within each of us- but in our midst, in our families and neighborhoods and places of worship, in all countries and in our world, in our goodness and in our turning away, in the midst too of our messes. God is in our midst especially in our community of love and faith. It is in community that we propagate the reign of God, the kin(g)dom that Jesus the Christ came to grow and bring to fruition. The prophet Zephaniah heralds a new day for Israel and for each of us that comes to fruition during the reign of God. For us, a reign that blossoms forth in shouting joy with God incarnate on Christmas in a helpless baby who grew  in strength and wisdom with the faithful abounding love of Mary and Joseph and his family and community to fulfill the prophecy of John the Baptist:  “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire”(Luke :10-18). Now, John the Baptizer was a fiery prophet indeed, he spoke truth to power and taught the fulfillment of the Law of Justice and Charity-“share with the person who has none”.  But,great as he was, he said he was nothing compared to Jesus, the Christ who would have the power to impart God’s Holy Spirit and to set people on fire for God and for justice. This is the power to animate us, to bring us into life once life has weighed us down with despair and yet given us the glimpse of heaven on earth in love and justice. This is the power of Nelson Mandela, of Msgr. Oscar Romero,  of Rosa Parks and Viola Liuzzo, and Jean Donovan and her Sisters, the power that Martin Luther King Jr. had as he led the Civil Rights Movement despite what his own fate would be-a fate similar to John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ. And yet, to quote the poet Maya Angelou, hatred and conflict, violence and death, prejudice, discrimination, racism, classism, heterosexism and all the other isms have no power over us for still we rise as Jesus did and as we do every day of our lives: “And still I rise”. And this is the power and the cry of the Roman Catholic women priests world wide who have defied the man-made rule of the church that only men may be ordained and stepped out ahead to accept valid Holy Orders. Whatever our fate may be, we act in prophetic obedience and risk our own status in the church to renew the church. We have been set on fire and filled with the Holy Spirit and will not be silenced or discouraged. We shout for joy!

As the Responsorial Psalm, actually the words of the prophet Isaiah says, “Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel”( Isaiah 12:6). As we stand for justice with all the unnamed saints above and below God is in our midst. Again, it is God in our midst,not in our DNA, not only within us like a captured bird, but in our midst-among us. God is transcendent and immanent, both, always and especially in this season as we await the coming of the Christ-child into a world characterized by those who oppress others and make others subservient: as such was the reign of the Roman Empire in all of Judea and much of the world at the time of Christ. And, such is the struggle now-between those who would dominate others and hoard all of the resources, and those who would share the world’s goods with one another so the earth itself may survive the greed of its people, and  all may have and all may live.

Pope Francis,a prophet for our times, has been wonderfully outspoken on the matter of sharing the world’s resources, and caring for the earth and all of its people, especially the poorest and most disadvantaged and disenfranchised-women, orphans, and all groups left out and judged. His inauguration of this Year of Mercy, of Jubilee, of welcoming all people back to God-to bask in the sunshine of God’s renewing love is what the church and the people of God everywhere ought to be doing. Today in his homily from St John Lateran in Rome he said” God’s love and tenderness does not love rigidity but like John it invites us to act justly and look out for the needs of all who need…” He said that sadness is not allowed today, not because he is a pollyanna-type person who does not know the pain in the world, but precisely because he does know the love that God gives and therefore pain that God feels when love and justice are not the order of the day.   He knows too well the need for mercy in this world and he welcomes us all back to God. He said “We have opened the holy door here and at all cathedrals and sanctuaries of the world”. This is not only to welcome people back to God when they had been lost to despair or cynicism or hopelessness, but “to admit joy… in this jubilee of mercy it is time to rediscover the presence of God.”

It would be nothing short of a miracle of love if Pope Francis would welcome back the women who are now priests and all those to come, if he would be able to open that door. Probably that is not going to happen and it is not up to him. But we are with all of the world’s outcast already inside the holy door opened by our loving God,  nothing dampens our joy for we are home with God and God is in our midst.  Let us,therefore,  with Pope Francis and all who  follow the Laws of Justice and compassion open the door for others. As Paul said to the Phillippians: (Phil $:4-7) “Rejoice in God always. I shall say it again: rejoice. Your kindness should be known to all….” Amen.

 

REJOICE!

Rev. Dr. Judy Lee, RCWP

Co-Pastor Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community, Fort Myers, Florida