Living Gospel Inclusivity and Empowerment Now
Saturday, September 9, 2017
Pope Francis Visiting Colombia, Addresses Patriarchy and Violence
https://www.voanews.com/a/visiting-colombia-pope-addresses-patriarchy-violence-against-women/I 4021267.html
Friday, September 8, 2017
We Celebrate Mary Mother of Jesus' Birthday today and Pray for Women Priests, "First Female Priests Could be Ordained as Early as Next Summer Claims Irish Bishop",The Irish Sun (Article)
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| Mary, Mother of Jesus, and Saint Ann, her mother |
Today, September 8th. we celebrate the birthday of Mary, mother of Jesus. We ask our Blessed Mother to accompany women called to ordination in Ireland and throughout the world to renew our beloved church in compassionate service to the people of God.
May our international Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests walk with Mary in loving solidarity and with all who work to lift up the marginalized and oppressed in our church and world. May we celebrate the fullness of divine love in inclusive, prophetic communities where all are welcome.
Each of us is Persona Christi, the image of Christ by our baptism. Each of us is the beloved of God. Let us treat one another with mutual respect as spiritual equals and instruments of divine love and grace.
Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP, www.arcwp.org
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| Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP celebrating Eucharist in the United States as ordination of women priests |
Ireland’s first female priests could be ordained as early as next summer claims Irish cleric
Bridget Mary Meehan, Ireland's first female bishop, insists that ordainingwomen is the key to the survival of the religion in Ireland
By Deirdre Reynolds
By Deirdre Reynolds
IRELAND’S first female priests could be ordained as soon as next summer, a trailblazing Irish cleric has claimed.
Laois-born Bridget Mary Meehan spent the past month promoting the ordination of women throughout Ireland with the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests.
And the US-based bishop told how how three Irish women – including one mum – have already signed up to defy the Vatican by becoming priests.
Speaking to the Irish Sun, Dr Bridget said: “Where we are right now as we wrap up the 31 days is we have three women in serious discernment.
“Two of them are definitely applying, one of them is probably going to apply, and we think that we possibly will be ordaining three women next year in Ireland – possibly in the summer.
“Other women who talked to us were very interested, very supportive and perhaps some of them will also take the same path.
“If they don’t, they are definitely going to become friends of the Association in supporting the journey towards equality and justice in Ireland for women in all areas, including in the Roman Catholic women priests movement.”
Former nun Bridget went against church doctrine when she was ordained a priest in the breakaway Catholic group over a decade ago.
“It was so phenomenal – it was almost like electricity in the room with all the questions.
“Of those women that came forward in Dublin, two of them are going to more than likely apply to the Association to take the test towards ordination.
Correction/EditThere is no test for ordination. The preparation time for candidates is a period of prayerful discernment. Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWPColombian Women Priests Welcome Pope Francis
WE ARE HERE
IN
COLOMBIA
From Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Popayán, and Bucaramanga, where we are present. Holy Father receive our warm and fraternal greetings, with our communities; Peasants, Students, Drug addicts, women prostitutes and women fresh out of prison.
We wish you a happy stay in our country. We strongly urge her to promote and support our rights as women victims of patriarchal violence, in our society and culture, who already suffers innumerable losses for the feminine, institutional violence against our leaders in the care of the "Common House," and of Human Rights, sharpened after the "D" day. (signature of agreements).
FOR A COEXISTENCE AND A LAST PEACE.
Please Sign Petition to Protect Rights of Sexual Assault Survivors Today
This is urgent! Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos, just announced that she plans to strip away protections for sexual assault survivors on college campuses.
Please stop Secretary DeVos--before she can make any drastic changes, the Department of Education has to take your comments. If we act quickly to submit our comments, the UltraViolet community can flood the department with thousands of comments supporting sexual assault survivors and keeping strong enforcement of Title IX. Will you add yours now?
https://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/devos_titleix_comments/?referring_akid=.217622.X-7gHW&source=mailto
Thanks!
Please stop Secretary DeVos--before she can make any drastic changes, the Department of Education has to take your comments. If we act quickly to submit our comments, the UltraViolet community can flood the department with thousands of comments supporting sexual assault survivors and keeping strong enforcement of Title IX. Will you add yours now?
https://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/devos_titleix_comments/?referring_akid=.217622.X-7gHW&source=mailto
Thanks!
Bridget Mary Meehan
703-505-0004
sofiabmm@aol.com
www.arcwp.org
http://pcseminary.blogspot.com/
http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Upper Room Liturgy - A Call to Discipleship
Kathleen Ryan, ARCWP and Beth Dounane led the
Upper Room Community’s Sunday liturgy with the theme of discipleship. Kathie’s homily starter is printed below and
is based on the first reading from Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Gospel reading
from Luke.
Kathie Ryan's Homily Starter for September 3, 2017
Jesus lived at a time when your very
existence depended on relatives. Without your connection to family you could
not survive. Especially women and
children. Jesus is using this well-known
fact of his time as an example--- telling his disciples in the strongest of
terms what it means to be his disciple. Give up your dependence on the very connection
to what you need most for daily survival, your mother and father, your loved
ones. Jesus is challenging them and of
course now each of us to look at what it is we are attached to, what keeps us
from being true disciples and what changes us from being just spectators or
“look see” followers ---to true disciples. There is definitely a cost.
In the first reading Bonhoffer says first and
foremost we are free to choose or reject the “law of discipleship? The choosing or rejecting is a moment by
moment, day to day choosing. Jesus tells
us what that law of discipleship is: pick up your cross and follow me.
Beth’s opening welcome asked what is
the cost of discipleship? Both the first and second reading are laying out much
to think about when it comes to cost.
What did you hear? what will you do?
What will it cost?
Deven Horne places stoles on presiders Kathie Ryan and Beth Dounane with the words, "We your community call you forth and bless you as you lead us in liturgy today."
First Reading: A reading from Discipleship and the Cross
Jesus must therefore make it clear
beyond all doubt that the “must” of suffering applies to his disciples no less
than to himself. The disciple is a
disciple only insofar as he or she shares in suffering, rejection, and dying to
self.
Surprisingly enough, when Jesus begins
to unfold this inescapable truth to his disciples, he once more sets them free
to choose or reject him. “If anyone
would come after me” he says. For it is
not a matter of course even among the disciples. Nobody can be forced; nobody
can be expected to come. He says rather,
“If anyone” is prepared to spurn all other offers which come his or her way in
order to follow him. Once again,
everything is left for the individual to decide. When the disciples are
half-way along the road of discipleship, they come to another crossroad. Once
more they are left free to choose for themselves, nothing is expected of them,
nothing forced upon them. So crucial is the demand of the present hour that the
disciples must be free to make their own choice before they are told of the law
of discipleship.
These are the inspired words of
Dietrich Bonhoeffer a disciple of Jesus.
The community affirms these words by saying AMEN!
Gospel: A Reading from the Gospel of Luke
Large crowds followed Jesus. He turned
to them and said, “If any of you come to me without turning your back on your
mother and your father, your loved ones, your sisters and brothers, indeed your
very self, you can’t be my follower. Anyone who doesn’t take up the cross and
follow me can’t be my disciple.
If one of you were going to build a
tower, wouldn’t you first sit down and calculate the outlay to see if you have
enough money to complete the project?
You’d do that for fear of laying the foundation and then not being able
to complete the work—because anyone who saw it would jeer at you-and say- “You
started a building and couldn’t finish it.” Or if the leaders of one country
were going to declare war on another country, wouldn’t they first sit down and
consider whether, with an army of ten thousand, they could win against an enemy
coming against them with twenty thousand?
If they couldn’t, they would send a delegation while the enemy is still
at a distance, asking for terms of peace.
So count the cost! You can’t be my
disciple if you don’t say goodbye to all your possessions.
These are the inspired words of Luke,
a disciple of Jesus. The community affirms these words by saying AMEN!
Monday, September 4, 2017
St. Therese of Lisieux: Called to Be a Priest, Patron Saint Accompanying Women Called to be Priests
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| St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for women called to be priests in Ireland and throughout the world, walk with us and accompany us on the journey to inclusiveness, justice and equality in our church and everywhere. |
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| When we were leaving the U.S. for Ireland, we saw this plane on the runway in Newark! We thought our trip would be blessed to grow ta movement for women priests in Ireland. Indeed, our Women Priests Ireland Initiative has been profoundly blessed. WOW: Women's Ordination Worldwide This reflection from We Are Church Ireland was published in their Fall Newsletter. |
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Sunday, September 3, 2017
ARCWP Priests Visit Ireland: Media, Newspaper, Radio Coverage Links
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| Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP and Mary Theresa Streck ARCWP sharing women priests movement in Drogheda, Ireland |
Newspaper article links
The Journal
'Is it possible to be Catholic and a feminist?'
http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-is-it-possible-to-be-catholic-and-a-feminist-3506377-Jul2017/
Irish Independent
Female bishop calls on women to join movement
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/female-bishop-calls-on-women-to-join-movement-36005939.html
Irish Times
Catholic woman bishop on Irish vocations recruitment drive
Irish Priest Calls for Diaconate Pause" by Sara MdDonald, National Catholic Reporter
See my quote at end of article. Bridget Mary
Ireland’s first female priests could be ordained as early as next summer claims Irish cleric
Bridget Mary Meehan, Ireland's first female bishop, insists that ordaining women is the key to the survival of the religion in Ireland
IRELAND’S first female priests could be ordained as soon as next summer, a trailblazing Irish cleric has claimed.
Laois-born Bridget Mary Meehan spent the past month promoting the ordination of women throughout Ireland with the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests.
And the US-based bishop told how how three Irish women – including one mum – have already signed up to defy the Vatican by becoming priests.
Speaking to the Irish Sun, Dr Bridget said: “Where we are right now as we wrap up the 31 days is we have three women in serious discernment.
“Two of them are definitely applying, one of them is probably going to apply, and we think that we possibly will be ordaining three women next year in Ireland – possibly in the summer.
“Other women who talked to us were very interested, very supportive and perhaps some of them will also take the same path.
“If they don’t, they are definitely going to become friends of the Association in supporting the journey towards equality and justice in Ireland for women in all areas, including in the Roman Catholic women priests movement.”
Former nun Bridget went against church doctrine when she was ordained a priest in the breakaway Catholic group over a decade ago.
And the Rathdowney native reckons up to a dozen more female mass-goers here could be ready to follow suit.
Dr Bridget – who visited counties including Dublin, Louth and Clare during her trip – explained: “Several women came forward and said they wanted to find out more.
“It was so phenomenal – it was almost like electricity in the room with all the questions.
“Of those women that came forward in Dublin, two of them are going to more than likely apply to the Association to take the test towards ordination.
RADIO Links:
RTE
Interview on Ray Darcy Show, Aug. 17th, 2017, 4:15-4:30 PM
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The
call has come from Laois-born Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, a former Pastoral
Nun who was ordained in the US in 2006 and is a member of the ...
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Great Interview with Gavin Grace on Clare FM
today in Ennis