Some clips from homily and entire text of homily below:
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Mary of Pentecost: A Call to Radical Equality in a Church for All
by Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP
Beloved friends in the Mary of Pentecost Community, San Francisco,
it is a joy and a blessing to be with you on this sacred feast day!
Today, we gather not only to remember a moment in the early Church, but to live into it — to claim the Spirit-filled legacy of Mary, who leads us with courage, wisdom, and love. Your community reflects the heart of Pentecost: alive with prayer, vibrant with hope, and open to the Spirit’s call. Thank you for the gift of your presence and witness.
In Acts 1:14, we find Mary in the upper room with the apostles:
"All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus..."
In Acts 2, when the Spirit descends in tongues of fire, Mary is present — not silent, not passive, but praying, receiving, participating in the Pentecost moment. This is the same Spirit who overshadowed her at the Annunciation now empowering her again, not as a biological vessel but as a spiritual leader and equal participant in birthing the Church.
Feminist theologians like Elizabeth Johnson emphasize that Mary’s presence at Pentecost shows her as a disciple among disciples. In "Truly Our Sister", Johnson describes Mary as a "woman of Spirit" who stands in solidarity with the community, not above or outside it. She becomes a symbol of God's power in women, challenging traditional hierarchies that restrict women’s roles in ministry.
The Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement (RCWP and ARCWP) claims Mary of Pentecost as a spiritual ancestor. Her presence at the heart of the early Church challenges patriarchal assumptions that leadership and sacramental ministry must be male.
If Mary was there when the Church received its Spirit-led commissioning, then she — along with the other women — received the same authority as Peter and the male apostles.
Therefore "Mary was the first priest — she bore Christ within her, proclaimed his coming, and was present in every pivotal moment of his ministry, death, resurrection, and the birth of the Church. She embodies the priestly vocation of women in every age.
This insight reframes Mary’s traditional image into one of active priesthood: not ordained by institutional authority, but empowered by the Spirit and authorized by her faithful embodiment of the divine mission.
Hence, Mary is Priest, Prophet, and Pastor and so are we!
Her life illustrates the threefold ministry of our baptismal equality: priest, prophet and pastor.
As Priest, Mary makes Christ present in the world — first in her body, then in her continued presence in the faith community.
As Prophet, her Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55) proclaims God’s justice and preferential love for the poor — an echo of liberation theology and feminist resistance.
As Pastor, Mary tends to the community in its fear and confusion after Jesus’ death, offering comfort and courage in the Upper Room.
This threefold witness grounds the ministries of women priests and inclusive communities today who serve marginalized groups, lead Eucharistic celebrations, and speak prophetically against injustice everywhere.
Mary’s Pentecost Legacy is a discipleship of equals in a Church without walls.
In a Church where the Spirit breaks through boundaries of gender, class, and clericalism. Mary of Pentecost is a theological icon of this boundary-breaking. Her presence reminds us that the Church was birthed in diversity, mutuality, and co-leadership — not hierarchy.
Feminist theologian Miriam Therese Winter in The Gospel According to Mary writes:
"Mary's Magnificat was already her first Pentecost — a prophetic outpouring of God’s power from the margins."
In this way, Mary of Pentecost prefigures the vision of the women priests’ movement: a Church reborn in the Spirit, where leadership is coequal, inclusive, and sacramental in the lives of all the baptized — not just in ordained men.
Pentecost is an awakening to radical equality.
The Pentecost narrative is often read as the moment when Church hierarchy begins — but feminist theology reads it differently. Pentecost is the democratization of the Spirit. The Spirit doesn’t anoint titles, She anoints people. Mary, the other women, and the apostles all receive the same Spirit, speak in different tongues, and proclaim the Gospel. All are called, gifted and bearers of divine power.
This egalitarian outpouring undergirds the women priests movement’s vision of inclusive, coequal ministry. Pentecost is not about succession from Peter, but about indwelling from the Spirit. Women priests today see themselves not as rebels against Church order, but as inheritors of the Pentecost mission to speak the Word in every language, especially the language of justice, equality, and compassion in a renewed model of priestly ministry rooted in our baptismal equality.
The same Holy Spirit that descended like tongues of flame in Jerusalem is speaking again today — in the voices of women claiming their call to priesthood, in communities gathered beyond cathedral walls, and in every soul longing for a Church rooted not in exclusion, but in love. compassion and justice.
Beloved community, on this Feast of Pentecost, we gather in the Spirit of renewal, power, and holy transformation. At the heart of this sacred story is Mary of Pentecost as a present and powerful witness to a Church in birth and becoming.
Mary stands at the center of the Church’s genesis, revealing what a Spirit-filled community truly looks like: a Church where gender is no barrier to grace, where all gifts are welcomed, and where leadership is rooted in love, courage, and faithful response to God’s call.
In Mary, we see a model of pastoral leadership grounded in relational presence and radical trust in the Spirit. She is the first to say yes to the Incarnation, and now, at Pentecost, she says yes again — this time to the birth of the Church.
As Ilia Delio so powerfully reminds us:
“Where the Spirit is, there is newness, surprise, life. The Spirit does not move backward into structures, but forward into becoming.”
Mary of Pentecost invites us into that becoming. She is not calling us to replicate an old ecclesial order but to co-create a new one — a Church of radical welcome, co-responsibility, and sacramental joy. A Church where the leadership of women is not an exception but an expression of the Spirit’s boundless creativity.
As we honor this sacred feast, may Mary — Spirit-filled disciple, first priest of Christ, and pastoral witness — continue to lead us into the Church we are becoming: coequal, compassionate, and rooted in justice. May we find in her a model of loving leadership, prophetic boldness, and pastoral tenderness.
As we look toward the future of our global Church, we lift our hearts in prayer for Pope Leo and the People of God:
Spirit of Pentecost,
We pray for Pope Leo as he begins his sacred ministry among us.
May he draw near to the People of God,
especially those on the margins — the excluded, the silenced, the overlooked.
May he recognize in our women-led communities
the presence of Christ alive —
in the joyful proclamation of the Gospel,
in the celebration of the sacraments,
and in the radical equality of the baptized.
And we, the People of God,
empowered by the same Spirit that filled Mary of Pentecost,
commit ourselves to walk with him as courageous witnesses to the Gospel in this time of darkness, wars, and injustice
May we together be healers of wounds,
builders of bridges, and prophets of transformation.
May our Church become ever more whole —
rooted in justice, alive in love,
and open to the Spirit who leads us forward
into newness, surprise, and life.
Happy Feast Day, Mary of Pentecost Community!
Let us rise with the Spirit, together —
into the Church we are becoming!
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