Women of the Bible

Have you ever wondered how to follow God and trust him, even when you don’t know where you’re going ... or you feel inadequate … or you’re alone or your world is falling apart? How do you DO that? How do you know you can trust God? In Becoming Women of the Word: How to Answer God’s Call with Purpose ...

Reading the end of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, the part where he lists everyone he wants to greet, I was struck by verse 13: “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine” (NABRE). Is that one woman or two? The English Standard Version, while not as literal, gets across what most commentators think he meant: ...

The man lies on a stretcher, desperately in need of medical attention. He’s not far from the door to the hospital, but no one will admit him. It’s a Union army hospital—and the man is a Confederate soldier. A nurse tries in vain to get him help. Finally she cries out, fiercely, “Everyone deserves mercy!” That dramatic scene was part ...

Above the altar in the Chapel of the Crucifixion in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre — traditionally recognized as the spot where Jesus was nailed to the cross — is a mosaic. A life-sized Jesus lies spread out on the ground where the soldier has just finished hammering nails into his hands. A woman weeps at his feet, but ...

Nobody ever talks about the disciples at the well in Samaria. Everyone zeroes in on the woman, and understandably so: with her many past husbands and her daily slog for water, she represents that “God-shaped vacuum” in all of us that can’t be filled by anything (or anyone!) but God. We all want what she gets: living water that radically ...

I leave soon on pilgrimage to Israel and I can’t stop thinking about what it will be like to stand in the Garden of Gethsemane and walk the Via Dolorosa – the path Jesus likely took through Jerusalem from his trial to the Crucifixion. I’ve walked it before, but this time I will be focusing on what it might have ...

It was a crazy morning. I was racing around the house throwing clothes in the hamper, dishes in the dishwasher, trying to get it all done before going to work. My husband passed me on his way to daily mass and I exploded. How could he be going to mass?! Doesn’t he think I want to go to mass? But ...

Sometimes our worlds crash in on us without warning. Twenty years ago, our fourth child was born with a severe, life-threatening heart defect. We were devastated. I’ll never forget watching them wheel our baby away and wondering if we’d ever see him again. I was numb with fear. For nine months I had dreamt about this baby, wondering who it ...

It’s my opinion that Martha is vastly under-rated. Perhaps that’s appropriate. She’s the patron saint of servants, after all, and servants aren’t meant to garner attention and praise. But a servant in the kingdom of God is great indeed! With her memorial being celebrated today, I’ve been thinking about Martha’s life and witness in the wider context of biblical descriptions ...