Christine Schenk

Simply Spirit: On her feast day, I want to reflect on something St. Mary of Magdala might find puzzling: What is the big deal about recognizing women's leadership in today's Catholic faith communities?

Simply Spirit: Racism and white supremacy are killing our Black and brown sisters and brothers. We white people — especially white Catholics — are being called to do something about it. But what must we do?

Simply Spirit: The mental state of acedia tells us that the world and our church are beyond the power of God to save. This is where our Advocate, the Holy Spirit — our Advocate-Spirit — comes in.

Simply Spirit: Addressing the woeful omission of biblical women leaders in lectionary texts should be a top priority for today's Catholic Church. We asked for this at the time of the 2008 synod on the Word. What about now?

Simply Spirit: Women's History Month is a great time to celebrate the 'mothers of the church,' early female believers who shaped our church's future no less than the better-known 'fathers.'

Simply Spirit: A Deadly Education, the intriguing first book in Naomi Novik's new series, led me to think in new ways about how we are called to use our own graced "superpowers" to overcome evil and promote good.

Simply Spirit: I think it oddly providential — or perhaps synchronistic — that the horrific events at the U.S. Capitol occurred on the Feast of the Epiphany. An epiphany is a manifestation or an awakening.

Simply Spirit: It may be time to own our despair. The clerical system isn't working anymore. Perhaps it was never meant to work, only we didn't realize it.

Simply Spirit: Okay, I have a confession to make. Last spring, as I watched the coronavirus pandemic explode across our planet, I was beyond furious at Donald Trump. (But that's not my confession.)

Simply Spirit: In a group called "Believers for Biden," I did not expect to be so deeply moved by praying together and witnessing that our shared faith requires us to help the most vulnerable and to promote the common good.

Simply Spirit: The Vatican's recent instruction on parishes restates a male-celibate-priest-controlled vision that is already moribund. St. Paul reminds us of a better way of mutuality in ministry: the example of Aquila and Prisca.

Simply Spirit: The Catholic Church should not be vilified for accessing a greatly needed government program that protects its employees. But it can get tricky.

Simply Spirit: It is not easy to be "put to the test." Which is why Jesus instructs us to ask for God's help in a world too often seduced and corrupted by the power of evil.

Simply Spirit: Two months ago, I was privileged to accompany a remarkable group of people touring ancient Christian sites in Greece, with some impressive female leaders traveling right alongside us.

Simply Spirit: We remembered Jesus as we broke bread and raised our cups of wine in front of our webcams. No one could accuse us of attempting to say Mass. But there were many priests around our virtual table.

Simply Spirit: The third FutureChurch pilgrimage to the Greek sites where women helped found Christianity brought to light the strength of the faith and the work women do for it today.

Simply Spirit: There is much good news for our world in Querida Amazonia. But much is lacking, for Amazonian Catholics and also for Catholics like me, who long to return to the practice of the early church.

Ally Kateusz command of early texts does a fine job of uncovering gender balance in second to 10th-century Christian leadership, but her analysis of visual evidence offers only thought-provoking speculation.

Simply Spirit: I had the pleasure of taking my niece and grandnieces to see the movie "Little Women." Growing up, Louisa May Alcott's classic was my all-time favorite book. Love is central to the work.

Simply Spirit: People who live close to the earth have much to teach us about living in harmony with a fractured world beloved by God, who, to quote Pope John Paul I, is "our father; even more he is our mother."