The Just Word

Emerging voices offering inclusive, life-giving, and liberating commentary for those who preach, teach and outreach to Catholics today

October 1, 2023

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today, we invite you to explore forgiveness and sacramentality, and practical embodiment with the help of M. Shawn Copeland and Enfleshing Freedom; embody Catholic Social Teaching’s emphasis on sacramental solidarity; and embody these ideas with the help of Appetite for Change in Minneapolis.

September 24, 2023

Readings for	Date
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Today, we invite you to explore forgiveness and sacramentality, and practical embodiment with the help of M. Shawn Copeland and Enfleshing Freedom; embody Catholic Social Teaching’s emphasis on sac…	1 Oct, 2023	Read More
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Today we invite you to explore the world behind Jesus’s parable in Matthew with the help of historical theologian Richard Horsley; engage with Catholic Social Teaching’s legacy of labor justice and…	24 Sep, 2023	Read More
Feast of Hildegard von Bingen Today, we invite you to explore Hildegard von Bingen’s life, experienced with chronic pain, with the help of disability theology; embody Catholic Social Teaching’s focus on dignity, participation, …	17 Sep, 2023	Read More
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Today, we invite you to explore the mystery of forgiveness with the help of philosopher Hannah Arendt; engage the centrality of mercy in Catholic Social Teaching and its relation to justice and for…	17 Sep, 2023	Read More
Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Today, we invite you to explore displacement and suffering in the Bible and in our times with the help of theologian Catherine Keller; engage Catholic Social Teaching’s emphasis on family, communit…	10 Sep, 2023	Read More
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary time Today, we invite you to explore the experiences of the prophets through Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s examination of Jeremiah; engage Catholic Social Teaching’s fraught relationship with self-care…	3 Sep, 2023	Read More
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Today, we invite you to explore the preferential option for the poor with the help of theologian Orlando Espín, and the meaning of Peter as “the rock”; engage Catholic Social Teaching through the o…	27 Aug, 2023	Read More
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Today, we invite you to explore the story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman with the help of feminist theologian Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and the kingdom of God on earth; engage Catholic Social …	20 Aug, 2023	Read More
Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary Today, we invite you to explore Mary, the Magnificat, and the Church’s use of Mary to oppress women; engage Catholic Social Teaching’s helpful and unhelpful views on women’s roles; and embody mothe…	15 Aug, 2023	Read More
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Today, we invite you to explore types of rupture with the help of Activist Theology; engage sacred rupture, and how Catholic Social Teaching can help us with this task; and embody questions of sacr…	13 Aug, 2023	Read More
Feast of the Transfiguration Today, we invite you to explore transformation and transfiguration through theological reflection on transgender experiences; engage and combat Catholic Social Teaching that is harmful to trans peo…	6 Aug, 2023	Read More
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Please note: In 2023, The Feast of the Transfiguration, takes precedence over the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, which is not celebrated this year. Today, we invite you to explore Jesus’s healings …	6 Aug, 2023	Read More
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Today, we invite you to explore the sacred throughout our world with the help of Pop Art artist and longtime nun Corita Kent; engage Catholic Social Teaching with Pope Francis’s Evangelii gaudium a…	30 Jul, 2023	Read More
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Today, we invite you to explore Jesus’s yeast metaphor for describing the kindom of God with the help of French theologian Marie-Dominique Chenu; engage the worker-focused vision of Catholic Social…	23 Jul, 2023	Read More
Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene Today, we invite you to explore who Mary Magdalene was with the help of feminist scholar Elizabeth Johnson; engage official Church teachings, both inaccurate and accurate, about Mary Magdalene; and…	22 Jul, 2023	Read More
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Today, we invite you to explore our call to be stewards of creation with the help of Peter Maurin’s Catholic Worker “Agronomic Universities”; engage integral ecology and sustainability through Cath…	16 Jul, 2023	Read More
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Today, we invite you to explore children’s wisdom, and how slavery and racism have so deeply damaged the United States, with the help of Wendell Berry; engage the concept of synodality in the Catho…	9 Jul, 2023	Read More
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Today, we invite you to explore the crucified people of the world with the help of Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J.; engage the centrality of concern for the poor, solidarity, and work for liberation in Ca…	2 Jul, 2023	Read More
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time Today, we invite you to explore the centrality of economic justice and flourishing in Catholic thought and ethics; engage the responsibility of economic justice with the help of Pope Francis’s ency…	25 Jun, 2023	Read More
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Today, we invite you to explore disability, healing, and cure in the Jesus narratives with the help of scholar Kathy Black; engage Catholic Social Teaching, Dignity of the Human Person, disability …	18 Jun, 2023	Read More
Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ Today, we invite you to explore how Catholic nuns are connecting eucharistic theology with ecological eating; engage with Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew, the “Green Patriarch” of the Easter…	11 Jun, 2023	Read More
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Today, we invite you to explore the idol worship of white supremacy in the United States with the help of William Stringfellow; engage Catholic social thought from below with the help of leftist an…	4 Jun, 2023	Read More
Pentecost Today, we invite you to explore the descent of the Holy Spirit to communities fighting oppression, through the Pentecost connections to the Detroit Uprising, and the People’s Tribunal at the Shrine…	28 May, 2023	Read More
Solemnity of the Ascension Today, we invite you to explore the Feast of the Ascension while examining the theologian and Jesuit priest Ignacio Ellacuría’s understanding and commitment to reality and our engagement with it; e…	21 May, 2023	Read More
Sixth Sunday of Easter Today, we invite you to explore the Holy Spirit that stretches through time, as we approach Pentecost, with the help of womanist theologian Monica Coleman; engage the Holy Spirit through Catholic S…	14 May, 2023	Read More
Fifth Sunday of Easter Today, we invite you to explore the “Last Supper Discourse,” and the fate awaiting Jesus’s disciples, with the help of liberation theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez; engage Catholic Social Teaching throu…	7 May, 2023	Read More
Fourth Sunday of Easter Today, we invite you to explore the Acts of the Apostles, and Peter’s reflection on the separation between God’s creation and humanity, with the help of liberation theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez; eng…	30 Apr, 2023	Read More
Third Sunday of Easter Today, we invite you to explore women’s role in Jesus’s revelation, and its connections to women’s ordination; engage Pope Francis’s thoughts on the role of discernment in Catholic Social Teaching;…	23 Apr, 2023	Read More
Second Sunday of Easter Today, we invite you to explore the disciples’ (and our) hiding behind locked doors, and communal theology and activism; engage Catholic Social Teaching on active theology with Pope Francis’s messa…	16 Apr, 2023	Read More
Easter Sunday Today, we invite you to explore women at the forefront of human history, and the Easter story with the help of Asian feminist theologian Kwok Pui-lan; engage the importance of solidarity in Catholi…	9 Apr, 2023	Read More
Easter Vigil Today, we invite you to explore the hope of new life in the face of death-dealing racism with the help of Kelly Brown Douglas; engage the Catholic Church’s concept of human dignity as a challenge t…	8 Apr, 2023	Read More
Good Friday Today, we invite you to explore Jesus Christ’s death by way of James Cone’s prophetic meditation on the cross and the lynching tree; engage with the successes and limitations of the American bishop…	7 Apr, 2023	Read More
Holy Thursday Today, we invite you to explore the Gospel story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, with biblical ethicist William Spohn; engage with ideas of labor justice by considering the devaluation of lab…	6 Apr, 2023	Read More
Palm Sunday Today, we invite you to explore the complex qualities of the Passion narrative, with the help of our author, and Jesuit mystic Pierre Teilhard de Chardin; engage Christ’s way of love in Catholic So…	2 Apr, 2023	Read More
Fifth Sunday of Lent Today, we invite you to explore dialogue between Lakota worldviews and Catholicism, through Heȟáka Sápa, or Black Elk; engage Catholic Social Teaching on care for the Earth, and consider the Earth …	26 Mar, 2023	Read More
Solemnity of the Annunciation Today, we invite you to explore historical details that bring us closer to understanding Mary as a real human being, with the help of feminist theologian Elizabeth Johnson; engage how Catholic Soci…	25 Mar, 2023	Read More
Fourth Sunday of Lent Today, we invite you to explore the painful context of the Gospel of John’s depiction of Jews and Judaism through the insights of the Jewish New Testament scholar, Adele Reinhartz; engage the chang…	19 Mar, 2023	Read More
Third Sunday of Lent Today we invite you to explore Jesus’s encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well through theologian Elizabeth Johnson’s feminist approach; engage the importance of dialogue for both lay people…	12 Mar, 2023	Read More
Second Sunday of Lent Today, with the help of Saint Augustine, we invite you to explore God’s call to awaken and find God’s transfiguring power in ourselves; engage Catholic social teaching in Gustavo Gutiérrez’s messag…	5 Mar, 2023	Read More
First Sunday of Lent Today we invite you to explore how James Baldwin interprets God’s covenant with Noah; engage with the U.S. bishops’ letter on racism, and its shortcomings; and embody the difficult racial honesty t…	27 Feb, 2023	Read More
Ash Wednesday Today we invite you to explore, with liberation theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez, the radical Lenten calling to prepare for God by becoming real neighbors to one another; to engage the concepts of Cath…	22 Feb, 2023	Read More
Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Today we invite you to explore Jesus’s culturally and historically specific “folk wisdoms,” and the theology of Jon Sobrino; engage Pope Francis’s writing on community and solidarity in Fratelli tu…	19 Feb, 2023	Read More
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Today we invite you to explore Jesus’s parables as a way to raise consciousness among the poor; engage the Catholic Church’s stated tenets of Catholic social teaching, and their undeniable message …	12 Feb, 2023	Read More
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time We invite you to reflect on our reading from Isaiah through Saint Oscar Romero’s vision that the Church choose to serve the world of the poor; engage with the concept of the “preferential option fo…	5 Feb, 2023	Read More
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time In today’s offering, we will explore how scripture can inspire an “integral ecology” that brings together environmentalism with social justice, especially through the Beatitudes; we will engage Pop…	29 Jan, 2023	Read More
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Today, we invite you to consider themes of light, truth, and justice through the theology of Eleazar Fernandez; protest as a method for seeking justice as acknowledged in Catholic social teaching; …	22 Jan, 2023	Read More
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Today, through one person’s encounter with theologian Ada María Isasi-Díaz, we invite you to reflect on the individual and communal dimensions of our vocations given to us in baptism. In Catholic s…	15 Jan, 2023	Read More
Epiphany Sunday To recognize that different religious traditions offer distinctive insights into the nature of Ultimate Reality. Today we invite you to explore the magi’s discernment of the Spirit as outside of ou…	8 Jan, 2023	Read More
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God To reverence Mary as a person with agency: Today we invite you to explore Mary as Theotokos–God-Bearer; engage with our communal struggle for a brand new day in our church; and embody the suffering…	1 Jan, 2023	Read More
Christmas Mass During the Day To have an ecological conversion: Today we invite you to explore the ecological implications of Christmas using Elizabeth’s Johnson’s perspective of the incarnation; engage with Pope Francis’ call …	25 Dec, 2022	Read More
Fourth Sunday of Advent To reimagine lineage: Today we invite you to explore lineage with Patricia Datchuck Sánchez; engage with Thomas Berry’s Principles of the Universe; and embody the belief that Earth is our common ho…	18 Dec, 2022	Read More
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe To grapple with multiple narratives: Today we invite you to explore how one person’s encounter with Gudalupe has been and continues to be transformative; engage with Guadalupe’s historic and curren…	12 Dec, 2022	Read More
Third Sunday of Advent To prophetic imagination: Today we invite you to explore how God’s creation teaches us about God’s kindom of peace and justice, to engage the “see-judge-act method” in the Catholic social tradition…	11 Dec, 2022	Read More
Second Sunday of Advent To celebrate the LGBTQI community: Today we invite you to explore a reorientation to the Church’s teaching on queerness from Jesus’ cross to Jesus’ birth through the work of Paul G. Crowley SJ; eng…	4 Dec, 2022	Read More
First Sunday of Advent To disarm: Today we invite you to explore Isaiah’s vision of disarmament; engage with Pope Francis’ firm condemnation of possessing nuclear weapons; and embody the creative enactment of turning swo…	27 Nov, 2022	Read More

The Just Word

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Feast of Hildegard von Bingen

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary time