Our Lady of Guadalupe calls those with political and ecclesiastical power to leave their palaces, move to the periphery and standd with the poor and the marginalized. Like Jesus, her presence and those of her followers are signs of God’s healing and justice. In this packet you will learn about the history of Mary from the early Church to the twentieth century and discover the empowering traditions of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
This resource download includes:
Mary Through History — An easy-to-read examination of Marian thought and art from the Early Church through Today
Outline and Discussion Questions to host your own four-session series on Mary of Nazareth
Articles examining the history, tradition, art, and symbolism of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Slide Presentation on Our Lady of Guadalupe
Prayer Service Celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe
Ideas for celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe in your community
On April 14 and 21, 2015, long-time FutureChurch member and Mary Magdalene advocate, Rita Houlihan, organized and sponsored two lectures at Fordham University by none other than Dr. Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, who went about setting the record straight about Mary of Magdala.
Sr. Johnson immediately got to the heart of the issue stating, “Mary of Magdala was one of Jesus’ most influential apostles-and she was not a prostitute. Mary kept vigil at the cross throughout Jesus’ crucifixion, discovered the empty tomb after Jesus’ resurrection, and was then commissioned to ‘go and tell’ the good news.”
The problem began in 591 when Pope Gregory characterized Mary of Magdala as a repentant prostitute, a label that “stuck” eclipsing her important leadership and apostolic roles, even today.”Making her a prostitute has allowed her leadership role among the disciples to be generally forgotten,” said Dr. Johnson. “For those who prefer a Church with an exclusively male hierarchy, it is easier to deal with her as a repentant sinner than as an apostolic woman who had a voice and used it.”
Our Easter Sundays will be complete only when we hear and receive the full Resurrection message and recover women’s leadership along the way.
Currently, the Standard Roman Catholic Lectionary calls for only the first half of John’s resurrection narrative (John 20:1-9) on Easter Sunday morning. Verse 10 is never read and the rest of the narrative (verses 11-18) is not read on any Sunday — but instead is read on Easter Tuesday. Years ago, the days of Easter Week were holy days of obligation, and so all Catholics would have heard John 20:11-18 on Easter Tuesday. Yet, because Easter Tuesday is no longer a holy day of obligation, the vast majority of Roman Catholics never hear John’s full resurrection narrative as told in 20:1-18 and never hear the story of Mary of Magdala’s witness of Jesus’ resurrection nor Jesus commissioning her to deliver the news of his resurrection to the community.
In Canada, the entire narrative is read on Easter Sunday. In 1992 the Canadian Catholic Bishops updated their lectionary to include John’s full resurrection story. This amendment restored the story of the Apostle to the Apostles to its prominent role in the lectionary. Thus Canadian Catholics hear the whole story and learn from Jesus’ example of inclusive ministry and his faith in the leadership of women.
John 20:10-18 is significant because it makes clear that only Mary of Magdala was in the garden with Jesus and that she was directly commissioned as the primary apostolic witness to the community. It is John’s account of Jesus’ inclusive model of leadership that most strikingly and without reservation portrays Mary of Magdala, a woman, as the primary witness of the resurrected Jesus and the first one commissioned by him to “go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and yourFather, to my God and your God’ (Jn 20:14-17).”
Download our Gospel Restoration Project to help bring the whole Easter story to your community!
In 2022, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse, known as Stephen, approached Sr. Christine Schenk, CSJ, then Executive Director of Future Church. He had prepared a service of healing for victims of clergy sexual abuse and was seeking her assistance to find a church where such a service could be held. The service included scripture, songs and hymns written specifically for the service, and a suggestion for a laying on of hands.
This download includes the outline/order of worship, a sample preaching guide, sample worship aid, and a diagram of the worship space with indications of where the various ministers were located for various parts of the service in order to help you envision your own.
Thanks to this woman known as ‘the conscience of American Catholicism’ many Catholics now know the power of nonviolent resistance and direct action in opposing injustice. What is less well known is that her conversion happened as a result of the birth of her child: “No human creature could receive or contain so vast a flood of love and joy as I often felt after the birth of my child. With this came the need to worship, to adore. I came to know God.”
Essay by Stephen Krupa, SJ; Prayer by Christine Schenk, CSJ
Clare Offreduccuo (1193 -1253) was born into a wealthy aristocratic family in Assisi. An attractive noblewoman she was expected to improve the fortune of her family by marrying into one of even greater influence. Clare instead “gave the world a bill of divorce.” At age 18 she set forth on a radical path that most women of her position dared not choose.
Essay and Prayer by Sr. Francis Therese Woznicki SSJ-TOSF
Catherine of Siena, a medieval saint and Doctor of the Church, was first and foremost an authentic human being who responded to the needs of the church and the world around her. A lay third order Dominican, she lived in her own home amid an atmosphere of exuberant lay spirituality; of emotional preaching by the newly founded mendicants, the Franciscans and Dominicans; at a time when love and service of the neighbor were newly emerging as Christian values. Her Letters, her recorded Prayers, and her major testament, The Dialogue, reveal a woman motivated by a passionate relationship with God, pursuing ever deepening selfknowledge.
Essay Catherine M. Mesade; Prayer by Laurel Jurecki
Angela Merici lived in Renaissance Italy, a turbulent time of civil wars and widespread corruption in social, political and religious institutions. The role of women was subordinate; their choice was either marriage or the cloister, controlled by “a husband or a wall.” Angela sought neither. She envisioned a new, independent expression of religious commitment for women. Her Company of Saint Ursula granted women the freedom to live consecrated lives while living in the world, bound only by the love of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.