Christine Schenk

Simply Spirit: I was recently re-inspired by some young sisters, who place their confidence not in the human institutions that have served the church in the past but in the God who summons them to serve in new ways in the future.

Simply Spirit: "Every single one of you has a light and a fire inside of you that nobody has the right to put out. ... We are leaders and we are all capable of amazing change."

Simply Spirit: Former Irish President Mary McAleese prophetically said that Catholic patriarchalism "acts as a powerful brake on dismantling the architecture of misogyny wherever it is found." She was speaking at the March 8 Voices of Faith event in Rome.

Simply Spirit: Sometimes I need to be reminded that, current political debacles aside, the whole world isn't going to hell in a hand basket. What we do (and usually take for granted) is a powerful witness for what sisters are all about.

Simply Spirit: Decades after Watergate, our nation is in the throes of seeking truth about critical issues affecting our democracy. What is a Jesus-follower to do?

Simply Spirit: From a midwife's point of view all that heavenly host stuff is afterglow. The long-awaited child is born, Mary is safe, and Joseph as proud and relieved as any new dad trying not to faint over the intensity of watching his wonder woman wife give birth.

Simply Spirit: The plea I want to make, is to ask you to stay in the church — as messed up as it is — and be the change you wish to see. Change only happens because people like us make it happen.

Simply Spirit: I learned from a sister-mentor that prayer is not a ritual to please a somewhat strict Father-God. When I realized prayer was a relationship, my heart began to open up in unexpected ways. And great stuff began to happen. 

Simply Spirit: Most Christians are completely unaware that women helped establish many of the earliest churches in Greece, Turkey and Rome. This is because church tradition always credits their founding to Paul.

Simply Spirit: Too many bishops have adopted a corporate mentality that views parish communities as so many commercial franchises to be managed, rather than the living body of Christ. 

Simply Spirit: Despite what my overachieving messiah complex tells me, it is not my responsibility to save the world. That belongs to a God who is infinite and incomprehensible love.