I went to Sunday Mass and heard a woman preach.

And it meant more to me than I expected.

One of the hard transitions to living in West Michigan is the lack diversity in finding a parish community while also being a very conservative part of the state. While Travis and I have found a local church that I don’t loathe, it doesn’t feel like my old spiritual community in Detroit.

Through my friend Anna, I have started to attend different programs at the Dominican Center in Grand Rapids. I am planning a celebration for the feast day of St. Phoebe, a deacon in the early Church who delivered St. Paul’s letter to Rome. It is a community that I am seeing myself doing more with and a place that nurtures my spirit.

The Dominican sisters open their weekly Sunday worship up to the community and I have been a few times in the last five months or so. The preaching speaks to my heart and the warmth of the religious sisters feels like a cozy, warm blanket knit with love. Not to mention when I go (or when Travis went with me once) we bring the age range down by 30-40 years.

Last Sunday, I went myself (Travis was out of town). I had my “slow start” morning - read for 20 minutes, read the Sunday readings, and wrote my Morning Pages.

I arrived at the Chapel of the Word at the Motherhouse. Each time I go, a new sister introduces herself to me and gives me a warm welcome. Today it was Sr. Mary Anne.

“We’re so glad you are here joining us for worship, Patty. Please don’t mind if I happen to forget your name.”

When it came time to proclaim the Gospel, I was even more surprised to see Sr. Mary Anne carry the book of the Gospel to the ambo and even more surprised when we all sat down she gave the homily.

It meant more to me than I realized as I drove home afterwards.

A lifelong Catholic and almost 40 years old, I have never seen that. I have seen plenty of lay Catholic women preach in various, non-liturgical settings before. Heck, I have done it before myself. But I have never seen a Catholic woman do so in the context of Mass.

I liked seeing a Catholic woman preach, hearing a woman’s perspective from the pulpit. To be honest, I was surprised how much it meant to me. As a Catholic lay woman, there could be so many more ways that the Catholic Church could elevate and raise up the voices of women in leadership, preaching, and teaching.

I understand the theological context and easily regurgitate the Church’s official teaching on why priesthood is not open to women. I have read the texts and written the papers. I know the Catechism references backwards and forwards.

While this is a closed topic for official Church doctrine, the same is not necessarily true when it comes to case of women deacons. Enter Discerning Deacons and the ministry of St. Phoebe.

I am a firm believer in that if something once existed in Church history, than there exists context for it to someday come back. The permanent diaconate is one example. Only after the Second Vatican Council did the Church bring this back. Another would be clerical celibacy, in the sense it celibacy was not always required for priests. The first pope Peter was a married man and presumed to have a family.

In the early Church women deacons existed. Women deacons like Phoebe baptized and anointed women, proclaimed the Gospel, preached, taught catechism to children,
assisted at the altar, administered finances, assisted in marriage annulment investigations, and cared for women on the margins, especially those who were sick, poor or imprisoned.

St. Phoebe was a deacon at Cenchreae and a financial supporter of St. Paul. She was entrusted with church leadership during Paul’s travels and delivered his letter to the Romans.

“I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a diakonos of the church at Cenchreae,
that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the holy ones, and help her
in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a benefactor to many and to
me as well” (Rom 16:1-2).

If women deacons like St. Phoebe existed in the early church (which they did), they can exist again. Pope Francis created commissions to continue to study and discern the idea of female deacons.

In the final document for Synod, in Paragraph 60,¹ it states:

There is no reason or impediment that should prevent women from carrying out leadership roles in the Church: what comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped. Additionally, the question of women’s access to diaconal ministry remains open. This discernment needs to continue.

The study and discernment needs to continue. There is no reason or impediment that should prevent women from carrying out leadership roles in the Church.

The one little line - what comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped - that gives me hope, fire, and holy imagination if and when the Catholic Church could expand diaconal ministry to include women.

I drove home last Sunday and that little phrase was ringing in my heart and mind.

I felt grateful to see a woman preach in a liturgical setting in my tradition.

It filled me with hope and left me curious to see Sr. Mary Anne or another Dominican sister preach a Sunday homily.

What comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped.

Never ever.

To hoping and dreaming,

Patty

1. https://www.synod.va/content/dam/synod/news/2024-10-26_final-document/ENG---Documento-finale.pdf