Author: Ellie Harty

November 1st, 2022

I can’t help it – I just feel like celebrating!

Doors are cracking open. Forbidden topics (Women’s ordination!) are open for discussion. As the just newly released Vatican document says in so many words: ”Spaces in our tents are enlarging!” I am going to resist the temptation to say an exasperated ”finally!” and jump to celebration instead. It’s early days, of course. Nothing “magisterial” has…
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September 27th, 2022

It Just Might Have Changed Everything

“What difference would it make?” Professor Emerita Ross S. Kraemer asked this question both before and after presenting her analysis of women’s authorship in Jewish and Christian literature in the Greco-Roman period (ca 400 BCE to 400 CE) on September 20 as part of FutureChurch’s Women Erased series. Since hard evidence supporting women’s authorship is…
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September 20th, 2022

What Is The Matter with Us?

You know how you’re not supposed to discuss religion, politics, or sex if you want to have a peace-filled and conflict-free gathering among friends? Well, the other day, a group of us were talking about a book we had all read about modern Irish history which included as a predominant topic the collapse of the…
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September 13th, 2022

Thought Control? – Aha, Foiled Again!

Here are two books I would love to see taught in all middle schools but especially Catholic ones.Both (almost) made me want to start teaching again – even in middle school! One is called Attack of the Black Rectangles by Amy Sarig King. The menacing “black rectangles” of the title attack pre-teen’s schoolbooks, first encapsulating…
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September 6th, 2022

Motivation!

Aren’t we all bursting with pride in the undaunted intrepidness, the unwavering dignity, and the unfailing spirit of our WOC and WOW representatives and witnesses at the cardinals’ gathering in Rome last week? We salute you inspiring women, and we shower you with praise! As it turned out, our women had come perfectly prepared for…
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August 23rd, 2022

Sacred Threads

Often, when I prepare dinner for friends or for the family gathered for a special occasion, I become conscious of the sacredness of the meal, especially when it is attentively prepared and genially shared. I also become aware that the spaces in which it is prepared and in which it is served have become sacred.…
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August 16th, 2022

Planning Our Days

Do you find yourself in E. B. White’s quandary? It’s hard to know when to respond to the seductiveness of the world and when to respond to its challenge. If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning…
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August 9th, 2022

Put Them There!

“Unless you have a good reason to believe they were not there, put them there!” Dr. Amy-Jill Levine issued this charge to us in her marvelous contribution to FutureChurch’s Women Erased series with a presentation titled, “Women in 2nd Temple Judaism.” She was referring to the missing women of the Bible, specifically in the New…
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August 2nd, 2022

Three Questions

Each morning I have to wait an hour after taking a prescribed medication before I can eat anything or – gulp! – even have coffee. What does anyone do with an hour like that? Nothing especially productive in my case. (Please don’t judge: I haven’t had coffee yet!) What I do manage to do is…
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July 26th, 2022

Honor: Yours, Mine, and Ours

Be honorable yourself if you wish to associate with honorable people. -Proverb I am not a big sports fan as such, but while away visiting relatives, I caught a bit of the televised Tour de France cycling race. It happened to be the segment of the race in which the two lead cyclists vying for…
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