| Blessing of the Week: A Reflection on "Rest in a Time of Chaos" |
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On Wednesday of this week FutureChurch was honored to host Laurie Cassidy and Elise Gower for a program titled “Rest in a Time of Chaos.” Throughout the two-hour program, I felt my nervous system re-set. The tone was gentle, beginning with a meditation during which we visualized placing our feelings and worries on an altar. Words like “helpless” “anxious” and “grieving” were shared in the chat as we let ourselves admit the feelings that we are carrying as we see the injustices of the world around us.
After we laid our burdens down, Elise began by sharing wisdom from Tricia Hersey’s text Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto. Hersey, founder of The Nap Ministry, teaches us that rest is an act of liberation. When we rest, we reject grind culture and white supremacy and instead give ourselves space to dream, to be creative, to consider a different way forward. Rest is not a time to re-charge in order to then be productive, says Hersey, but rather rest in itself is productive. When we make space to rest, we remember that we are an embodied people. As an example of this practice, Elise lifted up maroons. She explained that the maroons were people who escaped the terror of chattel slavery and founded independent, hidden settlements. Through their actions they rejected the broken system and chose to live in a third space– in this world, but not of it. This powerful example moved those who were listening, myself included, and inspired us all to consider what it means for us to also be in the world, but not of it.
Overall, this understanding of rest as a productive way to reclaim myself and recognize that my worth is not wrapped up in my "doing" was new to me. Even the morning after the program I found myself completing household tasks more intentionally and deliberately, recognizing that rush is the opposite of rest.
After some time to discuss our relationship with rest in small groups, Laurie reconvened to share some of Walter Bruggeman’s wisdom on the practice of Sabbath. Laurie explained that Sabbath is our response to God’s desire to be in relationship with us. When we slow down, unplug, and reclaim our groundedness, we are remembering to prioritize our relationship with God. It is a recognition that the place that we are standing is enough, we don’t need to be anything that we are not, and that when we slow down we enter back into the natural rhythm of nature. Laurie reminded us that the first Sabbath took place when the Israelites were in exile– and to make the intentional choice to slow down in that time was a deliberate act to say they were loved by God.
As the program concluded, Laurie led us in a meditation of love– love from someone close to us, love from an ancestor, and love from God. It is not always easy to cultivate that sense of peace through a zoom screen, but it happened on Wednesday night. I am grateful to be part of the FutureChurch community and have experiences that remind me who I am… and whose I am.
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March 8, 2026
Preaching for the Third Sunday of Lent, Sr. Xiomara Méndez Hernández, OP offers a powerful reflection on the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well, inviting us into our own inviting us into courageous dialogue, deep encounter, and transformation:
"Indeed, we can be transformed by an encounter at the Well. We might risk receiving Living Water. It could also happen that by being gifted with Living Water, we become that gift."
Sister Xiomara, is an Adrian Dominican Sister and the Executive Director of Dominican Sisters Conference. Sister Xiomara holds a Master’s Degree in Pastoral Studies from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and is a Board Certified Chaplain with the National Association of Catholic Chaplains. For more than 20 years, she has had the opportunity to preach in both Spanish and English. Before she became a religious sister, she was a fashion designer in her native country, the Dominican Republic. She currently lives in Miami, Florida.
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| The Time Is Now: Let Mary Magdalene Preach the Resurrection |
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| This Easter, FutureChurch is inviting parishioners to ask their pastor or pastoral leader to proclaim the full Resurrection Gospel, John 20:1–18, during Easter Sunday liturgy. |
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Hearing the entire passage allows the Church to encounter the complete Easter story — including Jesus commissioning Mary Magdalene as the first witness and proclaimer of the Resurrection.
Rooted in paragraph 60 of the Synod on Synodality’s Final Document, this invitation reflects the Church’s call to give Scripture passages that tell women’s stories “adequate space” in the liturgy.
To support you in making this request, FutureChurch has compiled a set of resources, including:
- a sample, adaptable letter you can use to start the conversation
- tips for approaching a pastor or pastoral leader
- responses to common concerns and alternative ideas
- practical and theological/pastoral reasons for proclaiming the full passage
- a Mary Magdalene fact sheet
Use these resources, reach out to your pastoral leader, and help ensure that the Church’s first Easter preacher is fully heard this Easter.
On Wednesday night, the FutureChurch staff hosted a launch call to discuss the inspiration behind this project, provide an overview of the resources available to help you, and share real-world insights about approaching your pastor/pastoral team with this request. The recording can be viewed by clicking the link below.
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| FutureChurch's Lent 2026 Programming |
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March 18, 2026 | 7:00pm ET
In this moment, when powerful forces are sowing division, attacking and disappearing our siblings, we are called to resilience, as individuals and as a community. Practices of resilience can take many shapes –different strokes for different folks. In this workshop, we will draw from the wisdom wells of our neighbors’ traditions—exploring the poetry of the first Buddhist nuns and the diary of Etty Hillesum, a Dutch Jew in Nazi occupied Amsterdam. These women model for us in 2026 a path of resilience. Their writings reveal rich inner lives. They find meaning in magnifying beauty even as they are enduring immense suffering. Join us as we work out our muscles of awareness, holding in tension the competing realities of this moment—the heartbreak and the joy, the cruelty and the beauty. In the words of Professor Hanna Reichel, author of For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional, “the horror is real, but it is not the only thing that is true.”
Lynn Cooper is the Associate Director of the University Chaplaincy and Catholic Chaplain at Tufts University. She holds a Doctor of Ministry from Boston University School of Theology and an M.Div from Harvard Divinity School. Working in a multifaith chaplaincy context in higher education has been one of the great gifts of her life. At Tufts, she runs an interfaith friendship for students, faculty, and staff, facilitates the interfaith student council, and directs an intergenerational oral history that magnifies the wisdom and stories of lay folks. Lynn's first book, Embracing Our Time: The Sacrament of Interfaith Friendship, came out in May 2025 from Fortress Press.
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March 24, 2026 | 8:00pm ET - 9:30pm ET
Perhaps there is no clearer example of institutional resistance to God’s desire to dwell among us than the crucifixion of Jesus. Yet institutions—both religious and civil—also obstruct God’s inbreaking in quieter, more insidious ways. In this session, Father Anne will draw from Part Two of her new book, The Shepherd Within, to help us recognize how these dynamics operate in our own lives and communities, and to invite us into the faithful work of naming, resisting, and overcoming them.
Please note that, while it receives FutureChurch’s recommendation, the book is not required to attend this program. To learn more or purchase The Shepherd Within, click here. We also invite you to review our Advent evening of reflection https://futurechurch.org/advent-2025-shepherd-within/with Father Anne to learn more about Part One.
*This evening of reflection will alternate between presentation by Father Anne and moments for quiet personal reflection/journaling during the first hour (8-9pm ET). Attendees are invited to stay online for an optional time of faith sharing and discussion (9 – 9:30pm ET).
Father Anne was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 2021 through a reform movement called the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. Because the Roman Catholic Church prevents the full participation of women in Church life, Father Anne was forced to choose between obedience to God and obedience to Church law. Choosing God, she was excommunicated, ending her career in the Church she loves. She now devotes her life to gender justice in one of the most powerful institutions in the world. Father Anne has a Master of Divinity from Jesuit School of Theology and a Master of Arts in Rhetoric and Writing Studies from San Diego State University. Her deepest desire is to serve as a parish priest in the Roman Catholic Church. She works for the day this dream comes true.
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March 28, 2026 | 2:00pm ET / 11:00am PT
What does prophetic inclusivity look like in our faith communities at a time when our Church and world are crying out for justice, peace, and equity? Join DignityUSA and FutureChurch for a powerful and timely Lenten reflection featuring Catholic lay minister, immigration attorney, LGBTQ+ advocate, and faith-based community organizer Yunuen Trujillo. Grounded in her work at the intersections of faith, justice, and identity, Yunuen will challenge and inspire us to reflect deeply on intersectionality, privilege, vulnerability, and solidarity—and on how we are called to stand together with courage and hope this Lenten season. This program will be offered with simultaneous Spanish translation, and there will be dedicated Spanish-language breakout rooms for conversation.
Yunuen Trujillo (she/her/hers) is a Catholic lay minister, author, faith-based community organizer, and immigration and workers’ rights attorney. As a lay minister, she has served in Young Adult Ministry for more than 15 years and now serves in inclusive Catholic LGBTQ ministry. Yunuen has been a regular speaker at the annual Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, as well as at other regional religious formation congresses. As a community organizer, she has worked with L.A. Voice PICO, a faith-based, multi-faith, multiracial organization that works to create a society reflecting the dignity of all persons by addressing issues such as immigrant rights, education, and criminal justice reform.
Yunuen is also the founder of @lgbtcatholics on Instagram, an online platform that provides resources for inclusive Catholic LGBTQ+ ministry. She previously served as the Religious Formation Coordinator (Sp) for the Catholic Ministry with Lesbian and Gay Persons of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Yunuen is the author of LGBT Catholics: A Guide for Inclusive Ministry and its Spanish counterpart, Católicos LGBTQ: Una Guía para Pastoral Inclusiva—both published by Paulist Press. The Spanish edition is an award-winning book, recognized in 2025 by the Association of Catholic Publishers.
Yunuen is also a board member of two prophetic organizations: New Ways Ministry and Future Church. Currently, Yunuen is focused on using her intersectional voice and lived experience to advance justice and build much-needed bridges across social justice movements.
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| Other Events and Resources |
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| The Dorothy Day Guild | March 8th | 8:00 - 9:30pm EST via Zoom |
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| In the Footsteps of Dorothy Day: Catholic Women and Social Justice Webinar |
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To celebrate International Women's Day on March 8th, we would like to welcome you to to a special online event! This year's theme for IWD is social justice, and we've chosen to highlight an intergenerational group of Catholic women whose activism has been inspired by Dorothy's legacy of Gospel nonviolence, voluntary poverty, and hospitality. You're invited to join
Clare Grady, Michelle Sherman, Brenna Cussen Anglada, and Sister Helen Prejeanfor an evening of conversation on how faith and exemplars like Dorothy have shaped their work on behalf of the poor, the incarcerated, youth, Indigenous communities, and victims of war and violence in the United States and abroad. This conversation will be moderated by our 2025 Dorothy Day Guild Graduate Research Fellow,
Magdalena Muñoz Pizzulic.
Register here.
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| Catholic Women's Council | March 14th at 8pm EST via Zoom |
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| Women Resisting Patriarchy: Listening Session |
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All over the world, women are resisting the hierarchical and patriarchal structures of the Catholic Church, which grants all decision-making power exclusively to a male priesthood. Soline Humbert is therefore going to talk about the power and significance of our divine calling and Rev. Dianne Willman will give us insight into how women are living this change through the power of Ruah.
In breakout rooms, we then want to share our own experiences and consider how we are resisting the patriarchal structures of the church together and what needs to be done to achieve substantial reforms.
Simultaneous translations will be available in: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian.
Register here.
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| Dominican Sisters of Hope and the Center at Mariandale | March 23rd at 10am ET via Zoom |
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| Pilgrims of Hope in a Year of a New Pope |
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In a year of violence throughout the globe, an on-going environmental crisis, and an increasingly divisive political climate, how might we be called to be pilgrims of hope? How has Pope Leo XIV's first months as Pope shaped this discussion?
Join the Dominican Sisters of Hope and the Center at Mariandale as we welcome Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, OP. In this special online event, we'll reflect on what it could mean to be a pilgrim of hope in this Jubilee year of the election of Pope Leo XIV, the first pope from the U.S.
As they celebrate their 30th year, the Congregation and Sisters are honored to welcome this former Master of the Order of Preachers and internationally recognized author, preacher, and retreat presenter. Fr. Radcliffe was elevated by Pope Francis to Cardinal in December 2024. His books have been bestsellers, particularly I Call You Friends, Seven Last Words, Why Go to Church?, The Drama of the Eucharist, and What Is the Point of Being a Christian? He is well known throughout the globe for preaching retreats and, in the past two years led those gathered for the Synod on Synodality in reflections prior to the start of their deliberations.
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Reflecting with Cardinal Radcliffe is Dominican Sister of Hope Maureen Sullivan, OP, a noted scholar of Vatican II and emerita professor of theology at St. Anselm's College. Sr. Maureen has written two books on the historic Council: 101 Questions and Answers on Vatican II (2002) and The Road to Vatican II: Key Changes in Theology (2007), both published by Paulist Press. She has been honored by Future Church and is the 2021 recipient of the F. Sadlier Dinger Award. In recent years Sr. Maureen has presented at Mariandale twice with church historian Massimo Faggioli, PhD, on the impact of the Synod on Synodality.
Register here.
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| We seek changes that will provide all Roman Catholics the opportunity to participate fully in Church life and leadership. |
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FutureChurch is a national 501(c)(3) organization and your contribution is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
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