November 19, 2023: "Sharing Our Gifts" with Rosemary Johnston

Preaching for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Rosemary Johnston offers the witness of Mother Antonia, who served in prison ministry, as an example of how we are called to share our gifts: "Mother Antonia once said, 'there is no one so ugly he does not have beauty within him; no one so weak he does not have great strength and no one so poor he is not endowed with richness. Each person is of invaluable worth.' She was not only talking about those whom she served but about each of us. We are all people of invaluable worth. Share your gifts. It is a timeless blessing for those who give and for those who receive." Rosemary Johnston became involved in prison ministry at a San Diego area women's jail in 1985. At the same time she began pursuing master’s degree in practical theology at the University of San Diego, graduating in 1990. After working as director of the Office of Human Life and Development at the diocesan pastoral center, she became a freelance writer for the National Catholic Reporter and was later hired to run the volunteer services program at Father Joe’s Villages, the country’s largest homeless shelter. She was later was hired as executive director of the Interfaith Shelter Network. In the summers of 2003, 2004 and 2005, I attended the Summer Preaching Institute at the Aquinas Institute of Theology. Since her retirement in 2013, she has served as a member of several non-profit boards and continues to organize the annual Good Friday Walk with the Suffering in downtown San Diego and the La Posada Sin Fronteras at the border fence. Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11192023 to learn more about Rosemary, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.