July 26, 2020: Finding True Joy with Anne Koester

Preaching for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Anne Koester offers a reflection on finding and sparking joy:   "We should find joy simply in sharing the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ and in building up the reign of God by loving others – as in everyone – not a select few, not just the ones we like or could benefit us, not just the ones whom we think are like us – but loving everyone.  The people who make us uncomfortable, those whom we don’t personally know, those who are very different from ourselves, those who need our listening hearts and who likely will not give us some advantage.  But here we will find deep and ever-lasting joy."   Anne Koester is with Georgetown University, Washington, DC, where she has been an adjunct instructor with the Theology Department since 2003.  She also oversees the RCIA process and is co-facilitator of the “Women Who Stayed” initiative at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in DC.   A former trial lawyer, Anne studied theology, with a concentration in liturgy, at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota.  She has worked at the Notre Dame Center for Pastoral Liturgy and the Georgetown Center for Liturgy.  From 2004-2007, Anne served on the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Women in the Church and Society.   She is a member of the North American Academy of Liturgy and its Christian Initiation Seminar group.    Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/07262020 to learn more about Anne, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.