At the request of Chicago archdiocese's censor, Margaret Nutting Ralph's work was withheld from a resource book published by Liturgy Training Publications.

Ms Ralph had given a presentation on contextual interpretation of Scripture at a Call to Action conference.

Call to Action is a Chicago-based lay organisation that works for progressive reform of the Catholic Church.

One of its aims is ordination of women to the priesthood.

Ms Ralph told the National Catholic Reporter that she and her audience discussed Vatican II's Dei Verbum on revelation, as well as homosexuality and contraception.

They also spent a very short time on women's ordination, she said.

But at a later telephone conference between Ms Ralph, the publisher and the archdiocese's censor, the topic of women's ordination was raised repeatedly by the censor.

The censor, who is a priest, told Ms Ralph that refusing to publish the commentaries was called for because he wanted to avoid any public perception that the Archdiocese of Chicago is not firm on doctrine, especially the doctrine against women's ordination.

"He explained that by accepting an invitation to speak at Call To Action, even though my topic was on how to be a biblical contextualist, I had 'passively supported this unorthodox group's whole agenda'," Ms Ralph said.

She said the commentaries she wrote for the lectors' resource book were faithful to Church teaching.

She wrote to Chicago Cardinal Francis George in March and received a note from his office that her correspondence had been received and forwarded.

Ms Ralph worked for 16 years as secretary of educational ministries for the diocese of Lexington, Kentucky.

She was also director of a master's programme in pastoral studies at Lexington Theological Seminary.

Ms Ralph had written commentaries for two previous Liturgy Training Publications books.

Liturgy Training Publications retains copyright and ownership the work it hired Ms Ralph to do.

The company stated it would keep her writings on file in case they could be published in the future.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• American Catholic
• Call to Action
• Image: Boston College

By the end of the half-hour episode, many had offered support and accommodation. My faith in humanity was strengthened. This world is full of good people.

Often, their goodness and charity is not revealed because they have not heard the stories; have not had the opportunity to say, "I can help." When people do respond, their generosity and goodness seem limitless.

Stories are shared in many ways. Conversation. Letter. E-mail. Blogs and websites. Local newspapers and community broadsheets. TV, with slots such as 'Good Sorts' and consumer watchdogs, such as 'Fair Go'. We are called to listen to these stories - attentively.

Sharing our stories is not easy. We have to put aside pride and admit that we are dependent, interdependent. We have to say, "I cannot do this alone." But as soon as we do, as soon as we have the courage to share our own story, we realise we are not alone. We open ourselves to receive grace - mediated through good people.

Sometimes the stories we hear demand urgent and immediate action.

Sometimes the story simply needs to be heard - the teller affirmed; given a witness to their life.

Sometimes the storyteller invites us to become an integral part of the story.

I can hear people saying, "Yeah. I hear you. But it's not my responsibility. I pay taxes. The government needs to step up to the plate." The government, both central and local, are our elected representatives. They do not always hear the stories. We are at ground level. We need to listen wholeheartedly, attentively, to the stories we are told. We must respond and become advocates for the dispossessed, the disenfranchised, the burdened.

Each of us must show government officials how we want them to act: we must model affirmative, compassionate action - with charity, with justice, with transparency and honesty.

Each of us must demonstrate by our everyday actions and reactions who we feel should be our priority: those who cannot speak for themselves; those who are hungry, homeless, helpless, disheartened.

Each of us must show how we want local and central government to spend our taxes by using our own monies to advantage the disadvantaged.

I can hear the cynics say, "If we keep doing it, Government won't, and the burden on charities and churches, families and individuals, will increase." They are probably right but it is not our problem. We are called, commanded, impelled by our baptism, to be the hands of God; to reveal the heart of God.

Each of us must do what is right.

We are called to be 'good people.'

• Liz Pearce, a mother of three adult children, loves story, writing, and dollmaking www.heartfeltdolls.weebly.com

John Main says, "Language may not be able to lead us into the ultimate communion but it is the atmosphere in which we first draw breath of consciousness."

I have spent more than fifty years acquiring language - a spiritual language, that is, not my native tongue - and suddenly it all seems a facade. It is empty, superfluous, 'white noise'. Don't get me wrong. I find the etymology, the lexicon of religion and spirituality fascinating.

For most of my life, I have listened to those more theologically literate, more erudite, with higher levels of education. I have hungrily devoured their definitions; their explanations; their theology. I have read voraciously. I am deeply indebted, and very grateful, to all who shared with me.

But I was short-changed.

What was offered, while encapsulating the Truth, presented as literal that which can only be revealed through metaphor, allegory, experience, art and silence. Ideas and practices presented as permanent, unchanging, infallible, embedded, I now see are transient, fluid, organic, responsive, reactive.

Consider the latest English translation of the Mass. I always considered the words and actions at the epiclesis and consecration as intrinsic to the transformation from bread and wine to Body and Blood. Those who love the Latin translation of the Mass probably thought the same. But the words keep changing. So the language becomes almost inconsequential, irrelevant. Whatever words we recite; whatever actions we make - it is that which is revealed that is important.

For me, now, that revelation is that God took human form. God is revealed in the actions and attitudes of human beings. God is creative and creator and is revealed in creation. God loves unconditionally and abundantly. I am known. I am loved. I am not alone. And this empowers and inspires me.

Scripture is rich in metaphor, myth, allegory, poetry. We learn about metaphor in English classes at school - but not a whiff is discussed in Religious Education. None of the names we give the divine are literal. God is not an eagle or a nursing mother or our father. These are metaphors to describe the indescribable - a divine presence so 'other' and so 'in-dwelling' that language can only hint at it.

I do not know if I was deliberately shaped, formed or taught in a certain way that kept me obedient, unquestioning, faithful. I do believe, however, that there is now a paradigm shift to acknowledge and name and embrace what has always been true: God is encountered and experienced in an infinite number of ways to ALL people - baptised or not; practising in an institutional church or not; religious or not. Artists, poets, storytellers, dancers, and musicians have always known this. Ecologists, feminists, and peace activists have always known this.

God can be experienced, but not entrapped in ideologies and dogmas. The language for God, and of God, has evolved. 
God can be encountered, but not explained. The language to describe God is now holistic and experiential. 
God exists outside of time and culture and language and is not constrained by these human constructs. The language reflecting God to us is the language of belonging and of relationship.

No-one has a stranglehold on God. Thank God.

And so I begin again …

Liz Pearce, mother of 3 adult children, loves story, dollmaking, writing and silence.