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The Catholic Church's evangelizing and healing presence throughout the world also entails the unintended reinforcement of cultural forces of misogyny that contribute to the suffering of women. This presents an urgent ethical imperative for the church to examine and reform its patriarchal structures of decision-making, ministry, and worship. Ecofeminist epistemologies and Schillebeeckx's theory of the proportional norm are employed in a movement through the steps of a theological reflection process that the author learned in collaboration with women theologians from Latin America. The symbolic paradigm guiding the movement is the Lukan Gospel's bent-over woman, standing up straight and glorifying God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many Christian theologians and non-Christian theorists about Christianity, tragedy has no serious place in a Christian conception of the world; at best, tragedy is an episode overcome by the triumph of resurrection. Drawing on Karl Rahner's theology of freedom, this article argues that including a sense of the tragic in a Christian conception of the world can both undermine a saccharine theology immune to the threats of contingent history and, paradoxically, be a means of reengaging a Christian theology of hope, understood as commitment to the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers religious insights on death and horror based on selected verses of the book of Job and Hebrews in the Holy Scripture. It introduces the biblical character Job, whose virtue and piety are being praised by God, and relates his sufferings in the hand of Satan. It is emphasized that the fortunes of Job have been restored after all those sufferings. The problem of death, the way Jesus Christ conquers fear and the optimism about the power of humans detailed in the book of Hebrews are explained.

The article presents a sermon about having faith in God, based on the book of Matthew in the Holy Bible. The message of Jesus Christ to his disciple Peter is quoted. The plight of a suffering woman due to her daughter's chronic condition is used to demonstrate how man can be of little faith. The importance of listening and understanding is emphasized.

The author discusses the essence of waiting for the help of Jesus Christ in times of trials and tribulations with reference to selected verses in the Bible. She cites the astonishment of the crowd when Jesus Christ raised the daughter of biblical character Jairus from the dead. She notes that waiting is a key spiritual practice, which many people do not like much. She suggests people who have been suffering to express their grief in prayer, which she says may eventually raise the possibility of hope.

The author reflects on the gospel of John 12:20-33 for Lent in March 29, 2009 which deals with the time of suffering and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. He says that the Jews are against with Jesus Christ throughout the gospel and that He is misunderstood and destined for death. The gospel relates the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane with no agony. In the author's view, the church must be on the side of the lost and forsaken people at a time when the culture is described as self-absorbed and self-advancing.