The Gospels repeatedly demonstrate the role women played throughout the life and ministry of Jesus. We recall Mary Magdalene, the mother of James, and Salome as the first witnesses and proclaimers of the resurrection as the angel in the empty tomb commissioned them: “Go and give this message (Jesus has been raised) to his disciples” (Mk. 16:7). We read of a Canaanite woman persistently begging Jesus to heal her daughter and Jesus, having been touched by her entreaties, responding, “You are a woman of great faith! What you want will be done to you” (Mt. 15:28). In trying Jesus’ patience, this woman also stretched his boundaries and helped him to appreciate that his ministry needed to go beyond “the lost sheep of the people of Israel” (Mt. 15:24).

These are among the many examples in the New Testament of the foundational contribution of women in the life of the early Church. And who are significant women today who help us realize God’s vision and dream for our world? In this issue of MARYKNOLL magazine, we invite you to meet some of them. Read Maryknoll Lay Missioner Kathleen Bond’s account of how she and Maryknoll Sister Efu Nyaki team up with local leaders in northeast Brazil to help women and men confront domestic violence. Come to share the experience of Maryknoll Father William McIntire of how the Poor Clare Sisters’ community in Bangladesh is accompanying the world’s poorest people through their lives of prayer. Reflect with Father Joseph Veneroso in his photo meditation on the service of women, whose witness “goes forth to the ends of the earth with visions of a world that might yet be.”

Jesus’ life and ministry were characterized by support from women who were pivotal members of the cultures and society of his time. May his words to Mary Magdalene on that first Easter morning remind us of the unexpected ways he meets us in our daily lives and may we respond as Mary did when he called her name. “She turned to him and said, ‘Teacher!’…She went and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord” (Jn. 20:16, 18).

Robert Jalbert, M.M.