August 4, 2024: "On Holy Discontent" with Ariell Watson Simon

Catholic Women Preach

Preaching for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Ariell Watson Simon offers a reflection on God meeting us in our spiritual hunger: "That feeling of holy discontent doesn’t mean that yesterday’s prayer didn’t work; it means that God is building a relationship of trust with you. Just like the Israelites’ physical hunger kept them looking to the heavens for manna, our spiritual hunger turns us toward God. Hunger grounds us in the everyday. It’s in this everyday hunger that God will meet us, giving us this day – each day – our daily bread." Ariell Simon, M.Div. is a healthcare chaplain who lives, writes, and serves in central Missouri. Ariell was raised in the evangelical church, which instilled in her the value of scripture and the importance of lay ministry. After falling in love with Catholic Social Teaching as an undergraduate student at Loyola University Maryland, she entered the Catholic Church in 2011. Ariell received a Masters of Divinity from Boston College School of Theology and Ministry in 2018. She completed her chaplain residency at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, focusing on psychiatry and spiritual care. Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/08042024 to learn more about Ariell, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.