THE WORD GOES OUT: LGBTQ+ Scripture Reflections Collection

Today New Ways Ministry launches a new resource that has been years in the making:  “The Word Goes: Out LGBTQ+ Scripture Reflections for the Liturgical Calendar,” a complete collection of LGBTQ+ reflections on the liturgical scripture readings for Sundays, feasts, and special church and secular calendar days.

Since 2020, Bondings 2.0, New Ways Ministry’s daily blog on Catholic LGBTQ+ news, opinion, and spirituality, has been publishing reflections on virtually every Sunday of the liturgical year.  As the Sunday readings follow an annual rotation of three separate sets of texts (Cycles A, B, C), the new resource contains reflections for nearly every Sunday in each cycle. (The few exceptions are some Ordinary Time Sundays which did not emerge on the calendar since 2020, and a few Sundays where instead of a scripture reflection, we were compelled to post a breaking news story.)  

We also included reflections for special church commemorations that do not fall on Sundays such as Ash Wednesday, Christmas, All Saints and All Souls Days, Assumption, and many others.  Additionally, we have added reflections for secular observances which Catholic ministers often preach about during the year, such as Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Mother’s and Father’s Days, Pride, and Thanksgiving.

The impetus behind collecting these LGBTQ+ scripture reflections sprang from the many requests from Catholic preachers we receive each year to access the reflections in advance of a Sunday or special day to help them weave LGBTQ+ themes into their homilies.  We hope that this resource will serve those Catholic leaders.

This online collection also serves a second purpose: it allows LGBTQ+ and ally Catholics to reflect on the various readings through an LGBTQ+ lens.  These reflections can also be used as material for discussion by parish LGBTQ+ ministries.

The resource is organized in a variety of ways under several tabs:

1. Entire Liturgical Year:  This tab has three separate sections for Cycle A, Cycle B, and Cycle C.  Under each sub-tab, users will find the entire liturgical calendar listed, with links to reflections.  For occasions where the liturgical readings are the same in each cycle, users can click through to one of the next two tabs.
2. Feasts and Special Days: This tab has a listing of all the special days for which there are reflections.
3. Secular Observances: This tab contains the list of the secular calendar’s special days which are often noted in Catholic homilies.
4. Seasons: This tab divides the liturgical year into its various seasons–Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Ordinary Time–so that users can search for a particular occasion according to time of the year.
5. Additional Seasonal Resources: This tab contains links to posts that are not scriptural reflections but which can be helpful for examining seasonal themes.

We will continue to update this resource as we continue to post scripture reflections.

For the past seven years, New Ways Ministry has also been offering other scripture resource:  Journeys: An LGBTQ+ Scriptural Reflection Series.  Instead of providing written reflections, this series offers questions and prayers for people to do their own thinking and meditating on select scripture texts.  This resource has been around for several years, and is constantly being updated.  It has been used by individuals for their private prayer times and also by many parishes as a discussion starter in LGBTQ+ ministry activities.  Journeys contains reflections for all of the Sundays in Advent and Lent for all three liturgical cycles, as well as for other special days in the liturgical calendar.

To reach a landing page for both the Reflections Lectionary and the Journeys series, click here.

We hope that this resource will help Catholic preachers offer reflections on scriptures that not only help LGBTQ+ people see their experiences named and honored, but also in ways that help educate the wider church about the spiritual gifts and rich faith experiences that LGBTQ+ people bring to the church.

We welcome your feedback on this resource, especially for ways in which we might improve it.  If you discover any “bugs” or defective links, please let us know what the problem is by sending an email to [email protected] of phone 301-277-5674.

—Francis DeBernardo, Jeromiah Taylor, Wesley Cocozello, New Ways Ministry, November 21, 2025