Melanie Rigney is the author of several books of interest to Catholics. The latest is 12 Unforgettable Men of the Gospels: Reflections & Portraits of the Apostles (Twenty-third Publications). She is also a frequent conference and meeting speaker. She is a regular contributor to Living Faith, the Catholic devotional, and Women in the New Evangelization. A South Dakota native, Melanie has called Arlington, Virginia, home for the past twenty years.
Melanie Rigney is the author of a number of Bible studies and books on Catholic saints. She is perhaps best know for Unforgettable Women of the Gospels: 8 Unnamed Women in Scripture and Their Encounters with Jesus; 12 Unforgettable Men of the Gospels: Reflections & Portraits of the Apostles; and Sisterhood of Saints: Daily Guidance and Inspiration. Her first novel, Something to Be Saved, was published in 2026.
Melanie also is a regular contributor to Living Faith and Women in the New Evangelization.
She is a cradle Catholic who left the Church shortly before her sixteenth birthday. In 2005, she came back (some say with a passion; others compare my return to hurricane-force winds) after thirty-three years away from faith. Her life had fallen apart.
Melanie travels from Washington, DC. She can tailor her presentations from full-blown weekend retreats to 20-minute interactive discussions, virtual or in-person. Below is a sampling of recent presentation; Melanie is also happy to create material based on your needs. References are available.
Melanie's Presentations
-
The Apostles and You. Thomas doubted. Peter denied. James and John jockeyed for status. Nathanael questioned whether anything good could come out of Nazareth. The apostles--icons of faith, pillars of the Church--were ordinary men with extraordinary flaws. And yet, Jesus took them as they were and led them to change the world. Delve into how they can help us today.
-
Unnamed Women of the Gospels. The woman at the well. The woman healed by a touch. The widow at Nain. We know them only by where they were or what they did. But Jesus knew them. He knew all about them―just as he knows about us. What happened to them after their encounter with grace? What happens to us after our encounters with grace?
-
The Proverbs 31 Woman of Worth and You. She's a wife, mother, and astute businesswoman. She weaves, she spins, she serves. Yes, we know the woman of worth gets up before dawn, but how does she do it all? Through faith, the faith that's there for the offering for each of us. Verses are dissected and applied to today's women's lives.
-
Your Life with the Saints… and How to Become One. They prayed, they laughed, they cried, they got angry. Some traveled thousands of miles for Christ; others never left their hometowns. Some had deaths only satan could have orchestrated; others died peacefully in their sleep. In other words, our Church’s saints were people very much like we are today! We’ll look at our own gifts and the ways in which we are called to be saints to others.
-
Living on a Prayer. How's your prayer life going? Need an infusion of new energy... or introspection? We'll talk about the origins of our Church's formal prayers, and learn more about the lives of those who helped define our styles of prayer. Participants will have the opportunity to experience communal and individual, mental and vocal, form and spontaneous prayers. We'll also talk about making time for prayer and what to do when the well has run dry.Be Radical: How in the world could a group of women, ranging in age from nine to ninety-three at their deaths, women formally canonized by the Church, be considered radical? Because being a Christian is radical! Learn from them how to incorporate a radical love of Jesus in your life.
-
Rejoice and Be Glad! The Beatitudes are beautiful and simple in concept… but so hard to live. Learn what the Catholic women saints—some well known, some you may not have heard of—can teach us today about living Jesus’s challenges set forth in the Sermon on the Mount.
-
When They Come Home. Ways to Welcome Returning Catholics. The Church needs the gifts and talents of each of us to help bring the Kingdom of God to this world. In this spirit, parish leaders and adult faith formation and religious education ministers are invited to reach out to the inactive Catholics in their midst. This reaching out means sharing their gifts and talents with those who have drifted away and are now searching for renewed faith and involvement. It also involves helping returning Catholics recognize how their own gifts and talents can build up and complete the parish.
-
