It has been a year of sorrows both personal and national. As we each feel our way through the intensity, how does one awaken to that sorrow that is holy and transformative for Spirit-empowered change in the world, and turn away from a sorrow that paralyzes and blames?
Seeing Clearly & Deeply
Dependence
Leah Libresco Sargeant
No man or woman is an island, and no one should aspire to be one, either. That, at the core, is the claim of illiberalism, post-liberalism, or any of the other names given to the movement that pushes back against individualism as an ideal. The liberalism of Locke,...
The Return of the Cold Warrior
Gregory Thompson
“My dad’s at work and he left it unlocked. If you want to see it, now’s your chance. Get here as soon as you can.” I absolutely wanted to see it, so I hung up the phone, clipped my survival knife onto my belt, pointed my Diamond Back BMX bike toward Jamie’s house, and...
Praying Through the Political Divides in the Family
Aryana Petrosky Roberts
“I knew we were about to enter the point where we both had deaf ears, loud mouths. I knew then, as I know now, that political debate doesn’t change minds. I knew that I loved him. I knew that I don’t know everything. I knew that I might easily be a fool.
So, on a whim, I asked my dad if he wanted to pray with me.”
Small Apocalypses
Alexi Sargeant
Some of us might hesitate to call our present moment apocalyptic, but it is. An apocalypse is an unveiling, and we should expect many apocalypses to rock our world before the end of all things. Some of these apocalypses can be filled with grace, even as others unveil many dark corners of our nation.
God Has Heard
Joshua Bombino, Chelsea Langston Bombino
This has been a year of ambiguous grief. How do we situate ourselves within the experience of loss, personal and communal, when it feels like that loss slouches toward nothing? Here is an offering for those who mourn. It is a timeline, a gallery of grief and hope in dialectic.
The Politics of Friendship and Thanksgiving
Susannah Black
This year’s Thanksgiving is a strange one: it comes amid what continues to feel like a penitential season, both because of COVID and because of America’s ongoing reckoning with its own past, and with its future together. COVID had originally seemed to me as though it...
Politics Strike Back: Survival in a Pandemic
Jake Meador
The flourishing of individuals is premised on relationships of mutual care and fidelity that radiate outward. COVID-19 exposes the death of our current order and calls us back to that mutual love, writes Jake Meador.
The Complicated Grief of Advent
Heidi Deddens
One of my favorite Advent hymns is “O Come O Come Emmanuel”—though for much of my life, I must admit, that love stemmed more from the haunting beauty of the melody than the rich meaning of its lyrics. This year, though, the words feel particularly apt. The first verse...
Leadership in Uncertain Times
Ed O'Malley
Uncertainty reigns. The pandemic and associated economic strife define the era. We face collective questions: What do we value most? What is the connection between health and the economy? Personal questions are ever present too. Should I attend the funeral? Should we...