Gospel living is messy.

Christian discipleship is a life of struggle, as we advocate for social justice, live simply, serve others, practice contemplation and live in community. Welcome to the mess.

Search and Explore our 15 years of Content

Our Final Post

  • How to be holy AND messy
    To contemplate the sacredness of messiness, start with the natural world. Step into the forest and study the rotting logs. Examine the erosion. Notice the tiny and the grand, how transformation and evolution have designed the landscapes, and the simple and small. See the surrender of one creature to another, the wildness of complete metamorphosis…
    Read More

Justice
Prayer
Environment
Family
Non-Violence
Franciscan life

Features

Podcast

Explore Podcast Episodes

What’s Trending

Read More

  • Appropriately disturbed and loving my distant Aleppo neighbor

    Along with many people far and near, I have been terribly disturbed by images from the Syrian war recently. Appropriately disturbed. Early last week,…

    READ MORE
  • “Good Inside”: A restorative Christian approach to parenting and beyond

    By Emily Cortina

    Read More
  • Ellen Salmi van Cleef and Joshua van Cleef: Missionaries Rooted in Presence

    By franciscansisters

    Read More

Explore…

Justice Prayer Family Environment non-violence Franciscan life

Equity and Justice

Read More

  • ‘Save the ArQ’ in Jerusalem is a story of nonviolent resistance

    In the walled-in Old City of Jerusalem, in the Armenian Quarter, sits a large pile of rubble with an Armenian flag planted at the…

    Read more

  • Australian crime drama removes plank in my eye

    By Sister Sarah Hennessey, FSPA

    Read More
  • The awkwardness of being a long-distance aunt

    By Sister Julia Walsh

    Read More
  • Deacon Pablo Perez: Finding Faith Behind Bars

    By franciscansisters

    Read More
  • In a time for falling

    By Sister Julia Walsh

    Read More
ENVIRONMENT

  • Preserving Dangerous Memories 

    Maura Rocks

NON-VIOLENCE

  • Rules for a messy and holy creative practice 

    Cassidy Klein

FAMILY

  • The invisible, embodied holiness of parenting

    Emily Cortina

Prayer and Spirituality

Read More
  • Ellen Salmi van Cleef and Joshua van Cleef: Missionaries Rooted in Presence
    Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Spotify | Email | RSS “The mess and the beauty are really tied together.” – Joshua van Cleef Season 4, Episode 5 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, hosted by Sister Julia Walsh. LISTEN HERE: IN THIS EPISODE: In this episode of Messy Jesus Business, Sister Julia Walsh talks…
    Read More
  • Death comes for us all, Oroku Saki
    “Death comes for us all, Oroku Saki, but something much worse comes for you … for when you die, it will be without honor.” ~ Master Splinter, to the Shredder,…
    Read More
  • Deacon Pablo Perez: Finding Faith Behind Bars
    Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Spotify | Email | RSS Season 4, Episode 9 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, hosted by Sister Julia Walsh. “I go, and I…
    Read More
  • Anxiety at the Crossroads: Where We End and God Begins
    The couple sits next to one another on the two-seater couch in my office, not minding the imposed closeness, arms intertwined.  They have worked hard for and in this relationship,…
    Read More
  • Yo Soy Una Guadalupana (I Am A Guadalupana)
    Posted by guest blogger, Sister Sarah Hennessey A Story of Marta “I’m nervous because I’m here illegally.” Marta held out her arm for a blood pressure check. The nurse in the free clinic and I quickly reassured her that everything was confidential and she had nothing to fear. Marta continued, “I’m nervous because I am illegal…

Let’s Connect 

Subscribe and get thoughtful email messages from us