Blog Archive

Contemplating the messiness of Christian life

The Messy Jesus Business Blog is an ecumenical Christian gathering of musings about what it means to live the Gospel today. A variety of contributors offer prayer, poetry, book reviews, creative nonfiction and prose about what it means to live a life of faith in our complex, modern times.

  • Harden Not Your Hearts: Hearing the Call for Repentance

    I know well enough that the time to address racial inequity was centuries ago. It is also now. And while it is a national sin, it is my work as much as anybody else.

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  • Sister Chioma Ahanihu: Lending Your Voice

    Sister Chioma Ahanihu shares how the Black Lives Matter movement after George Floyd’s death helped her find her voice in the midst of the mess, when she was part of a protest for the first time.

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  • Women lead amidst the mess

    I recently sat across my desk from one of the prophets of the #SaveAsylum movement. The leaders of this organization are an eclectic group of migrants, activists, church and community members from Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, who united in the past year to restore access to asylum at the US-Mexico border. The prophet in front…

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  • Sister Mumbi Kigutha

    Sister Mumbi Kigutha: Transforming Pain through Reconciliation

    “Defining reconciliation for me is pretty simple, it’s restoring right relationships,” Sister Mumbi explains. But true restorative justice requires four pillars: peace, mercy, justice and truth.

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  • God is with us in all this hardship

    when chaos storms Capitolsor your fragile heart and mindthe God of order restoresthe law of love remainswhen fatigue bends your body or your ambition, motivationthe God of rest renewsrestoration is comingwhen heartache breaks you downand you are crushed, cryingthe God of comfort holdsfeeling grief is holywhen fear is the fire that burns youand you are…

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  • Father Adam Bucko

    Father Adam Bucko: Every Day A Beginner

    In this episode of Messy Jesus Business, Sister Julia Walsh talks with Father Adam Bucko about contemplation, action, new monasticism and the messiness that permeates it all.

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  • The reality of the messy Nativity

    I’ve said this before: the story of the Nativity lives in everyone’s heart. The story of the messy first Christmas is your story: you know what it is like to lose control, to deal with the unexpected, to put your life in danger for the sake of others, to be uncertain about the future and…

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  • Jon Sweeney: Finding Comfort and Confidence in the Mess

    Sister Julia Walsh talks with author Jon Sweeney about his journey from Evangelical Christianity and Moody Bible Institute to writing about saints, becoming Catholic and marrying a rabbi. They also explore his thoughts on what Christians need to know and respect about Judaism. And they discuss Jon Sweeney’s new book about Nicholas Black Elk.

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  • Music for Advent during a pandemic

    Here we are. We’re in Advent … during a pandemic. Every year, holding out hope and waiting in the dark offers a profound spiritual power to me. During the darkest days of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, I am consoled by the candlelight while I prepare for Christmas and pray about opening my heart…

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  • Thanksgiving Traditions for the Sake of the Common Good

    I would like to take on some new practices that challenge the racist systems harming the United States, support a sustainable way of living on Earth and promote the common good.

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  • little plant coming through hard metal

    Hope in hard times is an element of our prophetic vocation

    I’ve been catching myself singing and there’s a surprising theme to the songs. Considering the state of things, there’s a lot of reasons why silence might make more sense, why a somber state might be more appropriate than song. In recent weeks, the COVID-19 crisis has become so deadly that morgues cannot keep up. It remains…

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  • Michael Okinczyc-Cruz: Where Civic Life and Mystical Life Meet

    Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Spotify | Email | RSSSeason 2, Episode 5 of Messy Jesus Business, hosted by Sister Julia Walsh LISTEN HERE: IN THIS EPISODE: In Season 2, Episode 5 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, Sister Julia Walsh and Michael Okinczyc-Cruz discuss how his upbringing and experience as a person of…

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