In my religious education, service began with keeping score. Confirmation was scheduled for Spring of eighth grade, but my classmates and I understood that reception of the sacrament was reserved for those who completed the requisite checklist. The list item that loomed largest was obtaining sign-off on 30 service hours. Eighth graders could be found…
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 top. This pile of rubble, the flag, and the Armenian Quarter itself all tell a story of resistance and nonviolence. This past October, I traveled to the West Bank with a…
There was electricity. A sensation palpable in the air, yet powerfully felt in the spirit. The sounds of feet marching and people shuffling together, the sight of posters and larger-than-life puppets hand drawn and handmade, and voices chanting in unison. Only a solidarity across race, class, gender, and faith this deep for global liberation can…
For Putin’s conversion, to be able to see our friends again soon, for a good day, for an end to war, we pray. For over a month, every night since the war began in Ukraine, members of Faith and Light and L’Arche-Kovcheh Ukraine have hosted a “Prayer For Peace and an End to War” Zoom…
Season 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 Polish and Mexican ancestry helped bring him to his ministry as…
He went out and began to weep bitterly. – Luke 22:62 During the Gospel at Palm Sunday Mass, I noticed the emotions expressed by Jesus’ disciples – even when they failed to respond to the call to love and remain faithful. I wondered if I am faithful to Christ. I wondered if I am responding…
Beheaded bodies lying in the streets. Stray dogs and pigs picking at human corpses on the roadside. Vibrant communities silenced and still, everyone indoors, too afraid to go to school or to the market. Roadblocks stopping travel, isolating entire villages. A pregnant woman delivers a baby who doesn’t survive because they can’t get to the…
I once stood near the United States-Mexico border. In the journey to this edge, I witnessed the evidence of militarization: guns, checkpoints, armored vehicles, cameras. The steel fence rose from the sandy earth like a misplaced mountain. I felt my body tense from the feeling of surveillance. I felt the unease and sorrow that seemed…
Happy Easter! And, blessed day of the martyrdom of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to you all! Rev. King was shot on this day, April 4th, 1968 — 50 years ago. He was only 39 years old. The night before he was killed he gave his final speech, a prophetic message of ringing with…
“For as long as humans have walked, they have walked to get closer to their gods.” The words appear on top of a PBS website in white upon a black background—an over-simplified truth, smacking with arrogant certitude. At least that’s the way it feels to me when I stare at the screen just a few…
Happy Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day to all of you! What are you doing to honor the legacy of Dr. King today? Please, let us allow ourselves to be disturbed and transformed on this national holiday. This is not a day for sentimental history lessons. It is not a day to rest nor…
“It’s getting ugly!” “Society is starting to collapse!” One might be tempted to scream and cry when the headlines are scanned; when turmoil bubbles up and splashes upon any sense of security and comfort that has been shielding our privileged lives. The mess of injustice can burn us or it can mobilize us to be who…
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