Ash Wednesday

We each have to face mortality alone—but also together.

Who can sort out the ironies and challenges in these four texts? Where is the joy in this kind of salvation?

I love René Girard. I don’t love that J. D. Vance loves him, too.

For many, repent is a hurt-filled word. That’s a shame, because we need it more than ever.

Isaiah and Matthew invite us into deeper solidarity. None is well until all are well.

J. D. Vance’s lies about Haitian immigrants reveal his willingness 
to trade his dignity for attention.

There is no one who does not need God’s mercy and no one who may not have it.

During the pandemic, I went six months without touching another human being. I felt starved.

Praying in community is often more powerful than praying “in secret.”

Will my daffodil bulbs overcome their trauma and rise up despite the odds? Will we?

How did my friend feel making a cross on my forehead, not knowing how long I’d be alive?

I don’t go to church anymore, but the faith I was pickled in still shapes me.

For Jesus, the inverse of scarcity isn’t abundance—it’s accumulation.