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.
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Book Review: What You Sow Is a Bare Seed
On a blazing, Washington, DC summer day in 2021, I walked to the Mount Pleasant farmer’s market with my friends and housemates Joy and Ashley. Joy had been volunteering with Mt. Pleasant library, and at their table they were selling tote bags, stickers, and shirts that said “What’s more punk than the public library?” Joy,
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A Litany for Democracy
Let us pray… Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us. For our failure to participate, God, have mercy. For our failure to protect the common good, God, have mercy. For our failure to end unjust laws, God, have mercy.For our failure to remain civil and kind, God, have mercy.For our failure to respect diversity,
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Justice and the Freedom to Move
I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. (John 10:10) Recently I accompanied Catholic sisters, advocates, and survivors to Washington, DC in support of legislation that breaks the link between forced migration and human trafficking. In congressional offices we attempted to share the stories of families fleeing violence with members of
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Book Review: Prasanta Verma Takes Us Beyond Ethnic Loneliness
It is summer in Chicago, and our migrant population is no longer huddled in tents outside police stations. Yet, housing insecurity is still a reality, and many develop their own outdoor circuits to escape overcrowded shelters, to entertain their children, to sell chicle and earn their daily bread. On a recent Saturday afternoon, I saw
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The opportunity of chaos
we gaze into the horizon we hope for what might bewe check the radarwe worry about stormsthe sky: a giant stagefor the drama of dreams, the potential of disaster,despair, and renewal.with each anxious question comes a chance to returnto who we are, to restinto compassion, to reset our directionthe dawn of each arrivalcan be cluttered
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The Rainbow Connection
“Did I tell you about the pastor and the rainbows?” my friend asks while on our way to a church event. Apparently, some catechists had taught their young class about Noah, and the flood, and the promise of that great bow in the heavens. A classroom full of mini-replicas now adorned the wall used by
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The Lord Walking with Us Together
Eucharist and Synodality. These two words are not easily defined, but are shaping my life and the way of our church these days. Specifically the Eucharistic Revival and the Synod on Synodality are two major events in our Catholic Church this year that are helping define our path forward. And honestly, sometimes it feels like
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Living Images of the Sacred Heart
I stand at the back of a darkened room as another group of visiting students watch a video interview of my dear friend Anita, a Black woman in her fifties and the matriarch of four generations. I have heard her words many times before, but each time they hit me differently. She describes standing by
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Cyrus Habib, SJ: Prophets and Inspirations
Episode 77 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh. Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Email | RSS | More You actually have to decide to believe… recognizing that just because you decided doesn’t mean it comes easily, but you have to work at it.” -Br. Cyrus Habib, SJ IN THIS EPISODE In this episode of Messy Jesus Business
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Becoming soup: on surrender to transformation
When I was new to religious life, I sat through so many workshops about transition that the beautiful life cycle of a butterfly became cliché to me. I heard that once the caterpillar becomes a pupa, it basically turns into caterpillar soup: a mush of cells digesting themselves. I vaguely remember reflection prompts from this
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Sr. Xiomara Méndez Hernández, OP, BCC: Preaching and Listening
Episode 76 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh. Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Email | RSS | More Even with your presence, you preach” -Sr. Xiomara Méndez Hernández, OP, BCC IN THIS EPISODE In this episode of Messy Jesus Business podcast, Sister Julia Walsh FSPA chats with Sister Xiomara Méndez Hernández, OP, BCC. Sister Xiomara tells Julia
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Sifting through the Fragments
With my knife I slash open the plastic bag, and the smell of the mulch hits me: damp cedar, fungal spores, moss, creosote. Something flashes, and for a moment I’m not planting boxwood with my family. I’m in Michigan, working as a landscaper. It’s never quite warm enough. I smell the green exhalations of reedy
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