This week, two deservedly noteworthy people in the world of Christian faith passed away...
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| Jean Vanier and Rachel Held Evans died this past week. |
Jean Vanier
I recommend heading to L'Arche's official page for the scoop on this amazing guy. L'Arche is the organization he founded and built into a huge, international community. Their countercultural model of live-in companionship for people with various special needs prophetically insisted upon the dignity of all people and all life and created a mutual, reciprocal community rhythm for everyone involved. Jean was 90.
Rachel Held Evans
I have been reading Rachel for years, most notably when I took her Searching for Sunday on my honeymoon with me as beach reading. Her way of coupling earnest lived faith with a grounded, accessible desire to learn and share hearty theology was a blessing to everyone who reads her work. Rachel had become a mother in the last few years, and her husband and she welcomed their first two kiddos into the world. She died rather suddenly and unexpectedly after a hospital admission, allergic reactions, and complications escalated all within a month. She was just 37. I recommend reading Elizabeth Dias' NYTimes feature on Rachel to learn more about her.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May their souls and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.
Amen.
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As sure as the sun rises in the east, Pope Francis will give an informal press conference on the flight back from his most recent international trip. In this case, Francis surprised us with an update on the study of a potential women's diaconate (dare I say, restoration of the diaconate?). Turns out, his study buddies couldn't agree on the historical roots in the Church, and now they've taken to studying their various theses to learn more about it. Translation? We haven't really gotten anywhere, so no one will be holding their breath on this one. From what I've learned over the years, it seemed the probable path to a potential women's diaconate would be a secondary form of Holy Orders, hopefully with a comparable scope of ministerial practice. Stay tuned for another decade or two? Ideally, it will come sooner.
"My Body, My Children's First Home" by Haley Stewart via CarrotsforMichaelmas.com
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| Haley with one of her four kiddos. |
The spiritually of motherhood and pregnancy is beautiful and definitely something that will hopefully reach more and more moms in favor of pop pregnancy culture and fluffy blogs. Here, Haley celebrates how her children first lived within her as she nourished and carried them toward birth. The resonance between the physical touch of a mother and child with the intimate time of pregnancy term is beautifully unpacked in this post. It echoes what feels like a growing trove of motherhood and parenthood reflections, which sadly but necessarily must include the challenges of infertility, miscarriage, still birth, and complications and infant mortality. Tea with Tolkien Kaitlyn reflects regularly in her tweets about the grief of miscarriage; Leah Libresco beautifully and solemnly celebrated how her body could be a loving tomb for her child; Tim O'Malley long ago started a trajectory of reflections on infertility, adoption, and parenthood.
Julian Castro is among the candidates that has caught my attention most in the early going. Among his intelligent, measured, and substantial platforms so far, he is going for the specifics on immigration, including decriminalizing the federal crime of illegal entry, reducing detention facilities and reorganizing ICE and the authorities governing immigration. More candidates need to address this head on, and whoever will gain the nomination and run opposite of Trump will need to present ideas that reflect justice, solidarity, and human dignity in a way that honors the traditions of America and its social values. (Side note: Julian is Catholic and not shy about it. I'm a fan of how Pete Buttigieg has brought faith into the conversation on the Democrat side, but I fear his momentum is making him prone to sound bytes. His recent comments suggesting God couldn't be a Republican aren't necessarily wrong but take this thread into a silly and pointless space that is unproductive.)
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