Lots of links. No time to waste. Already one day late!
"What We Too Often Forget About Helping People in Need" by Sophie Caldecott via Grotto Network
In working with young people -- and thinking back to my own experience -- it's hard to get them to go deeper with respect to how they approach service. They often respond by simply saying working with vulnerable people "opened their eyes" or made them "appreciate what they have." Those things are fine, but they miss a larger, deeper point. I always hope young people will find something more by connecting to the idea of solidarity and adopting an attitude of mutual, reciprocal encounter. This author captures that mindset by how she and her daughter realized that grace in some homeless neighbors. Beautiful read.
I've enjoyed what I've heard from Julian Castro so far this campaign season. With a slog of 23 candidates to pick through, it's tough to hear from everyone and learn each candidate's merits (or lack thereof). But I will say Castro's willingness to be bold and specific in addressing the injustices facing people in transit has been refreshing and welcome. Here's a small sampling of his approach that shows one positive way to start tackling these issues.
Additionally, this article in Fortune is a great deep dive on the issues of immigration, with special focus on the economic realities beneath the headlines. It is a break from partisan spin and really focuses on the facts and specifics of the current state of things.
Leave it to ole Fr. Jim to write the article I've always needed but never asked for. In my encounter with Jesuits and Ignatian circles, I've always tried to straighten out all the jargon around Jesuit formation, but I've never mastered it all. I still am not completely sure, but Jim's article creates a new one-stop shop for all of this. It still makes me laugh that a religious community so often associated with being more relaxed, less strict, and certainly less hierarchical and stodgy has such a complex web of vocabulary to describe its formation.
I'll admit, I didn't even read the original article that started this conversation. However, it obviously brought up important issues around clericalism and an exaggerated role of priests slash the diminished place for laity. Dr. Reynolds is both an increasingly well-known voice in American Catholicism and an old friend and choir buddy from college. She has a knack for drawing on her pastoral experience, her academic bona fides, and her life of faith to say things insightfully and accessibly. This is a great reflection on the classic both-and ideal of Catholicism. We need a robust clergy and a robust lay presence. We need priests who bring confident leadership skills as well as grounded pastoral sensibilities. We need lay people who look to priests for Sacramental leadership as well as to themselves for mobilizing parishioners, starting outreach, and sustaining parish life.
I'm always interested in where sports can be relevant to this site, and this piece is a place where we can turn to think more deeply about the race relations issues in our country. Recently, a TV analyst for the Chicago Cubs was doing a live shot during a game; in the background, a fan was seen doing the upside-down "ok" symbol often known from the punching game, too. It has become a symbol for white supremacy, and the fan was identified and banned from Wrigley Field. In this piece, the insightful Doug Glanville reflects on his experience by describing the realities of being a person of color and what his (and others') thought process is like when facing such treatment. Doug is an outstanding analyst, a wonderfully thoughtful and intelligent human being, and a person who should never be treated with such disdain.
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