On Faith

These photographs and prayers were prompted by a woman whose faith surpassed a great many difficult and painful things. A woman who was accidentally named for a flower of faith.

What creates a space of stillness in the places that we inhabit? What creates a sense of contemplation?

On my morning walk to St. Giles Cathedral I spotted a performer who posed daily as a magically levitating “Yoda”. You know, from Star Wars.

When I was younger, the concept of “faith” didn’t make much sense to me. I grew up in Australia, where religion is not part of public life or much spoken about. My parents were raised Anglican, but when the topic of religion came up they would say things like “I wouldn’t get involved in that..."

Have you found yourself working remotely since last March? Maybe you are happily working from home and don’t miss being in an office. Or maybe your current “office-mates” involve young children and/or pets who don’t always follow the boundaries of work-life and home-life.

Founded by Bryan Ye-Chung and Brian Chung, Alabaster produces books of the Bible, texts on subjects at the intersection of art and faith, and reading guides.

When I was a child, I would frequently sit on the edge of my bed, looking through my small window, out at the moon. At the time, my goal was to become an astronaut.

Standing in line at the Rock Café, I am jolted by the realization that I can no longer see like I used to. In classes, I begin to test myself by sitting in row 6, 7, 8, watching for when the professor’s facial expressions become harder to read.

I want to tell you about the walk home.

With so many Advent Devotionals available today, how can you decide which one is right for you?

Molly Burhans is the founder of GoodLands, an Ashoka Fellow, a cartographer, and a practicing Catholic. She was named a Young Champion of the Earth by the United Nations’ Environment Program in 2019 and holds a master’s degree in Ecological Design from the Conway School of Landscape Design.

For many Christians, myself included, the Covid-19 pandemic has substantially interrupted the practice of our faith. Because of coronavirus restrictions, I have not been able to attend Mass in person since March. Though I appreciate the considerable efforts of parishes to offer virtual liturgies, tuning into Mass from my kitchen table while I eat a bowl of cereal just isn’t the same.

Can you hear it? The world singing – or have they taken that from you too? Ever since I was little, I’ve sensed the world speaks to us. Certain environments hold mourning in the ... earth, other places exude soft yellow and deep green.

I find the term purity culture somewhat ironic. The persistent focus on sexual restraint limits the depth of our understanding of what purity is.

I was five years old when I first became a Christian. I say first because I would go on to try praying the same prayer countless more times, never sure if I’d done it right.

“Beauty was not simply something to behold; it was something one could do.” – Toni Morrison

Art has the ability to show three sides to a story: yours, mine, and what really happened.

I have been visualizing what it might be like to collect water from a stream by trying to grasp it. My fists are clenched and my grip is tight as the cold sensation slips through my fingers over and over again.

When I was seventeen, I wrote a one-man play called “Gates and Chains,” dramatizing the Christian journey of faith. The protagonist, a version of myself, ultimately fails to progress in her spiritual journey because she refuses to release the delicate chain on her wrist. The chain of “familiarity” is comfortable, so she keeps it. 

Complementary colors are in fact direct opposites: red to green, orange to blue. Along the same line of logic, every emotion heightens its opposite. True presence begets the most soul-aching absence and vice versa. There is nothing like a pandemic to hit this lesson home.

Enuma Okoro is a Nigerian-American writer, speaker, and cultural curator who locates her work at the intersection of the arts, culture, storytelling and soul care.