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1 week ago | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Kaya Oakes
My 2015 book The Nones Are Alright explored Americans’ shift away from organized religion. For a few years I did the circuit of conferences and church talks where people kept asking the same question: What can we do to bring people back? I never had an answer that made anyone happy, because I had no idea how to bring people back. The ship had already sailed, but people were still standing on the shoreline waiting for it to turn around.
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1 month ago | 
sojo.net | Kaya Oakes
In the year 1205, a wealthy young man in the Italian province of Umbria wandered into a crumbling old church called San Damiano. While gazing at the cross, he heard God’s voice telling him to “rebuild my church.” St. Francis of Assisi would go on to challenge the Catholic church with a radical message of pastoral care: Live a life of simplicity and poverty, honor the earth, and tend to the poor, sick, and marginalized.
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Nov 6, 2024 | 
kayaoakes.substack.com | Kaya Oakes
When you get diagnosed with cancer, they usually call you with the news, but thanks to MyChart, some people get a message that their biopsy results are in and click to find out that something is growing in their body that might kill them. The breast clinic did an initial biopsy on me which they said was benign, but a radiologist wasn’t convinced, so they did a second one. That’s when they confirmed the tumor. The rhythms of cancer are like the rhythms of a country.
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Oct 25, 2024 | 
angeladenker.substack.com | Lizzie Presser |Angela Denker |Lane Anderson |Kaya Oakes
Hi Readers,I’m always fascinated by the way time seems to move more slowly or quickly depending on our circumstances and surroundings. I’ve been (trying) to read a new book lately about astronomy and the moon specifically, about how celestial bodies influence everything from the passage of time, to our moods, to menstrual cycles, to war.
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Jul 31, 2024 | 
largeheartedboy.com | Kaya Oakes
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others. Kaya Oakes thoughtfully explores forgiveness through the lens of victims in her bookNot So SorryRev.
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Jul 24, 2024 | 
kayaoakes.substack.com | Kaya Oakes
Not So Sorryofficially releases on July 30, but within the last 48 hours two people I love have shown me copies that Jeff Bezos apparently decided to send out early. Preorders help authors, writing reviews online helps authors, and asking your local bookstore/library to carry a book helps authors. But books are expensive, and sometimes as much as you might want to read one, you just can’t afford to shell out for a hardcover.
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Jul 10, 2024 | 
jwalshfspamessyupdates.substack.com | Kaya Oakes |Julia Walsh
Have you heard about the bridge at Q’eswachaka in Peru? Each year the community rebuilds the bridge using Indigenous techniques and raw materials. It’s really beautiful, and quite the engineering marvel. The bridge-building metaphor is rich for me. When nations/ communities/ groups are divided, my impulse is to allow each side to be heard. I want everyone to be respected and understood. I don’t want anyone to be dismissed because they are different.
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Sep 17, 2023 | 
kayaoakes.substack.com | Kaya Oakes
The Minotaur of Greek mythology was a genetic mutation, born of the union between the daughter of a king and what was apparently a particularly attractive bull gifted to her father by the god Poseidon. The Minotaur was so fearsome the people of Crete hid it in an underground labyrinth where it killed every youth sent to try and get rid of it.
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Sep 7, 2023 | 
americamagazine.org | Kaya Oakes
Loading... Click here if you don’t see subscription optionsA Reflection for Thursday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time Find today’s readings here. Teachers often talk about exasperating students whom we secretly like, the kind of student who asks too many questions, bugs us after class and makes silly mistakes, but who always keeps trying and showing up. This is how I think of Simon Peter and the rest of the apostles.
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Jul 31, 2023 | 
ncronline.org | Pat Marrin |Kaya Oakes
In 2010, when Pope Benedict XVI issued a pastoral letter apologizing for hundreds of years of sex abuse by clergy in Ireland, he also failed to offer any suggestion that the church's policy toward abusive clergy would change. This did not sit well with Sinéad O'Connor, whose career had been permanently damaged 18 years earlier when she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on "Saturday Night Live." In an opinion essay for The Washington Post in response to Benedict's letter, she was blunt.
