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Nov 19, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Jack Jenkins |Aleja Hertzler- McCain |Brandon Ambrosino |Yolanda Pierce
Two days after American voters once again hand Donald Trump the presidency, I visit my mother-in-law. She’s 99 years old and on what’s called a “mechanical soft” diet, having lost most of her teeth. So it’s all mashed potatoes, viscous cream soups, and slippery puddings. Her days at the retirement home are mostly the same, all empty minutes on loop. Today I tell her bits of news as she eats: a granddaughter’s impending engagement, a cousin’s widow now in hospice.
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Aug 23, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Rebecca Weiss |Jack Jenkins |Aleja Hertzler- McCain |Yolanda Pierce
We had planted flowers in our tiny garden to attract hummingbirds. After a long summer rain, my young daughter and I stepped outside onto the porch to see if our well-watered plants had finally yielded any visitors. No sooner had we opened the door than a frog hopped into our house. A few hops to the right, and he settled on the area rug of my home office. The unexpected appearance of a frog on my porch and then in my home left me speechless. I am a city girl.
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Mar 25, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Brian Bantum |Gabe Colombo |Yvette Schock |Yolanda Pierce
“Free at last, free at last,thank God almighty I’m free at last!” These resounding words are most often remembered as the closing words of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, but they are taken from the spiritual “Free at Last”:Way down yonder in the graveyard walk, Me and my Jesus going to meet and talk. On my knees when the light passed by, Thought my soul would rise and fly. Some of these mornings, bright and fair, Goin’ to meet King Jesus in the air.
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Mar 22, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Brian Bantum |Gabe Colombo |Yvette Schock |Yolanda Pierce
Hospitality as an exercise of Christian faith is not groundbreaking theology. The hospitality of early Christian communities was so great it earned them the ire of the Roman government. “These impious Galileans not only feed their own poor, but ours also,” wrote emperor Julian the Apostate.
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Mar 22, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Brian Bantum |Gabe Colombo |Yolanda Pierce |Yvette Schock
To receive these posts by email each Monday, sign up. For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century. A few weeks ago, on a gray, wet Saturday, three strangers knocked on our front door. This is a relatively rare occurrence these days, so I was curious to hear the reason for their visit.
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Mar 22, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Brian Bantum |Gabe Colombo |Yolanda Pierce |Amy Frykholm
John’s purpose in writing his gospel is to show us that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. The stories he chooses and the structure of the text demonstrate that intent. In this gospel, Jesus often moves like a superhero, walking on water and moving himself and a boat full of disciples across the water at super speed. Sometimes, he mysteriously makes his way through crowds and eludes the capture of an active contingent against him. He moves like someone not from this world.
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Mar 21, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Bradley B. Onishi |Brian Bantum |Gabe Colombo |Yolanda Pierce
Like many Americans around the country on January 6, 2021, Bradley Onishi was horrified by the news of the insurrection at the Capitol building. But of particular interest to Onishi were the Christian flags and signs spread throughout the mob, which brought into plain view an expression of White Christian nationalism that was deeply familiar to him.
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Mar 21, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Brian Bantum |Gabe Colombo |Yolanda Pierce |Amy Frykholm
I’ve often wondered if love is somehow less authentic if it is maintained by routine. Stated differently, if one must work for it, plan for it, and schedule it, is love or the demonstration thereof less powerful, less genuine, or simply less real than it would be otherwise? I’ll admit that this wonder is born of conversations about romantic love and the maintenance of romantic relationships. Do the flowers you send your partner mean as much if they result from the calendar reminder you set?
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Mar 20, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Amy Frykholm |Yolanda Pierce |E. Heath |Brian Bantum
The story never meant to be told: The suppressed history of African-American religious women with Shannen Dee Williams (S3:E6)Welcome to In Search Of, a podcast where we go in search of voices and perspectives that inform and expand a life of faith. In this episode, we learn about the missing history of Black Catholic sisters in the United States with Dr. Shannen Dee Williams–and why that history has been erased.
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Mar 20, 2024 | 
christiancentury.org | Brian Bantum |Gabe Colombo |Yolanda Pierce |Amy Frykholm
Sr. Mary Roger Thibodeaux, a veteran member of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and a leading Catholic light of the 20th-century Black freedom struggle, has died in Pennsylvania. At the time of her passing on March 11, she resided at Paul’s Run Retirement Center in Philadelphia and was eight days from her 87th birthday. No cause of death was released. Her order, founded by Katharine Drexel to serve Native and African Americans, announced the news on Tuesday.
