children

In a weary admonition, the narrator of “Luke 13:30: Tired Application” instructs us to be watchful at the end of days, to look with grim hope at the “One coming who’s casting out devils, making the blind see.”

Meredith Kunsa’s prose poem retells the memory of a Pentecostal service where her grandmother, “jabbering in a voice” she cannot understand, gives a command that both haunts Kunsa and compels her to conclude that there is no Jesus in her, that “I’m not who I think I am.”

In the days when our courthouse was being built, a mason—we don’t know who—came to our village in the night and inscribed a simple phrase on the building’s cornerstone: God’s will be done. We were, at first, outraged that someone had dared to soil our builder’s work, but over the course of generations, the mason’s […]

If there’s no feast for this appetite No reason in nursery rhymes Why can’t I shake this great and glorious lie? And if there’s no dawn beyond this dark No secret stair to climb Where did I learn the song that shakes the sky? —Partayn’s Song, The Ale Boy’s Feast   I can’t shake the […]

A mother reflects on the opportunities for moral growth, generosity, and compassion presented by our current economic crisis.

In this interview, nurse and aid worker Brooke James recounts her experiences in Port-au-Prince during the earthquake and reflects on life in Haiti now, five months after the catastrophe.

A poem inspired by a photograph taken in Haiti, five days after the 2006 election of Rene Preval.

In this interview, Josh Butler describes his work with the Advent Conspiracy, an organization that challenges popular consumerist responses to Christmas and seeks to recapture that sense that there is something prophetic and countercultural about Christmas, that a different kingdom is being celebrated when we celebrate the birth of Jesus.

n this personal essay, Nancy Sleeth reflects on how we might find beauty in nature, even in our own backyards.