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A Theology of Distraction

Erica Brown

Some days it’s just hard to get out of bed. Each morning we confront our prosaic disappointments and life regrets again; these mix with global news of raging wildfires,...

Jonah’s Prayer

Erica Brown

Prayer is often an act of penitence, an acknowledgment that “I am not who I want to be.” Through prayer, one asks for the capacity to change, to improve,...

Ruth and the Long Embrace

Erica Brown

In 1804, English painter George Dawe exhibited his painting “Naomi and Her Daughters” for the first time. It is a moving image of female affection. Naomi’s husband and sons...

Friendship After COVID

Erica Brown

I long to offer maskless casual greetings to colleagues, to clerks in my regular shopping ambit, and to commuters who used to wait with me every morning at the...

Spiritual Social Distancing

Erica Brown

Many decades ago, the Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote, “What we are all more or less lacking at this moment is a new definition of holiness.” Today, many...

Scrolls of Hate and Hope

Erica Brown

My mother and grandparents survived the Holocaust. When I was growing up, I resented how often they read anti-Semitism into seemingly innocuous exchanges. “They will always hate us,” they...