Regina Evans recalls how during a rough point in her life, the pastor at a friend’s church prophesied over her. “She said, ‘I see them, I see them. Your children are coming,” She’s laughing and she’s happy. And I was like, whose children are coming? What children?” The children came alright. Regina didn’t birth them, […]
Sarah Byrne-Martelli remembers being fitted for her medical grade N95 mask on her first day back at work during the pandemic. “They have a kind of metal piece over your nose and you’re supposed to push it through to the back of your skull for 10 seconds, really hard,” she says. The mask suctioned to […]
Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom in front of a Chicago city park mural designed by Stateville Correctional Center students. Photo credit: Karl Soderstrom Listen and subscribe to The Spiritual Edge wherever you listen to podcasts – Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts. By Monique Parsons Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom grew up poor, completed college and graduate school, got a great job […]
Along with everything else he does, Russell Jeung is a runner. He has logged nearly 1600 miles this past year on trails near his home in Oakland California. Sometimes, his routine includes what he calls “breath prayers.” “So that’s breathing in and out. I would take two strides and say something like ‘God sees me.’ […]
When the phone rang, I heard an elderly woman’s voice on the other end: “We’re going to Washington DC to be arrested. Want to join us?” The call came from Sister Joann Persch and Sister Pat Murphy, two elderly Catholic nuns ages 85 and 90, who are famously engaged with the country’s immigration debate, and […]
The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century was never really one movement. Lots of reformations sprouted throughout Europe, and one of the most radical gave the world the Mennonites, who trace their roots to the Netherlands. This tiny Christian sect still embraces a theology that renounces violence, welcomes refugees and shuns materialism. Like their spiritual […]
Dean Issacharoff wears small round glasses. He has bushy brown hair and bright eyes. The night I visited his Tel Aviv apartment, he opened the door for me barefoot, in cutoff denim shorts and a thin t-shirt with a picture of Cookie Monster on the front. He was on the phone, working. Dean is the […]
In the Palestinian town of Jericho, customers cycled in and out of Sameer’s cell phone shop to buy new SIM cards. Sameer sat behind a desk, clicking through Youtube for music from his teenage years. He sang along to an anthem about young Palestinians taking to the streets to fight for freedom from the Israeli […]
I’m sitting in a small, cosy cafe in a quiet part of West London on a cold, wet, typically English Monday morning. The other shops near here — the generic franchises, faceless drive-thrus and big stores — blend into the background. But the cafe I’m in stands out. Starting with its name – Ahimsa. “Ahimsa […]
The car Noe Kasali drove was covered in orange dust when he arrived in the small town of Mangina, about an hour’s drive from his home, down a bumpy dirt road. It was a hot day in late summer. “We did not have any PPE with us. We came just wearing simple, simple clothes,” he […]
It’s a Friday night at the First Baptist Church in Selma, Alabama. As the wooden pews fill up, latecomers tuck coats and handbags onto the floor beside them. Up front, an organizer adjusts microphones and introduces the next speaker, Shailly Gupta Barnes. The crowd is here for a 2018 panel discussion sponsored by the Poor […]
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Sister Dianna Ortiz survived torture in Guatemala and became a voice for victims — The Spiritual Edge
“It’s very important that you understand that each time I speak out, it’s not about an American nun who was tortured…It is about every mother whose son or daughter is disappeared.” Since she was little, Dianna Mae Ortiz spoke about wanting to become a nun. She entered the Ursuline order at 17 and trained to […]