What’s in a place?

This past weekend I traveled to Austin, Texas, for a friend’s wedding. An outdoor wedding, it turns out, in the 95 degree heat. People had told me it would be a pleasant “dry heat.” People were wrong.

The wedding was lovely nonetheless, and I came to see the weather as just one element that makes Austin what it is—that makes any place what it is. Climate, geography, migration patterns, and human history, culture, and politics all shape the places we know and love.

We have some recent articles about place and places. Below you’ll find a fascinating account of a Jesuit missionary’s bones going home to the Native American people of St. Ignace. You can listen to a conversation with Lisa Sharon Harper, who embarked on a pilgrimage to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to research the history of her enslaved ancestors. An editorial describes why the UN has been powerless to really help the people in Ukraine.

Email me: What is something you love about the city, town, or region where you live?

Jon Mathieu
[email protected]

The bones of Jacques Marquette

“Why would Native American people welcome back the remains of a White man, now that history has well documented the devastating results of missionary work, including the loss of indigenous culture and traditional beliefs, alongside the genocide of native peoples nationwide?”

by Jon Magnuson

Lisa Sharon Harper, author of Fortune

“The goal was to establish, protect, and entrench White male dominance. The only way to do that is to squash, control, and confine the image of God in everyone else.”

an interview with Grace Ji-Sun Kim for the Madang podcast

The UN Security Council couldn’t stop Russia’s war against Ukraine

“As the Ukrainian ambassador to the United Nations challenged the Russian ambassador about what his country was about to do, the moment was as poignant as it was pointless. The paralysis of the UN as a political body was painfully evident.”

by the editors

Living by the Word for June 12 (Trinity Sunday C)

We are not the first to face complex global crises and wonder, “How can we possibly come back from this?”

by Elizabeth Evans
 

Evelyn Wang saves the multiverse

“Everything Everywhere All At Once reveals that on the other side of finitude is chaos—and love.”

by Kathryn Reklis

Love’s knowledge

“In the realm of faith, we know much more than our mind or intellect can tell us.”

by Peter W. Marty