Awaken your senses to a life beyond survival

In an age of conflict, disparity, and uncertainty, do we really need more church practices built around self-denial, grief, suffering, penance, and fasting? For individuals and communities on the margins, we don’t need weekly or daily reminders about grief—we have enough already. Instead, we need traditions that oppose death and decay with resurrection and triumph. We need to shout “Increase!” for access and collective participation with the deep and wide ethic of radical love.

In Whole and Human, author Rohadi Nagassar offers 40 meditations on our relationships with land, body, spirit, and justice with invitations to engage life-giving spiritual practices rooted in the five senses. In this guide for spiritual cultivation, we’re not ignoring the hard times or any losses. But in the midst of heavy things, we can learn to counter daily challenges with restorative possibilities that help us not only survive calamity but thrive toward a new way of life.

It’s time to nourish our bodies instead of denying them. It’s time to cherish simple and beautiful moments, reengage our curiosity, amplify our wonder, pursue justice, and most of all seek ways to love ourselves and one another well. One day at a time.