We Are Now in Autocracy—What Will Bring The Turning?

Last updated on: May 5, 2025 at 5:41 pm By Tricia Gates Brown

Autocracy. noun. 1. Government by a single person having unlimited power; despotism. When I visit my friend Dania (not her real name), deep connection is in store. We sit in her kitchen, to an exquisitely prepared meal of homemade soup, salad, and bread with butter, and tea. We join hands for silence, then commence a discussion that ranges from intensely personal to spiritual/philosophical/universal. I have called Dania, who is decades older than me, my “elder.” But she feels as much... Read more

What To Do With Righteous Anger: A Meditation for Lent

Last updated on: March 27, 2025 at 8:19 am By Tricia Gates Brown

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Have you experienced a loss or misfortune and someone suggested it happened to you because of God’s punishment? Have you looked at your foes and wished tragedy on them—as a punishment from God? Or have you looked at accidents and tragedies in their lives and simply assumed they were to blame. Most of us can say yes to these questions. Even as I type this, the names of specific foes in my own life come to mind. People who harmed... Read more

Dawn Come Swiftly: Finding Hope in Ancient Words

Last updated on: March 5, 2025 at 4:42 pm By Tricia Gates Brown

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This week I found my essay written in November 2016, just days after the first Trump election. On re-reading it, I was surprised at how timely it feels and how presentiments from that time are tragically actualizing day by day. Also this week I heard a prominent writer reflecting on that period, on how people called her a ‘Cassandra’ in 2016, saying she was overreacting to things the candidate was saying. “I so wish I had been wrong,” this author... Read more

A Lens for Understanding Our Times: Struggle as Human Need

Last updated on: February 24, 2025 at 6:54 pm By Tricia Gates Brown

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Lately I’m reading the political scientist Francis Fukuyama after hearing him speak on struggle. Specifically, on how struggle gives us meaning, and how humans need something to struggle toward. In the absence of struggle and challenge, something rushes into the void. As a writer and reader of fiction, I recognize the given: Every story requires conflict. My husband, a longtime literature professor, declares it definitively: “There is no story without conflict!” I would say this includes our own stories. This... Read more

What Does it Mean to Love Your Enemy? On Holding Up A Mirror

Last updated on: February 24, 2025 at 7:02 am By Tricia Gates Brown

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Where Christianity gets especially real, where our faith is put to the test, is right here: where Jesus says, “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27-38). Major world religions hold in common a ‘golden rule’ stating essentially: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself’—a command to love others that is almost universal. But Jesus goes a painful step further, telling us to love our enemies. It is hard hard business. Because it is so... Read more

Active Engagement: Doing the Stuff Taught in Civics Class

Last updated on: February 24, 2025 at 7:06 am By Tricia Gates Brown

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Last Wednesday, I woke to discover a protest was taking place at noon in the capital of my state, as it was in the capital of every state. A decentralized grassroots movement had come together to hit-the-streets and decry the authoritarian actions of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. I don’t usually make last minute decisions, but decided I had to put my feet where my words are and rapidly adjust my plans. My husband and daughter agreed to join me; a... Read more

Re-Learning How to Ask for Help: The Art of Interdependence

Last updated on: February 24, 2025 at 7:07 am By Tricia Gates Brown

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Recently I left for the store and forgot my phone. When, a few blocks from home, I realized my phone-free status, I felt instant discomfort, wondering: What if my car breaks down? Then I smiled because—good grief—for most of my life, I always left home without a phone! Not only was I generally okay, but when something went wrong and I needed help, delightful things often transpired. Such as the time I was halfway between northern Oregon and northern California... Read more

Changing Perspective from Within: ‘Signs’, Faith, and Doubt

Last updated on: February 24, 2025 at 7:08 am By Tricia Gates Brown

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In the story in this week’s lectionary gospel (John 2:1-11), Jesus tells his mother he cannot help the wedding host who has run out of wine because his “hour has not come.” It seems he knew something. He knew that as soon as he did a public wonder, it would start in motion the end of his life. And sure enough, it did. When he started going around Galilee and Judea doing miracles, at first he told people to keep... Read more

Rethinking Prayer Practice: Music-Listening as Prayer

Last updated on: February 24, 2025 at 7:08 am By Tricia Gates Brown

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In the new year, I am rethinking prayer. By this I don’t mean that I started saying prayers differently. I mean that what prayer is to me completely changed. Really, decades have passed since I “said prayers” unless in a group setting—mainly because, for me, formulating words has tended to get in the way. In lieu of this, I have tried either to tune in to the divine in various ways, or to repeat simple mantras encapsulating what in most... Read more

The Already and Not Yet: On Christmas and Waiting

Last updated on: February 24, 2025 at 7:09 am By Tricia Gates Brown

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Today I want to talk about Christmas and waiting. The Christmas season is one of waiting. Advent means, “the arrival,” and for those who celebrate, we wait for the arrival of Jesus into the world—because of all that he represents to us. And at this deep-winter time of year, we wait for the light to return, after months of light decreasing day by day. I feel too that much of the world is currently waiting. People wait to see what... Read more