Big questions, good conflict, & best practices

What I'm reading lately - plus a free journaling workshop!

Want to hang out and talk about prayer, writing, and Lent? Thrilled to share this free virtual workshop on journaling that I’ll be offering this Friday, Feb. 17 from 1:00-2:00 pm ET thanks to the Church in the 21st Century Center at Boston College: The Power of Journaling: 5 Simple Ways to Grow Your Faith on Paper.

Register here to join us live or receive the recording later, plus you’ll get an email each week of Lent with extra ideas for journaling as a spiritual practice. Whether you love journaling or have never tried before, we’ll cover all the basics to help you dive into Lent through this prayer practice that has been a consistent life-changer for me.

(And stay tuned because I’ve got more coming from the C21 Center this Lent…)

Giveaways, good reads, art & podcasts

Give Us This Day is one of my favorite ways to pray: a monthly devotional with morning/evening prayer, Mass readings, and reflections for each day. They’ve been a generous sponsor of Mothering Spirit, and this week we’re hosting a giveaway on Instagram for a free yearly subscription! Enter here by Monday for your chance to win.

January’s Give Us This Day introduced me to the art of Nicholas Mynheer. I lost myself in a deep dive of his paintings and sculpture, and his work stands among the most evocative modern religious art I’ve seen in ages.

Who else is thrilled that On Being is back? I devoted both new episodes: mind-blowing for those who love to chew on big questions. Dacher Keltner on the science of awe (gave me all the goosebumps). Amanda Ripley on “good conflict” in journalism, politics, and culture.

A tender essay from Courtney Martin on the absorption of care.

My latest column for OSV News flips the script on everything I expected to learn about how parents transmit religion to children (from the sociological work of Christian Smith at Notre Dame): The Simplest Way to Share Faith With Kids.

Cannot tell you how delightful it feels to have this be a whole category: Friends Whose Books You Can Pre-order Now.

• Shannon K. Evans, Feminist Prayers for My Daughter

• Kimberly Knowle-Zeller & Erin Strybis, The Beauty of Motherhood: Grace-Filled Devotions for the Early Years

Sign me up for the Luddite club: give a listen/read to The Teenager Leading the Smartphone Liberation Movement.

Question for you

Speaking of Luddites, I recently read How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell and Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari. Both thought-provoking, both incomplete or problematic in places. But I keep finding myself drawn to questions of how we need to change the ways we’re living right now.

What are your best practices around technology, screens, or social media?

Are you giving something up for Lent? Learning to go Luddite or change your habits in ways that feel healthy or healing? It’s easy to bemoan and lament, but I’m convinced most of us have positive ways we’re working on this, too—even noticing a direction in which we feel drawn to change.

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