Be strong and take heart, all who hope in the LORD.
Psalm 31:25
We are living in tumultuous times.
But we hear God’s call to “be strong and take heart”—to work with radical hope toward the promise of peace and justice, the vision of equality and dignity.
Join the Ignatian family each day during Lent 2020 at the hope-filled intersection of faith and justice.
Radical Hope: Lent 2020 Sponsors
"Ministry workers created these Easter morning traditions for a higher purpose. I believe these descendants of slaves, African American people who had experienced varying degrees of discrimination, prejudice, and societal exclusion...wanted the children to know that God would always be with us." Read more →
In the midst of what appears to be darkness all around us during this pandemic which has led to much isolation and suffering, we know and understand that our Lord is risen and is at our side. Read more →
We encounter stories of God’s repeated saving action in the midst of oppression...we remember our own latent collective potential to interrupt cycles of oppression, our shared power to reach up and out in order to liberate, reconcile, and flourish. Read more →
Jesus would not have us wallow in some bleak, brutal re-enactment of that day. For indeed, it was love that made the cross salvific…not the sheer torture of it. Read more →
In today’s fast-paced world, being fully present to another is an act that is simple, yet often rare. Read more →
Last year I painted a mural in my high school attempting to ease the divisive effects of racism in the world—an inequity that I contribute to every moment of my existence as a white person—and focused on how I could increase the Church’s voice against that injustice. Read more →
I have to open my eyes and look around to see God working through others to build the Kingdom of God. Read more →
"The power of crying out and the shouting that my mind desperately needs shall no longer be suppressed." Read more →
Jesus knows what it means to be rejected and to suffer at the hands of injustice and cruelty. Read more →
Many are unaware of how violently we treat Appalachia. The ecosystem is devastated, the air and water contaminated. We as a nation close our eyes. Read more →
"Thin places" suggest much of what is central to being Christian—places where the veil momentarily lifts & we behold God all around us & within us—right here. Read more →
In times of widespread desolation, how can we find consolation in our relationship with God, with ourselves and with our brothers and sisters? Read more →
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is inviting us into God’s love and to love like God—to overcome the sin of racism. Read more →
Dorothy Day famously said, “My strength returns to me with my cup of coffee and the reading of the psalms.” Today’s psalm, in many ways, is like a balm for the displacement of hard times. Read more →
God defends Susana and condemns her abusers. Let there be no doubt which side God is on. Let there be no doubt which side Christians should be on. Read more →
"I find myself perturbed and deeply troubled by a society that can stand silently watching an entire community be decimated by the system of mass incarceration." Read more →
As we continue to endure the uncertainty of the weeks ahead, may we find hope and comfort in our common humanity—we do not walk alone. Read more →
We did not expect this challenge or the changes to our lifestyles to beset upon us so quickly. But "the challenge will not wait." Read more →
Even in our isolation, we can remember who we are. We are a people who live our faith, who strive for justice, who live with compassion. Read more →
There’s so much suffering around us. How is God calling you to become aware, reflect, and act with authentic solidarity? Read more →
Jesus sees it all: our weakness and futility, our prideful independence. He comes to us in our sickness and offers healing—to make us well again. Read more →
We have been given the rare opportunity to slow down and help God build this new earth. Read more →
A kind of darkness seems cast over these times. Some of its hues are different from times past, some are the same. Yet all can be pierced by the same Light. Read more →
We can show God our love by raising awareness, funds, serving at the food bank, and yes—using social media for good, posting the picture with an invitation to serve. Read more →
When I remember what led me to the work I do, I find a certain freedom and lightness...my labor is an expression of my love of God and of neighbor. Read more →
The abstract concept of faith can become very tangible when witnessed firsthand, as experienced at a liturgy in Malta with the Nigerian refugee community. Read more →
Building the kingdom of God in our lives, communities, and public policies means bringing the margins to the center. Read more →
We are called to live with hearts of mercy, because that’s where the joy is. Read more →
Naaman was an outsider, but he was also a great leader; open-minded, open to healing from an outside prophet, not fenced in by traditional boundaries. Read more →
Through his interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus shows us how we are to help people reclaim their own dignity, meeting them as friends. Read more →
What if we approached Lent with a desire to be gentle to ourselves, to assess our failings with kindness, and tenderly correct ourselves? Read more →
In overwhelming moments, including challenging family dinners, we are invited to throw off despair and put on radical hope. We come from a long line of master dreamers who have changed the world in big and small ways. Read more →
As I am inundated with coronavirus news, I offer gratitude. . . In my community, those gentle and responsive friends, I take my refuge. Read more →
We will always struggle to keep our faith during troubling times. But my mom raised me with the saying la fe mueve montañas—faith moves mountains. Read more →
"As a former refugee, I understand what it means to live in the darkness, and what it means to come out of that darkness and see light." Read more →
"Am I the type of millennial who claims to be an activist based on what I retweet? Or by the pictures of myself with protest signs that I post?" Read more →
God’s mercy doesn’t compute in our transactional world, but is a key ingredient in the radical hope that we pray for this Lent. Read more →
The story of the transfiguration is a challenge to each of us to recognize Christ in moments of shared humanity, when we are all transformed into sisters and brothers. Read more →
The gospel phrase “love your enemies” challenges us to respond with love to the emotions that threaten to paralyze us in order to continue our journey towards radical hope. Read more →
Para Dios, todo es posible. For God, everything is possible. That is the radical hope we are called to embrace: God is all-powerful and can do everything. It should move us to join with God’s preferential love for the poor and marginalized. Read more →
When we look around, we can see that something is wrong. Creation is speaking to us and we hear the "cry of the earth and the poor." Read more →
Where am I called to open myself to second chances to speak up against injustice, to honor the divine in every person I encounter? Read more →
What is my role in asking forgiveness for the trespasses of my country’s policies? Read more →
We are called to be attentive—to our values, experiences, and biases, to the ways we are consciously or unconsciously complicit in perpetuating injustice. Read more →
Are we tempted to dedicate so much time to challenging injustice that we ignore the Lenten reckoning in the desert to tend to the hardened areas of our own hearts? Read more →
We are not assured of when the light will come. Are we willing to continue repairing and restoring, persevering in radical hope for a light we may not see? Read more →
What we step away from during Lent allows us to move closer to the world we all want to see. Read more →
Nobody really takes up a cross voluntarily, but none of us carry a cross alone. How do we see past our crosses to our collective and individual liberation? Read more →
Perhaps as we receive a safely small smudge on our foreheads, we’ve forgotten that ashes are the result of violence and destruction. Read more →
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Este año, de una manera u otra, vamos a tener que encontrar una nueva manera para celebrar el Domingo de Pascua y también para entender cómo celebrar en medio de todo lo que está pasando. Read more →
Seguir a Jesús no es un triste deber. ¿Podemos simplemente amar ser afectuosos? El amor...hizo a la cruz salvífica. Read more →
En el acelerado mundo de hoy, estar plenamente presentes para alguien más es un acto que resulta sencillo, pero no se ve muy a menudo. Read more →
Sea cual sea el estilo con el que te sientas más cómodo, como protestar, enviar correos electrónicos, ejercer presión, etc., trae justicia a las naciones haciendo tu parte. Por ti, por mí y por nosotros. Read more →
La entrada triunfal del Señor en Jerusalén, que recordamos el Domingo de Ramos cada año, es extremadamente efímera. Read more →
Jose Aguto
Catholic Climate Covenant
Marcia Chatelain, Ph.D.
Georgetown University
Cecilia González-Andrieu, Ph.D.
Loyola Marymount University
Rev. James Martin, S.J.
America Media
Kaya Oakes
University of California, Berkeley
Sr. Norma Pimentel
Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley
Joan Rosenhauer
Jesuit Refugee Service/USA
His Eminence, Joseph William Cardinal Tobin
Archdiocese of Newark
Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy
Catholic Mobilizing Network
Mary Wardell-Ghirarduzzi, Ph.D.
University of San Francisco
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