I woke up to the litany of names. Maybe you did, too. Every year on this day they wind around me as I sip my morning cup of tea, greeting another sunny September day like that bright one we pause to remember (can it be eleven years ago now?). I listen to the litany. Names read by loved ones, a simple, solemn recitation. Just enough pause to let the sounds and syllables sink in before the next name begins. Names that sound foreign and names that sound familiar. Janitors and bankers and moms and firemen. People who rushed in and people who tried to get out. All of them gone. All of them loved. The only thing I treasure about this awful anniversary is that honoring each name is our way to remember. . . . We've been church shopping for months. I hate to admit it, because I dislike a consumerist mindset when it comes to faith communities: what can I get here? what can you give me? But our recent move landed us smack in the middle of four different parishes, all equal distance from our … [Read more...] about called by name
name
what name do you give God?
My son's favorite is Ancient One. Mine is (no surprise) Mother. But on frazzled days I remind myself of Source of Peace. Sandy Eisenberg Sasso's lovely book In God's Name has become a recent naptime favorite. Strangely my young son is smitten with the most ancient of God's names. Every time we reach the page that describes how "the grandfather whose hair was white with the years called God Ancient One," the boy with blond curls squirms happily in my lap. It's a mystery why this name has captured his attention, but he can't get it out of his head: he delights at its reading and asks all day long about its spelling. He wants to know everything about Ancient One. I've loved this children's book ever since it fell into my pregnant lap (literally) as I rummaged through cast-offs at a kids' consignment sale. The illustrations are bright and charming, and the fable that describes how each person names God out of their own life is even more beautiful. At the end of the story … [Read more...] about what name do you give God?
