Nicole Trahan

At a Marianist Family program in Kenya, we are growing in our understanding of the values, customs and points of view shaped by the contexts from which people come. This has truly been a gift. It has also been work.

Do we allow the injustices in our world to blind us to the presence of Jesus? Does our anger lead to destruction or to life? 

Horizons - The year after I graduated, I completed a year of service. I worked in a Catholic grade school in Uvalde, Texas, a place I could never forget. Unfortunately, after last month, no one will ever forget Uvalde.

A good way to observe Lent this year is for all of us as individually and as a church to repent for our collective sinfulness — historical, present-day, systemic, embedded.

People who work in ministry, counseling and social work sometimes need the space and support to go through our own grieving process. It's OK to admit that and to accept the support. We simply cannot give what we do not have.

Horizons - Sometimes my own need for healing is all I can see of myself. What happens when we don't pay attention to our giftedness, when we downplay what is good about who we are?

Horizons - Even celebrations last year like Easter and Christmas had elements of purification and leaning into God's mercy. A stripping away of excesses. A stripping away of control, really. And for me, a stripping away of false notions about hope.

Horizons - 2020 certainly has been a year like none other in our lifetimes. "Unprecedented" is the word that has been used countless times, so much so that I can barely stand to hear reporters say it. And yet, it is actually the perfect word.

Horizons - Reading Dr. Martin Luther King's words from 1968 is a surreal experience. In many ways, it seems like his final book was written in the summer of 2020.

Horizons - This Lent, we are stripping away so much. We are left with the presence of God in our solidarity, the coming of spring, phone calls, video chats, emails, and the care and concern we show to one another.

Horizons - As I look at the state of our world today and I consider what's happening, I am overwhelmed by what I see. How can I possibly respond?

Horizons - Those of us who work in vocations and formation ministry are like those who run the middle leg of a relay race. Though we may not necessarily see the outcome of our work, we do what we do for the sake of those who were before us and for the sake of those who are behind us.