One of the temptations on the journey toward God, Teresa says, is the temptation to feel satisfied with where we are. Moving through the first three rooms of the interior castle, she says, we might begin to feel that we have found a stopping place. We pray, we meditate, we cultivate virtues. Why not be satisfied with that good life?

Teresa wants us to be dissatisfied. There’s so much more to explore on the path to God, she writes. We can love more; we can act with more justice and truth. We have the capacity for so much more transformation, so much more change.

The pandemic has made it impossible not to know what needs to be done; the injustices fracturing our world have been laid bare for all to see. As I heard a student ask in a presentation on the structural inequalities revealed by COVID: Will we still care when the pandemic is over? Will we stay dissatisfied enough to keep looking for new ways of living that cherish every life?

In the end, Teresa remained dissatisfied enough to write her book, to create new forms of community, to stay on the path to the interior castle until the life inside her and the life around her became one life. She reminds us to embrace dissatisfaction, to let it keep us on the path to the way things could be.

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Let nothing disturb you,⁰nothing frighten you,⁰All things are passing.⁰God never changes.⁰Patience attains all things.⁰Whoever has God lacks nothing.⁰God is enough.

— St Theresa of Avila pic.twitter.com/E4bc7WW73N

— Professor Pecknold (@ccpecknold) October 15, 2020

Campaigners are set to have a review of abortion law relating to Down’s syndrome heard at the High Court.

Heidi Carter, of Coventry, and Máire Lea-Wilson from Brentford, west London, are challenging the government over a clause in the current law which allows abortion for up to birth for a foetus with Down’s syndrome.

Mrs Carter, 25, who has the condition, said the current law is “not fair”.

The case is due to be heard on 6 and 7 July.

Currently, there is a 24-week time limit for abortion, unless “there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped” .

Mrs Carter, who campaigns under her given name of Crowter, previously wrote to Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying all non-fatal disabilities should be subject to the same standard 24-week limit.

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Down's syndrome: Abortion case heads to High Court https://t.co/dmEq9EoiJt

— BBC Midlands Today (@bbcmtd) May 4, 2021

Marriage certificates in England and Wales have traditionally left space for the names and professions of just one parent: the fathers of the couple tying the knot.

That changed on Tuesday, with couples now allowed to add mothers’ names to their official marriage record. The change corrects “a historic anomaly” and is part of a larger overhaul of how marriages are registered in the two nations, the British government said. Unions will also now be recorded in a single electronic registry instead of in registry books.

The changes are the biggest to the registration system since the Marriage Act came into effect in 1837, the Home Office said, and they have been in the works for several years. In 2014, David Cameron, then the prime minister, said the system did not reflect “modern Britain” and pledged to make modifications.

But the final stages of legislation to include both parents did not come before Parliament until last month, spurred by a larger bill that passed in 2019. The earlier bill included the changeover to an electronic marriage registry and the extension of the right to civil partnerships to all couples.

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Couples in England and Wales can now add their mothers’ names to their official marriage record, not just their fathers’, in what officials say is the biggest change since Britain’s Marriage Act came into effect in 1837. https://t.co/tcsG2Hn86E

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 4, 2021

Kate: The other bit that I found so unbelievably refreshing is that one of the I mean, go to philosophical stances is like, well, if I’m not just giving sort of contextual advice, I’m giving you self-help. And you and I both believe that self-help is unhelpful and that self-determination is delusional. And your account of why best life now is a complete myth is so beautifully evident in your advice column. So like when you look at the questions that come in, how does it help you see our culture’s dominant myths?….

Kate: Writing about the Prosperity Gospel was always so tricky because I learned so much about expectation and and hope from being around people who are constantly pressing into this idea of best life now. And their just kind of urgency to always make all parts of their life, you know, good, better, best. On the other side, there’s just there is such a there’s such a punitive side to it, though, when, you know, when life doesn’t turn out and then the the blame immediately becomes turns inward or I I love what you’re describing too that it makes us fundamentally uncharitable about the the flaws and the the hardships of others.

Kate: You really challenge us to wonder what if this were enough? So what did you mean by that?

Heather: At the time when I was writing my book, I was really struggling with how to face the limits essentially in my life. I think you reach an age where you say, oh, my God, I’m not going to be a ballerina on Mars after all. You can’t instead of like, can’t believe, even though you didn’t really think you’d ever get there. It’s sort of like, oh, my gosh, is it possible that the I’m not going there’s no possibility that I’m ever going to be a ballerina on Mars? Like this is, you know, an injustice beyond compare. We see our lives as having limitless potential because we’re told that our lives have limitless potential constantly. And there are ways that that’s a good message to have. I think there’s a shift needs to occur between the the material potential, like I can live in Spain, France and New York and have endless wealth and be perfect looking and have millions of close bestest friends. And the potential of I can feel good right here in this flawed place when I focus and by feel good, I don’t necessarily mean feel no bad things. Feel no emotions, feel no sadness, feel no anxiety. But I can, I can confront this day and take it for what it is and I can savor all of the things that this day offers me, the good and the bad and the sadness and the anxiety even. It’s weird to savor anxiety. Maybe that’s not completely possible.

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The chart…[in my essay] is from a new book by Robert Putnam, The Upswing. The basic pattern it reports for membership in houses of worship also holds with respect to the share of Americans belonging to labor unions, national chapter-based organizations, and even family formation. Moreover, the same ‘inverted u’ pattern observed with respect to these social bonds also plays out for trends in civic engagement, trust in institutions, political participation, cross-partisan engagement, economic equality, social mobility and more. Overall, Putnam argues, the trends observed in America today closely approximate conditions during the ‘Gilded Age’ (i.e. the 1870s through around 1900).

The book highlights how the decline of organized religion is not incidental to the other trends. The rise of the ‘social gospel’ in the late 19^th century played an important role in building momentum in the formative years of the ‘upswing’ across the social, cultural, political and economic dimensions Putnam explores. Religious participation predicts increased likelihood to donate and volunteer for both religious and secular causes and organizations. It predicts higher voting and other forms of civic participation. And the erosion of organized religion in America seems to have exacerbated declines across many measures of social solidarity, equality, and engagement. However, these declines need not persist indefinitely.

In a sense it is encouraging to recognize that the United States has experienced similar levels of social anomie in the past as we are living through today, and successfully built institutions, practices and norms to pull ourselves together. This is a feat that contemporary Americans or our successors could conceivably repeat.

Therefore, America is not necessarily headed towards godlessness, on a one-way trip to secularism. If it seems that way looking at charts like the ones that opened this essay, this is because most such graphics begin near the WWII era, which was an unusual period of flourishing for organized religion in the United States. Again, it does not represent our historical norm.

Indeed, although America has returned to roughly the same level of affiliation with religious institutions as we had in 1900, even this was a significant increase over earlier periods.

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Post-Religious America? Don’t Hold Your Breath. by @Musa_alGharbi

for #InterfaithAmerica https://t.co/wXeaS7ThQq pic.twitter.com/b3OBXPpkAH

— Paul Brandeis Raushenbush (@raushenbush) April 27, 2021

Although nowhere close to India’s population or flare-up in scope, the reported spikes in these handful of nations have been far steeper, signaling the potential dangers of an uncontrolled spread. The resurgence — and first-time outbreaks in some places that largely avoided the scourge last year — heightens the urgency of delivering vaccine supplies to poorer, less influential countries and averting a protracted pandemic.

“It’s very important to realize that the situation in India can happen anywhere,” said Hans Kluge, the regional director at the World Health Organization for Europe, during a briefing last week. “This is still a huge challenge.”

Ranked by the change in newly recorded infections in the past month over the previous month, Laos came first with a 22,000% increase, followed by Nepal and Thailand, both of which saw fresh caseload skyrocketing more than 1,000% on a month-over-month basis.

Also on top of the list are Bhutan, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Cambodia and Fiji, as they witnessed the epidemic erupt at a high triple-digit pace.

“All countries are at risk,” said David Heymann, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “The disease appears to be becoming endemic and will therefore likely remain a risk to all countries for the foreseeable future.”

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“It’s very important to realize that the situation in India can happen anywhere. This is still a huge challenge,” said Hans Kluge, the regional director at the WHO for Europe. https://t.co/xY7Eof2iju

— The Japan Times (@japantimes) May 4, 2021

O Lord Jesus Christ, who hast gone to the Father to prepare a place for us: Grant us so to live in communion with thee here on earth, that hereafter we may enjoy the fullness of thy presence; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end.

Misty sunrise on the Thurne

📷davepsemmens pic.twitter.com/iKdBkFTfb6

— Maria Zoe (@mariazoe_maria) May 4, 2021

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

–Romans 13:1-7

This mornings walk was entertaining. I got soaked through before sunrise, caught a rainbow over the tower and then this sunrise. All in about 10 minutes on Glastonbury Tor. pic.twitter.com/bTSoh62VFp

— Michelle (@Glastomichelle) May 5, 2021