On March 22, 2026, the fifth Sunday of the Lenten season, aka Passion Sunday, I had the great honor of addressing the incomparable St. Joan of Arc Catholic Community in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a parish renowned for its progressive stance and its focus on social justice. These folks rose ready, together, in the face of Trump & Co’s domestic terror campaign, “Operation Metro Surge,” to defend and safeguard the human and constitutional rights of their neighbors. For this lapsed Catholic, the daughter of a devout Twin Cities Minnesotan, who was en route to the priesthood when he met my mom, it was the perfect place to be welcomed back into the fold.
Speaking on this topic during the sacred Lenten season of grief and giving, of reflection and renewal — the time of the passion, when we are called upon to express compassion — could not have felt more auspicious, more vital, or more urgent in today’s political climate. The story of Lent is mirrored in real life, right now. We are in that still and scary time just before the light of a new dawn, when folks just living their sweet lives are vilified, declared terrorists, arrested, shackled, imprisoned, denied food and water, and forced to participate in their own destruction, just as one who preached the gospel of love and caring, of welcome and kindness, was forced to wear a crown of thorns that pierced his head and to carry the implement of his coming torture.
This is happening again every minute of every single day, inside the US’s deterrence to detention to deportation pipeline. And the cruelty is not okay.
In the aftermath ofICE’s brutal and criminal tearing apart of more than 3,700 Minnesota families to date that we know of, according to the Deportation Data Project, under Trump & Co’s ethnic cleansing campaign for which they are developing a holocaust-style infrastructure of concentration camps, complete with transportation network, the community of St. Joan of Arc has been engaged in a spiritual centering down. Guided by the wise words of writer Sherman Alexie, as well as Christian theologian, educator, and civil rights leader, Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, they have been preparing their heads, hands, and hearts for the ongoing struggle for social justice, that they may rise ready, together, when called upon again to do so.
I am one more citizen marching against hatred.Alone, we are defenseless. Collected, we are sacred.We will march by the millions. We will tremble and grieve.We will praise and weep and laugh. We will believe.We will be courageous with our love. We will risk dangerAs we sing and sing and sing to welcome strangers.
Sherman Alexie, 2017
The community asked that I focus my remarks on where I find strength in these deeply dark and challenging times; about how I quiet my soul and my mind when there is so much to do and so many needs to meet, Every. Single. Moment. of. Every. Single. Day.
About how I center down.
But I had to admit that I am none too good at the practice myself. Indeed, I had to learn the hard way that working to straighten the bent arc of justice is not a marathon. It’s not even a sprint. It’s a relay. That’s why it’s so important to know who your allies are, and to hold them dear, because we all need to pass the baton at times, to step back and center down so that we may again lead. In fact, in the most tragic moments of last winter’s occupation, I was looking to folks like my St Joan of Arc hosts for answers.
When under siege, when the worst of humanity’s worst impulses were unleashed upon them, it was Minnesotans such as these, like Chicagoans and Angelenos and Portlanders before them, who showed us that…
When we live together as brothers and sisters, we rise together, too.
Minnesota showed us that we can create a more inclusive world, where the stranger is welcomed and embraced, rather than shackled and expelled. And that we would be a much better people and nation for it.
They are to be thanked for standing against government violence and for everyone’s human right to dignity, safety, and due process under the law, for being the light in our collective hour of darkness. And for giving me my mojo back!
In this Easter and Passover season, and with Ramadan just behind us, I hope you appreciate my pre-Mass remarks offered to the St Joan of Arc Catholic Community on March 22, 2026.
Please, listen to the audio or watch the video above, then circle back to let us know, in the comments below, where you find hope when an ethnic cleansing, a genocide, is unfolding right in front of your eyes?
Don’t forget to tap the ♡ if you like this video, and the 🔄 to share it.
Until next time, stay strong, my friends. The only way through this is…Together.✊🏼 Sarah
How good it is to center down!
To sit quietly and see one’s self pass by! The streets of our minds seethe with endless traffic; Our spirits resound with clashing, with noisy silences, While something deep within hungers and thirstsfor the still moment and the resting lull.
With full intensity we seek, ere thicket passes, a fresh sense of order in our living;A direction, a strong sure purpose that will structure our confusion and bring meaning in our chaos. We look at ourselves in this waiting moment — the kinds of people we are.
The questions persist: What are we doing with our lives? What are the motives that order our days? What is the end of our doings? Where are we trying to go? Where do we put the emphasis and where are our values focused? For what end do we make sacrifices? Where is my treasure and what do I love most in life? What do I hate most in life and to what am I true? Over and over the questions beat upon the waiting moment.As we listen, floating up through all of the jangling echoes of our turbulence,there is a sound of another kind —A deeper note which only the stillness of the heart makes clear.It moves directly to the core of our being. Our questions are answered,Our spirits refreshed, and we move back into the traffic of our daily roundWith the peace of the Eternal in our step.How good it is to center down!
Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, 1999
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