Michael Morrell

'We’re praying with our feet': a year of pro-democracy prayer vigils in New York As New York braces for a large-scale deployment of ICE agents, the vigils imposed themselves as a hub for the city’s religious left and became an incubator for other mobilizations.

'We’re praying with our feet': a year of pro-democracy prayer vigils in New York
religionnews.com/2026/02/16/w...

The Fire I Need: Conscious Labor and Intentional Suffering I’ve been thinking about the difference between effort that changes me and effort that merely exhausts me. Most days I work very hard. I respond to emails, meet deadlines, push through my to-…

𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭: 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠

"Only the imprints of conscious labour and intentional suffering are real and can be used in the future for obtaining a good."
— G.I. Gurdjieff

Free. 7-8pm EST. Details & RSVP here:

Where have I seen this before…?

Why thank you! 📿

To dust we shall return.

But oh — what dust we are.

However you're observing this rare convergence of holy seasons — or simply feeling the weight of these times — may you find something today worth releasing. And may the releasing itself become a kind of feast.

Mercy to us all. 🌑

A minute universe where she thought there would be only darkness.

We are marked with ash today. Stardust pressed into skin. A visible, public remembering of our mortality — and, paradoxically, our belonging to something vast and ongoing.

Appalachian preacher-poet Missy Harris reminds us of the secret we keep forgetting: 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘴. When Gabriella Reyes Fuchs peered at her father's ashes under a microscope, she expected ruin. Instead—nebulae. Pearlescent galaxies. Purple and pink plumes.

What I’m giving up for Lent this year. Lent falls on Valentine’s Day this year in the Western calendar, and Easter falls on April Fool’s. This feels about right for our current cultural moment, no? I don’t alway…

"𝘈 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦,” the Sly Man observed, "𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘱 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨."

What if the ruminating meaning-making we layer onto our legitimate pain is what we place on our altar this Lent? What room might this clear for Spirit in our lives?

This year, I'm giving up a particular kind of suffering — the self-generated kind. Renegade Wise Guy G. I. Gurdjieff drew a sharp distinction between conscious suffering (the kind that opens us) and mechanical suffering (the kind we cling to like a lover who’s moved on).

I didn't grow up with Lent. But I've come to love what it asks of us — swapping my usual acquisitiveness with release. Jesus opens his hands in a gesture of trust, 𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘴; as he said to Mary Magdalene while sharing a resurrection glance: “𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘱.”

Amid this luminous gathering of traditions, amid so many birth pangs across our planet, apprentices of Jesus walk forward to be marked with ash.

When the Lunar New Year, Lent, and Ramadan converge The February moon is capacious enough for carnival, lion dances, and taraweeh prayers; for dumplings, dates, and king...

As scholar Celene Ibrahim invites, "The February moon is capacious enough for carnival, lion dances, and taraweeh prayers; for dumplings, dates, and king cake."

The Crescent belongs to no one and everyone.

cc @christiancentury.bsky.social

It’s a remarkable convergence: Lunar New Year, the first day of Ramadan, and Ash Wednesday are visiting us together — a triple alignment that won't recur for decades.

The country that beat its Trump What Brazil got right that America got wrong.

Earlier this year, I went to Brazil to try and answer a question: why did their Congress and Supreme Court stand up to an authoritarian while ours won't?

The answer I found helped me understand where the US had gone wrong - and what a post-Trump reform agenda needs to do www.vox.com/politics/479...

"KNOW YOUR RIGHTS: RECORDING FEDERAL AGENTS IN PUBLIC. You have the right to photograph or film anything in plain view, including federal buildings and law enforcement, so long as you aren't trespassing or violating a lawful order.If you're not under arrest, law enforcement needs a warrant to confiscate or search your device.If you're arrested, officers still need a warrant to search your device's contents.The government may never lawfully delete your photos or videos.While the Constitution protects your right to record and helps you defend against unjustified retaliation or arrest, the exercise of this right can still carry risks. ACLU."

The First Amendment protects your right to record government officials performing their duties in public.

This applies to ICE agents, police, FBI, National Guard troops, and any other government officials.

Learn more at aclu.org/kyr_record-

Get Your Bonus Chapter from Mike’s book with Richard Rohr – ‘The Divine Dance’! I’ve had the amazing privilege of collaborating with Fr. Richard Rohr on a book that turns our usual perceptions of God (and each other) upside-down: The Divine Dance: The Trinity and …

"Surely, if God exists, there will be mercy, compassion, and love" - amen!

If you want to stay n touch, I offer a bonus chapter of a book I wrote here, which shares more about this idea of God-as-Loving-Relationship. And I share other interviews via this newsletter, Opti-Mystic Meditations!

YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Rep. James Talarico On Confronting Christian Nationalism, And Strange Days In The Texas Legislature

"So the FCC won't let me be
Or let me be me, so let me see..."

This is the interview they don't want us to see, so let's spread it far and wide! Thank you, @stephencolbert.bsky.social and @jamestalarico.bsky.social!

Thank you! Would love to hear what you think if you tune in!

Comparing Trump Admin to Ministry of Truth in Orwell's 1984, Judge Orders Slavery Exhibits Restored | Common Dreams On Presidents Day, a federal judge compared the Trump administration removing displays about slavery from a historical site in Philadelphia to the actions of the propaganda agency in George Orwell's d...

WOW - Someone finally not only gets it but is willing to say the truth out loud.

What once was thought fiction is now reality.

This is what it sounds like to me whenever someone decries “polarization” as the problem.

YouTube video by Jason Clark Michael Morrell / From Deconstruction To Contemplative Composting

If you’re tilling the soil between deconstructing and reconstructing, between head and heart, between letting go and holding on…this conversation might be for you.

Watch here! youtu.be/tBVE9UeAFnw?...

Or listen on any podcast platform here! afamilystory.org/2025/12/mike...

There’s also a passionate detour into why progressive Christian worship music often sounds like NPR (and not the cool tiny desk concerts), why speakin’ in tongues still has a place in my contemplative practice, and—of course—our favorite tacos.

We touch on 'The Divine Dance,' my collaboration with Fr. Richard Rohr, and why living from union rather than for union changes everything.

We reflect on Centering Prayer, the importance of consent in our relationship with God, and why reestablishing a loving relationship with our own nervous systems is a vital step zero for anyone wanting to compost their faith into something steady.

Instead, we can mindfully return stale religious experiences to our inner soil, letting them become the rich humus for what’s emerging next.

Jason and I explore practical mysticism—not as navel-gazing obscurantism but (with a nod toward Evelyn Underhill) as the art of union with reality.

We talk about the organic metaphoric alternative to ‘deconstruction,’ which I call contemplative composting: a path beyond either clinging to yesterday’s manna or incinerating our past entirely.

It’s the first time we’ve really caught up in years; we didn’t waste any time! We cover a lot of ground—from my journey as a denominational mutt through Baptist, Pentecostal & Presbyterian streams, to encountering God anew via Christian mysticism in a neighborhood house church (of all places)...

Join A Family Story’s mailing list and receive articles, Rethinking God with Tacos Podcasts, monthly messages, news updates, Zoom invite links, and early access to new content.

He catches a lot of flack from some of his co-religionists, but stewards a growing online community with grace and good humor. I recommend you hop on his email list if you’d like to stay connected with Jason + receive an eBook/audiobook selection from his vulnerable 'Leaving and Finding Jesus.'

Jason is one of the best sorts of holy troublemakers, hailing from a similar ‘Spirit-filled’ charismatic location as me, but (largely) remaining there and proclaiming the scandalous good news of a Blessed Trinity who dares love and liberate the entire cosmos into a lived experience of Divine union.

I recently had the joy of sitting down with my old friend Jason Clark on his podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos. It was a conversation that felt like coming home…to a place I haven’t lived in ages, but it’s nicer than I remember.