In class this week we read & discussed Genesis 1. I asked my students what it meant to them to see themselves & others as made in the 'image and likeness' of God. All the students who spoke up said: it makes no difference at all. That's never happened in my classroom before.

As I've been reflecting on this conversation, I continue to be stunned. Usually, in the face of so much depersonalization in our culture (so many ways to feel like we fail or don't measure up), students find comfort in this inherent dignity & feel challenged to honor it in others

I will add that there's a lot of the semester left. I intentionally end our time together with @FrGregBoyle's _Barking to the Choir_. His wisdom about wounds, tenderness, and kinship is so moving (and in _Tattoos on the Heart_). I'm hopeful this will reach them & stay with them: