New Year: A Community in Mourning

"Happy New Year" symbolizes a fresh start, a chance to start over with the possibility of leaving the past behind. But what happens when the new year brings fresh trouble, fresh pain, or carries with it the things of last year that will not go away?

Loneliness

We are going to see God rescuing a very lonely person who had reached the very end of herself, literally all lone, without friend or family, without resources, and finally, without hope.

Al Jazaar Mosque

Even as I sit here and type these words, I can hear the muezzin singing out the Adhan from the minaret of Al Jazaar mosque, the final of five calls to prayer throughout the day.