Overview

Encounter God's love at the borders of our bodies During Lent, we often reflect on our limits--from dust we are, and to dust we will return. We remember that we will never be able to do everything we want to do, even and especially when what we want to do is love our neighbor well. In this daily devotional, Disability rights activist Tatum Tricarico helps us turn the tables on Lent. Rather than a time of feeling condemned or guilty beyond help, Lent is when we can take a breath and finally say what we have been trying to hide all year: I am human. I can't do it all. And still, I am beloved by God. Disabled people have always known that our bodies and actions don't fit into boxes marked ""perfect"" or ""endless."" Every day, they encounter ableist, discriminatory practices that spell out the limits of bodies, minds, and human connection. In far more than forty days, Disabled people have learned to be honest about their bodies, to love them and name them as good, not despite finitude, but because of it. Blessed Is the Body invites readers to expand their understanding of God, themselves, and community with reflections and practices for considering Disability justice, history, and culture alongside stories from the Bible about Disabled individuals like Moses and the woman with a flow of blood. Reflecting on Lent through the lens of Disability lets us experience the power, connection, and joy that comes with being honest about our finite bodies and making space for all of who we are--the beauty and the dust.

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9781513815459

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Reviews

""Blessed Is the Body breaks new ground in theology and disability literature by combining individual stories, disability justice history in America, biblical studies, and pastoral and community care into a joyful and sobering series of Lenten daily devotionals. Tatum Tricarico thus breaks disability out of specialized interpretive boxes and illuminates the spiritual and theological issues at the heart of living a faithful and flourishing life along with disability, not in spite of it."" --Bill Gaventa, director of community and congregational supports at the Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities and associate professor at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School ""Blessed Is the Body draws from the wells of Christian Scripture and Disability experience to affirm the realities of human finitude, beauty, and interdependence. Tatum Tricarico welcomes both disabled and nondisabled readers into Lenten practices of embodied prayer, reflection, and connection. By enlivening our prayers, challenging our assumptions, and empowering our actions, this devotional companions us into a future marked by disability justice. --Sarah Jean Barton, assistant professor at Duke Divinity School and author of Becoming the Baptized Body: Disability and the Practice of Christian Community ""I read Blessed Is the Body with an ache in my chest. Like so many others, I grew up under a religious narrative that equated my visibly disabled body with sin. Tatum Tricarico powerfully disrupts a harmful framework and offers a much needed counternarrative. Sitting with her reflections on disability justice and Christian theology is tending to parts of a wound I'm still trying to understand."" --Rebekah Taussig, author of Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body ""In Blessed Is the Body, Tatum Tricarico's unflinching honesty gives rise to freedom, inviting us to embrace the truth that our human bodies--finite, disabled, ever-changing--are how God created us and where God delights to dwell. The thoughtful reflection questions and multisensory practices that accompany each day's devotional make this book beautifully accessible for people who learn and connect with God in different ways. A Lenten journey well worth taking."" --Bethany McKinney Fox, pastor and author of Disability and the Way of Jesus: Holistic Healing in the Gospels and the Church ""Pondering disability justice as the body of Christ through a Lenten devotional is as brilliant as it is impactful, and as challenging as it is profoundly encouraging. Tatum Tricarico is a skillful guide, teaching us all the numerous ways that the image of God shows up in the diversity of humanity right in front of us."" --Benjamin Cremer, pastor, author, and creator of Into the Gray newsletter and podcast

Author Information

Tatum Tricarico is an activist, theologian, and director of Christian education at Wesley Memorial UMC in Charlottesville, Virginia. She has a master of divinity from Duke Divinity School and is a Disability Rights activist on Instagram (@blind_person_in_area), where she has curated a Disability cultural calendar. Tricarico is a contributor to Wisdom Commentary: Tobit by Michele Murray. She has spoken at the San Diego California Women's March, Point Loma Nazarene University's Crossing the Lines Conference, and many other classrooms and conferences on Disability justice and theology. Recently, she has been a co-organizer of Durham's first two annual Disability Pride Parades. When she is not in the church or advocacy world, Tricarico loves listening to audiobooks with her girlfriend, spending time with friends and family, cooking and hosting dinner parties, and writing letters.

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