Lent 2025 Day 26

Kaitlin Curtice, Mystic and Poet
Genesis 1:26-31 | 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Kaitlin Curtice is a Potawatomi author, Christian mystic, poet, and public speaker whose work centers on the intersection of spirituality and social justice, particularly through the lens of Indigenous identity and interfaith dialogue. She is the author of Glory Happening, Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God, and Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day. Through her writing and speaking, Curtice invites readers and listeners to explore how personal and communal spirituality must engage with the work of justice, healing, and sacred relationship with the earth.

As both a Christian and a citizen of the Potawatomi Nation, Curtice offers a necessary voice that critiques colonized versions of Christianity while reclaiming the faith as a path of wholeness, embodiment, and reconciliation. She calls the Church to honor Indigenous ways of knowing, to confront the damage of white supremacy and empire theology, and to nurture a faith that is grounded, local, and liberating.

Genesis 1:26-31 offers a foundational theological claim: every human being is created in the image of God—imago Dei—and all of creation is declared “very good.” Curtice often writes about the sacredness of all beings and the ways in which Indigenous worldviews affirm this truth long before Christian colonizers arrived on Turtle Island. In her theology, creation is not a resource to be dominated, but a relative to be honored. The soil, the rivers, the sky, the animals—all are sacred and carry the presence of the Creator. This reading challenges dominant theological narratives that have long severed the spiritual from the physical, the human from the nonhuman. Curtice’s voice insists that reclaiming the integrity of Genesis means honoring Indigenous cosmologies and recognizing the colonial rupture that has harmed both land and people.

In 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Paul calls believers to the ministry of reconciliation. Curtice critiques how this passage has often been used in settler Christianity to suggest a superficial harmony that bypasses justice. True reconciliation, she argues, begins with truth-telling and continues through lament, repentance, and repair. This work is not quick or clean—it is long, sacred, and relational. Reconciliation in the way of Christ does not erase identity but honors it; it doesn’t silence grief but creates space for it. It is a process that mirrors the land’s rhythms—slow, intentional, and deeply connected to memory.

Curtice invites the Church to reconsider how it practices Lent. For her, Lent is not about striving or perfection but about returning. Returning to the earth. Returning to the breath. Returning to the Creator. It is about grounding ourselves in the relationships that make us human: with God, with one another, and with creation. Lent, like resistance, is daily work—a movement toward wholeness, not achievement. It is a time to remember that we are made in God’s image and also made of dust and earth.

Reflection:

• What does it mean to you to be made in the image of God, not just individually, but as part of a shared humanity? 
• Where is God calling you to participate in the ministry of reconciliation through truth-telling, listening, and repair? 
• How can Indigenous theology and relationship to land help you reimagine the meaning of Lent? 

Breath Prayer: Inhale: Made in God’s image… Exhale: …Called to reconcile.

May this Lenten season reconnect us to creation, to our neighbors, and to the holy work of reconciliation. May we remember who we are and how deeply we belong.
Amen.