Breathe. Just breathe. Take a breath. That’s what we say when we need to calm and focus ourselves to meet a new challenge. Over the past year, our breathing has been cruelly challenged. COVID-19 attacked our freedom to breathe and George Floyd’s cry of “I can’t breathe” sparked protests across the nation and around the world. But our breath is life itself, our very commerce with our world and with others. Our athletes draw it to compete, our musicians use it to sing, our families trade it around the dinner table and our congregations raise it up to praise the Lord. As the pandemic comes to an end and we begin to breathe more freely, we begin to reflect on our breath in all its dimensions.

In this year’s CCSJ’s Annual Fall Humanities Festival we focus on that simple act we no longer take for granted—the divine, inescapable, gentle command to simply—Breathe.