Learning To Love My Church’s Roll Call of the Dead

My youngest daughter has an unusual first name, taken from two deceased relatives. When I introduced her to someone, they asked (in a phrase I now think of often), “Is she named after the ancestors?” Yes, I can affirm, she is named after the ancestors. Through her, we carry those ancestors with us. When we name them, we remember the ways each one of us carries them. We carry their identities, their sufferings, and their persistence into the future we dream about.