Lent begins this week with Ash Wednesday, a day on the Christian calendar that emphasizes our mortality. Christiana and Matthew talk about what this liturgical season can teach us about death. They also dive into New Orleans' famous group The Northside Skull and Bone Gang who have been waking the dead and impacting the living for over 200 years.

Links to things they discuss in this episode:

• "The Beginning of Lent" at Christianity Today
• Andrew Peterson’s Resurrection Letters
• “Was it a morning like this?” by Jim Croegaert
• St. Louis cemetery No. 3
• The North Side Skull and Bone Gang: The Atlantic film

Christiana and Matthew talk about the origins of Memento mori and why practicing Memento Mori can actually help us become more compassionate to those suffering across the world.

They also share a few things that have made them remember their death.

Links:

Terror managment theory

No small endeavor with Azim Khamisa

and Amy Grant

Cynthia Bourgeault

Dorothy Day: Beauty Will Save the World by Kate Hennessy

Christiana's IG account

From incorruptible saints of the Catholic Church to Diogenes the Cynic, Christiana and Matthew discuss the question that has been debated for centuries: Do the bodies of the dead matter?

*Warning: Frank discussion of corpses and dead bodies.

Links to things discussed in the podcast or *used in their research:

• Sister Wilhelmina
• St. Anthony of Padua
• Video: How to tell if your saint is corrupt
• The Body Keeps the Score
• The Cult of the Beheaded by Elizabeth Harper
• Mutilated, Mystic, Heretic by Christiana Peterson
• Horror Movie Mom by Jessica Mesman
• The Changeling movie trailer
• *The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains by Thomas Laqueur