God Beyond All Names - Bernadette Farrell

God Beyond All Names - Bernadette Farrell

God, beyond our dreams, you have stirred in us a memory, you have placed your powerful spirit in the hearts of humankind.

Refrain: All around us, we have known you; all creation lives to hold you, In our living and our dying we are bringing you to birth.

God, beyond all names, you have made us in your image, we are like you, we reflect you, we are woman, we are man.

God, beyond all words, all creation tells your story, you have shaken with our laughter, you have trembled with our tears.

God, beyond all time, you are laboring within us; we are moving, we are changing, in your spirit ever new.

God of tender care, you have cradled us in goodness, you have mothered us in wholeness, you have loved us into birth.

Death Row prisoners first names

This is taken from the Freakanomics tear-away calendar for September 24th 2008:

The most common name among the nearly 400 death-row prisoners in Texas is Robert and its variations (Bob/Bobby, etc.) with 18. Next are William/Willie/Billy/Bill (17), and Steven/Stephen/Steve (6).

According to my math that means that just over 10% of the death-row prisoners in Texas share 3 names. Which leads to the question (and I recall this is addressed in the book), what does one's name say about that person? Not that one name is bad or other names are good, but what does a name say about your culture in which you grew up in and the context you were shaped in as a child?