“St. Paul writes in his letter to the Hebrews about the great cloud of witnesses. They are the ones who inspire us to endure through life’s challenges and find joy, cultivate love, and discover purpose to our days.”
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk with Us Toward Holiness
What inspiration have you received from the great cloud of witnesses?
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Our true self is in God. As we are told again and again in John’s Gospel, we can love others because God first loves us. The spiritual life is coming into touch with that first love, which says that we belong to God. As Jesus said, “Just as I don’t belong to the world, neither do you” – but you, rather, belong to the Lover who gives you to yourself. We can be a liberating and creative presence in the world only if we don’t belong to the world, if we don’t depend on the world for our real identity. This is the real paradox of ministry: that we can minister to the world only if we don’t belong to it. — The Road to Peace
Reflection Question: In what ways do you feel that you do not belong to the world …. and in what ways do you find yourself entangled in the world?
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. – 1 Corinthians 12: 7 – 11
Verse of the day
For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.
– Luke 19:10
Voice of the day
Where our Lord appeareth, peace is taken, and wrath hath no place.
– Julian of Norwich
Prayer of the day
God, remind us that your righteousness is not a wall that keeps us apart, but a love that draws us closer. Teach us to meet others with that same grace, choosing compassion over judgment and connection over distance. Amen.
“This season call us into the grace of descent. We spend so much of our spiritual lives trying to ascend. Descent is the path of having everything stripped away that offered comfort. In the mystical tradition, the descent is also the slow revelation of the true face and incredible mystery that is God.”
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Sacred Seasons: A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year — A Self-Study, Online Retreat
What will you release and relinquish in preparation for your descent into the dark unknown?
Verse of the day
But showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
– Exodus 20:6
Voice of the day
Love ought to show itself in deeds more than words.
– St. Ignatius of Loyola
Prayer of the day
God, let our love for you be more than something we profess; let it be something people experience through us. May our hands bring comfort, our words offer encouragement, and our actions reflect the steadfast love you so freely give. Teach us to make love visible in the way we show up for one another. Amen.
Verse of the day
I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
– Psalm 34:1
Voice of the day
You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
– Kahlil Gibran
Prayer of the day
God, teach us to seek you not only when life feels heavy, but also when our hearts are overflowing with joy. Let gratitude become our daily prayer, and may we never become so comfortable in our blessings that we forget to celebrate your goodness. Amen.
As we prepare to go to our polling place and vote, this quote from Thomas Merton’s introduction to the Japanese edition of The Seven Storey Mountain speaks of our calling… my vote, like Merton’s life, will speak… this is my hope and my prayer today!
“It is my intention to make my entire life a rejection of, a protest against the crimes and injustices of war and political tyranny which threaten to destroy the whole race of man and the world with him. By my monastic life and vows I am saying NO to all the concentration camps, the aerial bombardments, the staged political rituals, the judicial murders, the racial injustices, the economic tyrannies, and the whole socio-economic apparatus which seems geared for nothing but global destruction in spite of all its fair words in favor of peace. I make monastic silence a protest against the lies of politicians, propagandists and agitators, and when I speak it is to deny that my faith and my Church can ever seriously be aligned with these forces of injustice and destruction. But it is true, nevertheless, that the faith in which I believe is also invoked by many who believe in war, believe in racial injustices, believe in self-righteous and lying forms of tyranny. My life must then, be a protest against these also, and perhaps against these most of all.”
Verse of the day
Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
– Galatians 6:2
Voice of the day
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’
– Fred Rogers
Prayer of the day
God, help us recognize the opportunities we have to care for one another, especially in difficult times. Make us people who bring hope, offer support, and remind others that they do not have to carry their burdens alone. Amen.
Our identity is in the One who loves us. This saves us from our false self, which is anxiously dependent on others’ opinions and leads us to sell our souls to the world and to the Evil One who rules the world. The spiritual task is to say that a self defined by other is illusion. — The Road to Peace
Reflection Question: Whose opinion continues to affect your sense of yourself?
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! – 1 John 3: 1
Long before we were born, we already had been seen, known, loved, and held safe in God’s hands. We were bound together in God’s heart long before we met each other here and now. Long before we could say to each other, “I need you, I love you, hold me, touch me, care for me,” there was a Voice that said: “You are my beloved, on you my favor rests.” Long before we learned to care for each other, we were cared for by our Creator: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?” declares the Lord. “Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands: your frame [i.e., body] is ever before me” (Isa. 49:16). — Spiritual Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit
Reflection Question: What does it mean to you to know that you were loved before you were born, before genetics or family systems or privilege or trauma had any influence on you?
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” – Isaiah 49: 15, 16
