“We have affirmed provision in old age, twelve years of education, and basic nutrition to be the right of every citizen because we have recognized that human dignity depends on the fulfillment of these fundamental human needs. And it is hard to argue that housing is not a fundamental human need. Decent, affordable housing should be a basic right for everybody in this country. The reason is simple: without stable shelter, everything else falls apart.”—Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
“We need joy as we need air.
We need love as we need water.
We need each other as we need the earth we share.”
—Dr. Maya Angelou
“[We must] place at the center of all political, social, and economic activity the human person, who enjoys the highest dignity, and respect for the common good. May this determination help us flee from the temptation for revenge and the satisfaction of short-term partisan interests.”—Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti
“Humility invites us to let go of our hold on productivity as the measure of our worth and discover the deeper value of who we are.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Creative Flourishing with St Hildegard of Bingen: A Self-Study Online Retreat
Who might you become if you stopped defining yourself in terms of what you do and how productive you are?
Verse of the day
If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?
– James 2:15-16
Voice of the day
Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice.
– Nelson Mandela
Prayer of the day
Provider God, you call us to do more than pray. Show us how to build up our faith in action.
Verse of the day
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words.
– Romans 8:26
Voice of the day
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
– Emily Dickinson, “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers”
Prayer of the day
Holy Spirit, thank you for interceding for us when words fail. Thank you for giving us the hope that comes from a wellspring beyond what words can describe.
“Lament opens us up to a new vision of how God is present to our suffering. We call on the God who weeps with us, whose groans are our own, and we express our hope in God’s tender care.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, The Online Self-Study Retreat ~ A Midwinter God: Making a Conscious Underworld Journey
In what way is your felt sense experience of God in times of joy different from your experience in times of darkness and need?
Too often the price exacted by society for security and respectability is that the Christian movement in its formal expression must be on the side of the strong against the weak. — Howard Thurman in Jesus and the Disinherited
Words that the church and all people who claim to follow Jesus should reflect on daily. I know that I need to be reminded.
“Blessing means to make holy, but in this context, I think what we are really doing is honoring the holiness already present. We are naming God at work already within and around us.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred
What would it be like to pause before each activity and encounter and bless the time and experience?
A self-study online companion retreat to this book is available>>
Verse of the day
Do not rejoice over me, my enemies; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.
– Micah 7:8
Voice of the day
The first step toward community is recognizing our common humanity. Instead of seeing strangers in the dark, we recognize fellow climbers in the light.
– Steven Charleston, Ladder to the Light: An Indigenous Elder’s Meditations on Hope and Courage (2021)
Prayer of the day
Creator, open our hearts to peace and healing between all people.
Creator, open our hearts to provide and protect for all children of the earth.
– Alycia Longriver Davis
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 