“Together we are very powerful, and we have a seldom-told, seldom-remembered history of victories and transformations that can give us confidence that, yes, we can change the world because we have many times before. You row forward looking back, and telling this history is part of helping people navigate toward the future. We need a litany, a rosary, a sutra, a mantra, a war chant of our victories. The past is set in daylight, and it can become a torch we can carry into the night that is the future.”—Rebecca Solnit
Verse of the day
You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. – Deuteronomy 10:19
Voice of the day
It is the obligation of every person born in a safer room to open the door when someone in danger knocks.
– Dina Nayeri
Prayer of the day
God of the stranger, show us how to wholeheartedly embrace those who come from afar and their stories of migration that mirror your own.
“Our fundamental starting point, with guns and everything else, is this: What policies help us live well together? What’s best for the most? What’s good for the common good? What policies are vital for humans to thrive? We are not just thinking individualistically but as a ‘poli,’ as a people—less about ‘I’ and ‘me’ and more about ‘we’ and ‘us.’”—Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin, Beating Guns: Hope for People Who are Weary of Violence
“There are hundreds of types of peacebuilders. There are peace artists and there are peace journalists. There are peace poets and there are peace educators. There are interfaith peacebuilders and there are bridge builders. There are peace comedians and peace storytellers. There are peace historians and peace anthropologists. There are peace tech geeks and dialogue facilitators, peace activists and war abolishers, peace infrastructure builders and peace culture builders. AND so many more.”—Everyday Peacebuilding
“When I despair I always remember that all throughout history, the Way of Truth and Love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they can seem invincible. But, in the end, they always fall. Think of it. Always.”—Mohandas Gandhi
“I tell my students, ‘When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.'”—Toni Morrison
Verse of the day
Give glory to the Lord your God before he brings darkness and before your feet stumble on the mountains at twilight; while you look for light, he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness.
– Jeremiah 13:16
Voice of the day
The greatest spiritual insights seem to derive from the testimonies of those who stand teetering in the dark.
– Cormac McCarthy, “Stella Maris” (2022)
Prayer of the day
In times we find ourselves despondent, remind us that you are present in all circumstances, even as we are on the verge of becoming undone.
“Healing our democracy is part of healing on a collective scale. So participating in a vision for democracy is the ancient practice of world building. When we dream the world we want to inhabit, we can begin to intentionally make it so.”
—Rev. Dr. Roberto Che Espinoza, Body Becoming: A Path to Our Liberation our Lift Every Voice Book Club selection for October
What are ways you can allow yourself to dream and then intentionally build that vision as a way of bringing healing both to yourself and the collective?
View or listen to our conversation with the author here.
“Sometimes the grief we carry comes from generations before us, our ancestors who were wounded in their own ways through war and heartbreak. We can call upon these ancestors, this Communion of Saints, to support us in our dark journeys.”
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, A Midwinter God: Encountering the Divine in Seasons of Darkness
Whether known or unknown, how can you invite your ancestors, with their own experiences of grief, to walk alongside you and lend you support?
To register for the self-study companion retreat to the book with additional resources and guidance, click here. Use code MIDWINTERGOD20 to take 20% off through October 31st.
Verse of the day
Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
– Isaiah 58:6
Voice of the day
Learn from the Master of truth, who preached virtue only after he had practiced it.
– St. Catherine of Siena
Prayer of the day
God of truth, let our practice of faith be rooted not solely in rituals, but in a vigorous commitment to liberation.
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 