“Your actions matter. No action or voice is too small to make a difference.”—Vanessa Nakate, Ugandan Climate Activist
“We don’t know what the future will hold, but we believe that nonviolence is a force more powerful. And, we know nonviolence is both an effective tool to create real and lasting social change as well as a way of life.”—David Hart
“Without an ethic of love shaping the direction of our political vision and our radical aspirations, we are often seduced, in one way or the other, into continued allegiance to systems of domination.”—bell hooks
“One of the most important things I think I can teach is learning to make space to listen to your own deepest longings and begin to trust those more.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice
How do you make space to listen to your own deepest longings?
Join our upcoming Eyes of the Heart community retreat October 9 – December 2, 2023
“By aligning ourselves with the rhythms of the seasons, we connect to something much larger than simply us. We experience a cohesion of time between us and our community, which includes the wider community of nature and creation.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life
How might you align yourself with the rhythms of the hours, days, and seasons, and in the process connect with something larger than yourself?
To register for the self-study companion retreat to the book with extra resources and guidance click here>>
Verse of the day
Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
– James 5:4
Voice of the day
Instead of justifying forced labor like the exploitative gods of Egypt and the United States, the God of the Bible pushes us all to labor for justice as we take responsibility to care for the world and our fellow human beings.
– Adam Ericksen, “A Theology of Labor”
Prayer of the day
“May God guide our nation in creating a more just economy that truly honors the dignity of work and the rights of workers.”
– Bishop Blaire, “A Labor Day Prayer”
“As you come to know the seriousness of our situation—the war, the racism, the poverty in the world—you come to realize it is not going to be changed just by words or demonstrations. It’s a question of risking your life. It’s a question of living your life in a drastically different way.”—Dorothy Day
Those you have deeply loved become part of you. The longer you live, there will always be more people to be loved by you and to become part of your inner community. The wider your inner community becomes, the more easily you will recognize your own brothers and sisters in the strangers around you. . . . The wider the community of your heart, the wider the community around you.
Verse of the day
Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
– Psalm 55:22
Voice of the day
“I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you!”
– Samwise Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Prayer of the day
Lord, may the act of carrying burdens and having our burdens be carried be one that restores us.
“To see the holiness, to see the synchronicities, to see all the messages, to see all the beauty that goes so often overlooked in the rush of our days is an invitation to slow down and see in a different way.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD Virtual Celtic Pilgrimage: The Wisdom of the Irish Saints Brigid, Ciaran, and Gobnait – A Self-Study Online Retreat
What do you see when you slow down?
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 