“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”—Eleanor Roosevelt
“Not to share our wealth with the poor is to rob them and take away their livelihood. The riches we possess are not our own, but theirs as well.”—St. John Chrysostom
An excellent blog from Jake Owensby!
When my daughter was diagnosed with autism, I had a few choice words for God. On a long evening walk under the stars, I railed at the unfairness of it all. At God’s unfairness. “Honestly, the kid’s barely out of preschool and she’s already undergone open heart surgery. Now this? Really? Would it have killed you to give us a break?”
You might be thinking that this is no way to talk to God. God has a plan. Faith is all about trusting God’s plan and rolling with it. You know, let go and let God. And while the whole God has a plan thing isn’t quite so simple, I’ve spilled more than my share of ink stressing the importance of letting go. Still, there’s more to our relationship with God than passive acceptance… read further at https://jakeowensby.com/2023/08/11/arguing-with-god/?amp=1
The greatest spiritual battle begins—and never ends—with the reclaiming of our chosenness. Long before any human being saw us, we are seen by God’s loving eyes. Long before anyone heard us cry or laugh, we are heard by our God who is all ears for us. Long before any person spoke to us in this world, we are spoken to by the voice of eternal love.
“I was once interviewed on a radio talk show. A listener called in to chide me, saying that an advocate of nonviolence shouldn’t be angry. . . . I said I felt it was both a sign of health and essential to my life as an advocate of nonviolence. It is evidence of my love for life. Without the anger I’d probably be silent as stone, passive, complacent.”—Pam McAllister, You Can’t Kill The Spirit
An excellent reflection on this, her feast day ♥️🌹
One of the more sugary movies made about Francis of Assisi pictures Clare as a golden-haired beauty floating through sun-drenched fields, a sort of one-woman counterpart to the new Franciscan Order.
The beginning of her religious life was indeed movie material. Having refused to marry at 15, Clare was moved by the dynamic preaching of Francis. He became her lifelong friend and spiritual guide.
— Read on www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-clare-of-assisi/
“When a country is in harmony with the Tao,
the factories make trucks and tractors.
When a country goes counter to the Tao,
warheads are stockpiled outside the cities.
There is no greater illusion than fear,
no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself,
no greater misfortune than having an enemy.
Whoever can see through all fear
will always be safe.”
—Tao Te Ching, Chapter 46, translated by Stephen Mitchell
Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.
“Let’s ask the real questions, because it’s only when we get to the root of what the violence is and where it’s coming from and we focus on the root causes and begin to tackle them, will we have any hope whatsoever of beginning to get out of this mess that we are all in. The root causes of violence. You know, the enemy is poverty. The enemy is injustice. The enemy is cruelty. The enemy is demonizing another religion or other different ethnic groups.”—Mairead Corrigan Maguire
You know something about brokenness. You know about the broken world. You know about brokenness in your country. But most personally, you know it in your more intimate life. You know we are broken people and we suffer very intimate pains. The pain of a desire for intimacy that hasn’t been fulfilled . . . the pain of a relationship that did not work . . . the pain of an addiction that is so hard to confess . . . The secret pain of loneliness that can bite us so much . . . And what I would like to say to you is don’t be afraid of your pain, but dare to embrace it. If you are wounded, and I know that you are and I am, put your brokenness under the blessing.
We are called to give our lives to others, so you and I can bear fruit. And all brokenness, and all dying, and all suffering is there to allow you to enter into solidarity with the whole human family, and to give yourselves to others so that your life can bear fruit. God asks you not to have a successful life but to have a fruitful life.
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 