“Thresholds are potent doorways between the old and the new. When we step onto a threshold in our lives we release an old identity or old patterns and we await the new birthing.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk with Us Toward Holiness
Are you ready to open yourself to the uncomfortableness of not knowing what will come next and simply rest in a space of waiting, standing on the threshold between the old and the new?
“I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before anyone even at the cost of your life.”—Mohandas Gandhi
Verse of the day
Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.
– 1 Peter 1:13 (NIV)
Voice of the day
Passivity is easy, but it is not righteous.
– Jemar Tisby
Prayer of the day
With clear minds and hearts, we take action to do what is right in your eyes, Lord.
November 8, 1897 – November 29, 1980
Love and ever more love is the only solution to every problem that comes up. If we love each other enough, we will bear with each other’s faults and burdens. If we love enough, we are going to light a fire in the hearts of others.
And it is love that will burn out the sins and hatreds that sadden us. It is love that will make us want to do great things for each other. No sacrifice and no suffering will then seem too much. — Dorothy Day in House of Hospitality
Verse of the day
Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of robbers.”
– Matthew 21:12-13
Voice of the day
Anger is not a shortcoming to be denied, but a creative force that tells us when something is wrong.
– Austin Channing Brown
Prayer of the day
Jesus, we recognize our anger. Help us to channel our anger into creative solutions as we speak truth to power.
“To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men. The human race
Has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised
Against injustice, ignorance, and lust,
The inquisition yet would serve the law,
And guillotines decide our least disputes.
The few who dare, must speak and speak again
To right the wrongs of many.”
“The greatest gift of the human person is not the ability to think but the freedom to love.”—Ilia Delio, OSF, Franciscan Prayer
“The poverty of the poor is not a call to generous relief action, but a demand that we go and build a different social order.”—Gustavo Gutiérrez
On our walk this morning, we happened to see this dolphin swimming and playing in the water near the walkway we were on. I’m not sure how long we stayed to watch and enjoy this beautiful creature; however, I do know that we left our friend after it swam out of our view with an amazing sense of peace. Moments in nature are often where we can see God’s presence and where we can, as Thomas Merton wrote in New Seeds of Contemplation, join God and creation in the cosmic / general dance.
I have been thinking a lot about the world situation today and often wonder what Merton, Dorothy Day, and Daniel Berigan, some of my spiritual mentors, would have to say about the violence, hatred, and warfare we experience today. These thoughts have invited me to dig deeper into their writings as I process my own thoughts and contemplate how we can make a difference in the world today.
Merton had this to say about peace and love: “So instead of loving what you think is peace, love other people and love God above all. And instead of hating the people you think are warmongers, hate the appetites and the disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed — but hate these things in yourself, not in another.” — Passion for Peace.
There is so much to consider, dear reader, and my prayer is that you and I won’t become overwhelmed and paralyzed by it all. May we do all that we can through prayer and action in our own little corner of the world and seek to do justice, love mercy/kindness, and walk humbly with God and with one another.
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 