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?
“In their dwelling, they love the earth;
In their heart, they love what is deep;
In personal relationships, they love kindness;
In their words, they love truth.
In the world, they love peace.”
—Lao Tzu
“Don’t wait for someone to apologize and hold a grudge against them until they do. You know why? Because the person that feels the wrath of your anger, frustration, and hatred is you. Those hostile feelings, emotions, and thoughts pulsate through your bloodstream like venomous poison, and you become the host keeping that poison alive. Rather than waiting for an apology, or expecting one to come, realize it may never happen and that’s okay. Because your life and your happiness don’t depend on someone else saying sorry. Your life and your happiness depend on you and no one else.”—Antasha Durbin
“Nonviolence is the bridge between spiritual development and social change.”—Michael Nagler
Verse of the day
For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, says the Lord, because they have called you an outcast: “It is Zion; no one cares for her!”
– Jeremiah 30:17
Voice of the day
It doesn’t mean everything is going to get better, it just means we’re living through it. Healing is about being present and living in this life.
– Laura Anderson, “How to Find Healing From Religious Trauma”
Prayer of the day
Lord, as your people are living through it, in our showing up, may we be healed of our wounds.
“Those who engage in violence and suppression will not win the hearts and mind of the world, but rather that victory will be claimed by those who advocate for accountability and justice through nonviolent resistance.”—Jonathan Kuttab
Food for thought as the political and civil discourse in this country and around the world continues to descend into madness… this is as much for myself as it is for anyone else to contemplate and do some self-examination…
The tactic of nonviolence is a tactic of love that seeks the salvation and redemption of the opponent, not his castigation, humiliation, and defeat. A pretended nonviolence that seeks to defeat and humiliate the adversary by spiritual instead of physical attack is little more than a confession of weakness. True nonviolence is totally different from this, and much more difficult. It strives to operate without hatred, without hostility, and without resentment. — Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, p. 81 (Kindle version)
A powerful reflection!
When people first learn that my mother survived the Holocaust, they frequently ask me if she was Jewish.[1] It’s understandable. The Nazi Final Solution targeted Jews. Six million of them died in the camps.
It comes as a surprise to them when I explain that my mother was a fifteen-year-old Roman Catholic school girl. She is one of the thousands of the non-Jews who were sentenced to one of those dreadful camps. The Nazis killed up to half a million of them in addition to their Jewish victims.[2]
— Read on jakeowensby.com/2023/08/25/love-and-freedom/
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 