“Wonder is where love begins, but the failure to wonder is the beginning of violence. Once people stop wondering about others, once they no longer see others as part of them, they disable their instinct for empathy. And once they lose empathy, they can do anything to them. Entire institutions built to preserve the interests of one group of people over another depend on this failure of imagination. Violence comes in the form of policies by the state and sometimes bloodshed in the streets. More often, it comes in forms that are hard to see, unless we find a way to make them visible through our stories.”—Valarie Kaur, See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love
“One of the prevailing myths of our time is that peace flows from the capacity, willingness, and announced intention to eliminate our enemies. There is another way, the way of nonviolence and negotiation. To create such alternatives with all of the ardor we can muster is the number one priority of the world today.”—Louie Vitale, OFM
Verse of the day
One night the Lord said to Paul in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent.”
– Acts 18:9
Voice of the day
If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.
– Attributed to Zora Neale Hurston
Prayer of the day
God who speaks, we refuse to let our silence be misinterpreted as compliance; teach us when and how to speak up.
“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”—Lilla Watson, Aboriginal Australian (Murri) activist
“All violence is the result of people tricking themselves into believing that their pain derives from other people and that consequently those people deserve to be punished.”—Marshall B. Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life
Verse of the day
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
– John 15:13
Voice of the day
Hate the system that made your brother evil. It is the system we must destroy.
– Clark V. Poling
Prayer of the day
Lord, remind us that our battle is against the rulers, authorities, and systems of this dark world that pit us against each other.
“Hope is a stance of radical openness to the God of newness and possibility. When we hope, we acknowledge that God has an imagination far more expansive than ours.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE, Sacred Seasons: A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year – A Self-Study Online Retreat
In what way is hope as “radical openness to God” worlds apart from anticipatory hope?
Verse of the day
Honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce.
– Proverbs 3:9
Voice of the day
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
– Martin Luther King Jr., “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”
Prayer of the day
56 years from when Martin gave his speech, these words still ring true. Deliver us from this spiritual death Lord.
“It would seem that, quite possibly, the ultimate measure of health in any community might well reside in our ability to stand in awe at what folks have to carry rather than in judgment at how they carry it.”—Fr. Gregory Boyle, Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship
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
Isaiah reminds us that fasting is not about piety, but liberation. … At a time when social and political crises of all sorts loom, Lenten fasts are vital tools for individual and communal spiritual health.
– Jeania Ree V. Moore, “Why Fasting is Actually About Liberation”
Prayer of the day
This Lent, Lord, may we move away from viewing this season as a time for our personal piety but instead as a way to love and care for those in our midst.
