Self-knowledge and self-love are the fruit of knowing and loving God. You can see better then what is intended by the great commandment to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself.” Laying our hearts totally open to God leads to a love of ourselves that enables us to give wholehearted love to our fellow human beings. In the seclusion of our hearts we learn to know the hidden presence of God; and with that spiritual knowledge we can lead a loving life.
Verse of the day
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
– Luke 4:18-19
Voice of the day
Imagining Jesus as apolitical is itself a political decision — and it is a decision that aligns with politically and financially powerful interests.
– Josiah R. Daniels, “What ‘He Gets Us’ Ads Get Wrong About Jesus”
Prayer of the day
We’re grateful for a Savior who wasn’t afraid to flip tables and callout the powers of his day, even at the cost of his life. Remind us of what your son stood for and align our vision with his heart for a more just world.
“Our imaginations have been dulled into believing the inevitability of violence. We have come to think that only violence will either make us safe or prevent the bad guys from harming us and those we love. This is a lie. It is a lie in the first place because violence does not end violence; it only creates endless cycles of violence.”—Emmanuel Katongole
Verse of the day
If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?
– James 2:15-16
Voice of the day
Where local powers disrupt and dissect communities, the church can partner and facilitate places of rest, respite, and care for people experiencing homelessness. Churches can be champions of housing, care, and ethical treatment of unhoused communities year-round.
– Kevin Nye, “Woe to You, Los Angeles”
Prayer of the day
Truly you say to us Lord: faith without works is dead. May the world know your people by the ways we radically embody your love through tangible action.
A bird or a flame. Traditionally, these are the most common images used as metaphors for the Holy Spirit.
The ornithological metaphor is usually traced back to Luke 3:22 when, at Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan, we are told that “the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.” The latter, more pyrotechnic metaphor is traced to Luke’s New Testament sequel, the Acts of the Apostles, and its account of Pentecost. Along with a “strong driving wind,” we are told that the apostles were in a locked room when “there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them” (Acts 2:3).
— Read on www.ncronline.org/opinion/ncr-voices/beyond-birds-and-flames-lets-think-holy-spirit-jazz-music
“Contemplative practices become ways to cope with a relentless world of work and busyness. Poetry and yoga get squeezed in between all the other things we need to do.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE, Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life
Are your contemplative practices another activity you have to squeeze into your packed day, or do they mark the slow and intentional rhythms of life?
Verse of the day
For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
– Matthew 16:26
Voice of the day
For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.
– Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (1946)
Prayer of the day
Transcendent God, hone our commitments to causes greater than ourselves; may we not worship the idol of success.
“War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.”—John F. Kennedy
Verse of the day
Did I not weep for those whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor? But when I looked for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came.
– Job 30:25-26
Voice of the day
When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.
– Dom Helder Camara
Prayer of the day
Thank you for the life and work of Dom Helder Camara; may we dismantle the systems of greed that leave some with plenty and many without.
Verse of the day
A ruler who lacks understanding is a cruel oppressor, but one who hates unjust gain will enjoy a long life.
– Proverbs 28:16
Voice of the day
We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Prayer of the day
Lord, give us the strength and heart to do more than merely bandage up wounds; give us the courage to destroy systems of injustice and imagine new ways of communal existence.
