Tending the tree of Life by Hildegard of Bingen The 17th of September is the feast day of Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, a remarkable and prophetic …
Hildegard of Bingen: A Sonnet
I stand at the doorway,
feel the pull between
inside burrowed under blankets,
fire glow and candles,
and stepping out under stars
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, excerpted from “A Door Opens” inThe Wisdom of Wild Grace: Poems
What awaits discovery out there, beyond the opened door?
Our sweet Stella teaches us a lot every day. She was starving and close to death when she found us. To this day we aren’t exactly sure who rescued whom. She teaches us daily to be thankful for the day the Lord has made 😻
When you accept what you have, you see all you have received is more than enough and you are overwhelmed. I desire other things because I fear to be content with what I have—I fear it is inglorious. In the last few days I have seen what matters is to be humble enough to admit I am content with just this. Leave the rest to God. (A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk’s True Life: The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 3: 1952-1960) September 7, 1958
Verse of the day
For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.
– Ephesians 2:14
Voice of the day
We need to talk about differences; we can’t just sweep them under the rug. Differences do not have to divide us; they can enrich us.
– Ada María Isasi-Díaz, “Faith at the Tipping Point”
Prayer of the day
Creation shows your love of diversity and difference God; may your people model that same love.
Thomas Merton wrote the following to Ethel Kennedy, the wife of Senator Robert F Kennedy, the brother of President John F Kennedy. Written in December of 1961, Merton’s words are eerily relevant to us today. I’ll let Merton speak for himself and let you, dear reader, judge it’s relevance in your own life as I have in mine.
I think it is going to be of great importance, in the next few months and years, if Americans can regain their healthy respect for reason, for the light of intellect, and get rid of this shallow contempt for “eggheads.” They must learn to respect thought and stop idolizing psychopathic goofs. God knows, this is going to take a miracle. There are plenty of wise and sane men in the country, and they are able to be articulate. They can do a tremendous amount. (Cold War Letters, p. 28)
I have been meditating on the story of the prodigal son. It is a story about returning. I realize the importance of returning over and over again. My life drifts away from God. I have to return. My heart moves away from my first love. I have to return. My mind wanders to strange images. I have to return. Returning is a lifelong struggle. . . . I am moved by the fact that the father didn’t require any higher motivation. His love was so total and unconditional that he simply welcomed his son home.
This past Sunday I talked about the importance of not dehumanizing the “other” but seeing them as our sibling who is created in the image of God. This runs counter to what I often saw and heard in the military about “the enemy” who was demonized. Merton’s letter to Dorothy Day on December 20, 1961 speaks directly to my premise that we cannot demonize others. The letter is found in the book Cold War Letters (p. 30-31)
The basic thing in Christian ethics is to look at the person and not at their nature. That is why natural law so easily degenerates, in practice and casuistry, to jungle law which is no law at all. Because when we consider “nature” we consider the general, the theoretical, and forget the concrete, the individual, the personal reality of the one confronting us. Hence we can see him not as our other self, not as Christ, but as our demon, our evil beast, our nightmare. This, I am afraid, is what a wrong, unintelligent, and unchristian emphasis on natural law has done.
Persons are known not by the intellect alone, not by principles alone, but only by love. It is when we love the other, the enemy, that we obtain from God the key to an understanding of who he is, and who we are. It is only this realization that can open to us the real nature of our duty, and of right action.
In today’s divisive world, we could use this challenge and reminder. After all, Jesus said to love our neighbors and he didn’t put any qualifications on that statement.
Verse of the day
Oppressing the poor in order to enrich oneself, and giving to the rich, will lead only to loss.
– Proverbs 22:16
Voice of the day
You don’t get to have solidarity with the marginalized and popularity with the powerful.
– Megan DeFranza, episode 19 of The Bible for Normal People
Prayer of the day
God, grant us the privilege of breaking bread with those who the powerful have marginalized
Though the forces of evil infecting whole nations and peoples are often hidden, complex, and elusive, we are called, as Christians, to unmask and expel them in the Name of the God of Love….
As long as national security is our primary concern and national survival more important than preserving life on this planet, we continue to live in the house of fear. Ultimately, we must choose between security—individual, social, or national— and freedom.
Freedom is the true human goal. Life is only true if it is free. An obsessive concern for security freezes us; it leads us to rigidity, fixation, and eventually death. The more preoccupied we are with security the more visible the force of death becomes, whether in the form of a pistol beside our bed, a rifle in our house, or a Trident submarine in our port….
We must find a way to go beyond our national security obsession and reach out and foster life for all people, whatever their nationality, race, or religion.
A powerful reflection from my seminary classmate, colleague n ministry, and friend, Shirley!
Jeremiah had the unenviable task of speaking truth to a people convinced of their own wisdom and invincibility. From the beginning of his prophetic ministry, he called people to repentance.
— Read further on shirleyhobsonduncanson.com/2022/09/12/the-heavy-work-of-prophesy/
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 