Verse of the day
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.
– Proverbs 3:27
Voice of the day
Those who follow Jesus should love our neighbors to such a degree that we are willing to accept the consequences that come from struggling for shalom and true justice in the public square.
– Drew G. I. Hart, Who Will Be a Witness? (2020)
Prayer of the day
Let justice run uninhibited through the land, Lord. Let it spring up in the public square.
Verse of the day
Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate[.]
– Amos 5:15
Voice of the day
Justice is what love looks like in public.
– Cornel West
Prayer of the day
Lord, help us to establish genuine love in every public space.
In prayer we discover what we already have. You start where you are and you deepen what you already have, and you realize that you are already there. We already have everything, but we don’t know it and we don’t experience it. Everything has been given to us in Christ. All we need is to experience what we already possess. The trouble is, we aren’t taking time to do so.
If we really want prayer, we’ll have to give it time. We must slow down to a human tempo, and we’ll begin to have time to listen. And as soon as we listen to what’s going on, things will begin to take shape by themselves. But for this we have to experience time in a new way. – Thomas Merton in conversations with Brother David Steindl-Rast, OSB https://gratefulness.org/resource/recollections-of-thomas-mertons-last-days-in-the-west/
Verse of the day
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
– Psalm 98:4
Voice of the day
[P]art of what we see Jesus do is pay attention to the fact that every person in front of him has a melody that God’s given them. We’re shaped in the image of God’s melody.
– Julian Davis Reid, “Julian Davis Reid Teaches Us to Rest in Jazz”
Prayer of the day
Let my melody break forth in every color. May I delight in the keys of freedom, curiosity, and rest.
Verse of the day
A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
– Ezekiel 36:26
Voice of the day
The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution that has to start with each one of us?
– Dorothy Day, Loaves and Fishes(1963)
Prayer of the day
Let there be a revolution in my heart, Lord. Take away my stone-cold selfishness and replace it with your passion for justice.
Verse of the day
Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
– Galatians 6:2
Voice of the day
There is no phenomenon in the universe that does not intimately concern us, from a pebble resting at the bottom of the ocean, to the movement of a galaxy millions of light years away.
– Thich Nhat Hanh, The Sun My Heart(1982)
Prayer of the day
Fill us with awe at every small wonder you have designed. Keep our hearts open to their movements.
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
What a lovely weekend of learning, reflection, prayer, and contemplation with Saint Ignatius and Thomas Merton
It is always good to spend time with our dear friend Carl who led the retreat
While it was a long and somewhat frustrating drive home today with lots of crazy traffic and accident delays
We were gifted with this beautiful rainbow
Tomorrow we pick up our sweet Stella from her “resort” stay
Then all will be complete in our world 😻💖
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
“The real focus of American violence is in the very culture itself, its mass media, its extreme individualism and competitiveness, its inflated myths of virility and toughness, and its overwhelming preoccupation with the power of nuclear, chemical, bacteriological, and psychological overkill. If we live in what is essentially a culture of overkill, how can we be surprised at finding violence in it? Can we get to the root of the trouble? In my opinion, the best way to do it would have been the classic way of religious humanism and nonviolence exemplified by Gandhi.”—Thomas Merton
Francis of Assisi became a saint because he allowed his relationship with Jesus to remain primary. Shouldn’t we follow his example?
— Read on www.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-spirit-blog/growing-in-faith-as-st-francis-did
I think for peacemaking it is so important that we are home, that we know to whom we belong. Jesus says it very clearly; he says: “You do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Therefore, I am sending you into the world as my Father has sent me into the world.” You have to catch the paradox: that we can really be in the world, involved in the world, and actively engaged in the world precisely because we do not belong to it, precisely because that is not where our dwelling place is. Precisely because our home is in God, we can be in the world, and speak words of healing, of confrontation, of invitation, and of challenge.
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 