If we are to be peacemakers, it is essential that we take on what I would like to call a mentality of abundance and put away from us the mentality of scarcity. This sense of scarcity makes us desperate, and we turn to competition, hoarding, and a kind of parody of self-preservation. This greed extends not only to material goods but also to knowledge, friendships, and ideas. We worry that everything we possess is threatened. This is especially true in a society that grows more affluent, experiences more opportunities for hoarding and more fears of losing what has been stored, and in the process creates enemies and war. ~ The Road to Peace
There are many ways of being a peacemaker. We need to experience our own humble task as part of the Body of Christ and encourage others to accept their task. Whatever it is we do, we need to feel sent by the community rather than working as isolated individuals. And we need to pray for one another, for our common life and for our common task. Such intercessory prayer is a basic to Christian community.
Verse of the day
If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.
– James 1:5
Voice of the day
When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.
– Paulo Coelho, “The Alchemist” (1988)
Prayer of the day
God, through enduring wisdom, let what we discern be what you desire.
The historical irony is that European Christians coming to the Americas were escaping highly stratified and intolerant societies; in North America they encountered societies that were open and tolerant; but in response, these European immigrants simply duplicated the oppression they had known by practicing it on the Native People. — Steven Charleston, Coming Full Circle: Constructing Native Christian Theology
Verse of the day
He changes times and seasons, deposes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.
– Daniel 2:21
Voice of the day
To understand one moment is to see the possibility of being the cocreator of another. History permits us to be responsible: not for everything, but for something.
– Timothy D. Snyder, “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” (2017)
Prayer of the day
God of every age, may our minds be molded through remembrance, and may our actions in turn be accompanied by meaningful change.
“Whatever threshold you stand on right now, nurture your awareness of how the sacred is more available in these moments, more clearly heard or seen. Keep alert for signs of how the divine is moving through your days.”
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Give Me a Word: The Promise of an Ancient Practice to Guide Your Year
What thresholds spaces are you in right now? Where do you notice the divine moving through your day?
To register for the upcoming companion Advent retreat, click here.
“For John of the Cross, the spiritual life is not about getting closer to God. Instead, it is a journey of consciousness. We realize union with God, we don’t acquire it or receive it. It is something we already possess, but we need to let go of everything that keeps us from seeing this reality.”
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, A Midwinter God: Encountering the Divine in Seasons of Darkness
When have you felt the truth of already being in union with God? What stands in your way of embracing this reality?
To register for the self-study companion retreat to the book with additional resources and guidance, click here.
Verse of the day
For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
– 2 Timothy 1:7
Voice of the day
We must not be frightened nor cajoled / into accepting evil as deliverance from evil. / We must go on struggling to be human, / though monsters of abstraction / police and threaten us.
– Robert Hayden, “Worlds in the Mourning Time” (1970)
Prayer of the day
Empower us, God of justice, so we can rise above our fears during tumultuous times.
“What happens on social media doesn’t stay on social media. Online violence is real world violence. Social media is a deadly game for power and money, what Shoshana Zuboff calls surveillance capitalism, extracting our private lives for outsized corporate gain. Our personal experiences are sucked into a database, organized by AI, then sold to the highest bidder. . . These American companies controlling our global information ecosystem are biased against facts, biased against journalists. They are—by design—dividing us and radicalizing us.”—Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize lecture 2021
“Before you speak of peace, you must first have it in your heart.”—St. Francis of Assisi
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