I hate to see people suffer because they worry about the wrong things and misread what God thinks of them. They feel guilty for past sins—sins for which they have been forgiven. They worry that a fleeting emotion, an uninvited feeling, or a persistent temptation is a sin. They demand of themselves inhuman perfection. All these worries keep them from feeling the warmth of God’s love.
— Read on www.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-spirit-blog/we-are-gods-beloved
Verse of the day
See, I have refined you but not like silver; I have tested you in the furnace of adversity.
– Isaiah 48:10
Voice of the day
I realized that it was precisely because of America’s glaring imperfections that I should seek to participate in its progress, carve a place in its promise, and play a role in its possibility.
– Eboo Patel, Acts of Faith (2007)
Prayer of the day
May we continue to refine the United States, working out each imperfection to leave room for the possibilities of tomorrow.
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
It has been a busy and productive day
Cleaning of our house is complete
Everything is packed in our two cars except for cleaning tools and chairs
Tomorrow we will drive out for Orange Beach, Alabama
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…
Verse of the day
… But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.
– 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8
Voice of the day
In our time of political unrest and upheaval, you must cling to your softness. Gentleness is an act of political resistance.
– Mia Tabib
Prayer of the day
Keep my spirit gentle, Lord. May my rage be refined to heal and create.
“Truth will rise above falsehood as oil above water.”—Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Friendship, marriage, family, religious life, and every other form of community is solitude greeting solitude, spirit speaking to spirit, and heart calling to heart. It is the grateful recognition of God’s call to share life together and the joyful offering of a hospitable space where the re-creating power of God’s Spirit can become manifest. Thus all forms of life together can become ways to reveal to each other the real presence of God in our midst.
Community has little to do with mutual compatibility. Similarities in educational background, psychological makeup, or social status can bring us together, but they can never be the basis for community. Community is grounded in God, who calls us together, and not in the attractiveness of people to each other. . . . The mystery of community is precisely that it embraces all people, whatever their individual differences may be, and allows them to live together as brothers and sisters of Christ and sons and daughters of his heavenly Father.
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
It is our duty to fight for our freedom. / It is our duty to win. / We must love each other and support each other. / We have nothing to lose but our chains.
– Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (1987)
Prayer of the day
Let us set one another free in love. May our fight be for the liberation of all.
“Reverence is about seeing the Sacred in something. We practice reverence with nature when we honor the ways she reveals the Divine Presence to us.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Earth, Our Original Monastery: Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
Can you offer reverence by acknowledging the inherent dignity of something without concern for how it will serve you?
Verse of the day
I cry to you, O Lord; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”
– Psalm 142:5
Voice of the day
Faith is a force for good particularly when people are feeling beleaguered and in need of hope.
Prayer of the day
Be our refuge, you who are faithful to us in the land of the living.
Verse of the day
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.
– Psalm 24:1
Voice of the day
God is Change— / Seed to tree, / tree to forest; / Rain to river, / river to sea; / Grubs to bees, / bees to swarm. / From one, many; / from many, one; / Forever uniting, growing, dissolving— / forever Changing. / The universe / is God’s self-portrait.
– Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower (1993)
Prayer of the day
God of change, may we follow your patterns of reshaping, and refining to make this evolving earth whole.
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 