Verse of the day
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
– Proverbs 4:23
Voice of the day
What we all need to do is find the wellspring that keeps us going, that gives us the strength and patience to keep up this struggle for a long time.
– Winona LaDuke
Prayer of the day
Give us patience on our journey to the wellspring of life.
“As Shelley Douglass puts it, we do not want to have to change our lives to bring about justice. The hardest moment comes when our own internal oppressor meets the outside reality that it supports. It is not out there, but in me, that the oppressor must die.”—Walter Wink, Jesus and Nonviolence
Verse of the day
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
– John 20: 21-22
Voice of the day
Because I breathe in your air, you breathe in mine / You give me your breath, I give you mine / Because we share the same elemental dependence / belonging together to this alive place
– Kimberly Blaeser, “Because We Come From Everything”
Prayer of the day
Breathe deep. Together we journey toward becoming and belonging in this alive place.
To be calm and quiet by yourself is not the same as sleeping. In fact, it means being fully awake and following with close attention every move going on inside of you. It requires the discipline to recognize the urge to get up and go as a temptation to look elsewhere for what is really close at hand. It offers the freedom to stroll through your own inner yard and rake up the leaves and clear the path so you can easily find the way to your heart. Perhaps there will be fear and uncertainty when you first come upon this “unfamiliar terrain,” but slowly and surely you will discover an order and a familiarity that deepens your longing to stay home with yourself.
Dear God,
I am so afraid to open my clenched fists! Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to? Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands? Please help me to gradually open my hands and to discover that I am not what I own, but what you want to give me. And what you want to give me is love—unconditional, everlasting love. Amen.
“So many beings in the universe love us unconditionally. A bird’s song can express joy, beauty, and purity, and evoke in us vitality and love. The trees, the water, and the air don’t ask anything of us; they just love us. Even though we need this kind of love, we continue to destroy these things. We should try our best to do the least harm to all living creatures.”—Thich Nhat Hanh
Verse of the day
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
– 1 Corinthians 13:1
Voice of the day
[D]enouncing evil is a far cry from doing good.
– Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families (1998)
Prayer of the day
Remind us that movements toward justice are signs of love in action.
“Every breath we take, there’s a threshold. Every inhale and exhale is an invitation to pause and to rest in that in-between space.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Virtual Celtic Pilgrimage: The Wisdom of the Irish Saints Brigid, Ciaran, and Gobnait – A Self-Study Online Retreat
What do you notice in the threshold spaces of your breath?
“Each slow mindful breath, the rising and setting of the sun, the expansion and contraction of the moon, the ripening and releasing of the seasons, these all mark a different quality of time and invite us into a deepened and renewed way of being.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life
How do you follow the rhythms of your breath, the slow movements of the sun and moon through the sky, the seasons which come and go?
“We can take pride in our cultural, religious, ethnic, and other identities. However, when that pride fosters feelings of superiority, arrogance, competition, or the denigration of others who are not part of our group, we are breeding intolerance and violence.”—Paul Kivel, Uprooting Racism
