Verse of the day
This One shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Strength of God, Eternal Protector, Champion of Peace. This dominion, and this peace, will grow without end, with David’s throne and realm sustained with justice and fairness, now and forever.
– Isaiah 9:6-7 (The Inclusive Bible)
Voice of the day
It’s tempting to turn Christmas into a safe holiday that asks little of us. But that would ignore the prophetic, subversive life of Jesus.
– John Gehring, “Why Christmas is Radical”
Prayer of the day Direct me to use the time I have on this earth to embody the life of Jesus, to sustain justice and fairness.
“Take no part in fruitless works of darkness. Rather, expose them.”—Ephesians 5:11
As we approach the last Sunday in the season of Advent, I am sure that many of you are up to your eyeballs in Christmas preparations. Hopefully during Advent, you have been able to take some time to be still amid the rush of this commercialized time of year. I would like to say that I have done that myself, but sadly, those moments have been fleeting and few.
The reading from Luke for the fourth Sunday of Advent is the song of Mary otherwise known as the “Magnificat.” Mary’s song has been banned in some countries because of its revolutionary challenges (He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. — Luke 1:52-52). It was celebrated as an offering of hope to the poor by Saint Archbishop Oscar Romero. Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it “the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary hymn ever sung.”
I find myself longing for the revolution of love that Mary offers in the midst of so much pain and so many struggles both for me personally and in the world at large. It appears I needed to sit with Mary once more. She has companioned this Presbyterian Padre along this journey many times and I am sure she will continue to do so.
I used this quote from Thomas Merton for the Fourth Sunday in Advent bulletin: In sadness, discouragement and loneliness, Advent offers JOY – the joy of salvation, the joy of new life, the joy of earth as it is in heaven (from his book Seasons of Celebration). My prayer for you, dear reader, is that you might find joy and hope in the midst of it all this last week of the Advent season and every day of the year.
…So maybe the really outrageous act of faith on Mary’s part was trusting that she had found favor with God…
Read further at
If God can show up in the manger, God can show up anywhere. With anybody. With you and with me. Wherever life might take us.
Wherever You Are — Jake Owensby
A beautiful reminder from Jake Oswensby!
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.”—Robert F Kennedy
“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”—Haile Selassie
Verse of the day
How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.
– 1 John 3:17-18
Voice of the day
The Christian social witness is achieved only insofar as Christians are deeply implicated in the real life of society — in unions and political clubs and citizen groups and the like; it is not made by Christian people gathering off by themselves in a parish house to study and discuss social issues.
– William Stringfellow, A Private and Public Faith (1962)
Prayer of the day May I act in your love and use my abilities to help shape a more just world.
“Through every rock, every bird, every flower, and every creature, God enters into intimacy and communion with us. This is how God’s wisdom is revealed, and we would do well to listen for their spiritual direction.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Earth, Our Original Monastery: Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
What would it mean to listen into the deep wisdom of creation for our own spiritual direction and guidance in life?
As Dorothy Day’s cause for canonization moves from the local phase to Rome, Colleen Dulle shares her insider’s perspective.
A bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan is not the sort of place I thought one would ordinarily join a canonization effort. Then again, the saint whose cause I joined was no ordinary woman...
— Read on www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/12/16/dorothy-day-canonization-cause-dulle-242046
