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
“Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on.”—Thurgood Marshall
Based upon some conversations I have been a part of this week, these words from Thomas Merton from his book No Man Is an Island spoke to my heart. The God of peace is never glorified in violence.
In these times of local AND worldwide challenges, I believe my brother Thomas would agree with another prophet, John Lennon: All we are saying is give peace a chance. May we indeed work to give peace chance ♥️
Dear reader, this is my fervent prayer for you and for me. In the words of St Francis of Assisi:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
The quote that I chose for this past Sunday’s bulletin came from Thomas Merton’s book Seasons of Celebration. In prejudice and hate, Advent offers LOVE – the perfect love of God in surrender, a way to love one another, a yearning to love His church.
This has been a challenging week for me on multiple levels and Merton’s invitation to love continues to speak to my heart and guide me through this season of Advent. Perhaps this is a word you need to hear as well, dear reader. It is offered to you with love.
Verse of the day
Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.
– Proverbs 14:31 (NIV)
Voice of the day
It is the obligation of every person born in a safer room to open the door when someone in danger knocks.
– Dina Nayeri
Prayer of the day May we fling open every door and every heart.
