“When will we learn that human beings are of infinite value because they have been created in the image of God, and that it is a blasphemy to treat them as if they were less than this and to do so ultimately recoils on those who do this? In dehumanizing others, they are themselves dehumanized. Perhaps oppression dehumanizes the oppressor as much as, if not more than, the oppressed. They need each other to become truly free, to become human. We can be human only in fellowship, in community, in koinonia, in peace.”—Archbishop Desmond Tutu Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, 1984
“Of all the dangers we face, from climate chaos to permanent war, none is so great as this deadening of our response. For psychic numbing impedes our capacity to process and respond to information. The energy expended in pushing down despair is diverted from more crucial uses, depleting the resilience and imagination needed for fresh visions and strategies. Zen poet Thich Nhat Hanh was asked, ‘What do we most need to do to save our world?’ His answer was this: ‘What we most need to do is to hear within us the sounds of the Earth crying.’”—Joanna Macy
Verse of the day
You are the Lord, you alone; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. To all of them you give life, and the host of heaven worships you.
– Nehemiah 9:6
Voice of the day
Having dominion over the Earth is about responsibility and service to the planet and its people, because God is not a God of waste and exploitation.
– Vanessa Nakate
Prayer of the day
Draw us deeper into responding to the cries of your creation, ever-sustaining God.
Verse of the day
Do not be afraid when some become rich, when the wealth of their houses increases. For when they die they will carry nothing away; their wealth will not go down after them.
– Psalm 49:16-17
Voice of the day
True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it understands that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth.
– Martin Luther King Jr.
Prayer of the day
God of justice, turn our eyes to the inequities of society. Teach us how to use the things we have for what is just, instead of what is convenient.
“We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the positive affirmation of peace.”—Martin Luther King Jr.
“Love calls us into connection with the world. In times when feeling disconnection and isolation is easier than ever, love calls us to step into the flesh-and-blood relationships, to engage, to risk, to be vulnerable.”
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Give Me a Word: The Promise of an Ancient Practice to Guide Your Year
How can you support yourself to take the risk of showing up with your vulnerability in order to spark and sustain connection?
To register for a free, online gathering this Monday, September 22nd to celebrate the release of Christine’s book Give Me a Word, click here.
Verse of the day
Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?
– Galatians 4:16
Voice of the day
Without facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust. Without all three, we have no shared reality, and democracy as we know it—and all meaningful human endeavors—are dead.
– Maria Ressa, “How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future” (2022)
Prayer of the day
Help us find the strength to embody your voice, God, in honor of those who have been rendered voiceless.
“Each of the elements offers us a unique energy or way of understanding the sacred: water flows and cleanses, the earth roots and nourishes us, fire represents the burning of love and passion, and wind expresses freedom, breath, and unpredictability.”
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Give Me a Word: The Promise of an Ancient Practice to Guide Your Year
Which element resonates with you? With which one do you feel a sense of dissonance or tension?
To register for a free, online gathering on Monday, September 22nd to celebrate the release of Christine’s book Give Me a Word, click here.
“Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, and every minute a chance to change the world.”
—Dolores Huerta, labor organizer and cofounder of the United Farm Workers Union
Verse of the day
Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
– Matthew 11:28
Voice of the day
Be subversive. Embrace radical love that is outside the confines of tradition. Be suspicious of everything they taught you. Carry a research notebook. Be curious. Resist. Rest.
– Tricia Hersey, “Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto” (2022)
Prayer of the day
God, amid the weights we carry as we brave this world, may we find rest in you unlike any other refuge.
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