Verse of the day
For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound teaching, but, having their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desiresand will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.
– 2 Timothy 4:3-4
Voice of the day
Mundus vult decipi: the world wants to be deceived.
– Martin Buber, “I and Thou” (1923)
Prayer of the day
God, help us seek the truth and stand firm, even when the world chooses deception over it.
Verse of the day
I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
– Revelation 3:15-16
Voice of the day
Indifference and apathy are parasitism, perversion, not life.
– Antonio Gramsci
Prayer of the day
Creator, help us take a firm stance in our faith, rejecting apathy and living boldly for what we believe.
Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,
May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul.
As the wind loves to call things to dance,
May your gravity be lightened by grace.
Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth,
May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect.
As water takes whatever shape it is in,
So free may you be about who you become.
As silence smiles on the other side of what’s said,
May your sense of irony bring perspective.
As time remains free of all that it frames,
May your mind stay clear of all that it names.
May your prayer of listening deepen enough,
To hear in the depths the laughter of God.
To Bless the Space Between Us, p. 127
As soon as you begin to take yourself seriously and imagine that your virtues are important because they are yours, you become the prisoner of your own vanity and even your best works will blind and deceive you. Then, in order to defend yourself, you will begin to see sins and faults everywhere in the actions of [others]. And the more unreasonable importance you attach to yourself and to your own works, the more you will tend to build up your own idea of yourself by condemning other people. — New Seeds of Contemplation (pp. 59-60, Kindle Edition)
The primary problems of the planet arise not from the poor, for whom education is the answer; they arise from the well-educated, for whom self-interest is the problem. — Credo, p. 61
To know God is to do justice. To recognize this implacable moral imperative of the faith represents the kind of good religion that mixes well with politics. — Credo, p. 51
The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. — Letter from Birmingham Jail as found on p. 97 of the book, I Have A Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World
Compassion and justice are companions, not choices. — Credo, p. 51
Am I my brother’s keeper? No, I am my brother’s brother or sister. Human unity is not something we are called upon to create, only to recognize. — Credo, p. 33
Tolerance and passivity are a deadly combination. Together they allow us to tolerate the intolerable, to ignore the power of anger in works of love; for if you lessen your anger at the structures of power, you lower your love for the victims of power. — Credo, p. 27
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