Those you have deeply loved become part of you. The longer you live, there will always be more people to be loved by you and to become part of your inner community. The wider your inner community becomes, the more easily you will recognize your own brothers and sisters in the strangers around you. . . . The wider the community of your heart, the wider the community around you.
“For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and the crimes against God and man* must be proclaimed and denounced.”—Frederick Douglass
When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That’s the message he is sending. — Thich Nhat Hahn
Verse of the day
Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
– Romans 12:2
Voice of the day
The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.
– Audre Lorde, “Sister Outsider” (1984)
Prayer of the day
Give us wisdom to use tools of justice beyond what our oppressors use, that we might change unjust systems and spark genuine renewal.
“It takes courage to say yes to rest and play in a culture where exhaustion is seen as a status symbol.”—Brene Brown
“Next time you are in the forest, imagine this space as one of the primordial or original churches—a sanctuary that has helped inspire the creation of thousands of other sanctuary spaces.”
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Earth, Our Original Monastery: Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
Notice what arises in your body when you imagine being in the cathedral of trees, joining them in praise of the Holy.
Verse of the day
“Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan, I will now rise up,” says the Lord; “I will place them in the safety for which they long.”
– Psalm 12:5
Voice of the day
If our politics don’t prioritize the most vulnerable, then what are we doing? Compassion isn’t weakness—it reveals our interconnectedness.
– Drew Hart
Prayer of the day
May we not fall prey to the whims of partisan politics. We pray that our politics are just, that we remember those who are most vulnerable and seek their well-being.
Writing is a process in which we discover what lives in us. The writing itself reveals to us what is alive in us. The deepest satisfaction of writing is precisely that it opens up new spaces within us of which we were not aware before we started to write. To write is to embark on a journey whose final destination we do not know. Thus, writing requires a real act of trust. We have to say to ourselves: “I do not yet know what I carry in my heart, but I trust that it will emerge as I write.” Writing is like giving away the few loaves and fishes one has, trusting that they will multiply in the giving. Once we dare to “give away” on paper the few thoughts that come to us, we start discovering how much is hidden underneath these thoughts and gradually come in touch with our own riches.
I know how great a temptation it is in times of anguish and agony to look away from our painful center and expect peace and a sense of inner wholeness to come from some external source. But I am increasingly convinced that, at times of anguish and agony, we have to choose a contained life where we can be in the presence of people who hold us safe and bring us in touch with the unconditional affective love of God. Do not get involved in experiences of living that will lead to dissipation. What is so important is to have a deep sense of inner safety, of being held by a love that is in no way using you, manipulating you, or “needing” you.
It is through our broken, vulnerable, mortal ways of being that the healing power of the eternal God becomes visible to us.
We are called each day to present to the Lord the whole of our lives—our joys as well as sorrows, our successes as well as failures, our hopes as well as fears. We are called to do so with our limited means, our stuttering words and halting expressions. In this way we will come to know in mind and heart the unceasing prayer of God’s Spirit in us. Our many prayers are in fact confessions of our inability to pray. But they are confessions that enable us to perceive the merciful presence of God.
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 