In light of the midnight attack on Venezuela by US military forces and the kidnapping of the country’s President and First Lady these words from Thomas Merton speak to me and I hope that they will speak to you, dear reader.
The Christian is not only bound to avoid certain evils, but he is responsible for very great goods. This is often forgotten. The doctrine of the Incarnation leaves the Christian obligated at once to God and to man. If God has become man, then no Christian is ever allowed to be indifferent to man’s fate. Whoever believes that Christ is the Word made flesh believes that every man must in some sense be regarded as Christ. For all are at least potentially members of the Mystical Christ. Who can say with absolute certainty of any other man that Christ does not live in him?…
If we are disciples of Christ we are necessarily our brother’s keepers. And the question that is being asked of us concerns all men. It concerns, at the present moment, the entire human race. We cannot ignore this question. We cannot give an irresponsible and unchristian consent to the demonic use of power for the destruction of a whole nation, a whole continent, or possibly even the whole human race. — Seeds of Destruction (Part II, Section I, Can We Choose Peace?)
When I first went on Active Duty with the Air Force as a Chaplain in 1990, the attack on Panama in 1989 was still fresh in my mind. US forces invaded Panama and kidnapped the President of Panama. It was a part of the continuation of Regan’s “war on drugs.” Today, just over 37 years later, another nation has been invaded and its leader kidnapped. The reason? A supposed “war on drugs.” The tragic irony does not escape me. The words of Winston Churchill in 1948 (echoing the words of philosopher George Santayana) Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it speak loudly to this retired military chaplain and student of history.
I truly fear for this country that I served for 26 years in uniform. I fear for the survival of the Constitution that I swore to support and defend (beginning in 1985 and continuing to this day). This was not how I planned on beginning the new year.
As these days of uncertainty continue to unfold, I lift up this portion of Thomas Merton’s Prayer for Peace: And now our nation itself stands in imminent danger of a war the like of which has never been seen! This nation dedicated to freedom, not to power, has obtained, through freedom, a power it did not desire. And seeking by that power to defend its freedom, it is enslaved by the processes and policies of power. Must we wage a war we do not desire, a war that can do no good, and which our very hatred of war forces us to prepare?
In this prayer, originally written in 1962 and presented to Congress, Merton was focused on the global arms race and the very real threat of global nuclear war. That threat still exists. This prayer speaks to the current situation we are facing today.
In closing, I once more lift up Merton’s prayer: Save us then from our obsessions! Open our eyes, dissipate our confusions, teach us to understand ourselves and our adversary. Let us never forget that sins against the law of love are punishable by loss of faith, and those without faith stop at no crime to achieve their ends! Amen.
Verse of the day
So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.
– Galatians 6:9
Voice of the day
all those nights we knelt together in brown earth / it was always about harmony, about balance
– Joaquin Zihuatanejo, “Abuelo’s Garden”
Prayer of the day
God who tends the ground beneath our feet, keep us watchful for ways to organically notice and coax out beautiful things in our lives.
Verse of the day
For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.
– Ecclesiastes 3:1
Voice of the day
No experience has been too unimportant, and the smallest event unfolds like a fate, and fate itself is like a wonderful, wide fabric in which every thread is guided by an infinitely tender hand and laid alongside another thread and is held and supported by a hundred others.
– Rainer Maria Rilke, “Letters to a Young Poet” (1934)
Prayer of the day
God of change, as we embark on this fresh start in a new year, invite every person to consider the intentionality of every moment you place before us.
Verse of the day
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
– Romans 8:28
Voice of the day
Advocacy is not just a task for charismatic individuals or high-profile community organizers. Advocacy is for all of us; advocacy is a way of life. It is a natural response to the injustices and inequality in the world.
– Alice Wong, “Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century” (2020)
Prayer of the day
When comparison plagues us, remind us that we are united in this call to face the world’s woes with our unique capabilities.
Verse of the day
Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.
– Malachi 3:10
Voice of the day
Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet too, even with a crust, where there is companionship. We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.
– Dorothy Day
Prayer of the day
God, through the joy of good works done in good company, fill us with purpose and hope every time we gather at your table.
Jesus reveals God as a God who wants to be even closer to his people than his people could ever possibly imagine. The great good news of the Gospel is precisely that God wants to be with us to share our struggle, walk our way, suffer our pain, and die our death, so that we are able to say, “There is nothing human that God does not share with us.” That is the great good news. God is with us in every aspect of our lives.
Despite all the crassness of life, despite all the harshness of life, life is saved by the singing
of angels. — Howard Thurman (The Mood of Christmas & Other Celebrations, p. 10)
Dear reader, over the next few days as the year 2025 draws to a close and the year 2026 approaches, may we all take time in the midst of the chaos of this world to listen for the song of hope, peace, and justice. And remember the hope of John 1:5 — The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The symbol of Christmas—what is it? It is the rainbow arched over the roof of the sky when clouds are heavy and foreboding. It is the cry of life in the newborn babe, when forced from its mother’s nest, it claims the right to life. It is the brooding presence of the Eternal Spirit making crooked ways straight, rough places smooth, tired hearts refreshed, dead hopes stir with newness of life. It is the promise of tomorrow at the close of every day, the movement of life in defiance of death, and the assurance that love is sturdier than hate, that right is more confident than wrong, that good is more permanent than evil. – The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations, p. 3
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
… Into that heaven of freedom
… let my country awake.”
Verse of the day
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
– Titus 3:4-5
Voice of the day
No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even of God – for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of God.
– St. Óscar Romero
Prayer of the day
Incarnate Word, you came to us in vulnerable circumstances and during dangerous times out of a deep, abiding love. May the enaction of our own love echo yours.
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