“The true environmental impact of war is impossible to quantify because it affects a staggering array of sectors and every aspect of human wellbeing. Wars kill people, extinguish biodiversity, and destroy the infrastructure that could otherwise provide safeguards in the face of extreme weather events. Warfare is an act of climate denial.”—Nigerian writer Nnimmo Bassey, Right Livelihood Award Laureate
We Christians forget (if we ever learned) that attempts to redress real or imagined injustice by violent means are merely another exercise in denial – denial of God and her nonviolence towards us, denial of love of neighbor, denial of laws essential to our being. I do not know the man takes many forms, suffers many translations. But all end the same—a denial of our humanity, our daughtership or sonship in God. — Philip Berrigan (Fighting the Lamb’s War: Skirmishes with the American Empire, p. 204)
This group of emerging young scholars (Daggy Scholars) along with Brother Paul Quenon (who was a novice when Merton was the novice master), board members, and friends from the International Thomas Merton Society are an inspiration to me as we seek to build a better community and world founded on love, peace, justice, and compassion. I’ve been thinking a lot about our wonderful and inspiring gathering where new friendships were made and current friendships deepened as we gathered for our retreat this past June.
Currently I am reading Fighting the Lamb’s War: Skirmishes with the American Empire, the autobiography of priest and nonviolent activist Philip Berigan. As I continue to read and consider our ITMS community and the emerging scholars this quote seems to encompass what I believe we are all about as a society.
In community we are responsible for one another, which means that we are responsible for the human family. We are all responsible when others are abused, crushed, bombed, or starved. In community, we are responsible for our life together, for nourishing one another, for setting good examples, and for inspiring others. (p. 170)
The emerging scholars are more than simply “fresh blood” in the society. I believe that they will continue to challenge those of us who have more years behind us than ahead of us to consider how to live and be such a community in this fractured world. I am truly thankful for their (to borrow a phrase from the ordination vows I took nearly 37 years ago) energy, intelligence, imagination, and love.
This sense of community is sadly lacking in so many places in this country and around the world. My prayer is that we can indeed be the change agents in the transformation of our communities, this nation, and the world.
I was in a year of intensive training (Clinical Pastoral Education) with the Air Force in San Antonio, Texas from June 1997 – July 1998 when I went to a family care conference. One of the workshops that I attended was poetry writing that was led by poet and peace activist B.F. Maiz (Obituary). It was truly transformative moment for me and this is the poem that I wrote at the workshop on January 31, 1998.
I stand in the midst of a sea of suffering,
On a boat in stormy seas.
Looking for an island of tranquility,
A place of healing for you and me.
Our patio and backyard have truly become such a place for me and for Denise as we journey together through this chapter in life and ministry called retirement. Perhaps, dear reader, each of us can find such a space and share it with others.
Verse of the day
Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will die by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?”
– Matthew 26:52-53
Voice of the day
The delusion that war will solve the very real problems of injustice and violence has only resulted in more violence and continued injustice.
– Jim Rice, “The Path of Peace”
Prayer of the day
Prince of peace, we repent of the violent acts we have committed and those committed in our name. Remind us that violence only begets more violence, that you invite us to the way of peace.
The contemplative is someone who sees things for what they really are, who sees the real connections, who knows—as Thomas Merton used to say—“what the scoop is.” To attain such a vision, a spiritual discipline is necessary. Evagrius [Ponticus] calls discipline the praktike, removing the blindfolds that prevent us from seeing clearly. Merton, himself very familiar with Evagrius, expressed the same idea. He told the monks of Gethsemani Abbey that the contemplative life is a life in which we constantly move from opaqueness to transparency, from the place where things are dark, impenetrable, and closed to the place where these same things are translucent, open, and offer vision far beyond themselves.
Verse of the day
Remember the days of old; consider the years long past; ask your father, and he will inform you, your elders, and they will tell you.
– Deuteronomy 32:7
Voice of the day
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
– Maya Angelou
Prayer of the day
God, we thank you for the elders in our life who tell us of the days of old. May we heed their stories and create for ourselves a new future.
“Love, compassion, and concern for others are the real sources of happiness.”—HH The Dalai Lama
“Commitment to inclusive community in the heart works to create nonviolence in the whole person. True community takes away the motive for violence because it is the great equalizer.”—Sr. Nancy Schreck
“If we want our actions to add to the building of a new culture even while resolving the issue at hand, we should not hesitate to explain why we’re doing what we’re doing, to anyone who will listen. The point is not that they’ll immediately ‘get it’: the point is that this is how paradigms change: through repetition that slowly builds up and becomes the new normal.”—Michael Nagler, The Third Harmony
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