The Common Good

Verse And Voice

Voice of the Day: Bede Bede on Entry into the Kingdom

We take pride in our almost unique and wide-ranging learning, as if there were not many people much more learned than we whom we do not want to despise us. We enjoy ridiculing those who are less educated than we and make no effort to remember that entry into the kingdom lies open not for those who only learn the mysteries of faith and the commands of the Creator by meditating on them, but for those who put into practice the things they have learned.

- Bede Bede
from [...]

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Voice of the Day: Frederick Buechner Hears Voices

When somebody speaks to you, you turn your face to look in the direction the voice comes from; but if the voice comes from no direction at all, if the voice comes from within and comes wordlessly, and more powerfully for being wordless, then in a sense you stop looking for anything at all. Your eyes become unseeing, and if someone were to pass a hand in front of them, you would hardly notice the hand. If you can be said to be looking at anything then, you are probably looking at, without really [...]

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Verse of the Day: 'I will grant peace in the land'

And I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid; I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword shall go through your land.

- Leviticus 26:6

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Verse of the Day: 'By justice a king gives stability to the land'

By justice a king gives stability to the land, but one who makes heavy exactions ruins it.

- Proverbs 29:4

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Voice of the Day: Teaching Scripture as a Story

Teaching scripture as a story allows God's story to become a guiding light for the learner. Resources for faith are provided that can support a person's character development. Images are presented that can nurture a construction of Christian identity that is faithful to the church.... Hearers become inspired and encouraged to identify their story with the scripture. Readers are equipped to relate and broaden their personal experiences in light of their social existence. Learners are empowered [...]

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Verse of the Day: 'peace to the far and the near'

I have seen their ways, but I will heal them; I will lead them and repay them with comfort, creating for their mourners the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace, to the far and the near, says the Lord; and I will heal them. But the wicked are like the tossing sea that cannot keep still; its waters toss up mire and mud. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.

- Isaiah 57:18-21

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Voice of the Day: Donders on Jesus' Approach

Jesus' approach is always fresh, surprising, new, and unexpected. Consequently, it always provoked a direct reaction.... He shattered firmly formed convictions and beliefs. He often used nonreligious language, avoiding the religious language of his contemporaries, a language that had been used so long, and so often by so many people, that it had lost its meaning almost completely. He continually used examples from everyday life to express himself.

- Joseph G. [...]

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Verse of the Day: The Armor of God

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and [...]

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Voice of the Day: Freire on Knowledge

Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry [people] pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.

Paulo Freire
Pedagogy of the Oppressed

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Voice of the Day: Children and Faith

Children possess naturally the essential elements for having faith. The Kingdom of God is first perceived in the world children know best. Children, therefore, have as much to offer adults as adults have to offer children-perhaps more.


- John H. Westerhoff III

Bringing Up Children in the Christian Faith

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