The Common Good

Verse And Voice

Verse of the Day: Execute Justice

by Administrator 10-23-2007

O house of David! Thus says the Lord: Execute justice in the morning, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed, or else my wrath will go forth like fire, and burn, with no one to quench it, because of your evil doings.

- Jeremiah 21:12-12

+ Sign up to receive our social justice verse of the day via [...]

+Continue Reading

Voice of the Day: 'The time is ripe'

by Administrator 10-23-2007

There are lots of different people saying lots of different things, and some of them put us off with their craziness and there are lots of points to argue with them about, but at their best they seem to be acting out of a single profound impulse, which is best described with words like tolerance, compassion, sanity, hope, justice. It is an impulse that has always been part of the human heart, but it seems to be welling up into the world with new power in our age now even as the forces of [...]

+Continue Reading

Voice of the Day: Merton on Reading the Bible

by Administrator 10-22-2007

Curiously, the most serious religious people, or the most concerned
scholars, those who constantly read the Bible as a matter of
professional or pious duty, can often manage to evade a radically
involved dialogue with the book they are questioning.

- Thomas Merton
Opening the Bible

+ Sign up to receive our quote of the day via [...]

+Continue Reading

Verse of the Day: 'Our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh'

by Administrator 10-19-2007

Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

- Ephesians 6:11-12

+ Sign up to receive our [...]

+Continue Reading

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

by Administrator 10-19-2007

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 [...]

+Continue Reading

Voice of the Day: Frederick Buechner Hears Voices

by Administrator 10-18-2007

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 [...]

+Continue Reading

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

by Administrator 10-18-2007

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

+ Sign up to receive our social justice verse of the day via [...]

+Continue Reading

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

by Administrator 10-17-2007

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

- Proverbs 29:4

+ Sign up to receive our social justice verse of the day via [...]

+Continue Reading

Voice of the Day: Teaching Scripture as a Story

by Administrator 10-17-2007

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 [...]

+Continue Reading

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

by Administrator 10-16-2007

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

+Continue Reading