The Common Good

Verse And Voice

Verse of the Day: Filled with the Spirit of the Lord

by Administrator 08-06-2007

But as for me, I am filled with power, with the spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob and chiefs of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong!

- Micah 3:8-10

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Verse of the Day: Speak Truth to One Another

by Administrator 08-03-2007

These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, says the Lord.

- Zechariah 8:16-17

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Voice of the Day: Joan Chittister

by Administrator 08-03-2007

The function of prayer is not to establish a routine; it is to establish a relationship with God who is in relationship with us always.... The function of prayer is to bring us into touch with ourselves, as well. To the ancients, "tears of compunction" were the sign of a soul that knew its limits, faced its sins, accepted its needs, and lived in hope.

- Joan Chittister
Quoted in Essential Monastic Wisdom, by Hugh Feiss

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Voice of the Day: Thomas Merton

by Administrator 08-02-2007

The contemplative life should liberate and purify the imagination which passively absorbs all kinds of things without our realizing it; liberate and purify it from the influence of so much violence done by the bombardment of social images.... The training of the imagination implies a certain freedom and this freedom implies a certain capacity to choose and to find its own appropriate nourishment. Thus in the interior life there should be moments of relaxation, freedom, and "browsing." Perhaps [...]

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Verse of the Day: Preserving Integrity

by Administrator 08-02-2007

May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.

- Psalms 25:21

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Verse of the Day: Patience

by Administrator 08-01-2007

And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them.

- 1 Thessalonians 5:14

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Voice of the Day: Peter of Celle

by Administrator 08-01-2007

What lies dead and deformed in the letter on the dead parchment comes to life when what is read is put into practice.

--Peter of Celle
Quoted in Essential Monastic Wisdom, by Hugh Feiss

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Verse of the Day: Serving the Least Among Us

by Administrator 07-31-2007

I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.

- Matthew 25:36

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Voice of the Day: Frederick Buechner

by Administrator 07-30-2007

When Jesus commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves, it was not just for our neighbors' sakes that he commanded it, but for our own sakes as well. Not to help find some way to feed the children who are starving to death is to have some precious part of who we are starve to death with them. Not to give ourselves to the human beings we know who may be starving not for food but for what we have in our hearts to nourish them with this to be, ourselves, diminished and crippled as human [...]

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Verse of the Day: Pursue Peace

by Administrator 07-30-2007

Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
- Hebrews 12:14

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