Kevin Sakaguchi 4-21-2014

One of the best things about food and cooking is sharing. From devouring cheap local eats with best friends to inviting people over for dinner or hosting a full on party, food brings people together.

This week is Earth Week and as an intern community we are choosing to make concerted efforts to be greener in our choices to promote healthy bodies and ecosystems. This is the motivation behind Meatless Mondays. This global movement asks for restaurants, organizations, and individuals to go veggie on Mondays, being mindful of how our eating habits affect the globe.

the Web Editors 4-21-2014
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the Web Editors 4-21-2014
God of all wisdom, in our life of faith, we see you dimly but continue to hope for the clear vision of your face in your eternal presence. illuminate our path to you, as we strive to follow in the footsteps of your risen Son. Amen.
the Web Editors 4-21-2014
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Juliet Vedral 4-19-2014
Crucified christ image, robodread / Shuttestock.com

I used to hate Good Friday. Jesus dying a gruesome and unjust death didn’t seem particularly “good” to me. Even now, when I watch a Jesus movie like The Greatest Story Ever Told (or let’s be real: Jesus Christ Superstar), I find myself secretly hoping that someone in the crowd will say “wait a second! Just four days ago we really liked this guy. Crucifixion is a terrible idea, let’s go have Passover.” Mic drop.

The idealist and optimist in me would prefer to be reminded that the cross was empty, that Jesus was alive, to focus less on Good Friday and more on Easter Sunday. But I have come to appreciate the image of Christ on the cross much more now that I’m an adult and there are things that I have said and done in my life that deserve a reckoning. Jesus is there, gladly bearing my sin on the cross.

I’ve come to appreciate that there are so many broken and twisted places in this world that need a Redeemer. And Jesus is there, undoing the power of sin and evil on the cross.

Joe Kay 4-18-2014
Pricked finger, Chris G. Walker / Shutterstock.com

Don’t you hate it when you accidentally slice the tip of your finger on one of your knives and the cut is deep enough to draw blood? Or when one of the cats gets a little too playful with the claws and you’re soon looking for a bandage?

Nobody likes to bleed, even though bleeding is part of life. To live is to bleed. If we’re not bleeding, we’re not living.

We all bleed lots of times, in lots of ways. We skin our knees and scrape our emotions. We often have to head for the medicine cabinet for a bandage. Sometimes, we feel like we need a tourniquet.

There are the little, daily cuts that we all get. Someone says something that hurts our feelings. Something doesn’t turn out the way that we’d hoped, and we get discouraged. A project that we’ve invested so much of ourselves into gets rejected, and we feel rejected, too.

It happens all the time.

Sometimes, we wind up with a deep spiritual cut that needs to be stitched closed with the help of others. A relationship ends. A job disappears. A tumor appears. A storm blows through our neighborhood and destroys what we’ve built over the years.

I admire those who learn not only to accept the blood-stained moments, but to embrace them. They develop a capacity to see beyond the momentary hurt. They recognize that bleeding is part of the grand process of life.

And they bleed joyfully.

the Web Editors 4-18-2014
"The answer to injustice is not to silence the critic but to end the injustice." - Paul Robeson Paul Robeson + Sign up to receive our quote of the day via e-mail
the Web Editors 4-18-2014
O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all [God's] people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! - Psalm 116:16-19 + Sign up to receive our social justice verse of the day via e-mail
the Web Editors 4-18-2014
Sovereign God, you so loved the world that you gave your Son to die on the Cross and bring us to eternal life. Forgive us our blindness in sin, and help us always to be conscious of this wondrous love, as we seek to imitate Jesus and praise him as our heavenly King. Amen.
Oren Dorell 4-17-2014

Jews in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk where pro-Russian militants have taken over government buildings were told they have to “register” with the Ukrainians who are trying to make the city become part of Russia, according to Israeli media.

Jews emerging from a synagogue say they were handed leaflets that ordered the city’s Jews to provide a list of property they own and pay a registration fee “or else have their citizenship revoked, face deportation, and see their assets confiscated,” reported Ynet News, Israel’s largest news website.

Donetsk is the site of an “anti-terrorist” operation by the Ukraine government, which has moved military columns into the region to force out militants who are demanding a referendum be held on joining Russia.