general
Reverence is a gentle virtue; it is also strong. Reverence is a tender virtue; it is also tough. Reverence is a patient virtue; it is also persistent. Reverence bears no ill will toward others; it is able to bear the ill will of others when necessary. Reverence is a virtue that prepares us well to belong to one another; it reaches out to thise who have given messages of not wishing to belong.
When we approach others with gentle reverence, we bring gifts and share theirs with us.
This piece by Adam Isacson of the Center for International Policy is particularly revealing of the high-level links between members of the Colombian government (including military) and right-wing paramilitary groups that are included on the [...]
Whoever loves true prayer and yet becomes angry or resentful is his own enemy. He is like a man who wants to see clearly and yet inflicts damage on his own eyes.
- Evgarius the Solitary
Treatise on Prayer, 64.
Great indeed is the baptism which is offered you. It is a ransom to captives; the remission of offences; the death of sin; the regeneration of the soul; the garment of light; the holy seal indissoluble; the chariot to heaven; the luxury of paradise; a procuring of the kingdom; the gift of adoption.
- Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem (c. 315-386) from "Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril"
"You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
- Matthew 5:43-45
The delegation of religious leaders - including Sojourners/Call to Renewal's Jeff Carr - that recently traveled to Iran was the subject of last week's NOW. From [...]
The delegation of religious leaders - including Sojourners/Call to Renewal's Jeff Carr - that recently traveled to Iran was the subject of last week's NOW. From [...]
There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths. The murderer rises at dusk to kill the poor and needy, and in the night is like a thief.
- Job 24:13-14
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To be a follower of Jesus means in the first place to enter by compassion into his experience, with all that it expresses of the divine and of the human. And it means in the second place to enter with him into the suffering and the hope of all human persons, making common cause with them as he does, and seeking out as he does the places of his predilection among the poor and despised and oppressed.
- Monika K. Hellwig
from Jesus: The Compassion of God (The Liturgical Press, [...]
Water comes from its own source which is God. And since God desires to do so ... God produces this delight with the greatest peace and quite and sweetness in the very interior part of ourselves. I don't know from where or how, nor is that happiness and delight experienced, as are earthly consolations, in the heart. I mean there is no simliarity at the beginning, for afterward the delight fills everything; this water overflows through all the dwelling places and faculties until reaching the [...]
As part of the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, more than 200 local vigils were organized around the U.S. - plus Canada and the U.K. - to coincide with the D.C. service, march, and vigil at the White House. This is an account of one of those local vigils:
I, along with four others from our congregation, [...]
Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said. Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
- Amos 5:14-15
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Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said. Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
- Amos 5:14-15
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To show great love for God and our neighbor we need not do great things. It is how much love we put in the doing that makes our offering something beautiful for God.
- Mother Teresa
from "A Gift for God"
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This past week has been a blur of activity with the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, but I didn't want to let the passing of Rufina Amaya go unmentioned on this blog. If that name is unfamiliar to you, Amaya was the sole survivor of the worst single massacre in modern Latin American history.
For you have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat.
- Isaiah 25:4-4
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Wholeness for us, as people of God,
is moving ever toward oneness with God,
regardless of the conditionof our bodies,
our lives,
our minds.
Everyone equally has a capacity
to be whole.Wholeness is a gift from God.
- Beth A. Richardson
in "Alive Now!" March/April [...]
"Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?" Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.
- Isaiah 58:3-4
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When shall we have the courage to outgrow the charity mentality and see that at the bottom of all relations between rich and poor there is a problem of justice?
- Dom Helder Camara
Help me, O Lord, to make a true use of all disappointments and calamities in this life, in such a way that they may unite my heart more closely with you. Cause them to separate my affections from worldly things and inspire my soul with more vigor in the pursuit of true happiness.
- Susanna Wesley
from "Alive Now!" March/April 1992
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