Faith and Politics
I am on spring break with my family this week. As we approach Good Friday and Easter, I wanted to share with you the concluding chapter to my book, The Call to Conversion. It's a reflection on the cross and resurrection, "The Victory." It will be posted in three parts: Below is the first of the three.
But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that [...]
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: "You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.' " He said to him, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth." Jesus, looking at him, [...]
I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. That one is like a [person] building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not act is like a [person] who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that [...]
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 [...]
I still have another month on self-imposed blogging hiatus so that I can finish my book. But I couldn't let this pass without comment.
Rod Dreher quotes Stuart Rothenberg, who shoots [...]
I still have another month on self-imposed blogging hiatus so that I can finish my book. But I couldn't let this pass without comment.
Rod Dreher quotes Stuart Rothenberg, who shoots [...]
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
+ Sign up to receive our social justice verse of the day via [...]
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
+ Sign up to receive our social justice verse of the day via [...]
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
+ Sign up to receive our social justice verse of the day via [...]
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"
+ Sign up to receive our quote of the day via e-mail
[...]
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.