February 2012
26 posts
4 tags
“What the age needs is not a genius but a martyr.”
– Søren Kierkegaard
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Polycarp of Smyrna (70-155)
Polycarp was arrested by Roman officials after having served as Bishop of Smyrna for many decades. When the Roman proconsul ordered him to declare that “Caesar is Lord” and to curse Christ, the elderly Polycarp refused, saying, “Eighty-six years I have served him and he never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?” Polycarp was sentenced to death by fire, but the flames...
2 tags
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Lent 2012 Week One: Ash Wednesday
A reading from the Prophet Joel
“Yet even now,” says the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil. Who knows whether he will not turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind...
Anonymous asked: I noticed your post on war. I know several times in the old testament that even God went to war. How do you justify saying that war is sin?
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A Prayer to Begin Lent
God, heavenly Father, look upon me and hear my prayer during this holy Season of Lent. By the good works You inspire, help me to discipline my body and to be renewed in spirit. Without You I can do nothing. By Your Spirit help me to know what is right and to be eager in doing Your will. Teach me to find new life through penance. Keep me from sin, and help me live by Your commandment of...
3 tags
reflection on Micah 4:3
God will judge between the nations
and settle disputes of mighty nations,
which are far away.
They will beat their swords
into iron plows
and their spears
into pruning tools.
Nation will not take up sword
against nation;
they will no longer learn
how to make war.
Oh how we should pray for this day to come; when the glory of G-d floods the earth, and the heavens and the earth join once more. We...
3 tags
Malcolm X
On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated while delivering a speech in Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom. Malcolm X became a well-known advocate for civil rights after joining the Nation of Islam while in prison. A brilliant, self-educated leader, Malcolm experienced multiple conversions, eventually leaving the Nation of Islam after a pilgrimage to Mecca and committing to overcome racism through...
“We are against war because it is contrary to the spirit of Jesus Christ, and the...”
– Dorothy Day (via catholicworker)
Fact
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“Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I...”
– Frederick Douglass
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a Prayer
Lord, help us distinguish between the love that keeps merely human affection in the center of things and the love you bore in your sacrificial life, death, and resurrection. Amen.
4 tags
“Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair”
– G.K. Chesterton
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Valentine of Rome (d. 269)
A Christian priest in Rome, Valentine was known for assisting Christians persecuted under Claudius II. After being caught marrying Christian -couples and helping Christians escape the persecution, Valentine was arrested and imprisoned. Although Emperor Claudius originally liked Valentine, he was condemned to death when he tried to convert the emperor. Valentine was beaten with stones, clubbed,...
4 tags
“We cannot worship the suffering God today and ignore him tomorrow. We cannot eat...”
– N.T. Wright
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“Just as many who were brought up to think of God as a bearded old gentleman...”
– N.T. Wright
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“We could cope—the world could cope—with a Jesus who ultimately remains a...”
– N.T. Wright
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“the work of salvation, in its full sense, is (1) about whole human beings, not...”
– N. T. Wright
a Prayer
Lord, show us that reconciling with those we imagine are different from us is not only for peace, but also to train us more deeply in the faith that honors everything created by your hand. Help us see that reconciliation leads to deeper knowledge of you. Amen.
“We know that the White Man does not understand our ways. One portion of the land...”
– Seattle, chief of the Suquamis
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a prayer
Lord, this work of peacemaking is difficult business. But we cannot expect peace by any other way than nonviolence. Keep us even from violent thoughts and from threatening your peace with impatience. Amen.
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“We do not arm ourselves against any nation; we do not learn the art of war;...”
– Origen of Alexandria
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“The antidote to pessimism is the refusal to prejudice the future as an extension...”
– Anthony J. Gittins, Ministry at the Margins p. 17
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“There is nothing whatever romantic about disease, poverty, and deprivation or...”
– Anthony J. Gittins, Ministry at the Margins p. 16-17
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January 2012
21 posts
4 tags
a prayer
Lord, we all suffer varying degrees of blindness. We are blind to love, to justice, to grace, and to life. Help us not to condemn one another in our blindness, but rather to work together to help one another see more clearly by your light. Amen.
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“The world is going mad in mutual extermination, and murder, considered as a...”
– Cyprian of Carthage
7 tags
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“We want no revolution; we want the brotherhood of men. We want men to love one...”
– Dorothy Day, Co-Founder of the Catholic Worker Movement
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“Jesus exploded into the life of ancient Israel - the life of the whole world, in...”
– N.T. Wright, Simply Christian p. 140
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“Instead of the usual military revolt, it was time to show the pagans what the...”
– N.T. Wright, Simply Christian p. 101 (In reference to Matthew 5:1-7:29)
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“..people like Jesus and Paul were not executed for saying, “Love one...”
– Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon p.205
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“get Paul and his letter to the Romans out of the sixteenth-century polemical...”
– Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon p. 157.
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“Caesar not only proclaims but incarnates peace through violent victory, just as...”
– Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon p.121
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“The Lord has given us a pattern of prayer, instructing us on how we are to pray....”
– Cyprian of Carthage
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“My proposal is that Jesus took his own story seriously - so seriously that,...”
– N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God p. 576-577
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“We have no right to our possessions; they have been entrusted to us for the good...”
– Paulinus of Nola
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“It is also necessary to ask: why did certain first-century Jews, within an...”
– N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God p. 540.
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“Jesus and the people around him, his motley group of followers, either...”
– N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God p. 444.
1 tag
a Prayer
God, your word instructs us to be ready to give an answer for the faith that is within us. When that time comes, Lord, make us bold to proclaim that your love surpasses human knowledge. Let our answer be actions that mirror your love. Amen.
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“A Christian is one who points at Christ and says, ‘I can’t prove a thing, but...”
– Frederick Buechner
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Reflections on Zechariah 14:9
“And YHWH will be king over all the earth. On that day YHWH will be one and his name one.”
Zechariah writes these words as one of the most explicit statements of the coming kingdom of G-d upon the earth in the whole Old Testament. Within it’s context this verse speaks of the coming “Day of the LORD,” which can be described in short as when YHWH will come to judge the...
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“Loving Israel’s covenant god mean loving him as creator of all, and...”
– N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God p.307
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“When someone steals a person’s clothes, we call him a thief. Should we not give...”
– Basil of Caesarea
December 2011
28 posts
3 tags
a Prayer
Lord, make us a refuge to the poor. Help us prepare a feast for the hungry. Teach us to wipe away the tears of those who mourn, even as you shelter us, feed us, and wipe away our tears. Amen.
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“This is the rule of most perfect Christianity, its most exact definition, its...”
– John Chrysostom