A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey. From The Wisdom Years.
Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible…Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.
-Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Peace Lecture, December 11, 1964
Found at Well for the Journey
Paradox Holds Us
Author Debie Thomas reminds us that even when evil is real and among us, like the weeds growing alongside the wheat in the field, our railing against it will not change it. Rather, God has a plan and is in charge.
Effort Does Not Change the Person
Anthony DeMello reminds us that our intervention alone does not change a person. It is not what we do that brings holiness, says DeMello. “Holiness is not an achievement; it is a grace.”
Read the reflection.
From Awakin.
Giving Ourselves a Better Story
“Whether we feel good or bad about ourselves,” says Fr. Ron Rolheiser, “is often predicated on what kind of story we understand ourselves as living within.” Christians recognize that we live within a bigger story than our own, and that gives meaning and dignity to our problems.
From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.
Prayer for the New Year
Courtney Martin prays for peace, “By which,” she says, “I mean both may we not murder other people’s children, and also may we apologize to our own when we lob empty threats their way because we still haven’t learned how to take the deep breaths we are constantly asking them to take.”
Read the rest of the offered prayers.
From The Examined Family.
The Precious Present
Living in our bodies not our heads, spending time with children, walking in nature are all ways to be present to the moment. “God is not in the past or the future, but is there to greet us in the present moment,” says Joanna Seibert.
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