“I have consciously sought during my lifetime to emulate my mother, whom our family knew as a gentle “comforter of the afflicted.” However, when I see innocent people suffering, pushed around by the rich and the powerful, then, as the prophet Jeremiah, says, if I try to keep quiet it is as if the word of God burned like a fire in my breast. I feel compelled to speak out, sometimes to even argue with God over how a loving creator can allow this to happen.

In the Church of Sant’Egido in Rome, home of an extraordinary community of lay people devoted to working with the poor, there is an old crucifix that portrays Christ without arms. When I asked about its importance to the community, I was told that it shows how God relies on us to do God’s work in the world.

Without us, God has no eyes, without us, God has no ears; without us, God has no arms or hands. God relies on us. Won’t you join other people of faith in becoming God’s partners in the world?”

From God is Not a Christian and Other Provocations by Desmond Tutu (1931 – 2021), born on this day

“It says in the Bible, in plain words, that God made a self-portrait. He created man in His own image – man and woman – for God is Love.

Why should we start thinking of a god up in the clouds with wings, if He dwells within us in the spirit of Love?!”

Thor Heyerdahl (1914 – 2002), ethnographer, born on this day

World Teachers’ Day

“Let us remember: one book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.”

Malala Yousafzai

“There is one purpose to life and one only: to bear witness to and understand as much as possible of the complexity of the world — its beauty, its mysteries, its riddles. The more you understand, the more you look, the greater is your enjoyment of life and your sense of peace. That’s all there is to it. Everything else is fun and games. If an activity is not grounded in “to love” or “to learn” it does not have value.”

From Servant of the Bones by Anne Rice (1941 – 2012), born on this day

“Hope is a crushed stalk
Between clenched fingers
Hope is a bird’s wing
Broken by a stone.
Hope is a word in a tuneless ditty –
A word whispered with the wind,
A dream of forty acres and a mule,
A cabin of one’s own and a moment to rest,
A name and place for one’s children
And children’s children at last . . .
Hope is a song in a weary throat.
Give me a song of hope
And a world where I can sing it.
Give me a song of faith
And a people to believe in it.
Give me a song of kindliness
And a country where I can live it.
Give me a song of hope and love
And a brown girl’s heart to hear it.”

From Dark Testament by Pauli Murray (1910 – 1985), African-American civil rights and women’s rights activist, lawyer, Episcopal priest, poet

International Day of Non-Violence

“Worship God by reverencing the human soul as God’s chosen sanctuary. Revere it in yourselves, revere it in others, and labor to carry it forward… Go forth to respect the rights, and seek the true, enduring welfare of all within your influence. Carry with you the conviction that to trample on a human being, of whatever colour, clime, rank, condition, is to trample on God’s child… Go forth to do good with every power which God bestows, to make every place you enter happier by your presence, to espouse all human interests, to throw your whole weight into the scale of human freedom and improvement, to withstand all wrong, to uphold all right, and especially to give light, life, strength to the immortal soul.”

William Ellery Channing (1780 – 1842), Unitarian minister, died on this day, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

Art by Philipp Otto Runge, c. 1806

“The greatest blessing is to be near good, wise, kindhearted friends. We can’t be happy unless we have a sane, healthy space within us and around us. We need a habitat this is beautiful and nourishing, one that gives us the safety and freedom we need..

Our community can be a family that sustains us. We can’t handpick everybody with whom we interact in our daily life, but we can choose to live among those who are kind and virtuous. When we can interact with those who are honorable and have great virtue, we’re creating conditions that will bring us lasting happiness.”

From Peace Is This Moment by Thich Nhat Hanh

“When a state declares war on individuals, that means that something is wrong with that state. Then we have to find another concept of sanctuary. What is it? Here again I come to my Jewish tradition, and with delight I discover that when we speak of sanctuary in the Jewish tradition, it refers to human beings. Sanctuary, then, is not a place. Sanctuary is a human being. Any human being is a sanctuary. Every human being is a dwelling of God – man or woman or child, Christian or Jewish or Buddhist. Any person, by virtue of being a son or daughter of humanity, is a living sanctuary whom nobody has the right to invade.”

From The Refugee by Elie Wiesel (1928 – 2016), writer, holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate, born on this day

Feast of St Michael and All Angels

“I have refused to live
locked in the orderly house of
reasons and proofs.
The world I live in and believe in
is wider than that. And anyway,
what’s wrong with Maybe?

You wouldn’t believe what once or
twice I have seen. I’ll just
tell you this:
only if there are angels in your head will you
ever, possibly, see one.”

Mary Oliver

“Tell your story.
Shout it. Write it.
Whisper it if you have to.
But tell it.
Some won’t understand it.
Some will outright reject it.
But many will
thank you for it.
And then the most
magical thing will happen.
One by one, voices will start
whispering, ‘Me, too.’
And your tribe will gather.
And you will never
feel alone again.”

L. R. Knost