Abundant Life

Night 16(2012, 11.21), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


To be free of indifference would be
to have life more abundantly.

Wendell Berry, Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Quarrels

Created with ToonCamera, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric;
     out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry.

        W. B. Yeats

About God

Night 4 (2012, 11.21), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Our idea of God tells us
more about ourselves than about God.

Thomas Merton

Truth

Museum Station #12 (2012,11,7), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The truth is more important than the facts.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Love

Toon Iona Cross, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

James Baldwin

Integrity

Bloor & Avenue #8, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

If you don't become the ocean,

you'll be seasick every day.

Leonard Cohen

Giving

RIC_5382-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

She gives most who gives with joy.

Mother Teresa

Mirrors we use

Bloor & Avenue #5, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

What we don't see is that

the mirrors we use are distorted.

Mark Labberton,

The Dangerous Act of Loving your Neighbor: Seeing Others Through the Eyes of Jesus

The Enemy of the Moment

Crown of Thorns by Tune, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


War had been literally continuous, thought strictly speaking it had not always been the same war. ... 
The enemy of the moment always represented 
absolute evil.

George Orwell, 1984

The Myth of War

RCC_9693, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     The myth of war is essential to justify the horrible sacrifices
     required in war, the destruction and the death of innocents.
     It can be formed only by denying the reality of war, by turning
     the lies, the manipulation, the inhumanness of war into heroic
     ideal. 

        Chris Hedges, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

We

Humber Valley United Church 55, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


The word we names our sight-lines.
We refers to the boundaries of a way of seeing.
It's true, each of us can only live life in the first person.
But we is not neutral. We share with some other a lens
that may be built into every frame of reference.
Experience, categories, personality, gender, language, 
race, culture combine to form why and how we see.

Mark Labberton, The Dangerous Act of Loving your Neighbor: Seeing Others Through the Eyes of Jesus

Action

East Plains United Church 3, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     All that is necessary for evil to triumph is
     for good men (and women) to do nothing.

         Edmund Burke

Reflection Questions

La Cage Aux Folles 2, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


What words capture your social and spiritual location
in the world? Which aspects of your social or spiritual location do you think are the most influential in your life? 

Mark Labberton, The Dangerous Act of Loving your Neighbor: Seeing Others Through the Eyes of Jesus

Faith

Iona Cross 3, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Faith is an indispensable component or dimension
     of every human life and has to do with the absolute source
     of meaning and values. 

        Juan Luis Segundo, Faith and Ideologies

Political Theology

DSC_8765, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Political Theology.
This does not mean reducing theology to politics;
it does mean making theology more conscious of
and intentional about its political function,
bringing out the political meaning and implications of every aspect of faith.

Harold Wells, A Future for Socialism?

Journey

Rosetta McClain Gardens 6, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     If you only walk on sunny days,
     you will never reach your destination.

        Paulo Coehlo, Aleph

Love of Neighbour

Face 1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Love of neighbour is especially love for those who are most oppressed and most in need.

Harold Wells, A Future for Socialism?

Songs

Rosetta McClain Gardens 13, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

I teach my sighs to lengthen into songs.

Theodore Roethke

Grateful

Lamp (2012,11.7), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


There is always something to be grateful for.

Rhonda Byrne

Path to Reconciliation

Cenotaph, Paris, Ontario, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     It is when you can feel your opponent's pain that you begin
     the path to reconciliations.

        Jonathan Sacks