Thought for the Day

Once upon a time giants sculpted the sand, but now

it is us who are the giants. The question we must ask

now is how we use our power.

~ Boardwalk Notice, 

Parnidis Dune, Curonian Spit

______________________________

 

Quoted from Nick Hunt, "In the Wake of the Sandbound" (Essay) in Emergence Magazine, April 13, 2025; Online (Audio and Text Available). Hunt notes in his essay that the quote appears on a sign near the boardwalk where the sand dunes have been roped off. The Curonian Spit, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is part of two national parks shared by Lithuania and Russia.

 

Nick Hunt, Fiction and Nonfiction Writer, Novelist, Travel Book Author; Journalist; Editor; Mentor; Storyteller; Recipient, Royal Geographical Society Journey of a Lifetime Award; Contributor and Co-Director, Dark Mountain Project

 

Thought for the Day

[. . .] Religions, governments, corporations, and organizations are all

 highly capable of evil while not recognizing it as such, because it

 profits us for them to be immoral. Evil finds its almost perfect

camouflage in the silent agreements of the group

when it appears personally advantageous. [. . .]

~ Fr. Richard Rohr

____________________________________

 

Quoted from Richard Rohr, "Contemplative Nonconformity | Islands of Sanity," Center for Action and Contemplation, Daily Meditations, March 30, 2025; Online

 

Fr. Richard Rohr, Franciscan Friar, Ecumenical Teacher, Internationally Recognized Spiritual Leader; Author; Founder, Center for Action and Contemplation 

Center for Action and Contemplation

Thought for the Day

We cannot love the earth 

without getting blood on our hands.

~ Danusha Lameris

 

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Quoted from Danusha Lameris, "The Cows of Love Creek" in Blade by Blade (Copper Canyon Press, 2024), p. 22

 

Danusha Lameris, American Poet; Faculty Member, Pacific University Low-Residency M.F.A. Program

Thought for the Day

At the edge of not knowing

is the beginning of the extraordinary. 

~ Victoria Labalme

________________________________

 

Quoted from Victoria Labalme, Risk Forward: Embrace the Unknown and Unlock Your Hidden Genius, 2nd Ed. (Hay House Business, 2023) 

Victoria Labalme, Author, Workshop Leader, Performance Strategist, C-Suite Consultant

Thought for the Day

Then they came for me —

and there was no one left to speak for me.

~ Martin Niemoller 

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Quoted from Martin Niemoller's "First they came for . . ." (The famous quotation, of which only the last line is given here, is on display permanently at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.)

 

Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemoller (January 1892 - March 6, 1984), German Theologian and Lutheran Pastor

 

Niemoller, though strongly nationalist and an early Nazi supporter, subsequently found himself in conflict with Hitler and the National Socialist Party when he began openly opposing the party political ideology and laws and otherwise preaching against the Nazi government and its interference with church governance. Repeatedly arrested by the Gestapo, Niemoller ultimately spent more than seven years, much of it in solitary confinement or "protective detention," imprisoned in, first, Sachsenhausen and, later, Dachau concentration camps. In the mid-1950s he became a pacifist and worked for international peace. By the time of his death he was a global public figure.

 

Quotation's Origin

Thought for the Day

My belief is that tears, although they look like a mere emotive

reaction, are much more: a deeply free action that many do not

enjoy. They proceed from deep inside, where we are most truly

ourselves. Tears reveal the depths at which and from which we care.

~ Fr. Richard Rohr

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Quoted from Fr. Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations, The Tears of Things: Universal Sadness," March 5, 2025; Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage (Convergent, 2025), pp 96-98

 

Fr. Richard Rohr, Franciscan Friar and Ecumenical Teacher; Author; Founder, Center for Action and Contemplation

 

Thought for the Day

[. . .] I don't expect the light / to save me, but I do believe /

in the ritual. [. . .]

~ Linda Gregg 

_____________________________

 

Quoted from Linda Gregg, "The Light Continues" in In the Middle Distance: Poems by Linda Gregg (Graywolf Press, 2006) 

Linda Gregg (1942- 2019), American Poet

 

The New York Times Obituary for Linda Gregg

Thought for the Day

[. . .] The system that is not benefitting the poor

is not benefitting us either. [. . .]

~ Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra and Dr. Peter Heltzel

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Quoted from Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra and Dr. Peter Heltzel, "Practicing Solidarity" (Online) (This excerpt was published in the Center for Action and Contemplation's Weekly Summary of "Loving Other Stories," February 22, 2025.) See Joerg Rieger's Occupy Religion: Theology of the Multitude (Rowman and Littlefield, 2012) and Alexia Salvatierra and Peter Heltzel, Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World (InterVarsity Press 2013), p. 55.

 

Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra, Lutheran Pastor; Academic Dean, Centro Latino, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Assistant Professor of Integral Mission and Global Transformation; Public Educator, Speaker, Trainer  (Website)

 

Dr. Peter Heltzel, Associate Professor, Systematic Theology; Director, Micah Institute, New York Theological Seminary; Writer, Editor, Author

 

Center for Action and Contemplation Website

 

Another Ash Wednesday (Poem)

Another Ash Wednesday

Thumb dipped deep

in the ashes of the palm

 

branches burned to black,

the priest stains our foreheads

 

on this day of prayer and penance,

abstinence and fasting.

 

Re-marked with the shape

of the cross we are called to

 

remember the two thousand

years of deaths and resurrections —

 

ashes to ashes, dust to dust —

to wait through the next forty days

 

for the darkness to lift,

our wounds to heal. 

Thought for the Day

I think attention might be so closely bound up with love

as to be almost indistinguishable. And I think it might be

the thing we owe the world most. [. . .]

~ Katherine Rundell

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Quoted from "VCS Creative Conversation: Ben Quash with Katherine Rundell," The Visual Commentary on Scripture, 2024 (This interview and conversation can be found on The VCS YouTube channel.)

 

Katherine Rundell, English Author and Academic; Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford; Hay30 Writer and Thinker; Recipient, Costa Children's Book Award (The Explorer), Waterstones Children's Book Prize, Blue Peter Book Award, British Book Awards Author of the Year

 

Katherine Rundell on Instagram

 

Ben Quash, Theologian; Director, The Visual Commentary on Scripture