All Soul’s Day
Sunday
In the first two thousand years of Christianity, politics and religion remained largely in two distinct realms, unless religion was uniting with empires. Yes, we looked to Rome and Constantinople for imperial protection, little realizing the price we would eventually pay for such a compromise with foundational gospel values.
—Richard Rohr
Monday
What if we recognize that our engagement in politics should be rooted in our participation in the Trinitarian flow of God’s love? Then everything changes. We are no longer guided or constrained by what we think is politically possible, but are compelled by what we know is most real.
—Wes Granberg-Michaelson
Tuesday
The only way we will birth a multiracial democracy is if we hold up a vision of a future that leaves no one behind, not even our worst opponents.
—Valarie Kaur
Wednesday
We are called to engage in a great mobilization, recognition, conversion, and transformation, because now the issues are too big, too real, and too right in front of us every day.
—Richard Rohr
Thursday
If you choose solidarity, instead of pulling away from those you once suspected, avoided, vilified, or rejected, you see them as neighbors. You smile. You talk. You try to collaborate for the common good in whatever ways you can.
—Brian McLaren
Friday
We cannot always see the path toward the common good; often it seems that evil has won the day. Yet, even during our worst times, there are opportunities to facilitate human flourishing through the creative exchanges of ideas, authenticity, culture, and religious expression.
—Barbara Holmes
Week Forty-Four Practice
Courage Changes Things
Embodiment teacher and therapist Prentis Hemphill names courage as an essential element for positive change:
As we look at the world around us, it is clear that we need large-scale change. But it will not happen without risking something of ourselves, perhaps by seeing ourselves honestly, by stepping up to lead, by speaking out, by feeling discomfort as we move outside our usual patterns. We shape change in such moments and transform ourselves in the process. Courage changes things and courage changes us. It’s how we become. I have found that there is a “right-sized” fear inside any vision for change, and in taking courageous action we develop a part of ourselves that can talk back to and hold the fear without letting it lead. Guided—and inspired—by what we care about, we become able to express our courage and act.
The courage we need is the courage to fail and stay. The courage to reimagine every aspect of our social relations. The courage to relinquish grasping what was and build piece by piece a new structure for how and what we produce. The courage to exit the safety of our dying delusions. The courage to reach for one another. The courage to be honest. The courage to ask questions. The courage to listen. The courage to feel uncomfortable. The courage to be a part of the circle, to be fed by and to feed. The courage to surrender. The courage to know when our time is over and our roles have shifted. The courage to love and be loved….
When we are courageous, we can do the unexpected and start to mold the world around a vision bigger than one produced by fear. Every inch of progress, every ounce of love, every truly meaningful action from here on out will happen through courage, not comfort.
Reference:
Prentis Hemphill, What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World (New York: Random House, 2024), 187–188.
Image credit and inspiration: Eyoel Khassay, Untitled (detail), 2020, photo, Ethiopia, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. We plant trees as an offering of communal good for the future.
