“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences” (Audre Lorde).

♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦

“Even in the darkest days, the moon and sun make their ancient, reliable journeys. Birds sing. Some green thing insists on growing in a ravaged land. Our own human life force refuses to give up” (Trebbe Johnson).

♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦

“This is what Jesus did—face his world fully and honestly, not shying away from the suffering or the disquieting demands that it would make on him. We need a faith now that can help us face this world that we have made … and help us find a way through and beyond it” (Margaret Swedish).

♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦

“To love, my brothers and sisters, does not mean we have to agree. But maybe agreeing to love is the greatest agreement. And the only one that ultimately matters, because it makes a future possible” (Bishop Michael B. Curry).

♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦

“Faith, driven by love, enables us to give up our need to understand, allows us to let go, and for Someone else to hold us together. It’s not a giving up as much as it is an opening up and refusing to close back down for the sake of self-sufficiency and mastery. If this is indeed the character of faith for postmodern people, or any people, then I finally know why faith is so rare and why Jesus himself wondered if he would find very much on this earth (Luke 18:8)” ( Richard Rohr).

♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦

“On page after page of the gospels, Jesus doesn’t dominate the other, avoid the other, colonize the other, intimidate the other, demonize the other, or marginalize the other. Instead, he incarnates into the other, joins the other in solidarity, protects the other, listens to the other, serves the other, and even lays down his life for the other” (Brian McLaren).

♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦

“Hope is often misunderstood. People tend to think that it is simply passive wishful thinking: I hope something will happen but I’m not going to do anything about it. This is indeed the opposite of real hope, which requires action and engagement” (Jane Goodall).

♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦

“Love of God and of humanity are not two separate things, as if one could love God but shun humanity. Compassionate action reflects and mirrors the divine image. Love is not an emotion or obligation but is God present in the soul” (Wendy Farley).