Christ speaks to His disciples of the “need to pray always, and not to lose heart.” Just as we never grow tired of breathing, let us never grow weary of praying! Just as breathing sustains the life of the body, so prayer sustains the life of the soul. #GospelOfTheDay (Lk 18:1-8)
🚨🚨🚨This is exactly how I feel. 🚨🚨🚨
CHARLES PIERCE WRITES:
“In my life, I have watched John Kennedy talk on television about missiles in Cuba. I saw Lyndon Johnson look Richard Russell squarely in the eye and say, "And we shall overcome."
I saw Richard Nixon resign and Gerald Ford tell the Congress that our long national nightmare was over.
I saw Jimmy Carter talk about malaise and Ronald Reagan talk about a shining city on a hill. I saw George H.W. Bush deliver the eulogy for the Soviet bloc, and Bill Clinton comfort the survivors of Timothy McVeigh's madness in Oklahoma City.
I saw George W. Bush struggle to make sense of it all on September 11, 2001, and I saw Barack Obama sing 'Amazing Grace' in the wounded sanctuary of Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
"These were the presidents of my lifetime. These were not perfect men. They were not perfect presidents, god knows. Not one of them was that. But they approached the job, and they took to the podium, with all the gravitas they could muster as appropriate to the job.
They tried, at least, to reach for something in the presidency that was beyond their grasp as ordinary human beings. They were not all ennobled by the attempt, but they tried nonetheless.
"And comes now this hopeless, vicious buffoon, and the audience of equally hopeless and vicious buffoons who laughed and cheered when he made sport of a woman whose lasting memory of the trauma she suffered is the laughter of the perpetrators.
Now he comes, a man swathed in scandal, with no interest beyond what he can put in his pocket and what he can put over on a universe of suckers, and he does something like this while occupying an office that we gave him, and while endowed with a public trust that he dishonors every day he wakes up in the White House.
"The scion of a multigenerational criminal enterprise, the parameters of which we are only now beginning to comprehend. A vessel for all the worst elements of the American condition. And a cheap, soulless bully besides.
We never have had such a cheap counterfeit of a president* as currently occupies the office. We never have had a president* so completely deserving of scorn and yet so small in the office that it almost seems a waste of time and energy to summon up the requisite contempt.
"Watch how a republic dies in the empty eyes of an empty man who feels nothing but his own imaginary greatness, and who cannot find in himself the decency simply to shut up even when it is in his best interest to do so. Presidents don't have to be heroes to be good presidents.
I get that we are but imperfect beings on this Earth, especially those of us in “leadership,” but DAMN, can we not just agree on basic shit like if you didn’t grow up needing active shooter drills, then children today or even tomorrow shouldn’t need them too?! Can we just say kids deserve better? We have wasted millions attacking books… we’ve wasted millions attacking history… we’ve wasted millions worried about who plays what sports in school & the last time I checked the number 1 cause of death for children is gun violence and yet NO solutions on that from my “esteemed” colleagues.
I’m tired… and frankly we ALL should be if we have a heart!
Georgia deserves our sincere thoughts… the ones that lead to thoughtful legislative solutions & prayers for the passage of & prevention of some of this senseless devastation.
Integrity comes from the Latin word integritas, meaning "one" or "whole." People who are one way on the inside and another way on the outside--i.e., not "whole"--lack integrity; they have "duality" instead. While presenting your view as something other than it is can sometimes be easier in the moment (because you can avoid conflict, or embarrassment, or achieve some other short-term goal), the secondand third-order effects of having integrity and avoiding duality are immense. People who are one way on the inside and another on the outside become conflicted and often lose touch with their own values. It's difficult for them to be happy and almost impossible for them to be their best.
Aligning what you say with what you think and what you think with what you feel will make you much happier and much more successful. Thinking solely about what's accurate instead of how it is perceived pushes you to focus on the most important things. It helps you sort through people and places because you'll be drawn to people and places that are open and honest. It's also fairer to those around you: Making judgments about people so that they are tried and sentenced in your head, without asking for their perspective, is both unethical and unproductive. Having nothing to hide relieves stress and builds trust.
#principleoftheday
While Israeli officials call to wipe out the “seed of Amalek” and brag about sending Palestinians to the Congo….
The actual families of the hostages are a beacon of light and hope.
Listen.
#BringThemHome