Opening Words:
"A part of our obligation to our own being and to our descendants is to study life and our conditions, searching always for the authentic underpinnings of hope."
— Wendell Berry quoted in Hope, Human and Wild by Bill McKibben
Check-in/Sharing
Topic:
Kent Nerburn's little book Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace is an absolutely marvelous collection of essays organized around 14 lines of the famous prayer attrributed to Saint Francis of Assisi. Here is a passage about being a beacon of hope:
"We are not saints, we are not heroes. Our lives are lived in the quiet corners of the ordinary. We build tiny hearth fires, sometimes barely strong enough to give off warmth. But to the person lost in the darkness, our tiny flame may be the road to safety, the path to salvation.
"It is not given us to know who is lost in the darkness that surrounds us or even if our light is seen. We can only know that against even the smallest of lights, darkness cannot stand.
"A sailor lost at sea can be guided home by a single candle. A person lost in a wood can be led to safety by a flickering flame. It is not an issue of quality or intensity or purity. It is simply an issue of the presence of light."
For Reflection/Journaling:
Share the story of a time when the strength of hope was a spiritual resource that helped pull you through a difficult period.
Check-out/Likes and Wishes
Closing Words:
"No true effort is in vain. Look at the fields over there. The grain sown therein has to remain in the earth for a certain time, then it sprouts, and in due time yields hundreds of its kind. The same is the case with every effort in a good cause.
— Badshah Khan quoted in Nonviolent Soldier of Islam by Eknath Easwaran
To Practice This Thought: Sow some grain for a good cause, and don't concern yourself with results.
