Don’t Wake a Sleeping Dragon

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Race, Identity, and History, Subverting Empire, UncategorizedLeave a comment
fritz
By Fritz Eichenberg

By: Anonymous

A few weeks ago I was sitting in Jose’s kitchen, waiting for his monthly phone call. Once a month he gets a call on a voice-recognition system: at some point during a two hour window, the phone will ring. He answers, then has to call back within three minutes. A machine recites a string of numbers, which he repeats, and then he is okay for another month. Since getting Administrative Closure of his case a few years ago, this has been the only contact he has had with the immigration folks. Finally the phone rang. I watched as he called back, heard him repeat the string of numbers. And repeat it again, and again, four times altogether. Finally he turned to me, ashen-faced. “It says it’s going to report me,” he said. Continue reading “Don’t Wake a Sleeping Dragon” →

Rejoice! Joy is Like Water in the Desert

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PWBBy Kim Redigan, an Advent reflection on Luke 3:10-18 for the Faith Outreach Committee of the Detroit Peoples Water Board

Today we light a pink candle on the Advent wreath and sit with the demand of the day – Rejoice! In these waning days of the season, Laudate Sunday calls us to joy. Not superficial optimism or the mindless distraction of malls and materialism but, rather, a deeper dig into Advent darkness where new roots are taking hold and joy lies waiting like a buried treasure. Continue reading “Rejoice! Joy is Like Water in the Desert” →

Loving our Way through the Darkest of Days

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WWCFrom our comrades at The Wilderness Way in Portland, OR:

“They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher,* let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.”–Mark 10:46-52

Week Three’s Skill of Loving is RESPONDING TO NEEDS:

“I will respond to your needs and be there for you, within the limits of my value system, when those needs are made known. I also take the responsibility to make my needs known.” Continue reading “Loving our Way through the Darkest of Days” →

An Opportunity to Connect and be Transformed

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation2 Comments

EmpireAnother important offering from The Center of Prophetic Imagination:

This weekend intensive explores the ways in which our society’s systems of oppression are legitimized by an imperial spirituality that we rarely recognize as such. The goal of this intensive is to examine the nature of this “spirituality of empire,” how it shapes our imaginations, why it is hostile to life, and and how we might begin to resist it.

Please note: The lecture portions of this intensive will be filmed, in fulfillment of a curriculum grant from FTE to create an 8-week online course. Our goal is to break the lecturing portion of the intensive into eight 30-45 minute sessions that will be enhanced with additional multimedia elements and turned into the core content for an online course, which will be released in January 2020.

Because of this, we are offering the weekend retreat for free. Continue reading “An Opportunity to Connect and be Transformed” →

The Work of Reclaiming Imagination

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Boucher, Nafziger
PC: Tim Nafziger

By Michael Boucher (right), from a letter to spiritual communities within Spiritus Christi Church in Rochester, NY

In our faith community, our pastoral leaders encourage people to spend 10 minutes/day in prayer/quiet with a candle, cup of coffee or tea (the beverage is not crucial but as it gets colder it kind of is!) and no distractions. While 10 minutes may not sound like much (and many of you, perhaps, already do this), it is amazing what can happen when we get more disciplined about creating intentional quiet space.

I have always loved in books when they print in the middle of a page, “This space left intentionally blank.” We might all need a bit more of that… Continue reading “The Work of Reclaiming Imagination” →

Wild Lectionary: Of Vipers and Humans

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, Uncategorized, Watershed Discipleship2 Comments
rattle snake - Ont August, 2012.jpg
Ontario Rattlesnake by Svinda Heinrichs

Advent 3 C

Luke 3:7-18

By: Svinda Heinrichs

Predators often get a bum rap. “Brood of vipers,” John the Baptist calls the gathered crowds. Why is that such a bad thing? After all, vipers, that is, venomous snakes, just are what they are created to be, and do what they are created to do – use their poisonous venom to catch and subdue their dinner. As I am wont to say, “They’re just trying to earn a living.” Humans are right to be wary of them, but to call a group of humans a brood of vipers gives vipers a bad name! Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Of Vipers and Humans” →

Beautiful Darkness

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48274981_10160262108808125_7399097197708443648_nCaitlin: During the season of Advent, I have a really hard time with how we talk about darkness, equating it with sin and evil, as though darkness isn’t created by and beloved of God. Especially because of how this is used to support white supremacy. So, I am going to be sharing some reflections on how great darkness is during Advent. Feel free to add your favourite things about darkness or how you embrace it this time of year.

Advent is a season of darkness. In the darkness of night your nocturnal creation awakes. In the darkness of winter we see your creation without the harsh light of the Sun. Give us new eyes to see this world in all its beauty. Continue reading “Beautiful Darkness” →

Homily: I want the world to be wrapped in the cloak of justice

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IMG_0231Homily by Lydia Wylie-Kellermann at Day House Catholic Worker
Second Sunday of Advent

Baruch 5:1-9
Psalm 126

My Advent has started out differently than I planned.

As I think most of you know, my dad was taken into custody for a 12-day sentence when he refused to pay a fine for an action he was part of (along with Tom Lumpkin) with the Poor People’s Campaign on May 21. They blockaded the doors of the Department of Health and Human Services in Lansing calling out the systemic racism and abuse of the poor by the very department that is supposed to support the needs of the poor. The director of DHHS is currently facing charges of manslaughter for his role in the Flint Water Crisis. And we recently learned that Child Protective Services has started following the Homrich trucks in certain neighborhoods in order to immediately remove children from their families when their water is shut off. To cry out against this injustice, Tommy Tackett and my dad have gone to jail. Continue reading “Homily: I want the world to be wrapped in the cloak of justice” →

From Downtown to the Desert: Voices from the Wilderness Call Out for Water Justice

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MLPBy Kim Redigan, an Advent reflection on Luke 3:1-6 for the Faith Outreach Committee of the People’s Water Board (Detroit, MI)

Today’s Gospel opens with a litany of the strong and mighty – the political and religious powerbrokers of their time. Ruthless men whose cruel governance in partnership with their corrupt religious lackeys oppressed the people in a thousand different ways. A violent alliance based on greed and domination with no tolerance for resistance or rebellion.

Does this sound familiar?

Today’s political and corporate tyrants embrace the same imperial imperative – to crush and control by any means necessary. Here in Detroit, water is used as a weapon in the hands of those who have crafted a well-woven matrix of subjugation and theft that includes water shutoffs and home foreclosures as part of a violent gentrification project that has created a diaspora of displaced citizens and a web of private security and surveillance systems to keep the people in line. As in the time of Jesus, many religious leaders either look the other way or are actively complicit, sometimes profiting handsomely from a relationship based on a mutual love of money. Continue reading “From Downtown to the Desert: Voices from the Wilderness Call Out for Water Justice” →

Loving our Way through the Darkest of Days

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WWC
From our comrades at The Wilderness Way in Portland, OR:

“When we hear, there is something being woven. And what is happening is, I am making a real effort to hear not just your words but what is coming from your other chakras, and you are demonstrably showing that you are seeking to hear what I am saying. And we are in a fluid, almost musical, state in what we are doing right now.  That hearing is love.”  

— Gerald Jud, Love is an Intention

December 9: Week Two’s Skill of Loving is HEARING.

HEARING: I hear what you are truly saying, not what I wish you were saying. I also speak my own truth with kindness and respect.

Invitation

This week we invite you to consciously practice HEARING (and speaking truth) as a way of loving our way through the darkest of days. Share stories, insights and discoveries in this group. Continue reading “Loving our Way through the Darkest of Days” →