Quote of the moment

I have to admit that I ripped this quote directly off a fellow unoh workers newsletter, but I'm sure he wont mind....

“You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be. And one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause.. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid… You refuse to do it because you want to live longer…You’re afraid that you will loose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticised or that you will loose your popularity, or you are afraid that somebody will stab you, or shoot you, or bomb your house, so you refuse to take a stand. Well, you may go on to live until you are 90, but you’re as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit”

Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
November 5th, 1968.

Quote from Dave Andrews

Hi,

I am currently reading "Can You Hear the Heartbeat" by Dave Andrews of the Waiters Union, which is a great little book Andrews' personal reflections and lessons learnt. Sorry, it is not up on the side panel as books we are reading because it is an old book and out of print and I could not find a pic of it anywhere...

Anyway, this Quote stood out to me, it is probably not the most insightful or deep, it just really struck something in me when I read it...

We must grow into a new maturity. A maturity which neither rejects faith in the possibility of change nor ignores the facts that say change is impossible, which acknowledges the difference between dreams and realities; yet recognises the difference God can make in turning Utopian dreams for the community into practical reality. We must begin to live as if the impossible is possible, because unless we do, nothing will Change.

Peter

Quote of the Weak

OK, so it has been well over a week since my last quote - but look again at the title it does not say weEk it says weAk...

For everyone, there are certain verses in the bible that really speak to them, verses that encapsulate how they view or live their lives - or probably more accurately how they strive to view or live their lives...

This passage is one of those for me - I can relate to the thorn in my side analogy very well, and so strive to live out the attitude that Paul espouses...

7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Quote of the Week:

Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.

Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, 'Who is the LORD ?'
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.

Proverbs 30:8-9

Quote for the Week...

The matter is quite simple. The bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obligated to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.

Soren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard (2002)

Quote for the Week...

Love without courage and wisdom is sentimentality, as with the ordinary church member. Courage without love and wisdom is foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier. Wisdom without love and courage is cowardice, as with the ordinary intellectual. But the one who has love, courage, and wisdom moves the world.

- Ammon Hennacy (Catholic Activist, 1893-1970)