Weekly Pause & Ponder

Feminism is about allowing every member of the human race to become a fully functioning human adult, to make choices at every level of society, to participate in the decision-making that affects their lives, to be financially independent, to be safe of the streets, secure in their homes, to have a voice in the courts and constitutional bodies of the world—to enjoy in other words, full and equal civil rights. It is about bringing to public visibility and public agency the agendas, the insights, and the wisdom of the other half of the human race. It is about taking their ideas and plans seriously. No! Correction: It is about taking the theology of creation seriously.

Joan Chittister, “We are at a crossroads for women in the church,”
National Catholic Reporter, Dec. 11, 2013.

Weekly Pause & Ponder

Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic selfhood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be. As we do so, we will not only find the joy that every human being seeks – we will also find our path of authentic service in the world. True vocation joins self and service, as Frederick Buechner asserts when he defines vocation as “the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.”

Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer, p. 16

Weekly Pause & Ponder

Amid the chaos of history, we discern a trajectory for our species that is taking us toward harmony. A world that will be “one,” but in a oneness comprised of diversity, not unison. For this to happen, each of the religions that until now have tended to divide based on dogma need to rediscover the spiritual experience of their heart which was their source, and draw on this to establish a commonality.

David Ord, The Interfaith Observer, Nov. 12, 2012.

Weekly Pause & Ponder

The exclusion of wisdom from economics, science and technology was something which we could perhaps get away with for a little while, as long as we were relatively unsuccessful; but now that we have become very successful, the problem of spiritual and moral truth moves into the central position.

E.F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered.  From the Schumacher Centre for a New Economics

Weekly Pause & Ponder

I feel profoundly grateful for being on this planet right now because now is when what we do matters most. It’s our generation who I think must bring the change that the generation before us only talked about, and it’s up to us to provide the generation after us with a landing place they can use to realize their own aspirations. When I experience the energy of people in many places who have a sense of future possibility and who turn that possibility into reality, it inspires me and gives me confidence.

Lecture by Otto Scharmer, Huffpost blog: www.huffingtonpost.com/otto-scharmer/