We have assumed the name of peacemakers, but we have been, by and large, unwilling to pay any significant price. And because we want peace with half a heart, and half a life and will, the war, of cour… — Daniel Berrigan
by Ken Sehested
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God will quench the thirst of all who drink from this river of delight. (Psalm 46:4 ; Psalm 36:8)
Living water! ¡Aguas de vida!
Read more ›by Ken & Nancy Hastings Sehested
We thank you, God, for water.
By it you give life to plants,
Animals, and all humankind.
We thank you that in the beginning
your Spirit of creation moved over
the face of the waters.
by Ken Sehested
And what do we mean when we speak of the Lordship of Christ? Is this to say that the Holy One is the ultimate author of vengeance and retribution? Of demeaning power and humiliation?
No, a thousand times, NO! The Lordship of Christ speaks of the coming end of all lording, of the day when the cords of subjugation will unravel.
Read more ›by Ken Sehested
One: Give our elected officials your justice, O God.
All: And your righteousness to all who follow them in office.
Read more ›by Ken Sehested,
Wake up, sleepy-head! Rouse yourselves, all you who have been sedated by the mindless blather coming from statehouse and church house alike. Knock some sense into each other, all you who have come to believe that that strength comes from your own hand, that security is held by your own harness.
With my own eyes I saw the Blessed One before me: Christ above me, Christ before me. Christ behind me, Christ within me.
Read more ›Joseph. Obscured brother, consigned to the margins of Incarnation’s story. Calloused hands now shield the shame of face disgraced.
Thoughts of Mary smudge the heart as tears smear the cheek. Betrothed of Mary now bulging with child. Whose? How, and Why?
Unable to provide more than squalid accommodation in your beloved’s night of travail. Enduring embarrassed encounters with wild-eyed shepherds and strangely-clothed pilgrims from obscure and distant lands, each with incredulous stories of starry encounters.
Read more ›by Ken Sehested
One: Our nation is at war, and our hearts are torn. The seeds of fear are planted in terror and harvested in violence.
All: How long, O Lord, how long?
Read more ›by Ken Sehested
Fretfully does my heart drag its heels into the sanctuary of delight. For my wanton days and weary praise reveal the toll taken by life’s relentless demands.
Come unto me, and I shall give you rest.
Read more ›by Ken Sehested
A meditation written in the fall of 1990 as half a million US troops mustered in Saudia Arabia
for an assault (The Gulf War) on Iraqi forces occupying Kuwait. It was the presence of
these troops in one of Islam’s most sacred terrains that provoked Osama bin Laden
to create al-Qaeda to launch his terror campaign.
O God, I am frightened. Anxious are my waking hours and fretful is my sleep. Even as I pray I sense that desert sands in remote places are readied, eager, to bleach the bones of mothers’ sons, fathers’ daughters, children of us all. The corrupt, lustful glory of vain rulers now erupts across parched land. Hear our prayer, O Lord.
It is good and proper to give thanks to God.
And to petition these gifts of the Spirit:
Generosity, the secret of wealth.
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