International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief

“At the center of religion is love. I love you and I forgive you. I am like you and you are like me. I love all people. I love the world. I love creating. Everything in our life should be based on love…

We must move into the universe. Mankind must save itself. We must escape the danger of war and politics. We must become astronauts and go out into the universe and discover the God in ourselves.”

Ray Bradbury (1920 – 2012), science fiction writer, born on this day

International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism

“We have to wake up to the fact that everything is connected to everything else. Safety and well-being cannot be individual matters anymore. If another group isn’t safe, there is no way that we can be safe. Taking care of their safety is at the same time taking care of our own safety. Taking care of their well-being is taking care of our own well-being. It’s the mind of discrimination and separation that is at the foundation of all hate and violence.”

From Peace Is This Moment by Thich Nhat Hanh

“We swear by peace and love to stand
Heart to heart and hand in hand
Mark O Spirit and hear us now
Confirming this our Sacred Vow

Druid prayer of unity

The “Sacred Vow” of unity in this prayer is sworn “by peace and love” – the two requisites without which any spiritual communion is invalidated. In every assembly of human beings, there is a wide variety of different opinions, beliefs, and perspectives; each unique viewpoint is essential to prevent abnormal homogenization, wherein people suppress their personal views and maintain a phony unity. A communion of hearts is focalized by an act of intention that includes each unique opinion but goes beyond personal boundaries, entering the circle of Spirit.

The mantle of unity is conferred – can only be conferred – by Spirit, which manifests in many different forms to those who are gathered together. Even to those with a formal religious upbringing, Spirit will be present to each person in the most immediate metaphors and appearances. Like a mountain, Spirit may be approached by many routes, and each route will influence the ways we see the mountain. Spirit offers each of us a vision of unity if we accept what we are uniquely show: that the circle of life in which we stand encircles and includes everything and everyone we have ever known.”

From The Celtic Spirit: Meditations for the Turning Year by Caitlin Matthews

“It is said that if you would have peace of mind, busy yourself with little. But wouldn’t a better saying be do what you must and as required as a rational being created for public life? For this brings not only the peace of mind of doing few things, but the greater peace of doing them well. Since the vast majority of our words and actions are unnecessary, corralling them will create an abundance of leisure and tranquillity. As a result, we shouldn’t forget at each moment to ask, is this one of the unnecessary things? But we must corral not only unnecessary actions but unnecessary thoughts, too, so needless acts don’t tag along after them.”

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.24

“Psalm 34: Taste and See that God is Good
How exactly do I do this?
By opening my heart in gratitude and praise
for all the gifts of life.
By focusing on the astounding intricacy of the world.
By attending to the still small voices of healing and renewal
which save me in times of trouble.
And by loving life and honoring that gift,
speaking truth, doing good, seeking peace.
When I serve the highest I know
I serve whatever God there is.
The joy of this, no matter what my troubles, will keep me whole.”

Christine Robinson, Unitarian Universalist minister

“The need comes on me now
to speak across the years
to those who will finally live here
after the present ruin, in the absence
of most of my kind who by now
are dead, or have given their minds
to machines and become strange,
“over-qualified” for the hard
handwork that must be done
to remake, so far as humans
can remake, all that humans
have unmade. To you, whoever
you may be, I say: Come,
meaning to stay. Come,
willing to learn what this place,
like no other, will ask of you
and your children, if you mean
to stay. “This land responds
to good treatment,” I heard
my father say time and again
in his passion to renew, to make
whole, what ill use had broken.
And so to you, whose lives
taken from the life of this place
I cannot foretell, I say:
Come, and treat it well.”

Wendell Berry, from This Day: Collected & New Sabbath Poems, 2013

Image: participants in the Wendell Berry Farming Program

“In this quiet place, O God, help us to find quiet for our souls. For we need quietness. Shouting and tumult are always about us, and the noise of the world never dies down. Even in the night-time when we seek rest, the voices of the day go on. But in your presence, there is quietness. O God, let us find your presence now!”

A. Powell Davies, Unitarian minister, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

Indian Independence Day, 1947

“Freedom of mind is the real freedom.
A person whose mind is not free though he may not be in chains, is a slave, not a free man.
One whose mind is not free, though he may not be in prison, is a prisoner and not a free man.
One whose mind is not free though alive, is no better than dead.
Freedom of mind is the proof of one’s existence.”

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

“O, Great Spirit,
Whose voice I hear in the winds
Whose breath gives life to the world, hear me
I come to you as one of your many children
I am small and weak
I need your strength and wisdom
May I walk in beauty
Make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
And my ears sharp to your voice.
Make me wise so that I may know the things you have taught your children.
The lessons you have written in every leaf and rock
Make me strong!
Not to be superior to my brothers, but to fight my greatest enemy….myself
Make me ever ready to come to you with straight eyes,
So that when life fades as the fading sunset,
May my spirit come to you without shame.”

Translated by Lakota Sioux Chief Yellow Lark, 1887

“Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift. There is nothing small in it. For the greatest things grow by God’s Law out of the smallest. But to live your life you must discipline it. You must not fritter it away.. but make your thoughts, your acts, all work to the same end and that end, not self but God. That is what we call character.”

Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing, raised Unitarian, died on this day in 1910