This week I was in DC for a conference and I took advantage of some down time yesterday to visit some of the museums. My high school history teacher had the following quote on his bulletin board (which I recall nearly thirty years later!): “How can we know where we’re going if we don’t know where we’ve been?” I consider myself a bit of a history buff, and so it was a blessing to spend a few hours visiting some powerful exhibits at the US Holocaust Museum, the Smithsonian and the National Museum of African American Culture and History. What a privilege that these museums are free and accessible!
On a Zoom meeting yesterday, a colleague shared the below reflections based upon one of my favorite biblical quotes, Micah 6:8. They remind me of our invitation to reflective practice and intentionality in our leadership and in our lives. May God bless you in the week ahead.
Act Justly, Love Tenderly, Walk Humbly
Act Justly – Brother Álvaro Rodríguez Echeverría, FSC. In a Christmas Letter to his Brothers as Superior General on December 25th, 2010
Our vows of association for the service of the poor and of poverty are a prophetic word in favor of the small and the excluded. Our vow of poverty has to do with the coming of the Kingdom. Service of the poor does not come from a kind of generosity added to the object of the vow of poverty, it is an integral part of it. To live in poverty means, in a positive way, to feel grasped and possessed by the God’s will and to spend oneself totally so that “the Kingdom come,” especially about those who hope for it the most and who are its principal targets: the abandoned and the marginalized. We could also identify our vow of poverty with the call
made to us by the prophet Micah: act justly (Micah 6: 8).
Love Tenderly – St. Maria Faustina Kowalska – Diary #140
Pure love is one that flows directly from the Heart of Christ to and through your life. This holy love has beautiful characteristics. First, it is plentiful. When we love with the Heart of Christ we love in abundance. There is no limit to how much love we can share. It’s like the brightness of the sun at noon casting rays on all below. Second, it’s ingenious, doing what is pleasing to God. It is not cautious or calculated. It does not hesitate or evaluate. Rather, the wisdom of love is immediate and knows in each moment how to radiate God’s love. And third, it is happy. Even when love calls one to heroic sacrifice there is great delight in this total self-giving.
Walk Humbly – Excerpt from “What the Bible Says to the Business Leader.” LMW Press
The Hebrew word for humbly suggests modesty. As one of God’s followers, you are to walk modestly or meekly with Him, not proudly or arrogantly; you are not to exalt yourself over others, treating them as though they are of less worth than you. If you are walking humbly with God, you will not be proud or self-reliant, depending only on your own strength. Rather, you will continually seek strength from God, calling on Him to help you, guide you, and deliver you from temptation. Walking humbly with God means you will not seek honor for your own name but for God’s Name. All of this is because you know that it is God who has gifted and enabled you to achieve and succeed. Therefore, you want the honor and glory to be His. This is what it means to walk humbly with God.
Keeping the Faith 