the Web Editors

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for [God] gives sleep to [God's] beloved. - Psalm 127:1-2 + Sign up to receive our social justice verse of the day via e-mail

Today, and it breaks my heart to say it, finding a homeless person who has died of cold, is not news. Today, the news is scandals, that is news, but the many children who don't have food — that's not news. This is grave. We can't rest easy while things are this way.  - Pope Francis in unscripted comments answering questions at a huge international gathering of Catholic associations in St. Peter's Square. + Sign up to receive our quote of the day via e-mail

In the unceasing ebb and flow of justice and oppression we must all dig channels as best we may, that at the propitious moment somewhat of the swelling tide may be conducted to the barren places of life. - Jane Addams From Twenty Years at Hull House + Sign up to receive our quote of the day via e-mail

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain's. Through this he received approval as righteous, [with] God giving approval to his gifts; he died, but through his faith he still speaks. - Hebrews 11:4 + Sign up to receive our social justice verse of the day via e-mail

I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. - Jessica Dovey + Sign up to receive our quote of the day via e-mail

Peace is the fruit of love, a love that is also justice. But to grow in love requires work — hard work. And it can bring pain because it implies loss — loss of the certitudes, comforts, and hurts that shelter and define us. - Jean Vanier From Finding Peace + Sign up to receive our quote of the day via e-mail

Lord, you did not withhold even your life for our benefit. If nothing is too much to offer you, remind us that nothing is too much to sacrifice for our brothers and sisters in need. Amen. -From Common Prayer

Christian hope frees us to act hopefully in the world. It enables us to act humbly and patiently, tackling visible injustices in the world around us without needing to be assured that our skill and our effort will somehow rid the world of injustice altogether. Christian hope, after all, does not need to see what it hopes for (Heb. 11:1); and neither does it require us to comprehend the end of history. Rather, it simply requires us to trust that even the most outwardly insignificant of faithful actions — the cup of cold water given to the child, the widow's mite offered at the temple, the act of hospitality shown to the stranger, none of which has any overall strategic socio-political significance so far as we can now see — will nevertheless be made to contribute in some significant way to the construction of God's kingdom by the action of God's creative and sovereign grace. - Craig Gay From Way of the (Modern) World + Sign up to receive our quote of the day via e-mail

Lord, we thank you for changing seasons, and for being part of your creation that is full of rhythm and cycles. We pray for eyes to see and ears to hear the lessons you give to us through these periods of transition.