Loving the World

Mural of Paolo Friere at the Facultad de Educación y Humanidades, Universidad del Bío-Bío.

“Because love is an act of courage—not fear—love is a commitment to other people.  No matter where the oppressed are found, the act of love is a commitment to their cause—the cause of liberation.  And this commitment, because it is loving, is dialogical…. Only by abolishing the situation of oppression is it possible to restore the love which that situation made impossible.  If I do not love the world, if I do not love life, if I do not love people, I cannot enter the dialogue.” -from Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paolo Friere, Brazilian educator and philosopher.

Express courageous love today.

The Altar of Freedom

Photo of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper from the New York Public Library public domain collection.

“We want more soul, a higher cultivation of our spiritual faculties. We need more unselfishness, earnestness and integrity of high and lofty enthusiasm and beacons of light and hope, people ready and willing to lay time, talent and money on the altar of freedom.” -Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, 19th Century US poet, author, and Unitarian, and one of the first African-American women to have her work published.

What does it mean to you to lay your time and talent on the altar of freedom?

Dr. King’s Liberation Theology

As the US celebrates the life and liberatory ministry of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, we note that King’s liberation theology called him, time and again, to be on the side of the oppressed. To find ways of being in solidarity with those who suffered not only from racism, but also from militarism and economic injustice.

How can you find solidarity with the oppressed today?

So Long To Go

I love the hymn, Freedom is Coming (#1035). Liberation can be articulated in in words, actions, and music.  At a time when racial inequality is raging, there is a part of me that clings to the words, “Oh yes I know. Oh yes I know. Freedom is Coming.” With accents and fermatas in the music, this South African tune and words makes freedom and liberation seem so achievable. I desperately want this to be so. -Beth Murray (CLF)

When has a joyful moment lost its glory knowing that we have such a long way to go for true liberation?

Abundance

“Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of God.” -Archbishop Óscar Romero, priest and liberation theologian from El Salvador. 

Liberation theologians begin with the understanding that God favors the oppressed, and that the holy is present with and for the poor.

What has allowed you to know an abundant love at work in the universe?

Photo of Archbishop Romero from Wikimedia Commons.