Two truths---two prayers.

 

It really is a Divine Truth...

 

The Nature Of Truth And Lies: Truth in Transition with Carlton D. Pearson

 

Five truths to hold in your bones...

 

The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston on faith, strength, and the sacred---From the Native American/Indigenous Ministries of the Episcopal Church

This could be the story of this blog...

"The more uncertain the world becomes, the tighter my grip on the faith that sustains me. I am not necessarily brave by nature. I am not even strong. But I have a deep confidence based on experience. I know where I need to be when the storm clouds gather. In the Spirit is my life grounded. In the heart of the sacred I will take my stand. The storms may rise and howl, but I will not turn from them, for I have the power of mercy above me, and the source of every hope by my side. I give my trust to the unseen that I may behold more clearly the coming of peace, the presence of peace, in the lives of all who love."

The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston

An Easter/Pascha Meditation from Chris Brooks

Today we celebrate the refusal by liberation movements everywhere to allow death to be the final word. Today, we celebrate the moral choice to place the life of an impoverished person of color - conceived by a single mother out of wedlock and born in a filthy manger in an area of the world occupied by a brutal imperial force - at the center of history. For liberationists, Jesus was a working-class prophet whose teachings and life exemplified the subversive and seditious road toward the beloved community: loving one another, providing for one another, removing the powerful from their thrones and actively reorganizing society so that the poor and the sick are first and the rich and healthy are last. Christ was brutally executed by the state for this vision of love and community, but the story does not end there. The beloved community continues, it is resurrected in every truth spoken to power, in every act of justice by the oppressed, in every moment of reconciliation between the world-as-it-is and the world-as-it-should-be.

A life's journey...

 

Bishop William J. Barber II, preaching "The Moral Mandate for a Mass Poor People's Low-Wage Worker's Assembly" LIVE from National City Christian Church in Washington D.C.

 

Truth...

 

Martin Luther King, Jr. With A Message For Us

 

Our students are experiencing trauma. We teachers need training to help them cope. Now is the perfect time to provide trauma training to teachers. Our students need and deserve it.

The following is taken from an opinion piece that was written by Gina Caneva and appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times of March 13. I believe that the writer is speaking prophetically.

In all of my years as an educator, I’ve never attended a meeting or professional development session on how to help students cope with trauma. My bet is that teachers in most districts in our country have not either.

Think about the last couple of years: Mentally and emotionally, we’ve been ravaged as a society. We’ve faced worldwide sickness, intensifying racial tension due to police brutality toward people of color, gun violence in some of our most safest places — our schools and churches — and a war launched by Russia just months after the war in Afghanistan ended.

Many of us watch this news unfolding on the convenience of our phones, any time we want. Doom-scrolling, as it’s called, takes a hefty mental toll on us.

Our children and young adults are not oblivious to these events. Some, like the two students mentioned earlier, experience it directly; they are a part of traumatic events. Others are deeply impacted by witnessing and watching the events, and/or by the environment these events have created. Researchers from the University of Calgary conducted studies globally during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that anxiety and depression doubled compared with before the pandemic.

As adults, we are often told kids are resilient. But we can’t ignore their trauma and just move on to the next part of the curriculum. Coping with students’ trauma should be a top priority in our professional development, taking precedence over workshops on the latest tech tool, standardized test scores or grading practices.

Teachers need tools beyond writing a pass for a student to a counselor’s office. Our students see their teachers every day, the effects of trauma often first present themselves in the classroom, and school counselors are already burdened with high caseloads.

Now is the perfect time to provide trauma training to teachers. Our students need and deserve it.

Gina Caneva is the library media specialist for East Leyden High School in Franklin Park. She taught in CPS for 15 years and is Nationally Board Certified. Follow her on Twitter @GinaCaneva

A Simple Truth

 

The Terrible & Beautiful Truth Of My Life

I think that I found this on The Contemplative Monk's Facebook page.