Be angry but do not sin.

“…Then there is the anger that leaves us shaken and shaking because a sacred trust is being treacherously broken; because those who have done no harm are being gratuitously harmed; because those who have too little now have even less, and those who already have much too much now have even more; because egregious wrongs are being perpetrated, and the perps don’t even admit that the wrongs they’re perpetrating are wrong.

What has happened—is happening now, here, and everywhere—is not merely a sin and a shame. It is an outrage, and outrage calls for rage, rage that ought to come out. Anger in such instances is not merely permissible. It is obligatory, imperative.

Thus, the imperative: “Be angry.” Faced with an outrage, anger is the price we pay for paying attention. It is the rage that ought to come out, because, when faced with an outrage, it is a sin not to be angry.”

Allen Dwight Callahan from”A Surprising Command,” in Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations, Thursday, February 29, 2024

…February 24, 2022…
…October 7, 2023…
…February 29, 2024…

Most any time of every year in recorded history, anywhere in the world, on this precious Earth again soaked with blood, sacred trusts broken, egregious wrongs done.

This is not my usual Friday feature of photo and poetry. Yesterday afternoon, I’d written and scheduled one to drop at 0700 today. But sitting last night at a phenomenal concert featuring Canadian tour de force Allison Russell and her powerhouse band, opened by the equally remarkable Indigenous singer-songwriter Aysanabee, my thoughts kept turning the news of another massacre of more innocent people, this time starving people waiting for food to feed their families. And for those many moments and minutes of distraction – the price I paid for paying attention elsewhere -feeling numb, not yet able to access my own outrage, I knew I’d need to get up early and prepare another post.

As “luck” would have it, at 0500, tea steeping, I opened my email to find the daily meditation from Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation, this week’s theme, “When Anger Meets Love.” Thankful for another’s words, when the most I could muster are the dates above that I’ve been tracking this week, and the context for this post. When the most I could offer is the space here, without opining, to imagine the visceral horror and heartbreak of people like me, to pay with this kind of attention, until the anger comes.

#holyoutrage, much love and kindest regards, dear friends.