“I hate, I despise your feasts,
    and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
    I will not look upon them.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
    to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
But let justice roll down like waters,
    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

~ The Prophet Amos 5:21-24 

I say móre: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is —
Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

~ As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Gerard Manley Hopkiins    

⊕     ⊕     ⊕     ⊕

BLESSED is the man or woman who justices,
who humbly acts in God’s stead,
who daily lives with integrity,
who is the companion of honesty,
the friend of the true, the good, and the beautiful,
who is the embodiment of decency,
who consistently seeks to heal, not to harm,
to revere, not mock,
to unify, not divide,
to build up, not tear down,
to make peace, not enemies,
to make good trouble, not trouble the good,
to bless, not dehumanize,
to advocate for the poor and the poor in spirit,
not silently tolerate the impoverished of character,
who acknowledges fallibility, admits wrong,
asks forgiveness, concedes unfinishedness,
who refuses to turn away from injustice
or enforced cruelty or normalized indignity,
who resists the swallowed tongue when something
needs to be said or done in opposition to malice or corruption,
who speaks truth to power
especially to the crooked-talkers,
especially to the abusers of power
who use it to manufacture their own selfish gain,
especially to those who disgrace power
and the Creator of power
who intended it be used to create,
to unify, to enhance, to flourish,
to move people to delight, wonder, awe, joy, and love.

BLESSED is the man or woman
who is willing to die that others might live.

BLESSED is the man or woman who lives
for the good of others,
for children not their own,
for seven generations hence,
for the beloved community
that includes each person, every human, and
all other-than-human life forms.

BLESSED is the man or woman who looks out for
the vulnerable, exploited, abused, discarded, and forgotten,
who practices graciousness, not meanness,
compassion, not indifference,
who incarnates fierce meekness, not moral weakness,
who loves kindness, acts justly, and
walks humbly with his or her God

Surely, such a one as this
is a blessing to his family and her friends.
Surely, such a one as this
is a blessing to God.
Surely, such a one as this
will REST IN PEACE.