Tag Archives: faith

certainty is…

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the great enemy of unity.

This quote is from the uniquely well-timed 2024 film “CONCLAVE” about the selection of a new Pope. It’s haunted me ever since. Here is the entire quote and the clip from the film.

“My brothers and sisters...let me tell you that the one sin I have come to fear more than any other is certainty. Certainty is the great enemy of unity..our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt. If there was only certainty, and if there was no doubt, there would be no mystery, and therefore no need for faith.”
―Robert Harris, Conclave

CERTAIN: known for sure; established beyond doubt

 ENEMY: something harmful or deadly 

UNITY: a condition of harmony

A tidy package of CERTAINTY is rarely going to arrive on my doorstep.

How can I learn to manage my emotional distress when certainty isn’t possible?

• Don't believe everything I think, it's just a thought (NOT a fact).
• Acknowledge my feelings without judgment (or try to anyway).
• Accept that I may never have certainty on this topic.

• Remind myself of the rest of the quote: "...our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt.  If there was only certainty, and if there was no doubt, there would be no mystery, and therefore no need for faith."

Sunrise on Town Neck Beach—Sandwich, Massachusetts—July 3rd, 2025

COMMON GROUND…

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Last spring, out of the blue I received an email from an interfaith organization, The Council of Christians and Jews in the United Kingdom asking if they could use an image of mine from a blog post for their spring magazine cover.

Here’s the link to the post: are we frayed beyond repair?

This sort of request was new for me. I was flattered by the inquiry and proud of the images. I researched the organization to be certain I wanted to allow my permission…then I was truly humbled and honored.

The Council of Christians and Jews:

“We were founded in 1942, at the height of the Second World War and the Holocaust, by Archbishop William Temple and Chief Rabbi Joseph Hertz. We are proud that Her Majesty the Queen has been our patron since 1952.

…and dedicated our work to raising awareness about the persecution and destruction of the Jews of Europe.”

https://ccj.org.uk/

LINK to full Spring 2020 issue: https://ccj.org.uk/sites/ccj.hocext.co.uk/files/2020-06/Common%20Ground%202020.pdf

Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater…. when you start hating anybody, it destroys the very center of your creative response to life and the universe; so love everybody.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

A secret cabal is taking over the world. They kidnap children, slaughter, and eat them to gain power from their blood. They control high positions in government, banks, international finance, the news media, and the church. They want to disarm the police. They promote homosexuality and pedophilia. They plan to mongrelize the white race so it will lose its essential power.

Does this conspiracy theory sound familiar? It is. The same narrative has been repackaged by QAnon.

https://www.justsecurity.org/72339/qanon-is-a-nazi-cult-rebranded/

Here’s to better days ahead…