The greater good

Lord, turn out minds, hearts, and spirits to the greater good you are working through us--as a nation, as a species, as a world. Amen

And from the Merton Institute's Weekly Reflection:

It is true, political problems are not solved by love and mercy. But the world of politics is not the only world, and unless political decisions rest on a foundation of something better and higher than politics, they can never do any real good. When a country has to be rebuilt after war, the passions and energies of war are no longer enough. There must be a new force, the power of love, the power of understanding and human compassion, the strength of selflessness and cooperation, as the creative dynamism of the will to live and to build, and the will to forgive, the will for reconciliation.

Thomas Merton. Honorable Reader. Robert E. Daggy, editor. (New York: Crossroads Publications, 1989): 125