Author Archives: Steve Benner

Martyrs of RwandaIn a time span of one hundred days, between April and July 1994, Rwanda’s political arena imploded. The country collapsed into chaos, and violence escalated into the genocide of one million people among members of the Tutsi ethnic group and moderate components of the Hutu ethnic majority in the country. The genocide occurredContinue reading “Oremus for Thursday, April 7, 2022”

TikhonVasily Ivanovich Belavin (Tikhon’s given name) was born January 19, 1865. He grew up in a rural area among peasants in a village where his father was a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church. Even as a child, he loved religion, and by age thirteen began his seminary training, where his classmates nicknamed him “Patriarch.”Continue reading “Oremus for Wednesday, April 6, 2022”

Pandita Mary RamabaiPandita Rambai (1858-1922) faced most of the obstacles a woman could encounter in the India of her lifetime. She was denied access to formal education and was ostracized from society as first an orphan and then a widow. She experienced first-hand the effects of India’s rigid caste system that placed discriminatory walls betweenContinue reading “Oremus for Tuesday, April 5, 2022”

Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta. As the son and grandson of Baptist preachers, he was steeped in the Black Church tradition. In 1954, King became pastor of a church in Montgomery, Alabama. There, Black indignation at inhumane treatment on segregated buses culminated in December, 1955,Continue reading “Oremus for Monday, April 4, 2022”

Antiphon1 Ant. If a man would serve me, let him follow me;wherever I am, my servant will be there too.V. O Lord, hear a cause that is just; *pay heed to my cry.Turn your ear to my prayer: *no deceit is on my lips.From you may my justice come forth. *Your eyes discern what is upright. John 12;Continue reading “Oremus for Sunday, April 3, 2022”

Antiphon https://tinyurl.com/bdcp49d5 Jerusalem is built as a city bonded as one together.It is there that the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord,to praise the name of the Lord. Psalm 123 God of mercy,you sent Jesus Christ to seek and save the lost.We confess that we have strayed from youand turned aside from yourContinue reading “Oremus for Saturday, April 2, 2022”

Frederick Denison MauriceIn the same year that Karl Marx declared religion to be the “opiate of the people,” Frederick Denison Maurice wrote, “We have been dosing our people with religion when what they want is not this but the living God.” Like Marx, Maurice wanted to solve the questions of our complex society; unlike Marx,Continue reading “Oremus for Friday, April 1, 2022”

John DonneJohn Donne was born in about the year 1571 and brought up as a Roman Catholic. He was a great-great nephew of Thomas More, although this seems to have had little influence on him, as he led a somewhat debauched youth and was extremely sceptical about all religion. He went up to Oxford when he wasContinue reading “Oremus for Thursday, March 31, 2022”

Karl RahnerRahner was born at Freiburg, Germany, on March 5, 1904, into a devout Roman Catholic family. Karl joined the Society of Jesus in 1922 and became a priest in 1932.  He studied philosophy at the University of Freiburg.  There Rahner sought to expand his horizons beyond neo-Thomism. After completing a degree at the UniversityContinue reading “Oremus for Wednesday, March 30, 2022”

John KebleKeble, born in 1792, received his early education in his father’s vicarage. At fourteen, he won a scholarship to Oxford and graduated in 1811 with highest honors. He served the University in several capacities, including ten years as Professor of Poetry. After ordination in 1816 he had a series of rural curacies, and finallyContinue reading “Oremus for Tuesday, March 29, 2022”