Daily Meditation for March 4, 2026

St. Benedict’s High School in New Jersey has as its motto, “What hurts my brother, hurts me.” That’s a pretty good description of community, if we add, “What hurts my sister and brother hurts me, and what helps them, helps me.” As Benedictines and many others know, being a member of a community is often joyful but never easy. We will often be angry and sorrowful as we see our sisters and brothers, many of them children, living in fear without the most basic human rights and resources. Community rejects the hopeless response, “There is nothing we can do.” Rather, community demands that we act to ease hurt and extend help, even though that may bring harsh criticism. Most of all, acting as a community can give each of us the strength, courage, and wisdom to work towards justice and mercy, and to enfold and love all people as God loves them and us.

By Mara Faulkner, OSB