Today’s Prayer to Passage will be from the book “After Virtue” by Alasdair MacIntyre.

Today I pray, “Dear God, I was professionally trained in leadership between 2011-2015. In those courses, I read that previous students had stated the training was something that continued to expand and develop over time, long after the classroom sessions had ended. Years later, having exited the coursework, students noted that they were able to account for the most profound aspects of the training in hindsight, seeing how it had made a difference in their lives and the lives of those around them. One of the hundreds, if not thousands, of distinctions that I carry with me today is one that I learned in the leadership training. It is this: People are essentially made up of one duality; complaints and talents.

Complaints and talents. Talents and complaints. To justify this, I had to pay attention to myself and others. In doing so, not to trivialize anything — as that would be a complaint — I playfully discerned that this is, in essence, true. I like to build upon my talents, expand my talents, grow my talents, and learn from others’ complaints as an exciting opportunity! Thank You for the many talents with which I am blessed. I have been faithful with a few things; You have put me in charge of many things. Yay! Joy! Amen.”

Following my prayer, I held the closed book in my hands and opened it to this passage:

“If my account of our moral condition is correct, we ought also to conclude that for some time now we too have reached that turning point. What matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us.”
—ALASDAIRE MACINTYRE

Let’s look at “the new dark ages” in a positive light. An era of chicken coops in the city and bicycles and walking and books made out of paper… and composting and recycling and CEOs volunteering in soup kitchens… and overall kindness toward our collective neighborhood, which is to say overall kindness toward our earth’s people and creatures and plants and all living things. And “What does a rock know of April?” This way of looking at everything as energy and possibility. This way of going back to the garden.