"To all according to their merits"

Our meeting this morning focused on these words.  Sr. Joan writes:  "[Benedict] does not want people in positions simply to get a job done.  He wants people in people in positions who embody why we bother to do the job at all."  So we ask: Why do we get up each day?  Why do we sing in the choir?  Why am I a teacher?  Why do I work a this job?  The answers speak to the heart of our mission and our call.  This week at work a Sister from the Sister's of Mercy gave me this poem: Guerillas of Grace by Ted Loder

I need to Breathe Deeply
Eternal Friend,
grant me ease
to breathe deeply in this moment,
this light,
this miracle of  now.
Beneath the din and fury
of great movements
and harsh news
and urgent crises,
make me attentive still
to good news,
to small occasions,
and the grace of what is possible
for me to be
to do,
to give,
to receive,
that I may miss neither my neighbor's gift
nor my enemy's need.

In these words I breathe in and ask "what is possible."

A second conversation this morning led us into a heated debate about the motives of people who's anger and hate seemed to permeate a meeting, a dialogue, our world.  What do we do?  In the face of disrespect for my humanity or our humanity, what do we do? And how do we change the conversation so that those who hate are not turned into sound bytes?