Soul Food: Week of September 13, 2026

 

Sunday: “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem

 

Monday: What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? Generations come & go, but the earth remains forever.

 

Tuesday: The sun rises & sets & hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south & turns to the north; round & round it goes, ever returning on its course.

 

Wednesday: All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

 

Thursday: All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.

 

Friday: What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again, there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.

 

Saturday: No one remembers the former generations & even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them …

 

Soul Food: Week of September 6, 2026

 

Sunday: What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents. Robert Kennedy

 

Monday: Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21

 

Tuesday: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke

 

Wednesday: The battleline between good & evil runs through the heart of every man. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

 

Thursday: I believe that unarmed truth & unconditional love will have the final word ... This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Friday: I have found that it is the small everyday deed of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. Gandalf – J.R.R. Tolkien 

 

Saturday: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod & Thy staff they comfort me. Psalm 23:4

 

Soul Food: Week of August 30, 2026

 

Sunday: Friendship is born at the moment when one [person] says to another “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself…” C.S. Lewis

 

Monday: Don’t walk in front of me … I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me … I may not lead. Walk beside me … just be my friend. Albert Camus

 

Tuesday: There are three things that grow more precious with age; old wood to burn, old books to read, and old friends to enjoy. Henry Ford

 

Wednesday: A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked. Bernard Meltzer

 

Thursday: It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them. Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Friday: Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light. Helen Keller

 

Saturday: A sweet friendship refreshes the soul. Proverbs 27:9

 

Soul Food: Week of August 23, 2026

 

Sunday: If I go up to the heavens, You are there; If I make my bed in the depths, You are there. Psalm 139:8

 

Monday: The Lord is my shepherd; I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He refreshes my soul. Psalm 23:1

 

Tuesday: I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in His word, I put my hope. Psalm 130:5

 

Wednesday:  When I am afraid, I put my trust in You. Psalm 56:3

 

Thursday: I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living. Psalm 27:13

 

Friday: Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb. Psalm 37:1

 

Saturday: This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice & be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

 

Soul Food: Week of August 16, 2026

 

Sunday: Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who brings forth the fruit of the vine. Traditional Jewish Blessing

 

Monday: I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me & I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:5

 

Tuesday: I am the true vine & My Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. John 15:1-2

 

Wednesday: I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s Kingdom. Matthew 26:29

 

Thursday: This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples. John 15:8

 

Friday: After taking the cup, He gave thanks & said, “Take this & divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. Luke 22:17-18

 

Saturday: After the supper He took the cup saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you. Luke 22:20

 

Soul Food: Week of August 9, 2026

 

Sunday: Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. Widely attributed to Winston Churchill

 

Monday: I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. Thomas Edison

 

Tuesday: I’ve failed over & over & over gain in my life. And that is why I succeed. Michael Jordan

 

Wednesday: Failure is success in progress. Albert Einstein

 

Thursday: Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be. John Wooden

 

Friday: Everything you want is on the other side of fear. Jack Canfield

 

Saturday: Giving up is the only sure way to fail. Gena Showalter

 

Soul Food: Week of August 2, 2026

 

Sunday: How can you be lonely when the Holy Spirit keeps tapping your heart & asking you to play with Him? 

 

Monday: I am with you until the end of times ... and leave behind the Holy Spirit to be with you always. Jesus

 

Tuesday: All I ever wanted was to reach oout & touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart. Tahereh Mafi

 

Wednesday: I am never less alone than when alone. Michelangelo

 

Thursday: The best thinking has been done in solitude. Thomas Edison

 

Friday: I think it’s very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone & not be defined by another person. Oscar Wilde

 

Saturday: Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. Arthur C. Clarke

 

Soul Food: Week of July 26, 2026

 

Sunday: Three things can ruin a man: power, money & women. I never wanted power, I never had any money, and the only woman in my life is up at the house right now. Harry S. Truman

 

Monday: I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.

 

Tuesday: A stateman is a politician who’s been dead ten or fifteen years.

 

Wednesday: I never sit on a fence. I am either on one side or another.

 

Thursday: It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose your own.

 

Friday: It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

 

Saturday: The buck stops here!

 

Soul Food: Week of July 19, 2026

 

Sunday: Would the IRS collect more … or less … from its serial tax debtors if the add-on statutory interest charges were reduced or waived?

 

Monday: Taxation without representation is a violation of human rights … Declaration of Independence

 

Tuesday: The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison wall. Denis Healey

 

Wednesday: Tax avoidance means that you hire a lawyer and he changes the word “evasion” into the word “avoidance.” Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

Thursday: The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward. John Keynes

 

Friday: I would like to electrocute everyone who uses the word “fair” in connection with income tax policies. William F. Buckley

 

Saturday: The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax. Albert Einstein

 

Soul Food: Week of July 12, 2026

 

Sunday: “Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the [spiritual] task of the sculptor to discover and liberate it” for God’s glory. Michelangelo

 

Monday: Painting is a supreme science because it “extends to all the surfaces, shapes, and colors of bodies.” Leonardo da Vinci

 

Tuesday: “I paint things as they are. I don’t comment. I record.” Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

 

Wednesday: “Art washes away from the soul the dust of daily life.” Pablo Picasso

 

Thursday: “Art is to console those who are broken by life.” Vincent van Gogh

 

Friday: “Art is the most intense mode of individualism.” Oscar Wilde

 

Saturday: “Art is a pearl [that] is the oyster’s autobiography.”

 

Soul Food: Week of July 5, 2026 – Excerpts from Franklin’s “Prayer Speech” For an American Empire to Rise

 

Sunday: If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without [the Almighty’s] notice is it possible an empire can rise without His aid?

 

Monday: I have lived a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men.

 

Tuesday: I also believe that without [His] concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel …

 

Wednesday: Rather, We shall be [a House] divided by our little partial local interests, our projects will be confounded, …

 

Thursday: … and we ourselves shall be come a reproach and a bye word down to future age …

 

Friday: … And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human Wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest.

 

Saturday: I therefore beg leave to move – that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business …

 

Soul Food: Week of June 28, 2026

 

Sunday: I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country. Nathan Hale

 

Monday: A house divided cannot stand. A. Lincoln

 

Tuesday: Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. R. Reagan

 

Wednesday: America. It is the only place where miracles not only happen, but where they happen all the time. Thomas Wolfe

 

Thursday:  Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it. Mark Twain

 

Friday: Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president. T. Roosevelt

 

Saturday: Freedom is never granted; it is won. A. Philip Randolph

 

Soul Food: Week of June 21, 2026

 

Sunday: Freedom may include the power to say no, but its flourishing requires the common sense to know when to say yes …

 

Monday: It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies. Thomas Paine in Common Sense

 

Tuesday: All men are created equal …people are endowed with unalienable rights, including Life, Liberty & the pursuit of Happiness. T. Jeffereson, Declaration of Independence

 

Wednesday: Freedom is a universal natural right grounded in human equality—most famously articulated in the Declaration of Independence as an ‘apple of gold’ framed by the Constitution’s ‘picture of silver.” A. Lincoln as paraphrased by St. John’s College based on various speeches

 

Thursday: No one misses the loss of another man’s freedom. Lorenzo Medici

 

Friday: Freedom is what America means to the world. Audie Murphy

 

Saturday: If you abide in MY Word, you are truly My disciple and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Jesus, John 8:31-32

 

Soul Food: Week of June 14, 2026

 

Sunday: Jesus reminds we may be a grain of sand in His Universe, but He wants us to roll like a boulder in spreading His Word on earth …

 

Monday: Great men are like meteors that shine & consume themselves so that the path of those that follow may be enlightened. Napoleon Bonaparte, paraphrased

 

Tuesday: I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community … I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. George Bernard Shaw

 

Wednesday: If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. John Quincy Adams

 

Thursday: Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing. Albert Schweitzer

 

Friday: We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. Winston Churchill

 

Saturday: The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches but reveal to him his own. Benjamin Disraeli

 

Soul Food: Week of June 7, 2026

 

Sunday: It’s been said there are no coincidences or luck in life; it’s certainly no coincidence God made us yet sends us daily proofs of how lucky we are to be alive.

 

Monday: In mathematics, two angles that are said to coincide fit together perfectly. The word “coincidence” does not describe luck or mistakes. It describes that which fits together perfectly. Wayne Dyer

 

Tuesday: Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous. Albert Einstein

 

Wednesday: Coincidence is a messenger sent by truth. Jacqueline Winspear

 

Thursday: People say there’s no such thing as coincidence. What dull lives they must lead. Sherlock (The Hounds of Baskerville)

 

Friday: A certain man once lost a diamond cufflink in the wide blue sea & 20 years later, on the exact day, a Friday, he was eating a large fish – but there was no diamond inside. That’s what I like about coincidence. Vladimir Nabokov

 

Saturday: Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. Ian Fleming

 

Soul Food: Week of May 31, 2026

 

Sunday: Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. Marie Curie

 

Monday: I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore diverting myself in … finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth law all undiscovered before me. Isaac Newton

 

Tuesday: Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. Albert Einstein

 

Wednesday: Life cannot have had a random beginning … there are about 2,000 enzymes & the chance of obtaining them all in a random trial is only one part in 10^40,000, an outrageously small probability that could not be faced even if the whole universe consisted of organic soup. Fred Hoyle

 

Thursday: It is strange that only extraordinary men make the discoveries, which later appear so easy & simple. Georg Lichtenberg

 

Friday: The saddest aspect of life right now is that it gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. Isaac Asimov

 

Saturday: A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life. Charles Darwin

 

Soul Food: Week of May 17, 2026

 

Sunday: What’s a grain of sand in God’s universe? Science shows we do not amount to one kernel in the crop, yet His Scripture treats each soul as if the greatest plantation …

 

Monday: I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. Albert Einstein

 

Tuesday: In God’s garden of grace, even a broken tree can bear fruit. Rick Worren

 

Wednesday: Grace comes into the soul, as the morning sun into the world; first a dawning; than a light; and at last the sun in his full & excellent brightness. Thomas Adams

 

Thursday: Trust in the Lord … and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5-6

 

Friday: We are born broken. We live mending. The grace of God is the glue. Eugene O’Neill

 

Saturday: Never forget the “mystic chords that bind us” thanks to “the better angels in our nature.” Abraham Lincoln

 

Soul Food: Week of May 10, 2026

 

Sunday: It’s easy to have faith in God when things are going great, but how sublime is the man who believes even when he’s hitting rock bottom.

 

Monday: Consider the man who was born blind but miraculously cured by Jesus “so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” John 9

 

Tuesday: Your faith in God is the instrument by which you can be healed. Matthew 9:22; Luke 8:48

 

Wednesday: Healing through God’s mercy alone is a gift often made possible through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. John 5; John 9

 

Thursday: If you have the faith in God that’s as small as a mustard seed, you can still move mountains. Matthew 17:20

 

Friday: Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you. St. Augustine                     

 

Saturday: Believe me that I am in the Father and The Father is in Me. John 14:11

 

Soul Food: May 3, 2026

 

Sunday: Hey, I don’t have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my life. And I wish you my kind of success. Jerry Maguire’s Dickie Fox

 

Monday: The key to [any] business is personal relationships.

 

Tuesday: Unless you love everybody, you can’t sell anybody.

 

Wednesday: I love my mornings! I clap my hands every morning & say, ‘This is gonna be a great day!’

 

Thursday: If this [points to heart] is empty, this [points to head] doesn’t matter.

 

Friday: Roll with the punches. Tomorrow is another day.

 

Saturday: [Just] show me the money. Rod Tidwell

 

Soul Food: Week of April 26, 2026

 

Sunday: You blows who you is. Louis Armstrong

 

Monday: It don’t mean a thing if you don’t have that swing. Duke Ellington

 

Tuesday: Man, there’s no boundary to art. Charlie Parker

 

Wednesday: Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there. Miles Davis

 

Thursday: Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity. Charles Mingus

 

Friday: As far as playing jazz, no other art form, other than conversation, can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction. Stan Getz

 

Saturday: Jazz is like wine. When it is new, it is only for the experts, but when it gets older, everybody wants it. Steve Lacy

 

Soul Food: Week of April 19, 2026

 

Sunday: Now war arose in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. Revelation

 

Monday: The farther back you can look the farther forward you are likely to see. Winston Churchill

 

Tuesday: When you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss may also gaze into you. Nietzsche

 

Wednesday: The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man. Alexandr Solzhenityn

 

Thursday: The battle between good and evil is circular. Good wins, evil wins, good again. David Gemmell

 

Friday: The line between good and evil is permeable and almost anyone can be induced to cross it when pressured by situational forces. Philip Zimbardo

 

Saturday: Archangel Michael, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness & snares of the devil.

 

Soul Food: Week of April 12, 2026

 

Sunday: A lot of unexceptional liberals don’t believe in American Exceptionalism, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t real.

 

Monday: We don’t have to apologize for American exceptionalism or western values. Rick Perry

 

Tuesday: I sought for the key of America’s greatness and genius in her harbors … in her boundless fertile fields & forests; in her rich mines & vast world commerce; in her public school system & institutions … Alexis de Tocqueville

 

Wednesday: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men. Thomas Jefferson

 

Thursday: The price of liberty is responsibility and eternal vigilance. Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.

 

 

Friday: Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people. John Adams

 

Saturday: The ruin of oligarchy is the ruin of democracy; the same disease [greed, unchecked power] magnifies & intensifies liberty over masters of democracy – the truth being that the excessive increase in anything often causes a reaction in the opposite direction. Plato

 

Soul Food: Week of April 5, 2026

 

Sunday: The “ultimate” sacrifice may be relative but it can be divine. Our Union soldiers sacrificed their last full measure of devotion to end the country’s sinful slavery. Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself on the cross to forgive mankind for its slavery to sin.

 

Monday: To sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying. Joan of Arc

 

Tuesday: The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service to others. Mahatma Gandhi

 

Wednesday: When bad men combine, the good must associate. Edmund Burke

 

Thursday: Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. Thomas Merton

 

Friday: Nothing changes without sacrifice. Various

 

Saturday: To love is to sacrifice so as to grow beyond oneself.

 

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