Welcome to the Beatitudes Center for the Nonviolent Jesus!
January 13, 2025
#2, Fr. John Dear in Conversation with Martin Sheen
This week’s guest is actor and activist Martin Sheen, one of our most celebrated, award-winning actors from movies such as “Apocalypse Now,” “Gandhi,” “Selma,” “The American President,” “Gettsyburg,” “The Way,” “Badlands,” and many more, and the star of the TV series, “The West Wing,” where he played President Bartlett. Martin is perhaps the most committed activist celebrity, who has been speaking out against war, injustice, homelessness, and nuclear weapons and advocating for justice, disarmament, and peace for over 4 decades. Fr. John will ask Martin about his activism, his understanding of Gospel nonviolence, and how his movies and activism have shaped his life and his peacemaking faith journey.
Next week…
The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast welcomes Bernard LaFayette! For more information, visit here.
January 27, 2025
#4, Fr. John Dear in conversation with Sr. Helen Prejean
This week’s guest is Sister Helen Prejean, one of the world’s most beloved Catholic leaders and prophetic voices. A Sister of St. Joseph of Medaille, she is one of the world’s leading voices against the death penalty. She is the author of the best-selling book, “Dead Man Walking,” which was made into the Oscar winning movie starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. Her work has been turned into an amazing opera which recently opened at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and a play, and she has written other best-sellers such as “The Death of Innocents,” and “River of Fire: a spiritual memoir.” She has accompanied eight men to their executions. She lives in New Orleans.
Next week…
The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast welcomes Fr. Richard Rohr! For more information, visit here.
Upcoming Zoom Programs:
“The Little Way of Merciful Love: Real-World Mentoring from St. Therese of Lisieux” with Marisa Guerin
Saturday February 8, 2025
11 am Pacific, 12 PM Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern
“The Gospel According to John,” A Lenten Series with Fr. John Dear
Monday, March 10th. Session #1—4:00 PT/7 pm ET
Monday, March 17th. Session #2—4:00 PT/7 pm ET
Monday, March 24th. Session #3—4:00 PT/7 pm ET
Monday, March 31st. Session #4—4:00 PT/7 pm ET
Monday, April 7th. Session #5—4:00 PT/7 pm ET
Host Fr. John Dear on his 2024 Speaking Tour for his Forthcoming Orbis Book:
“The Gospel of Peace: A Commentary on Matthew, Mark and Luke from the Perspective of Nonviolence.”
For more info, click here
John Dear’s new book now available
“The Gospel of Peace:
Reading Matthew, Mark & Luke
from the Perspective of Nonviolence”
To invite John Dear to speak in your city, write to: john@beatitudescenter.org
Sign up to receive the Beatitudes Center Newsletter
We promise we will NOT share or sell your information to any 3rd party advertisers.
LATEST NEWS FROM THE BEATITUDES CENTER
Quote for the Day:
“The wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid. The calf and the lion will feed together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the
adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the God of peace as the waters cover the sea.”
(Isaiah 11:6–9)
Quote for the Day:
“I am called in the Word of God — as is everyone else — to the vocation of being human, nothing more and nothing less … To be a Christian
means to be called to be an exemplary human being. And to be a Christian categorically does not mean being religious. Indeed, all religious versions of the gospel are profanities. In the face of death, live humanly. In the middle of chaos, celebrate the Word. Amidst Babel, speak the truth. Confront the noise and verbiage and falsehood of death with the truth and potency and efficacy of the Word of God. Know the Word, teach the Word, nurture the Word, preach the Word, define the Word, incarnate the Word, do the Word, live the Word. And more than that, in the Word of God, expose death and all death’s works and wiles, rebuke lies,
cast out demons, exorcise, cleanse the possessed,
raise those who are dead in mind and conscience.”
–William Stringfellow
January 16, 2025
Dear friends, Christ’s peace!
Monday, Jan. 20th, is, among other things, the annual holiday in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. My guest on the next episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast” was Dr. King’s personal assistant, Civil Rights Leader, Dr. Bernard Lafayette. Our conversation will be posted on Monday morning at www.beatitudescenter.org, www.ncronline.org, Spotify, Apple, and many other platforms.
I first met Bernard twenty years ago when we co-led a memorable day to a large crowd in San Jose, which included the city council, about organizing their community around a vision of a more nonviolent city and nation.
The other day, Bernard spoke with me on the phone from his home in Alabama, and told stories about his journey with his friend John Lewis in the Nashville sit-in campaign to the Freedom Rides to working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Then one day, he said, Dr. King called him in Chicago and told him to pack up, move to Atlanta, and come work for him.
Bernard worked with him up until April 4, 1968. He met with Dr. King that day in the Lorraine Motel, and was asked to fly to D.C. and prepare a press conference for the following week about his upcoming Poor People’s Campaign. As he was walking out the door, Dr. King said to him, “And make a note—when we finish with that, let’s start to internationalize and institutionalize nonviolence.” With these last words, Dr. King left a mission that still remains.