Photo by Shauna Hambrick Jones

The end is reconciliation;

The end is redemption;

the end is the creation of the beloved community.

It is this type of love that can transform opposers into friends.

It is this type of goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age

into the exuberant gladness of the new age.

It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts

of humankind.

— Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Facing the Challenge of a New Age,” 1956

(Thanks to the Congregational Church of Middlebury UCC for the benediction, Sunday, January 19, 2014.)