Standing on the Mall on a brisk Friday evening, holding my “War is not the Answer” sign, I find that it’s a good time to examine why I am there in the first place. I don’t think it’s because of the thrill of hanging out with other aging “lefties,” although I must admit that these folks are a friendly and committed gaggle of conscienceraisers. Nor is it about counting the thumbs-up signs and the upturned digital fingers of passing motorists. I think that my motives are to put into action what I think and pray about.

I’ve come to believe that the road to spiritual peace runs through the dailiness of life, that faith is a composite of deep reflection and of action that can transform one into the kind of person one longs to be.

Richard Rohr, the director of the Center for Contemplation and Action in New Mexico writes that these concepts are forever connected and must never be separated. The great religious traditions all call for a balance of prayer and action on our spiritual journey. One cannot separate a personal spiritual life from its implications for social, economic and political justice. Rohr says that “You do not think yourself into a new way of living as much as you live your way into a new way of thinking.” Civil Rights activists called it “praying with your feet.” It’s what is called liberation theology, or “putting on the new man/woman.” It’s about waking up, allowing oneself to be transformed. It often involves taking a stand, to “comfort the afflicted and inflict the comfortable,” as someone has said. And that stand may consist of holding a sign, writing to a political representative, contributing a few dollars, as well as being silent and going within ourselves to ask a loving and compassionate God to lead us to a preferential option for the poor and the outsiders in our society. God tends to do that. It’s a balance of both action and contemplation.

By the way, if you are in Brunswick on Thursday, June 4, drop into the Curtis Memorial Library at 7 p.m. and hear Frida Berrigan, daughter of activist Phil Berrigan talk about her book, “It Runs in the Family.” She might just have something to tell us about action and contemplation.

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Ed McCartan is a member of PeaceWorks. He lives in Brunswick.