One asks, Is it politic?
One asks, Will it profit a man?
One asks, Is it legal?
One asks, Is it ethical?
One asks, Is it even practical?
One asks, Is it possible?

One asks, Is it blasphemy;
if so, against God or Mammon?

One says, pay attention
to the source.
One asks, By whose authority
do you heal the heartsick,
feed, teach; and pray,
is your work essential?
Can you say exactly
how much it would cost the world
were you to stay
the devil away?

Also from today’s Daily Office readings:

Hear, all you peoples, and behold my suffering; my maidens and my young men have gone into captivity. I called to my lovers but they deceived me; my priests and elders perished in the city while they sought food to revive their strength. Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress, my soul is in tumult, my heart is wrung within me. – Lamentation 1:18-19

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death; but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead; he delivered us from so deadly a peril, and he will deliver us; on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. – 2 Corinthians 1:8-10