Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld – death, Sep.18,

God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason. – Dag Hammarskjöld (exact source unknown)
I am the vessel. The draft is God’s. And God is the thirsty one. – Dag Hammarskjöld (exact source unknown)

 

I never discuss discussions. – Dag Hammarskjöld (exact source unknown)

 

In the last analysis, it is our conception of death which decides our answers to all the questions that life puts to us. – Dag Hammarskjöld (exact source unknown)

 

Never for the sake of peace and quiet deny your convictions. – Dag Hammarskjöld (exact source unknown)

 

To forgive oneself? No, that doesn’t work: we have to be forgiven. But we can only believe this is possible if we ourselves can forgive. – Dag Hammarskjöld (exact source unknown)

 

Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others can receive your orders without being humiliated.
– Dag Hammarskjöld (exact source unknown)

 

From scholars and clergymen on my mother’s side, I inherited a belief that, in the very radical sense of the Gospels, all men were equals as children of God… – Dag Hammarskjöld, from a radio peace (1953)

 

Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld, on this date, 9/18/1961, died in Africa.  As a Swedish statesman and peacemaker, voted the second secretary-general of the UN (1953 and 1957) he was en route to negotiate a ceasefire between Katanga troops and United Nations forces.  Hammarskjöld was born 7/29/1905. 

 

NOTE: The above is not an endorsement of the UN (I am opposed to it) nor is it a full endorsement of Hammarskjöld.  This post is prompted by three things: 1) I remember his name from my childhood,  2) Today is the 50^th anniversary of his death (possibly killed on purpose),  3) It is refreshing that he, though a UN official, so freely speaks of God and the Gospels.