Thursday, June 10, 2010

Excerpt For Thought

These are some excerpts/quotes from the book Fr. Banga lent me. Please don't take them by themselves but do think about them and see if God has anything in them for you. I have been studying the Bible this morning and found some verses that coincide, some of which I included. But again, study and pray before digesting. :-) :-) :-)

The infinite beauty of God is constantly being discovered anew. -- Gregory of Nyssa

O Divine Master,
grant that I may
not so much seek to be consoled
as to console,
to be understood
as to understand,
to be loved
as to love.
For it is in giving
that we receive,
it is in pardoning
that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying
that we are born to eternal life.
-- Francis of Assisi

The most devilish temptation facing anyone seeking a spiritual life is not the drama of flamboyant sin conquered but the quiet seduction of self-centered isolation.
We feel the pull of retreating from the world – from other people – of finding a haven of gentle, uninvolved serenity, the ultimate “warm-fuzzy”.
“Excuse me please, while I crawl inside myself and call it holiness.”
God looks like a way of getting away from it all.
But life in God is not an escape route, not life in a cocoon, but an insistent ongoing demand to move outside ourselves, to reverse the direction of our lives from hiding to involvement, to doing for others what we are tempted to reserve for ourselves.
It is not basking in the warm luxury of being understood but reaching out to understand, not so much seeking consolation but reaching out to console, pardoning others, all others, when the soft side of our souls would like to settle for being pardoned. -- taken from John Kirvan's “God Hunger”

Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. -- Colossians 3

If indeed we answer the knock [of God], it seems important to us that we carry with us all our defenses. We go dressed for the occasion, we look our Sunday best, we are careful to make clear that we need nothing. We prepare our answers and line them up like ducks in a row.

“We gave a church.”

To be empty-handed is not our style.

But it is what God looks for – a humble acknowledgment that sense and reason are not enough for this journey, not right for this meeting.

It is not the time or place to present resumes of our spiritual achievements. In the end they count for nothing. What we leave behind is what recommends us.

Our task is not to impress the One who knocks but simply to open the door. -- taken from John Kirvan's “God Hunger”

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. -- Philippians 2:13

God gives his gifts where he finds the vessel empty enough to receive them. -- C. S. Lewis

God gives where he finds empty hands. -- St. Augustine

A man whose hands are full of parcels cannot receive a gift. -- C.S. Lewis

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. -- Isaiah 64: 6

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. -- Romans 3: 23 – 24

His truth and his love pervade all things as the light and heat of the sun. -- Thomas Merton

Our lives go on. So if we are to find God it will have to be where we are at any given moment – not just in the bright, glowing times and places when the world is a very special place or in the worst of times when he seems our only and last refuge, but in the ordinary confining, demanding, and rarely dramatic days of our lives. -- taken from John Kirvan's “God Hunger”

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness... for when I am weak, then am I strong. -- 2 Corinthians 12

1 comment:

Ashley C said...

I loved the quote from "God Hunger"--it is so true. =)