Keep a clear eye toward life’s end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God’s creature. What you are in His sight is what you are and nothing more. Do not let worldly cares and anxieties or the pressures of office blot out the divine life within you or the voice of God’s spirit guiding you in your great task of leading humanity to wholeness. If you open yourself to God and his plan printed deeply in your heart, God will open himself to you.
St. Francis
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.
Jesus-Matthew 11:28-30
We must care for our bodies as though they were going to live forever, but we must care for our souls as if we are going to die tomorrow.
Augustine
What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
St. Paul-1 Corinthians 4:7
There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.
GK Chesterton
Joy and resentment cannot coexist.
Henri Nouwen-The Return of the Prodigal Son
We are therefore entrepreneurs of our lives, and each and every one of us is responsible for making the most of our talents and resources, exercising our callings, engaging fully in making a difference in our spheres of influence, and doing our utmost to help our neighbors in their need-including relieving their suffering and taking a stand against the evil that oppresses them…when we each exercise our responsible significance, and the significance of each of our callings overlaps with those of others, the ripples we make together can spread far and wide.
Os Guinness- Unspeakable: Facing up to the Challenge of Evil
Better than baptisms or marriages, funerals press the noses of the faithful against the windows of their faith…The afterlife begins to make the most sense after life-when someone we love is dead on the premises.
Thomas Lynch-the Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade
All this flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.
Peace, reassurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love-a scholar’s parrot may talk Greek-
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.
Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack. I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, and grow a man. And now the bridge is breaking
CS Lewis-Through the Shadowlands (when his wife, Joy, was dying…)
Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.
St. Paul-1 Corinthians 13:4-7 The Message
Jesus said the kingdom of God is within, yet for two thousand years after him, we have kept looking outward for this kingdom rather than inside us. I am absolutely convinced of this one thing: God has placed cravings within your soul that will drive you insane or drive you to him. Your soul longs for God; you just may not know it yet…We run from the One our souls crave. It is insanity to run from God and search for love.
Erwin McManus-Soul Cravings
To exert thought is like digging a well. At first there is only muddy water. Later on, after one has done some drawing, clear water will come out. One’s thoughts are always muddy at first. After a long while they will naturally be nicely clear.
Cheng Yi
St. Francis
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.
Jesus-Matthew 11:28-30
We must care for our bodies as though they were going to live forever, but we must care for our souls as if we are going to die tomorrow.
Augustine
What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
St. Paul-1 Corinthians 4:7
There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.
GK Chesterton
Joy and resentment cannot coexist.
Henri Nouwen-The Return of the Prodigal Son
We are therefore entrepreneurs of our lives, and each and every one of us is responsible for making the most of our talents and resources, exercising our callings, engaging fully in making a difference in our spheres of influence, and doing our utmost to help our neighbors in their need-including relieving their suffering and taking a stand against the evil that oppresses them…when we each exercise our responsible significance, and the significance of each of our callings overlaps with those of others, the ripples we make together can spread far and wide.
Os Guinness- Unspeakable: Facing up to the Challenge of Evil
Better than baptisms or marriages, funerals press the noses of the faithful against the windows of their faith…The afterlife begins to make the most sense after life-when someone we love is dead on the premises.
Thomas Lynch-the Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade
All this flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.
Peace, reassurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love-a scholar’s parrot may talk Greek-
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.
Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack. I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, and grow a man. And now the bridge is breaking
CS Lewis-Through the Shadowlands (when his wife, Joy, was dying…)
Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.
St. Paul-1 Corinthians 13:4-7 The Message
Jesus said the kingdom of God is within, yet for two thousand years after him, we have kept looking outward for this kingdom rather than inside us. I am absolutely convinced of this one thing: God has placed cravings within your soul that will drive you insane or drive you to him. Your soul longs for God; you just may not know it yet…We run from the One our souls crave. It is insanity to run from God and search for love.
Erwin McManus-Soul Cravings
To exert thought is like digging a well. At first there is only muddy water. Later on, after one has done some drawing, clear water will come out. One’s thoughts are always muddy at first. After a long while they will naturally be nicely clear.
Cheng Yi
You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics—in physical laws—every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It's clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I'm absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that "as you reap, so you will sow" stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I've done a lot of stupid stuff… I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I'd be in deep s---. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity…But I love the idea of the Sacrificial Lamb. I love the idea that God says, “Look, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there's a mortality as part of your very sinful nature, and, let's face it, you're not living a very good life, are you? There are consequences to actions.” The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That's the point. It should keep us humbled… It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven.
Bono-Bono in Conversation with Michka Assayas
Bono-Bono in Conversation with Michka Assayas
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