Christians and the Old Testament (a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

"My thoughts and feelings seem to be getting more and more like those of the Old Testament. It is only when one knows the unutterability of the name of God that one can utter the name of Jesus Christ; it is only when one loves life and this earth so much that without them everything seems to be over that one may believe in the resurrection; it is only when one submits to God's law that one may speak of grace. It is not Christian to want to take our thoughts and feelings too directly from the New Testament." – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Way He Carries Me (a quote from Frederick Buechner)

"A Christian is one who points at Christ and says, 'I can't prove a thing, but there's something about his eyes and his voice. There's something about the way he carries his head, his hands, the way he carries his cross--the way he carries me.'" -- Frederick Buechner

Repentance of an Anti-Gay Bigot (a quote from Mark Osler)

"Are gays and lesbians sinners? It doesn't seem that way to me (other than the way in which we are all sinners), but at some level I really don't care. If it is a sin, it is not my sin. The sin that I need to discern, root out and identify is my own. One of those sins has been bigotry and senseless cruelty. I atone for and seek forgiveness for that now and here." — Mark Osler (read more here)

Understanding God (a quote from Augustine)

"If you understand God, then you're not talking about God." — Augustine (via my good friend Jamie Michaels)

The Feast of St. Francis: October 4

"Francis dares to live the Gospel the way I would like to live it, and he loves Jesus the way anyone would like to be loved… It is easier to rationalize and dismiss Jesus than Francis, because Jesus, after all, is divine and so far above us. But Francis is only human like us. What he is, we can become… What is so unique about Francis is that he does what we would like to do, and he does it in such a simple, ingenuous way that we know we could do the same if only we would." -- Murray Bodo, The Way of St. Francis: The Challenge of Franciscan Spirituality for Everyone
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Click here to read a great blog post by my dad about Francis.

A Prayer for Study (from Doctor Johnson's Prayers)

"Almighty God, in whose hands are all the powers of man; who givest understanding, and takest it away; who, as it seemeth good unto Thee, enlightenest the thoughts of the simple, and darkenest the meditations of the wise, be present with me in my studies and enquiries.

Grant, O Lord, that I may not lavish away the life which Thou hast given me on useless trifles, nor waste it in vain searches after things which Thou hast hidden from me.

Enable me, by thy Holy Spirit, so to shun sloth and negligence, that every day may discharge part of the task which Thou hast allotted me; and so further with thy help that labour which, without thy help, must be ineffectual, that I may obtain, in all my undertakings, such success as will most promote thy glory, and the salvation of my own soul, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen."

—From Doctor Johnson’s Prayers edited by Elton Trueblood

Reaching Out (a quote from Henri Nouwen)

"Only when we have come in touch with our own life experiences and have learned to listen to our inner cravings for liberation and new life can we realize that Jesus did not just speak, but that he reached out to us in our most personal needs. The Gospel doesn't just contain ideas worth remembering. It is a message responding to our individual human condition. The Church is not an institution forcing us to follow its rules. It is a community of people inviting us to still our hunger and thirst at its tables. Doctrines are not alien formulations which we must adhere to but the documentation of the most profound human experiences which, transcending time and place, are handed over from generation to generation as a light in our darkness." -- Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out

The Purpose of Grace (a quote from Martin Luther)

"Grace is given to heal the spiritually sick, not to decorate spiritual heroes."

Truth vs. Helpfulness (a quote from C. S. Lewis)

"If Christianity is untrue, then no honest man will want to believe it, however helpful it might be: if it is true, every honest man will want to believe it, even if it gives him no help at all."

God Is More Faithful (a quote from a devotional)

"We can be grateful that God is more faithful than we are." — Upper Room Daily Devotional

A Prayer from W. E. Orchard

Begotten of your love, O Father, we are made in your image. Cared for all our days, we are never beyond your sight. Enfolded in your heart, we are never out of your thought. To think of you is rest. To know you is eternal life. To see you is the end of all desire. To serve you is perfect freedom. To love you is everlasting joy. Amen.

— W. E. Orchard

Unity or Uniformity? (a quote from MLK, Jr.)

"Unity has never meant uniformity." — Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Parable of the Young Man and the Old (poem)

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned, both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake, and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And builded parapets the trenches there,
And stretched forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one. — Wilfred Owen

Loving in Sadness (a quote from G. K. Chesterton)

"When you do love a thing, its gladness is a reason for loving it, and its sadness a reason for loving it more." — G. K. Chesterton

Time for Prayer (a quote from Fr. Hilary)

"Until you are convinced that prayer is the best use of your time, you will not find time for prayer." — Fr. Hilary, OSB

Care: To Cry Out With (a quote from Henri Nouwen)

"The word 'care' finds its roots in the Gothic 'Kara' which means lament. The basic meaning of care is: to grieve, to experience sorrow, to cry out with. I am very much struck by this background of the word care because we tend to look at caring as an attitude of the strong toward the weak, of the powerful toward the powerless, of the have's toward the have-not's. And, in fact, we feel quite uncomfortable with an invitation to enter into someone's pain before doing something about it." — Henri Nouwen

Endless Forgiveness (a quote from Jean Vanier)

"Love is an act of endless forgiveness." — Jean Vanier

Serving Necessity (a quote from John Patrick)

"He who remains good simply because he must serves necessity, not God." — John M. Patrick

Too Tightly Tangled Together (quote)

"Christ did not descend from the cross except into the grave. And why not otherwise? Wouldn't it have put fine comical expressions on the faces of the scribes and the chief priests and the soldiers if at that moment He had come down in power and glory? Why didn't He do it? Why hasn't He done it at any one of a thousand good times between then and now?

I knew the answer. I knew it a long time before I could admit it, for all the suffering of the world is in it. He didn't, He hasn't, because from the moment He did, He would be the absolute tyrant of the world and we would be His slaves. Even those who hated Him and hated one another and hated their own souls would have to believe in Him then. From that moment the possibility that we might be bound to Him and He to us and us to one another by love forever would be ended.

And so, I thought, He must forbear to reveal His power and glory by presenting Himself as Himself, and must be present only in the ordinary miracle of the existence of His creatures. Those who wish to see Him must see Him in the poor, the hungry, the hurt, the wordless creatures, the groaning and travailing beautiful world.

I would sometimes be horrified in every moment I was alone. I could see no escape. We are too tightly tangled together to be able to separate ourselves from one another either by good or by evil. We all are involved in all and any good, and in all and any evil. For any sin, we all suffer. That is why our suffering is endless. It is why God grieves and Christ's wounds still are bleeding."

— Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow

My Physic and My Sword (quote)

The bloody cross of my dear Lord
Is both my physic and my sword. — George Herbert