Most people have no idea what God would make of them if they would only place themselves at his disposal.
-Saint Ignatius Loyola
” I am the true vine and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me as I remain in you. Just as a branch can not bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.”
– John 15: 1-4
“I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. We’re here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and miracle of nature. You just have to get rid of so much baggage to be light enough to dance, to sing, to play. You don’t have time to carry grudges; you don’t have time to cling to the need to be right.”
– Anne Lamott
People who are reckless usually wind up in trouble because they do crazy things. Imagine being reckless for the kingdom of God. Just think what might happen. Friends of God loving one another around the earth. Heaven breaking open in our midst. We have the power to make this happen.”
―Ilia Delio, Franciscan Prayer
“Some things don’t matter much. Like the color of a house. How big is that in the overall scheme of life? But lifting a person’s heart–now, that matters. The whole problem with people is…they know what matters, but they don’t choose it…The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters.”
– Sue Monk Kidd
Perhaps nothing helps us make the movement from our little selves to a larger world than remembering God in gratitude. Such a perspective puts God in view in all of life, not just in the moments we set aside for worship or spiritual disciplines. Not just in the moments when life seems easy.
-Henri Nouwen
“By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, penetrates us, and molds us. We imagined it as distant and inaccessible, when in fact we live steeped in its burning layers”
– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ
Affirmation of life is the spiritual act by which man ceases to live un-reflectively and begins to devote himself to his life with reference, in order to raise it to its true value.
-Albert Schweitzer
“Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile…”
– Mother Teresa
