Every moment and every situation challenges us to action
and to obedience. We have literally no time to sit down and
ask ourselves whether so-and-so is our neighbor or not. We
must get into action and obey -- we must behave like a neighbor
to him. But perhaps this shocks you. Perhaps you still think
you ought to think out beforehand and know what you ought to
do. To that, there is only one answer. You can only know and
think about it by actually doing it. It is no use asking
questions; for it is only through obedience that you come to
learn the truth.
... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), The Cost of Discipleship

When the eyes of the soul looking out meet the eyes of God
looking in, heaven has begun right here on this earth.
... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948]

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To put it shortly, the Church forgets that Christianity is
not an attitude of mind, but a type of life: a man's spirit is
not known by his opinion, but by his action and general
conduct.
... William Temple (1881-1944)

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During the last year or so, I have come to appreciate the
"worldliness" of Christianity as never before. The Christian
is not a homo religiosus but a man, pure and simple, just as
Jesus became man... It is only by living completely in this
world that one learns to believe. One must abandon every
attempt to make something of oneself, whether it be a saint, a
converted sinner, a churchman, a righteous man, or an
unrighteous one, a sick man or a healthy one... This is what I
mean by worldliness -- taking life in one's stride, with all
its duties and problems, its successes and failures, its
experiences and helplessness... How can success make us
arrogant or failure lead us astray, when we participate in the
sufferings of God by living in this world?
... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945),
Letters and Papers from Prison

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If there were a righteousness which a man could have of his
own, then we should have to concern ourselves with the question
of how it can be imparted to him. But there is not. The idea
of a righteousness of one's own is the quintessence of sin.
... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998)

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The most dangerous man in the world is the contemplative
who is guided by nobody. He trusts his own visions. He obeys
the attractions of an interior voice but will not listen to
other men. He identifies the will of God with anything that
makes him feel, within his own heart, a big, warm, sweet
interior glow. The sweeter and the warmer the feeling is, the
more he is convinced of his own infallibility.
... Thomas Merton (1915-1968), Seeds of Contemplation [1949]

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Jesus Christ is a God whom we approach without pride, and
before whom we humble ourselves without despair.
... Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées

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A man can not be "friends with" God on any other terms than
complete obedience to Him, and that includes being "friends
with" his fellow man. Christ stated emphatically that it was
quite impossible, in the nature of things, for a man to be at
peace with God and at variance with his neighbor. This
disquieting fact is often hushed up, but it is undeniable that
Christ said it, and the truth of it is enshrined in the
petition for forgiveness in the "Lord's Prayer."
... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Your God is Too Small [1953]

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We think of the early sacrifices of those early Christians;
but what struck them was the immensity of their inheritance in
Christ. Take that one phrase (surely the most daring that the
mind of man ever conceived), "We are the heirs of God." That
is what they felt about it, that not God Himself could have a
fuller life than theirs, and that even He would share all that
He had with them! Tremendous words that stagger through their
sheer audacity! And yet, here we are, whispering about the
steepness of the way, the soreness of the self-denial, the
heaviness of the cross, whining and puling, giving to those
outside the utterly grotesque impression that religion is a
gloomy kind of thing, a dim, monastic twilight where we sit and
shiver miserably, out of the sunshine that God made for us, and
meant us to enjoy -- that it is all a doing that nobody would
naturally choose, and refraining from what everyone would
naturally take: a species of insurance money grudgingly doled
out lest some worse thing come upon us.
... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954),
From the Edge of the Crowd [1924]

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Those who complain that they make no progress in the life
of prayer because they "cannot meditate" should examine, not
their capacity for meditation, but their capacity for suffering
and love. For there is a hard and costly element, a deep
seriousness, a crucial choice, in all genuine religion.
... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)

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There is joy and strength, of course, in this holy food and
drink, but it is also an inevitable joining forces with the
vast Scheme of reconciliation and redemption. Now there is
something in our natural selves that may well make us wary of
such a contact. The man who in his heart intends to go on
being selfish or proud, or who has already decided how far his
Christian convictions should carry him, is probably obeying a
sound instinct when he keeps away from this glorious but
perilous Sacrament. For, if the truth be told, men are often
willing to put their trust in a god who in the end must be
triumphant, simply because they want to be on the winning side;
but they are not nearly so ready to bear any part of the cost
of that winning. Yet the fellowship of the broken bread and
the poured-out wine can mean no less than that.
... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Appointment with God [1956]

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Faith is the soul's consciousness of its Divine
relationship and exalted destiny. It is the recognition by
man's higher nature of sources of comfort and hope beyond
anything that sense-knowledge discloses. It is the
consciousness of a Divine Father toward Whom goes out all that
is in affection and highest in moral aspiration; it is the
premonition of a future life of which the best attainment here
is but the twilight promise. In our day, the sudden and vast
revelation of material wonders unsteadies and dims for the
moment the spiritual sight; but the stars will shine clear
again.
The truth-seeking spirit and the spirit of faith, instead
of being opposed, are in the deepest harmony. The man whose
faith is most genuine is most willing to have its assertions
tested by the severest scrutiny. And the passion for truth has
underlying it a profound conviction that what is real is best;
that when we get to the heart of things we shall find there
what we most need. Faith is false to itself when it dreads
truth, and the desire for truth is prompted by an inner voice
of faith.
... George Springs Merriam (1843-1914), A Living Faith [1876]

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Consider yourself as always wrong, as having gone aside,
and lost your right path, when any delight, desire, or trouble,
is suffered to live in you, that cannot be made a part of this
prayer of the heart to God. For nothing so infallibly shows us
the true state of our heart, as that which gives us either
delight or trouble; for as our delight and trouble is, so is
the state of our heart: if therefore you are carried away with
any trouble or delight, that has not an immediate relation to
your progress in the divine life, you may be assured your heart
is not in its right state of prayer to God. [Continued
tomorrow]
... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749]

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The way to be a man of prayer, and be governed by its
spirit, is not to get a book full of prayers; but the best help
you can have from a book, is to read one full of such truths,
instructions, and awakening informations, as force you to see
and know who, and what, and where, you are; that God is your
all; and that all is misery, but a heart and life devoted to
him. This is the best outward prayer book you can have, as it
will turn you to an inward book, and spirit of prayer in your
heart, which is a continual longing desire of the heart after
God, his divine life, and Holy Spirit. When, for the sake of
this inward prayer, you retire at any time of the day, never
begin till you know and feel, why and wherefore you are going
to pray; and let this why and wherefore, form and direct
everything that comes from you, whether it be in thought or in
word. [Continued tomorrow]
... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749]

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No vice can harbor in you, no infirmity take any root, no
good desire can languish, when once your heart is in this
method of prayer; never beginning to pray, till you first see
how matters stand with you; asking your heart what it wants,
and having nothing in your prayers, but what the known state of
your heart puts you upon demanding, saying, or offering, unto
God. A quarter of an hour of this prayer, brings you out of
your closet a new man; your heart feels the good of it; and
every return of such a prayer, gives new life and growth to all
your virtues, with more certainty, than the dew refreshes the
herbs of the field: whereas, overlooking this true prayer of
your own heart, and only at certain times taking a prayer that
you find in a book, you have nothing to wonder at, if you are
every day praying, and yet every day sinking further and
further under all your infirmities. [Continued tomorrow]
... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749]

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For your heart is your life, and your life can only be
altered by that which is the real working of your heart. And
if your prayer is only a form of words, made by the skill of
other people, such a prayer can no more change you into a good
man, than an actor upon the stage, who speaks kingly language,
is thereby made to be a king: whereas one thought, or word, or
look, towards God, proceeding from your own heart, can never be
without its proper fruit, or fail of doing a real good to your
soul. Again, another great and infallible benefit of this kind
of prayer is this; it is the only way to be delivered from the
deceitfulness of your own hearts. [Continued tomorrow]
... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Prayer [1749]

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Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.

Margaret Lee Runback
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I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people
convinced that they are about to change the world, I am more awed by
those
who struggle to make one small difference after another.

Ellen Goodman
(American Journalist)

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