“But the very demons who drive you have another side. They alone can peer into the depths. The wounds that we breathe into – that we really allow to have their say – will guide us beyond social conventions and constraints to power a profound, authentic creativity and spiritual understanding.”
“On May 16, 1983, a civil war began there that lasted twenty-two years. Over a million members of the Episcopal Church of the Province of the Sudan died.”
“It’s no longer new, this fishing-for-people business. Since Peter, Andrew, James and John were first called into the practice, it has been 2,000 years.”
“Here we are, God’s people. Now what? We are the inheritors of the upside down understanding that is Christ’s message to the world. We have seen something that has changed the human heart forever.”
“The new commandment is both very simple and very complex. To give my life for love is not for me one giant act, for instance taking a bullet for someone. There could be an occasion when that is the expression of my love, but that’s not what I aim for in following Christ.”
“As I wipe off the chalice and drape it with a purificator I reflect that I am not a very shiny vessel. And yet God has chosen to abide in my heart.”
“He will have to be dealt with, though, or he’ll be back. If his followers cannot be convinced he’s a charlatan, you will have to wait for a time when he is not protected by them. Doesn’t he go off alone sometimes to “pray”? Well, then, maybe you can recruit a spy and set a trap.”
“God said, in essence, ‘you can run, but you cannot hide.’ And so Moses became an emissary to Pharaoh. And he was finally able to lead his people out of their captivity.”
“In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus forecasts that many of his listeners will die in their sins, for they are not hearing the “I Am” of his presence among us. They are not seeing in him the incarnation of God. They will look for him and not be able to find him.”
“This is a common thread through the Gospels: no one can serve two masters, so we need to figure out who and what is most important to us. We need to count up the cost of discipleship and either commit all the way or do something else with our lives.”