hope + fire

“My child, know that the greatest obstacles to holiness are discouragement and an exaggerated anxiety. These will deprive you of the ability to practice virtue. Do not lose heart in coming for pardon, for I am always ready to forgive you. As often as you beg for it, you glorify My mercy.”

God’s goal is always union, which is very different from any private perfection (which is merely a goal of the small ego). Our carefully constructed ego container must gradually crack open (see John 12:24) as we realize that we are not separate from God, from others, or from our True Selves. We see that we have an eternal soul. Our ego slowly learns to become the servant of the soul instead of its master.

“If obedience doesn’t give you peace, it’s because you’re proud.” 

“God! may I find again your voice / And your fragrance of vibrating light.”

“To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that Love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.”

“Why else were individuals created, but that God, loving all infinitely, should love each differently?”

“Do not believe your thoughts, neither when they tell you that you are terrible, nor when they tell you that you are a saint.”

“When you are conversing alone with the Lord, learn to be quiet at times. Act like a baby resting on its mother’s breast, expressing itself with simple glances of love at its mother’s face. Look at God this way with glances of faith and love.”

“At the heart of God’s humility is this: God willingly is wounded.”

““It is finished.” Reader, do you believe it? Or are you trying to add something of our own to the finished work of Christ to secure the favor of God?”