A treacherous adversary, but…
The devil can be a treacherous adversary; but in the end the poor fellow, quite against his will, also proves to be one of our best teachers, a real instrument of our sanctification!
« πλ | 1 Oct 2005 »
Quotes — Grace (42 entries)
All happenings…
All happenings, great and small, are parables whereby God speaks. The art of life is to get the message. To see all that is offered us at the windows of the soul, and to reach out and receive what is offered, this is the art of living.
« πλ | 27 Oct 2005 »
Each day offers us…
Each day offers us the gift of being a special occasion if we can simply learn that as well as giving, it is blessed to receive with grace and a grateful heart.
« πλ | 14 Sep 2005 »
Every blade of grass has…
Every blade of grass has an angel bending over it, saying, “Grow! Grow!”
« πλ | 5 Nov 2006 »
Give me insight…
Give me insight to observe your teaching,
to keep it with all my heart.
« πλ | 10 Jul 2005 »
God gives every bird feed…
God gives every bird feed, but He does not put it in the nest.
« πλ | 9 Mar 2005 »
God is shining through it all…
Life is this simple: We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent, and God is shining through it all the time. This is not just a fable or nice story. It is true. If we abandon ourselves to God and forget ourselves, we see it sometime, and we see it maybe frequently. God shows Himself everywhere, in everything—in people and in things and in nature and in events…we cannot be without Him. It’s impossible. The only thing is, we don’t see it.
« πλ | 13 Apr 2005 »
God rushes out to us…
One thing is clear and tangible to me in a way that it seldom has been: the world is full of God. From every pore, God rushes out to us, as it were. But we’re often blind. We’re stuck in the good times and the bad times and don’t experience them right up to the point where the spring flows forth from God. That’s true for pleasant experiences as well as unhappy ones. In everything, God wants us to celebrate encounter and asks for the prayerful response of surrender. The trick and the duty is only this: to develop a lasting awareness and a lasting attitude out of these insights and graces—or rather, to allow them to develop. Then life becomes free, in that freedom which we have often looked for.
« πλ | 19 Dec 2004 »
Grace of God is in Courtesy…
Of Courtesy, it is much less
Than Courage of Heart or Holiness,
Yet in my walks it seems to me
That the Grace of God is in Courtesy
« πλ | 8 Sep 2004 »
Grace they say is…
Grace they say is the meeting of two desires, God’s desire and your desire…it happens when one is open to the prompting of the Spirit. Passivity under the action of divine grace creates a spiritual being able to serve in truth and for God.
« πλ | 8 Jun 2006 »
Grace they say is…
Grace they say is the meeting of two desires, God’s desire and your desire…it happens when one is open to the prompting of the Spirit. Passivity under the action of divine grace creates a spiritual being able to serve in truth and for God.
« πλ | 8 Jun 2006 »
Grace touches nature…
Sacraments, like the Incarnation itself, constitute physical points at which the eternal touches time, or the unseen touches the seen, or grace touches nature.
« πλ | 26 Dec 2005 »
Impossible to resolve except by
When a contradiction is impossible to resolve except by a lie, then we know that it is really a door.
« πλ | 23 Aug 2006 »
In the geography of your own heart…
The healing of the world does not begin in some far-off land that we must hasten to help, but in the geography of your own heart. There the sinner is washed in mercy and becomes thereby an instrument of mercy, not merely by his prayers, but in everything he does. For he is a vessel of grace. We cannot heal all the world’s problems, but we begin with our own heart if our help is to amount to anything.
« πλ | 25 Jul 2005 »
It is not so much what happens…
It is not so much what happens to us, as how we react to what happens.
« πλ | 25 Feb 2005 »
Love is faith’s flower…
Love is faith’s flower, hope is its stem. Grace comes into us by faith, like water through the roots of a tree. It rises in us by hope, like sap rising through the trunk of a tree. And it matures in us by [love] as fruit matures on a tree’s branches, fruit for the neighbor’s eating.
« πλ | 3 Mar 2006 »
Man is born broken…
Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue!
— Eugene O’Neill
« πλ | 7 Feb 2006 »
Meaning of Grace
It is a touch of truth that lets you see the world in a new way. It is a gift that can only be felt when you are open enough to accept it.
« πλ | 6 Feb 2004 »
Mercy’s way…
Mercy is a quality not of the heart or mind, but of the soul. Mercy does not keep score or question the cost, but it has been known to move mountains, to change lives. Each act of Mercy redeems both the recipient and the giver. That is Mercy’s way.
« πλ | 27 Sep 2004 »
No matter how much tarnish…
No matter how much tarnish you think is on the tabernacle of your heart, you still shine because of God’s love.
« πλ | 5 Nov 2005 »
One moment of time…
Man can neither make, nor retain, one moment of time; it all comes to him by pure gift.
« πλ | 31 Aug 2004 »
Only God touches us…
Only God touches us in the present moment. Definitely not in our past. Not in our future. Only now. Only now is when the possibility has a chance to happen, if only we are open to it, open to God.
Maybe that is why we call it the “present”, as in “gift”?
« πλ | 7 Oct 2004 »
Our only qualitifcation for grace…
Our only qualitifcation for God’s grace is our emptiness, not our fullness; our undeservingness, not our deservingness.
« πλ | 9 Jan 2006 »
Pay Attention to Accidents
Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who by accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection with you.
Kind of like coincidences…
« πλ | 28 Jul 2005 »
Poetry may not save a soul…
Poetry may not save a soul, but it may force a soul into the precinct of its last invasion.
« πλ | 2 Jul 2006 »
So afraid of the brilliance…
One day passes and another day comes along, and everything happens the same. But basically, we are so afraid of the brilliance coming at us, and the sharp experience of our life, that we can’t even focus our eyes.
« πλ | 3 Jul 2006 »
So when you sense a change…
So when you sense a change,
Nothing feels the same,
All your dreams are strange,
Love comes walkin’ in.
« πλ | 30 Nov 2004 »
The best and most beautiful things…
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched—they must be felt with the heart.
« πλ | 7 Nov 2004 »
The best things in life…
The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.
« πλ | 13 Oct 2005 »
The burden of afflictions…
Without the burden of afflictions, it is impossible to reach the height of grace. The gift of grace increases as the struggles increase.
« πλ | 9 Sep 2005 »
The rivers of Grace cannot flow uphill…
The rivers of Grace cannot flow uphill, up the steep cliff of the proud man’s heart.
« πλ | 7 Nov 2005 »
The soul should always stand ajar…
The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.
« πλ | 22 Oct 2005 »
The void inside us…
It is grace that forms the void inside us and it is grace that can fill the void.
« πλ | 9 May 2005 »
This is salvation…
This, then, is salvation: When we marvel at the beauty of created things and praise their beautiful Creator.
« πλ | 15 Oct 2004 »
To fall into the impiety of…
For a Christian to say, “I will not have anything to do with the great and worthy works of artists whose lives were not good” is to fall into the impiety of questioning the wisdom of God in bestowing gifts of grace where He wills.
« πλ | 28 Jun 2006 »
Very few people realize…
There are very few people who realize what God would make of them if they abandoned themselves into His hands, and let themselves be formed by His grace.
« πλ | 21 Aug 2004 »
We are created to communicate God to each other…
We are created to communicate God to each other, and while it’s dead easy to fail to do that, it’s also not that hard to succeed—since, after all, it’s by God’s grace that we succeed, which mostly requires us not actively hindering it. We can succeed even when neither we nor those we’re communicating with have any explicit idea God is involved. He’s sort of irrepressible that way.
« πλ | 11 Dec 2003 »
We are not to choose…
We are not to choose the manner in which our blessings shall be bestowed.
Whose will are you trying to follow, God’s or yours?
« πλ | 7 Sep 2004 »
When you see Jesus as…
When you see Jesus as your Treasure, the Spirit has blown through your heart.
« πλ | 5 Jun 2005 »
Yesterday is History…
Yesterday is History.
Tomorrow is a Mystery.
Today is a Gift…
That’s why it’s called the Present!
« πλ | 1 Dec 2003 »
![[Jerusalem Cross with Heart]](http://cowpi.com/journal/grafiks/jerusalem-cross-heart.gif "Jerusalem Cross with Heart")