September 7, 2001
Deepest communion with God is beyond words, on the other side of silence.
Madeleine L'Engle
Bonasta
Oct 20, 2001
It's a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet, and what is sand.
July 2, 2002
Those who believe they believe in God but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself.
January 5, 2003
Only Christ can free us from the prison of legalism, and then only if we are willing to be freed.
February 27, 2003
What I believe is so magnificent, so glorious, that it is beyond finite comprehension. To believe that the universe was created by a purposeful, benign Creator is one thing. To believe that this Creator took on human vesture, accepted death and mortality, was tempted, betrayed, broken, and all for love of us, defies reason. It is so wild that it terrifies some Christians who try to dogmatize their fear by lashing out at other Christians, because tidy Christianity with all answers given is easier than one which reaches out to the wild wonder of God's love, a love we don't even have to earn.
September 12, 2003
Trouble always comes whenever we begin to take credit for any of the gifts of the Spirit, be they gifts of prayer, tongues, prophecy, art, science....Modern medicine suffers, despite all its advances, because it has almost completely forgotten that healing is a gift as well as a science.
December 8, 2003
So I go to church, not because of any legalistic or moralistic reasons, but because I am a hungry sheep who needs to be fed; and for the same reason that I wear a wedding ring: a public witness of a private commitment
September 8, 2004
I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally. I need a God who is with us always, everywhere, in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go wrong, when good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly.
October 25, 2004
We are all supposed to be obedient to that love, but we forget love whenever we want power over someone else. We human beings mess it up, over and over again, but God comes into our lives to help us overcome our stiff-neckedness. Indeed, God so loved the world that he sent his only-begotten Son to live with us and teach us how to be the fully human creatures our Maker has always planned for us to be.
Recommended Books by L'Engle
April 27, 2005
We tend to defend vigorously things that in our deepest hearts we are not quite certain about. If we are certain of something we know, it doesn't need defending.
August 14, 2005
There aren't any easy answers to the questions being raised today, and it may be too easy for me to remember Jesus saying, "Greater love has no man than to give up his life for his friend." Or wife, or children. Isn't staying with your family sometimes a real equivalent of giving up your own life? Cannot it sometimes be a blessing, especially if it is given with graciousness, not rigid rectitude? I believe that it can, because I know of families where this is what has happened. Sacrifice is no longer popular, but I think that sometimes it can lead to true joy. Even the simplest of unions does not come free. There is always sacrifice.
January 15, 2006
I love the small group of women with whom I meet weekly to discuss whatever book we have chosen and what it means in our lives and in our understanding of Christ. We do not try to coerce each other, even when we disagree. We try to listen to each other, and to God. Therefore, this group is for me another icon, and one that helps me to keep my eyes and ears open, and my mind ready to move and grow in understanding.
June 26, 2006
Refusing to accept God's love because we're unworthy - of course we're unworthy! - is another golden calf.
September 8, 2007
I share Einstein's affirmation that anyone who is not lost on the rapturous awe at the power and glory of the mind behind the universe "is as good as a burnt out candle."
January 26, 2008
I believe that we all have this dark underestimation of ourselves. Sometimes it is masked as arrogance, overestimation, superiority, but underneath the brashness he problem is insecurity and only unqualified, unmerited, unconditional love can assuage it.
April 6, 2008
The best way to help the world is to start by loving each other, not blandly, blindly, but realistically, with understanding and forebearance and forgiveness.
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