Breath of Life

“Faith alone can overcome the world and the threat the world imposes. It does not follow that we lose the feeling of anxiety and fear – we would be poorer for that – but these now play a role that is creative not destructive. Fear can cripple, paralyse, prompt us to shirk and evade life. Faith enables us to live with reality, braving its challenge.”

“I don’t think anyone can feel God. Those who believe in him most are most aware of his non-feelability, as it were. God is such a total mystery.

“On the sure rock of God’s love we must build our lives. Every effort must be made to convince ourselves of this love: God’s unfailing, unshakable love for me, no matter what it feels like, no matter how unlike love it seems. What can matter in this life save to surrender to this love?”

“Courage, for the One you love, the only One who can heal your wound, dwells within you and invites you to intimacy.”

“The deepest part of our selves is far away, in our true country, beyond the land of thunder, frost, and ‘falling buildings,’ at the still center of the turning world.”

“Let yourself be loved. . . . That is, without fearing that any obstacle will be a hindrance to it.”

“I learn to delight in myself, that I am I and no one else. I despise nothing in myself except the desire to stand on self. I thank God for what he has done in the unique situation which is my life. Even my sins and failures, the black shadows, are seen in the context of love, perhaps fulfilling the same role as pieces of black lead in a stained-glass window, making the colour even more glorious.”

“Are you convinced that Jesus loves you in your absolute uniqueness? We are not a faceless crowd. The Lord is not content that you are content with touching his robe, he wants to be face to face with you. He wants your embrace, your kiss of love. No one can give him the particular love and the special joy that you can give.”

“Do not fear the void. Live in faith and hope, even though it be in darkness, for in this darkness God is supporting the soul.”

“What we cannot accept is that we are the beloved. . . . That I am the beloved. God longs for me, He presses on my heart with a tender, humble, hunger for me. He wants to possess me. . . . To be so loved and so wanted is so terrifying and so awful that we can see why we shrink from believing it.”