Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.
00499 – What Love Is Not
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00433 – Giving Christ Our Innermost Being
Why is it so hard to believe Christ and trust him completely? Christ wants to give us his life and spirit, and if we look to him for only a moment, our hearts tell us: Here is one we can trust. Yet each of us knows feelings of fear and anxiety. Something in us seeks...
00376 – Do Good
Do your little bit of good where you are; it is those little bits of good put all together that overwhelm the world.
00347 – Trying and Failing
We cannot discover our failure to keep God’s law except by trying our very hardest (and then failing). Unless we really try, whatever we say, there will always be at the back of our minds the idea that, if we try harder next time, we shall succeed in being completely...
00183 – Good for Us?
We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that...
00123 – Dying Before You Die
What is the wisdom that matters now? For me, it’s the Paschal Mystery [the passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus the Christ]. . . . Simply, the one who would save his life or her life will lose it and the one who’s willing to lose it, will save it. In...
00079 – Sometimes Truth Feels Uncomfortable
Our anger is moral. Our rage is sacred. Our anxiety contains wisdom. Our hearts are telling us the truth. If the truth makes others uncomfortable—good. Show me an alarm clock that makes a sweet sound and I’ll show you an alarm clock I can sleep through.
00077 – God’s Presence in Everyone?
It seems difficult for us to distinguish between our “personal” relationship with God and the rampant individualism we practice in our politics. Do we dare keep voting according to our pocketbooks and private morality? Yes, we are God’s beloved, but so is everyone...
00076 – A Community Called Beloved
I am convinced that a community-called-beloved is possible. This is an admittedly fragile possibility, but it is not a utopian dream. I believe that people of good will harbor a persistent hope that our planet can be a place of belonging for all its inhabitants. To...
00073 – Using Anger for Good
I have learned to use my anger for good. . . . Without it, we would not be motivated to rise to a challenge. It is an energy that compels us to define what is just and unjust.