The bias of the criminal justice system must be to strictly limit the power of the state over its citizens as far as this is possible while protecting the safety of others. State officials must never lose a sense of the grave dangers of their power. from Introducing...
The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your life also against being opened up and transformed by the holy power that life itself comes from. You can survive on...
Twelve-Step spirituality rediscovered the real transformative power that is the core of the Gospel. It is the spirituality of imperfection that Jesus taught, Paul clarified, Francis and Clare lived, and Thérèse of Lisieux brought to light for the modern world....
While it appears that the powers of this world—whether they be political, religious, military, or economic—are having their way now, this is not the whole (or even the real) picture. These pretend gods are on a very short leash. Their kingdoms will not last. One day...
God's mercy can make even the driest land become a garden, can restore life to dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14). ...Let us be renewed by God's mercy; let us be loved by Jesus; let us enable the power of His love to transform our lives; and let us become agents of this...
We must never underestimate our power to be wrong when talking about God...A generous orthodoxy, in contrast to the tense, narrow, or controlling orthodoxies of so much of Christian history, doesn't take itself too seriously. It is humble. It doesn't claim too much....
The absolute religious genius of Jesus is that he utterly refuses all debt codes, purity codes, religious quarantines, and the searching for sinners. He refuses the very starting point of historic religions. He refuses to divide the world into the pure and the impure,...
And yes, I still am terrified every day. Yet fear can be love trying its best in the dark. So do not fear your fear. Own it. Free it. This isn't a liberation that I or anyone can give you--it's a power you must look for, learn, love, lead and locate for yourself. Why?...
We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this we are less prone to hate our enemies....
It is, I think, easy to underestimate the attracting power of unconditional love. But in the person of Jesus it was captivating to many people who lived when he lived, and has become the foundation for millions since… faithfulness in following Jesus’ call to...