God's Wild Generosity

"The ancient art of spiritual direction is a way of affirming the simple truth of God's wild generosity. The spiritual director or friend of the soul is someone who listens to us lovingly and accurately and, by the gift of caring attention, reveals to us God's open heart. As such, spiritual direction has political and social implications of tremendous importance because it is, of its very essence, an antidote to violence. It is a strategy of inner disarmament — the dismantling of the arsenal of destruction we amass inside ourselves."
— Exploring Spiritual Direction

The Path of Metanoia

"Paranoia is a word that has entered the popular vocabulary. Literally, (although, of course, not technically) it means to be out of your mind. To be paranoid is to have lost your way, like Dante wandering in a land that is far from home. There is another word, which has not yet entered popular speech, for the turning of the mind to the lost home: metanoia.

"The path of metanoia is a way of glory which leads us home. Paranoia (to be out of your mind) is that process by which the mind is unhinged and the personality splintered and fragmented. Metanoia (to turn the mind, to be right in your mind), which is usually translated in the New Testament as repentance, means the restoration of mind, the coming together of the shattered fragments of the self. It means a turning to God as the source and the power of life."
— Journey Into Christ

Going Live

"We use the phrase 'going live' to describe an experience when life in all its fullness and fragility breaks upon our consciousness, when the here and now is as exciting as it gets. Real-time performance with all its inherent risks and rewards. Knowing what an awesome thing it is to be alive and aware. (The alternative is 'going dead' — an insidious process that can happen almost without our noticing as we pursue our busy lives, and that distorts and impoverishes our vision of life.)"
— Seasons of Grace

Gaining Spiritual Maturity

"We are addicted to security, to power, to substances and sex, to ideas, and to money. Spiritual maturity is a process of withdrawal from whatever dulls our pain and erodes our capacity for wonder. Listening to the pain of the world and responding in joy and wonder to its marvels are required of those who would enter the mystery of the Passion."
— Passion for Pilgrimage

The Gift of Tears

"The desert tradition claims a great deal for the power of tears. Tears are agents of resurrection and transformation; they can raise the dead. Such tears are certainly a gift.

It may be difficult for us to grasp the association between weeping and the bursting forth of new life. Something positive is released when tears flow. The common expression 'to have a good cry,' comes close to what is meant by the 'gift of tears;' at least it is a way of beginning to understand their liberating and cathartic effect.

The 'gift of tears,' however, is concerned with something much more radical, threatening, and life-bearing than the occasional and necessary release from tension that 'having a good cry' affords. The tears of which the desert bears witness are not tears of rage, self-pity, or frustration. They are a gift, and their fruit is always joy."
— Soul Making

The Fate of Christianity

"That's why the words that interest me more than the word God are authenticity, honesty, integrity, transformation and love. These come first and God comes later, much later, And concerning Christianity, I am not interested in its survival, in its adapting to the so-called modern world. Christianity doesn't need anyone to save it. If it has any truth, it will continue. If it hasn't, it deserves to die. As for me, I'm waiting for a more generous and inclusive version of the Old Story to emerge. I don't want so much to reinvent it as for it to reinvent me. How I understand myself is at stake."
— Reimagining Christianity