Mark Townsend > Quotes

“Faith clearly means ‘to move forward without knowing.’ But for the last 300 years at least it’s meant ‘to know every-thing with certainty.’ How has a word come to mean the exact opposite of what is originally meant?”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“I remember my wise friend James Fahey’s words, “Let them live their lives exactly as they choose.” In other words let it all go. Focus, rather, only on my own life, for that is all I have the right to do. I have no business at all trying to fix, control, change or influence anyone else, period! If people insist on demonising me, or stopping me doing things out of fear and control, then let them. I’ve met so many open, loving, peace-filled and thoroughly magical new friends over the last two years that I’m much better off in the true friend department anyway.”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“the Divine-Me is God-centred, which also means self-less. It is unconcerned with self-preservation. The Divine-Me is outward looking, forgiving and content. The Divine-Me is secure without the need of achieving; secure because of being made in the image and likeness of God. The Divine-Me has a natural ability to ‘Let Go and Let God’. The Divine-Me is un-offendable.”
― Mark Townsend, The Gospel of Falling Down: The Beauty Of Failure In An Age Of Success

“Celtic myths of the Mabon and of the powerful forces of nature that we anthropomorphise into gods and goddesses. And I can touch the hand of the Christ child there too, for he is representative of us all, of our own divine status as daughters and sons of God.”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“If we think we can turn ourselves into the perfect Christian, we have missed the point of the entire Gospel, and will be making the Christ within us harder to see, not easier. We will be adding more layers and more clutter that one day will simply have to be removed”
― Mark Townsend, The Gospel of Falling Down: The Beauty Of Failure In An Age Of Success

“3 What is Christianity – the central truths?
If every religion has a major gift which I believe they do, then what is Christianity’s gift to the world? I believe it is the Christ image of a god being plunged into raw, messy, sinful, human, broken life. He is a powerful symbol of a divine connectedness to all things, even the shit.”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“Only those who have reached the limit of themselves, with nothing to offer in their own defence, fall into the abyss of love. In fact only sinners understand the gospel. It is not available to anyone else.3 David Runcorn”
― Mark Townsend, The Gospel of Falling Down: The Beauty Of Failure In An Age Of Success

“This faith stuff, this religion stuff, is not about words, or even beliefs, it’s about relationships and people.”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“Peter Owen Jones really helped me to see how I can be both. I do not need to choose and I do not need to mix them either.”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“My Letter to God: Source of all. What’s happening? Why the confusion? Why do I still continue to make life so difficult for myself? I am so blessed, so free, so spiritually rich, yet still can’t grasp who I am or even who you are! There are so many contradictions. There is so much I don’t understand. I don’t know where I belong anymore. I can’t see a way to a community where I can grow/develop/explore. I still love Jesus but find his church so hard, even meaningless at times. I love the Druid path but still feel drawn to a great God/dess, a holding, healing, loving presence. Where has my Jesus gone? Where is he now? Who is he now? Can I still somehow follow you, Jesus, and also continue my Pagan journey? What is the way for me now? Please guide me. What is my new calling? I still love you!”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“Out there, in nature’s cathedral everything becomes one.”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“What perfect timing. Amidst all the turmoil caused by humans God sends his/her animal messengers to soothe our troubled minds.”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“Francis also did everything in his power to get his people to stay at the bottom or at the edge and never at the top. He didn’t even want his friars to be priests/clergy. He said, “You can’t preach the gospel if you’re part of the structures of power.”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“Spirituality is about seeing, waking up out of a deep sleep, remembering what”
― Mark Townsend, The Gospel of Falling Down: The Beauty Of Failure In An Age Of Success

“Philip and I were chatting and he told me about how, apparently, when a mother is about to give birth, it is the baby itself that triggers the event. The baby apparently secretes something which makes the environment toxic and so, basically, what was (for nine months) a place of security, safety, warmth and “home,” becomes a place of toxicity. That is such a powerful metaphor for my current situation. The environment where we are nurtured, supported, held, fed and made secure sometimes needs to let us go, in order to not let us stagnate or be poisoned.”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“Humanity is walking on the gold mine of the kingdom of God, but does not know it.”
― Mark Townsend, The Gospel of Falling Down: The Beauty Of Failure In An Age Of Success

“just as we all know what it means to witness something being broken, we also know what it means to hope for restoration.”
― Mark Townsend, The Gospel of Falling Down: The Beauty Of Failure In An Age Of Success

“He said he was both Muslim and Taoist.”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“Brokenness is a fact of life for us all, and I’m not just talking about physical breaking. Many of us have also had more than a taste of emotional brokenness too.”
― Mark Townsend, The Gospel of Falling Down: The Beauty Of Failure In An Age Of Success

“Thus, once again, there need be no real contradictions between Druidry and Christianity here.”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“The little-me is egocentric, concerned with self-preservation and inward looking. It has a habit of being judgemental, both to self and to others. It is critical, insecure, needy, defensive and proud. The little-me is only ever secure in achievement and is therefore highly fragile and easily offended. The little-me wants to control and manage, and cannot easily let go.”
― Mark Townsend, The Gospel of Falling Down: The Beauty Of Failure In An Age Of Success

“Oh my word, three huge ravens just flew gracefully over my head. Beautiful.”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“remembering what I had forgotten; of rediscovering what had been submerged under mental clutter.”
― Mark Townsend, The Gospel of Falling Down: The Beauty Of Failure In An Age Of Success

“Without the Word of God no creature has meaning. God’s Word is in all creation, visible and invisible. The Word is living, being, spirit, all verdant greening,
all creativity. This Word manifests in every creature. Now this is how the spirit is in the flesh—the Word is
indivisible from God —Hildegard of Bingen101”
― Mark Townsend, Jesus through Pagan Eyes: Bridging Neopagan Perspectives with a Progressive Vision of Christ

“Rohr said that dualistic thinking is necessary for us to live/survive, but there comes a point where it can go no further, it hits the ceiling, especially when it comes to describing spirituality or God.”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“Nature is a beautiful gift of magic.”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“Jesus died (was murdered) not as a divine sacrifice but because he threatened both “church” and “state.” He threatened religion by making it superfluous. He pointed to the one-ness that already exists between the divine and the material worlds (us). Temple structures and priesthoods that perpetuate a “separated universe” need to remember this.”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“the two steps back (the falling) are as important as the three steps forward.”
― Mark Townsend, The Gospel of Falling Down: The Beauty Of Failure In An Age Of Success

“How sad. I’ve just had a walk down The Grange and passed an angry old man from my old church. He just turned round, stood, and glared, shaking his head at me. I don’t understand why people are sometimes so hostile and never seem to be able to let go. This poor chap and many like him have attended church every week of their lives, and yet it seems to have had no impact whatsoever on their characters. Alas, it is a mystery indeed.”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest

“He said he was concerned about what could still happen to me. I could still be vilified and seen as dangerous, therefore losing me the last remaining bit of respectability I have with the Christian world. I said that after everything I’d been through for the sake of integrity, how could I allow fears like that to control me?”
― Mark Townsend, Diary of a Heretic: The Pagan Adventures of a Christian Priest