Trevecca

“Pride makes us unapproachable. (...) But if a person possesses a realistic assessment of who she is, whence she's come, and where her place is in the scheme of things, she has a good chance of accepting others for who they are, whence they've come, and what their place is in the scheme of things-- without necessarily approving of all that is included in the assessment.”
― Dennis Okholm, Monk Habits for Everyday People: Benedictine Spirituality for Protestants

“When we see faith leaders fawning over proximity to political power, don’t we feel the falseness of their faith? Don’t we know that they too have secretly confessed, “We have no king but Caesar”? “Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain, and abandon themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of gain.”
― Brian Zahnd, Postcards from Babylon: The Church In American Exile

“We have everyday habits—formative practices—that constitute daily liturgies. By reaching for my smartphone every morning, I had developed a ritual that trained me toward a certain end: entertainment and stimulation via technology. Regardless of my professed worldview or particular Christian subculture, my unexamined daily habit was shaping me into a worshiper of glowing screens. Examining my daily liturgy as a liturgy—as something that both revealed and shaped what I love and worship—allowed me to realize that my daily practices were malforming me, making me less alive, less human, less able to give and receive love throughout my day. Changing this ritual allowed me to form a new repetitive and contemplative habit that pointed me toward a different way of being-in-the-world.”
― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

“The first precondition of being called a spiritual leader is to perceive and feel the falsehood that is prevailing in society, and then to dedicate one’s life to a struggle against that falsehood. If one tolerates the falsehood and resigns oneself to it, one can never become a prophet. If one cannot rise above material life, one cannot even become a citizen in the Kingdom of the Spirit, far less a leader of others. —Vladimir Solovyov in his eulogy of Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1881”
― Brian Zahnd, Postcards from Babylon: The Church In American Exile