Darin Lovelace

“Yes, man is a physical being. But already, on the first page of the Bible, we learn that man can’t be explained as a merely physical being—a collection of cells, tissues, and organs. Human beings transcend the categories of chemistry and biology. Ultimately, man can only be understood in relation to God. This great mystery of creation—that we are created in God’s image—is the key reference point for understanding all aspects of humanity, including our sexuality.”
― John Paul II, Theology of the Body in Simple Language

“The loving God will always respect our freedom; He will not force or push us on the journey to faith. The taste of perfect being (home), love, truth, goodness, and beauty is an invitation, not an ultimatum, and so we must follow through with an act of belief and trust in the One who has created us for perfect fulfillment with one another in Him.”
― Robert J. Spitzer, Finding True Happiness: Satisfying Our Restless Hearts (Happiness, Suffering, and Transcendence Book 1)

“There is, however, a trade-off in pursuing the higher levels. We will have to give up the immediate gratification, intensity, and surface apparentness of the lower levels of happiness. As will be explained in the next chapter, this requires commitment, discipline, and good habits, because immediate gratification, intensity, and surface apparentness make Levels One and Two hard to resist. They are like a “default drive”, because they are enticing, intense in their fulfillment, and immediately gratifying. Moreover, our culture promotes them as if they are the only things worth striving for and can be completely satisfying and meaningful.”
― Robert J. Spitzer, Finding True Happiness: Satisfying Our Restless Hearts (Happiness, Suffering, and Transcendence Book 1)

“For most people now have a rough but picturesque picture in their minds of the life and work of St. Francis of Assisi. And the shortest way of telling the other story is to say that, while the two men were thus a contrast in almost every feature, they were really doing the same thing. One of them was doing it in the world of the mind and the other in the world of the worldly. But it was the same great medieval movement; still but little understood. In a constructive sense, it was more important than the Reformation. Nay, in a constructive sense, it was the Reformation.”
― G.K. Chesterton, St. Thomas Aquinas