Bernardine W.

“If the churches came to understand that the greatest threat to faith today is not hedonism but distraction, perhaps they might begin to appeal to a frazzled digital generation. Christian leaders seem to think that they need more distraction to counter the distraction. Their services have degenerated into emotional spasms, their spaces drowned with light and noise and locked shut throughout the day, when their darkness and silence might actually draw those whose minds and souls have grown web-weary.”
― Ruth Haley Barton, Invitation to Retreat: The Gift and Necessity of Time Away with God

“O merciful God, whatever you may deny me, do not deny me this love. Save me from the idolatry of loving the world, or any of the things of the world. Let me never love any creature but for your sake and in subordination to your love. Take full possession of my heart; raise there your throne and command there as you do in heaven. Being created by you, let me live to you; being created for you, let me ever act for your glory; being redeemed by you, let me render to you what is yours and let my spirit ever cleave to you alone. John Wesley”
― Trevin K. Wax, Psalms in 30 Days: CSB Edition

“Your desire for more of God than you have right now, your longing for love, your need for deeper levels of spiritual transformation than you have experienced so far is the truest thing about you. You might think that your woundedness or your sinfulness is the truest thing about you or that your giftedness or your personality type or your job title or your identity as husband or wife, mother or father, somehow defines you. But, in reality, it is your desire for God and your capacity to reach for more of God than you have right now that is the deepest essence of who you are.”
― Ruth Haley Barton, Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation

“The truth dazzles gradually,” wrote Emily Dickinson, “or else the world would go blind.”
― Robert Benson, In Constant Prayer