Rachael W’s Reviews > Centered: The Spirituality of Word on Fire > Status Update

“Baptism introduces the divine life into a; confession restores it when it’s lost through sin; confirmation strengthens it; matrimony and holy orders, give it vocational directions; anointing of the Sych prepares us for the transition to our heavenly homeland. What’s this all about? Deification.“

“If Mary is the one through whom Christ was born, and if the church is Christ’s mystical body, then she must be, in a very real sense, the Mother of the church. She is the one through whom Jesus continues to be born in the hearts of those who believe.“

“Yet this mysterious Christ insisted that Saul was harassing him personally-‘ I am Jesus, whom your persecuting’ - a claim that makes sense only upon the condition that Jesus has identified himself with his followers in a matter, so vivid and incarnate that when they suffer, he suffers.“

“Unless you crucify your ego, you cannot be my follower, Jesus says.” - You have to die to find Jesus. To be embraced by the fulness of his love you have to allow (that is, choose) yourself to be totally vulnerable (crucified), exposed.

“Enemies are also our brothers and our sisters. Notice, please, that I am not denying that we have enemies, real enemies, who are wicked, twisted, violent, and dangerous. But it is a Christian conviction that all of that evil is not telling the deepest truth about the enemy. The deepest truth is that he or she is a child of God, and thus worthy of our love.”

“Love is to resist the centripetal force that compels one to assume the attitudes of self protection.” - love is vulnerability

“Faith… is a signal, coming from the depths of our existence, that we want to cooperate with Grace.”

Love is a theological virtue. Not a habit or capacity that that comes from its cultivation… But as a gift from God. Real love is only possible amongst humans in as much as we participate in God’s love.

“Biblical religion is not primarily about our quest for God; it is about God‘s quest for us. For the authors of the Bible, the interesting thing is not that we seek joy and spiritual fulfillment. The interesting thing is that God seeks us with a reckless abandon.” - “The Pursuing God,” Homily

“The glory of God is a human being fully alive” - St Irenaeus