“We all stand in need of healing. We are all seeking wholeness. For most of us it is a most urgent and ever-present reality in our lives, one we may perhaps try to bury or neglect but which, if we are honest with ourselves, we find we cannot ignore. We all know also that unless we attend to our inner conflicts and contradictions, not only will we find ourselves torn apart by our inner divisions but also we shall very likely inflict wounds on those around us…. This healing of our divisions, this search for wholeness, must be an ongoing process. There is no once and for all moment when we can say that at last we are whole, the past is buried and over, the hurts forgotten, the wounds healed. Instead we find that it is to be a search that we must expect to continue throughout our lives” (By Esther deWaal, in Living with Contradiction).

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“When Paul addresses his letters to “the saints” he is clearly not speaking of the later Roman idea of canonized saints. He is speaking of the living communities of love who make up his audio-visual aids all over Greece and Asia Minor. Paul does not make heroes of individuals, but precisely as members of the Body do they “shine like stars” as “perfect children of God among a deceitful and underhanded brood” (Philippians 2:15). Following directly from Jesus, Paul sees his small communities as a certain and effective “leaven” by which God will eventually change the whole debauched Roman Empire. Social scientists now tell us that Paul was unbelievably successful in a mere ten-year period largely because he gave people back their dignity and self-esteem by telling them they were equally and fully “children of God.” This is still revolutionary, but this wonderful message lost most of its impact when the Church began operating as if some had that dignity and others did not” (By Richard Rohr in his Daily Meditation for Thursday, March 10, 2016).

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In our times there is a danger of thinking that everyone may become perfectly healed and find perfect unity in themselves and with others. This type of idealism is rampant everywhere…. Personally I am more and more convinced that there is no perfect healing. All human beings carry their own wounds, their own difficulties of relationships and their own anguishes” (By Jean Vanier in Man and Woman He Made Them).

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“Hope’s home is at the innermost point in us, and in all things. It is a quality of aliveness. It does not come at the end, as the feeling that results from a happy outcome. Rather, it lies at the beginning, as a pulse of truth that sends us forth…. Hope fill us with the strength to stay present, to abide in the flow of the Mercy no matter what outer storms assail us. It is entered always and only through surrender; that is, through the willingness to let go of everything we are presently clinging to” (By Cynthia Bourgeault in Mystical Hope).