“There was  a genius about the American Founding and the emergence of American democratic politics.  That genius lay in no small part in the recognition that the Republic was as susceptible to human passions and frustrations as human beings themselves. The Founders expected seasons of anger and frustration; they anticipated hours of unhappiness and unrest. Fear frequently defies constitutional and political mediation, for it is more emotional than rational . . . . Our Constitution and our politics, however, have endured and prevailed, vindicating the Founders’ vision of a country that would require amendment and adjustment.  That the nation was constructed with an awareness of sin and the means to take account of societal changes has enabled us to rise above the furies of given moments and given ages” (Jon Meacham in The Soul of America, the Battle for our Better Angels, p. 17.)

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“The spiritual journey moves us from recognizing that our group is God’s “chosen people,” even in our imperfection, to knowing that all people—in fact all of Creation—are God’s beloveds and are made in God’s image and are equally imperfect in that reflection. Don’t waste your time calculating degrees of imperfection! Imperfection is the pattern that draws forth the Divine Mercy” (Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, August 29).

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“Dallas Willard often said that the outcome of our spiritual activities far exceeds what we put into them. In this sense the disciplines are all about grace, God taking our little offering of time and action and using it to transform us into people we were previously unable to be; people who naturally live lives of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22). Certainly spiritual activities—things like prayer, study and service—become ingrained into the habitual structures of our lives, but the real outcome we are looking for is the fruit of the Spirit organically flowing throughout our lives. The disciplines are about the transformation of the human personality into the image of Jesus Christ. And in time, we become people able to respond to life as Jesus would if he were to live our lives” (Nathan Foster in Renovare Weekly Digest, August 22, 2018).

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“Standing erect, holding our heads high, is the attitude of spiritually mature people in face of the calamities of our world. The facts of everyday life are a rich source for doomsday thinking and feeling. . . . Let us be like Mary, the mother of Jesus, who stood under the cross, trusting in God’s faithfulness notwithstanding the death of his beloved Child” (Henri Nouwen in Bread for the Journey).

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“[Jesus’s invitation]” ‘Come follow me’ was intimately bound up with the practice of prayer. For prayer connects us with God and others, “part of this enterprise of learning to love.” Prayer is much more than a technique, and early Christians left us no definitive how-to manual on prayer. Rather, the desert fathers and mothers believed that prayer was a disposition of wholeness, so that “prayer and our life must be all of a piece.” They approached prayer, as early church scholar Roberta Bondi notes, as a practical twofold process: first, of “thinking and reflecting,” or “pondering” what it means to love others; and second, as the “development and practice of loving ways of being.”  In other words, these ancients taught that prayer was participation in God’s love, the activity that takes us out of ourselves, . . . and conforms us to the path of Christ” (Diana Butler Bass quoted in Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, September, 7, 2018).