Luke 15:20 (NRSV)

But while he was still far off,

his father saw him and was filled with compassion;

he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.

You waited for me without shame.

Brennan Manning, from *The Ragamuffin Gospel*

“Jesus came not for the spiritually elite but for the wobbly and weak-kneed

who know they don’t have it all together and who are not too proud to accept the handout of amazing grace.

He came for those who knew they had nothing but were willing to receive everything.

Grace means that no one is too far gone.

And God’s love means that He waits longer than we expect,

and runs faster than we deserve.”

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Micah 6:8 (NRSV)

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;

and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God?

What is simple is often most sacred.

Wendell Berry, from *The Mad Farmer Liberation Front*

“Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay.

Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid

to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.

Not even your future will be a mystery anymore.

Your mind will be punched in a card

and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something

they will call you.

Ask the questions that have no answers.

Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forest

that you did not plant,

that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested

when they have rotted into the mold.

Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Be like the fox

who makes more tracks than necessary,

some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection.”

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Matthew 11:28–30 (NRSV)

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;

for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

I lay down what no longer serves the journey.

St. Teresa of Ávila

Let nothing disturb you.

Let nothing frighten you.

All things are passing; God never changes.

Patience obtains all things.

Whoever has God lacks nothing.

God alone suffices.

Jean Vanier

“To live with Jesus is to live with the poor,

to live with the broken, and to live with myself—

as I really am.

That is where healing begins,

and it always begins with letting go of what is false.”

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Psalm 139:23–24 (NRSV)

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my thoughts.

See if there is any wicked way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

In stillness, You show me who I truly am.

Thomas R. Kelly, from *A Testament of Devotion*

“Deep within us all there is a wonderful inner sanctuary of the soul,

a holy place, a Divine Center,

a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return.

It is lighted by the presence of God

and is the sheer grace of the eternal breaking into the temporal.

When we sink down into this quiet Center,

we come to know ourselves as seen,

not with shame, but with clarity.

We are not who we perform to be,

but who we are when no one is watching.

And that person—still and surrendered—

is the one God already knows and loves.”

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Psalm 73:23–26 (NRSV)

Yet I am always with You;

You hold my right hand.

You guide me with Your counsel,

and afterward You will receive me with honor.

Whom have I in heaven but You?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than You.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Even when I question, You do not let go.

Simone Weil

“Faith is the experience that God’s presence is real

even when His absence feels stronger.

It is not certainty—it is fidelity.”

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Romans 12:4–5 (NRSV)

For as in one body we have many members,

and not all the members have the same function,

so we, who are many, are one body in Christ,

and individually we are members one of another.

I do not walk alone, we belong to each other.

Desmond Tutu

“My humanity is bound up in yours,

for we can only be human together.”

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Mark 5:25–34 (NRSV, abridged)

Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years.

She had heard about Jesus and came up behind Him in the crowd

and touched His cloak, for she said,

“If I but touch His clothes, I will be made well.”

Immediately her bleeding stopped;

and Jesus, aware that power had gone forth from Him, turned and said,

“Who touched Me?”

The woman came in fear and trembling,

fell down before Him, and told Him the whole truth.

He said to her,

“Daughter, your faith has made you well;

go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

In Your presence, healing begins.

Henri Nouwen

“Jesus heals, not by taking our pain away,

but by entering into it with us.

In His presence, our wounds become places where grace lives.”

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1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (NRSV)

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,

which you have from God, and that you are not your own?

For you were bought with a price;

therefore glorify God in your body.

God dwells in this body, I will honor it as holy.

Hildegard of Bingen

“The soul is in the body the way sap is in the tree.

It breathes through every branch,

moves through every vessel.

Your body is not a shell.

It is a sanctuary.”

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