understanding faith.

tabernacle letters.

"For to not feel loved, or useful, has to be the root of all neuroses—particularly the neuroses of the modern age, with its technology, its dehumanizing speed, it’s profound sense of existential exile—and by asking those weaker than us for help, and praying for them as well, we close the circle in a new way."

"It is commonly in a somewhat cynical sense that men have said, “Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed.” It was in a wholly happy and enthusiastic sense that Saint Francis said, “Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall enjoy everything.” It was by this deliberate idea of starting from zero, from the dark nothingness of his own deserts, that he did come to enjoy them."

The secret of discernment | Conversion Diary

SHIRT OF FLAME: FIRE EAR

Image ◊ Good Letters: The IMAGE Blog ◊ Trouble and Memory

"We remain ignorant of many details, not because God enjoys keeping us in the dark, but because we have not the faculties to absorb so much light. At a single glance God knows what the world is about and how history will end. But we time-bound creatures have only the most primitive manner of understanding: we can let time pass. Not until history has run its course will we understand how “all things work together for good.” Faith means believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse."

Faith, Fiction, and Flannery: Show Support for Iraqi Christians: Remember Who You Have Met

"In this season—despite the “not-knowing,” the pain, the fear, and the frustration—I can be grateful for so much. I am the daughter of the Creator of the universe, who guides my life with tenderness and compassion. In a way that I will never completely understand, He loves me. Yes, He loves me, despite the fraility of my faith. I can give Him nothing that He has not first given me, yet He receives the gift of my entire self with greater joy and pride than the loving parent who accepts the colorful crayon scribblings of her little one and displays them as if they were a piece of priceless art. The more that I realize my utter unworthiness of His love, the better I am able to receive it gratuitously. Here is a holy exchange: He takes all that is ours and unites Himself to it, only that He may give us all that is His. Yes, it is an exchange that is radically one-sided, yet He does not use the enormous inequity of it to coerce us into slavery. Instead, He calls us as free persons to adoption as children. And we can give Him no greater gift than our “yes” to brought into His family and into divine union with the Father through the Son and the Holy Spirit."