“In the school of Christ we are, as the first disciples were, always learning. There is no prescribed course that we may follow diligently and so graduate. Our learning is not directed to absorbing a body of knowledge so much as to making our own a distinctive way of life that is based on the Gospel. This is not book learning, but an apprenticeship under grace. Our call is to be attentive to the world around us and to all whom we meet, and to allow ourselves to be constantly reformed in the likeness of Christ: we are never the same: yesterday, today, or forever.” ~Michael Casey; excerpt from Fully Human Fully Alive—an Interactive Christology

“We should be known as men and women who are loyal, straightforward, truthful, cheerful, hardworking and optimistic. We have to behave the way people do who carry out their duties properly and who know how to comport themselves at every moment as children of God, without letting themselves be swept along the current of whatever is in vogue. The life of a Christian will then be a sign by which people will recognize the spirit of Christ. We must therefore often ask ourselves in our personal prayer whether our workmates, our family and our friends are likely to be moved to give glory to God when they observe our conduct, because they can discern in it the light of Christ. It will be a good sign that there is light in us and not darkness, love of God and not lukewarmness.” ~Francis Fernandez (In Conversation with God, Vol. 3, pg. 246)

“Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. I must continue to bear testimony to truth even if I am forsaken by all. Mine may today be a voice in the wilderness, but it will be heard when all other voices are silenced, if it is the voice of truth.” ~Mahatma Gandhi

I heard an old man speak once, someone who had been sober for fifty years, a very prominent doctor. He said that he’d finally figured out a few years ago that his profound sense of control, in the world and over his life, is another addiction and a total illusion. He said that when he sees little kids sitting in the back seat of cars, in those car seats that have steering wheels, with grim expressions of concentration on their faces, clearly convinced that their efforts are causing the car to do whatever it is doing, he thinks of himself and his relationship with God: God who drives along silently, gently amused, in the real driver’s seat. ~Anne Lamott, Operating Instructions

[John’s] Gospel asserts repeatedly that Jesus’ whole philosophy of life was dominated by a proactive search for and conformity with the Father’s will. “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to bring his work to completion” (Jn 4:34). This Johannine theme of obedience parallels Saint Paul’s “obedience of faith” (Rom 1:5 and 16:26). It is not enough to glimpse the spiritual world and identify with it. We are also obliged to conform ourselves to its imperatives and that submission involves a certain rejection of this-worldly standards (Rom 12:2). Contrary to what we who cherish autonomy might expect, Jesus was free because he chose to obey. ~Michael Casey, OCSO; excerpt from Fully Human Fully Divine: An Interactive Christology

From the standpoint of this present age, there is darkness; faith however is luminous, because it opens a window to a hidden world of light. … Once the hidden treasure is discovered (Mt 13:44), then there is a joyful movement of renunciation, since lesser things have lost their hold over us. Once having felt ourselves come alive through our participation in the life of God, we are gradually disenfranchised from this world. We have another source of identity: “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). God is our homeland and even though we are at a great distance, we cannot avoid becoming “strangers and foreigners” in matters considered by many to be crucial to a successful and fulfilling life. Our treasure is not here, it is in heaven; and that is where our hearts find their home (see Mk 10:21; also Mt 6:21 = Lk 12:34). ~Michael Casey, OCSO; excerpt from Fully Human Fully Divine: An Interactive Christology