PARADOXICAL

When a person encounters the Lord, he can't remain the same. He is changed.

We may never be able to answer the question: "Why does God allow bad things to happen to us?" But we begin to realize that we can learn and grow through them. A seed sprouts always in the darkness of the earth, and much spiritual growth begins in the darkness of pain, loss, sickness, and disappointment. In this life, suffering will never be eliminated but God works in all things for our good.

Prayer can be like a slow interior bleeding, in which gried and sorrow make the heart's blood of the inner man trickle away silently into his own unfathomed depths. - Karl Rahner

Faith allows impossible things to happen. It comes from a fearless heart. And when a fearless heart believes, miracles do happen.

When we look back and wonder how we ever made it through, we realize it's not because we were wise, but because God has been good, not because we've been strong, but because God has been mighty, not because we've been consistent, but because God has been faithful.

Being alive means being loved. We can only love because we were born out of love, we can only give because our life is a gift, and that we can only make others free because we are set free by Him who's heart is greater than ours. - HJMN

Success is often the result of taking a misstep in the right direction. Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I'll show you somebody who has never achieved much.

posted by Resty Odon  # 1:41 AM 0 Comments

We people like to blame God for all the bad things that happen in the world. Blaming God as the cause of evil is a laughable idea, but apparently so many people but it. To unbelievers and to those who don't understand the concept of sin, that's understandably logical. But to those who understand and believe, our sin causes death. It infects widely, like virus, infecting even the innocent. God didn't will or cause sin or evil and its aftereffects. Yet man, in his sinfulness, always blames God for his own mistakes. When we can't allow God to be God, our ultimate act is deny His existence. What a pathetic people we indeed are! Thank God His ways are not our ways.

posted by Resty Odon  # 7:21 PM 0 Comments

"We human beings are made up of contradictions. Part of us is attracted by the light and by God, and wants to care for our brothers and sisters. Another part of us wants frivolity, possessions, domination or success; it wants to be surrounded by approving friends, who will ward off sadness, depression or aggression. We are so deeply divided that we will reflect equally an environment which tends towards the light and concern for others, and one which scorns these values and encourages the desires for power and pleasure. As long as our deepest motivation is not clear to us and as long as we have not chosen the people and the place of our growth in its light, we will remain weak and inconsistent, as changeable as weathercocks."


- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 165

posted by Resty Odon  # 5:46 PM 0 Comments