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. . . the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. — Matthew Arnold

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive — Howard Thurman

We love to sing, “I have decided to follow Jesus,” but we don't bother looking to see which way he went. — Frank Stagg

Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his own blood. — Friedrich Nietzsche

What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket when, of course, it is the cross. — Flannery O’Connor

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A. — Stokebroker Gordon Gecko, fictional character played by Michael Douglas, in the 1987 film “Wall Street”

Whoever has the power to alleviate this evil, but deliberately opts for profit by it, should be condemned as a murderer. — Basil of Caesarea, 4th century bishop

In Spanish, levantarse is a reflexive verb that means to rise, to get up, like when you stand up from a chair or get out of bed in the morning. It is often used in command form, and I surmised that Jesus heard this verb in some language when he was in his darkest hour, most abandoned by the holy, in the tomb. And he responded. Levantarse has the same root as levadura, which is leaven. The Jews had that interesting relationship with leavening agents, as in regulations prohibiting them, but I figured that Jesus' new bread and wine were both well-leavened with that never-ending love and mercy and grace, and the reflexive nature of it (that part of Spanish grammar is always tricky to understand) tells me that when we make it a practice to gather around the table and partake of the love-leavened bread and wine, then eventually love and mercy and grace become reflex actions for us. Stan Yes, it's that last part in particular that's intriguing, where (if I'm understanding correctly) there is no gap between the commanding and the doing; or the "be doers of the word and not hearers only" of James, but especially of the King James Version's rendition of "One who doeth the truth," where there's no distinguishing between the doing and the truth, or truth separated from hearing. I'm looking for more organic ways to speak of this. What dominates English language is like the operating logic of many machines, like computers: you tell it what to do in one action, then to do it in a second. Biblically speaking, if the truth is not being done, it has not been heard, regardless of how theologically orthodox or pietistically rigorous your demeanor. Ken Yes, that's the sense of the reflexive verb, you are an active participant in doing what is being done to you. Stan Stan — Conversation between Stan Dotson and Ken Sehested

The resurrection does not solve our problems about dying and death. It is not the happy ending to our life’s struggle, nor is it the big surprise that God has kept in store for us. No, the resurrection is the expression of God’s faithfulness…. The resurrection is God’s way of revealing to us that nothing that belongs to God will ever go to waste. What belongs to God will never get lost. — Henri Nouwen

In the old days, on Easter night, the Russian peasants used to carry the blest fire home from church. The light would scatter and travel in all directions through the darkness, and the desolation of the night would be pierced and dispelled as lamps came on in the windows of the farm houses, one by one. Even so the glory of God sleeps everywhere, ready to blaze out unexpectedly in created things. Even so his peace and his order lie hidden in the world, even the world of today, ready to reestablish themselves in his way, in his own good time: but never without the instrumentality of free options made by free people. — Thomas Merton