"When then, eternal Father, did you create this creature of yours?...You show me that you made us for one reason only: in your light you saw yourself compelled by the fire of your love to give us being in spite of the evil we would commit against you, eternal Father. It was, fire, then that compelled you....You are the fire, nothing but a fire of love, crazy over what you have made."
-'The Prayers of Catherine of Siena'
"The starting point of [St. John's] Theology is abiding in restful union....Words such as union, fusion, and symbiosis hint at the ineffable oneness with Jesus that the apostle Paul experienced: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20)....[Union] is a word pregnant with a reality that surpasses understanding, the only reality worth yearning for with love and patience, the only reality before which we should stay very quiet."
"The fantasy [of self-development] is that if one heads in the right direction and just works hard enough to learn new things and grows enough and gets actualized, one will be there."
- Gerald May
"In retrospect, my ponderous ponderings on purgative, illuminative, and unitive stages of my spiritual life, my assiduous search for shortcuts to holiness, my preoccupation with my spiritual pulse and my fasts, mortifications, and penances have wrought pseudobliss and the egregious delusion that I was securely ensconced in the seventh mansion of spiritual perfection. What would I actually do if I had it to do all over again? Heeding John's counsel, I would simply do the next thing in love."
"Once again, love by its nature seeks union. With the grace of recognition comes the awesome and alarming awareness that Jesus, the incarnation of the furious longing of God, wants more than a close relationship with you and me; He seeks nothing less than union."
"Union not only transcends every political, social, cultural, and religious consideration and not only infuses them with ultimate meaning, but defines the very purpose of life itself."
"THE INVITATION TO UNION IS EXTENDED NOT ONLY FOR CHRISTIANS OF IRON WILL, AUSTERE SEEKERS OF GOD, THOSE WHO PREACH THE GOSPEL AND GET DOCTORATES IN THEOLOGY....THE OUTSTRETCHED ARMS OF JESUS EXCLUDE NO ONE, NEITHER THE DRUNK IN THE DOORWAY, THE PANHANDLER ON THE STREET, GAYS AND LESBIANS IN THEIR ISOLATION, THE MOST SELFISH AND UNGRATEFUL IN THE THEIR COCOONS, THE MOST UNJUST OF EMPLOYERS AND THE MOST OVERWEENING OF SNOBS. THE LOVE OF CHRIST EMBRACES ALL WITHOUT EXCEPTION."
All excerpts taken from brennan manning, the furious longing of God (2009).
