From Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge (2005) at page 14:
In his new book, Volf puts it this way: Luther used the image of the conduit: We are channels of God’s gifts to our neighbors. The image is good except that a conduit merely conveys goods and does not benefit from them. We, on the other hand, benefit from the goods as well as bestow them on others. Which is to say that we don’t just receive the gifts, but we are constituted and changed by them.”
From Flannery O'Connor, The Habit of Being at page 354:
When we get our spiritual house in order, we’ll be dead. This goes on. You arrive at enough certainty to be able to make your way, but it is making it in darkness. Don’t expect faith to clear things up for you. It is trust, not certainty.”
2006
From Saint Theresa of Avila:
Saint Theresa of Avila is said to have begun by praying, Lord, I do not love you. Lord, I do not want to love you. But Lord, I want to want to love you.” And she ended up a saint! [This sentiment is echoed by Thomas Merton: “We too often forget that faith is a matter of questioning and struggle before it becomes one of certitude and peace. You have to doubt and reject everything else in order to believe firmly in Christ, and after you have begun to believe, your faith itself must be tested and purified. Christianity is not merely a set of forgone conclusions. Faith tends to be defeated by the burning presence of God in mystery, and seeks refuge from him, flying to comfortable social forms and safe convictions in which purification is no longer an inner battle but a matter of outward gesture” (New Seeds of Contemplation).]
From Sam Keen, To a Dancing God (1970) at page 44:
In his book, To a Dancing God, Sam Keen makes a compelling argument as to why we are inclined to base our faith on doing and knowing: A psychoanalysis of chatter would suggest that our over-verbalization is an effort to avoid something that is fearful – silence. But why should silence be threatening? Because words are a way of structuring, manipulating, and controlling; thus, when they are absent the specter of loss of control arises. If we cannot name it, we cannot control it. Naming gives us power. Hence, silence is impotence, the surrender of control. Control is power, and power is safety.”
From Harold Masback, The Grace of Desire" (February 5, 2006):
Thomas Merton wrote that we have always understood the experience of God to be a gift of grace, a gift we can neither earn nor control. But, Merton wrote, the real mystery is why some people desire the experience of God.” For, as Jesus taught, those who desire the experience will find it. [Matthew 7:7-11: “Seek and you shall find . . . .”] The real mystery of grace, said Merton, is the grace of desire. “It is not we who choose to awaken ourselves. It is God who chooses to awaken us.”
From Reinhold Niebuhr, Faith and History (1949) at page 151:
Many theologians have reacted against the idea that faith is built upon the right knowledge” of God. According to Reinhold Niebuhr, “[Faith is] an apprehension of truth beyond the limits of reason. Such faith must be grounded in repentance; for it presupposes a contrite recognition of the elements of pretension and false completion in all forms of human virtue, knowledge, and achievement. It is a gift of grace because neither the faith nor the repentance required for the knowledge of the true God, revealed in the Cross and the Resurrection, can be attained by taking thought. The self must lose itself to find itself in faith and repentance; but it does not find itself unless it be apprehended from beyond itself.”
From John Newton:
t’was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.” To experience that emptiness, that yearning, that desire, is already to experience the grace of God.
1952
From Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace (1952) at page 7:
Simone Weil used to teach that it is God who creates that void, that sense that something is missing, that there must be something more in life. Blaise Pascal called it a God-shaped hole in the middle of our hearts.” God puts the hole in our hearts so we will search for him; and searching for him, find him; and finding him, love him.
2006
From Corrie Ten Boom:
Dutch evangelist Corrie Ten Boom had just finished a sermon on forgiveness when the old man appeared before her with his hand extended. She cringed as she recognized him, a Nazi guard responsible for her sister Betsie’s death at Ravensbruck. I am grateful for your message, Fraulein,” he said, “to think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away.” Overcome with horror, she could not raise her hand. “Lord Jesus,” she prayed, “forgive me, and help me to forgive him.”
Finally, as she raised her hand to grasp his, she felt an incredible sensation, “From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.”
From Harold Masback, The World Turned Upside Down" (April 16, 2006):
Lynn Bolton was frustrated. Her acting career seemed stalled and her prayers seemed unanswered. “Show me the way God,” she prayed, “just show me the way.” One evening a casual conversation with a fellow actor took a serious turn as the actor broke down confessing how he had betrayed his girlfriend. He had wounded the woman he loved, tossed away the love of his life, and he was disconsolate. Lynn didn’t know what to say. But hoping to comfort him, she suddenly found herself saying, “Give it to me. Give me your guilt, give me your regret, give it all to me. I’ll take it.” It was as if the words were springing up from some unknown power deep within her, her mouth forming the words without her mind’s engagement.
“What do you mean?” he asked. “You know, just imagine it’s an acting exercise, give it all to me once and for all.” He looked up and nodded, a glimmer of peace now flickering in his tear stained eyes. Two weeks later Lynn received his call. The girlfriend had accepted his plea for forgiveness; they were to be married. And married they were. Foolishness but true, because Christ is risen.