illuminated

In a futile attempt to erase our past, we deprive the community of our healing gift. If we conceal our wounds out of fear and shame, our inner darkness can neither be illuminated nor become a light for others.

Brennan Manning
(Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging)

litmus

The litmus test of our love for God is our love of neighbor.

Brennan Manning 
(The Wisdom of Tenderness: What Happens When God's Fierce Mercy Transforms Our Lives)

nothing

My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.
Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

advent day 3: deeply loved

My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.

Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

***

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38 NIV

advent day 4: God is love

Jesus came as the revealor of love. Jesus reveals God by being utterly transparent to him. What had been cloaked in mystery is clear in Jesus— the God is love. No man or woman has ever loved like Jesus Christ. Therein lies his divinity for me.

Brennan Manning, The Signature of Jesus

***

My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.

1 John 4:7-10 The Message