Love Of God Quotes

I'm sure we were all feeling blessed on this ferryboat among the humps of very green
in the sunlight almost coolly burning, like phosphorus
islands, and the water of inlets winking in the sincere light of day, under a sky as blue and brainless as the love of God, despite the smell, the slight, dreamy suffocation, of some kind of petroleum-based compound used to seal the deck's seams. ~ Denis Johnson

God Is Love 7Beloved, j let us love one another, for love is from God, and k whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 l Anyone who does not love does not know God, because m God is love. 9In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that n God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, o not that we have loved God n but that he loved us and sent his Son to be p the propitiation for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 q No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and r his love is perfected in us. ~ Anonymous

Selfishness is the most constant of human motives. Patriotism, humanity, or the love of God may lead to sporadic outbursts sweep away the heaped-up wrongs of centuries; but they languish at times, while the love of self works on ceaselessly, unwearyingly,burrowing always at the very root of life, and heaping up fresh wrongs for other centuries to sweep away. ~ Charles W. Chesnutt

I wanted to gather myself together, grab him and yell, "Yes please, for the love of God rub some cream on my ass!" but it was all too late. ~ Jaimie Roberts

The love of God. The mercy of God. The judgment of God. You take the shoes off your feet and stand as you would before a mountain or at the edge of the sea. But the friendship of God? It is not something God does. It is something Abraham and God, or Moses and God, do together. Not even God can be a friend all by himself apparently. You see Abraham, say, not standing at all but sitting down, loosening his prayer shawl, trimming the end off his cigar. He is not being Creature for the moment, and God is not being Creator. There is no agenda. They are simply being together, the two of them, and being themselves. ~ Frederick Buechner

...we will never look back until this work is finished and love of God and neighbor rules the world... ~ Jeffrey Holland

To be motivated by divine love is to see your promise land as a platform to share the love of God with others ~ Sunday Adelaja

This prayer is not mental, but of the heart. It is not a prayer of thought alone, because the mind of man is so limited, that while it is occupied with one thing it cannot be thinking of another. But it is the PRAYER OF THE HEART, which cannot be interrupted by the occupations of the mind. Nothing can interrupt the prayer of the heart but unruly affections; and when once we have tasted of the love of God, it is impossible to find our delight in anything but Himself. ~ Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

To be recipient to God's love on earth is to share a deep, intrinsic need to love and be loved ~ Sunday Adelaja

Spiritually, we have wandered far from the faith of our fathers ... no nation which relegates the Bible to the background, which disregards the love of God and flouts the claims of the Man of Galilee, can long survive. ~ Billy Graham

Oh, for the love of God, Ella. You're going to make me come right now." I grunted, trying to steel myself and last a little longer. I could feel my own tension building and knew I wouldn't last long. "Screw it," I said. "I'll just fuck you again later." - Jonathan di Luca ~ R. Matthews

Take away the pomp and circumstance, at the end of the day, only eternal things will be truly celebrated. ~ Robin Bertram

While we too always seek other signs, other wonders, we do not realize that he is the real sign, God made flesh; he is the greatest miracle of the universe: all the love of God hidden in a human heart, in a human face. ~ Pope Benedict XVI

But I've learned that if you fake your death, don't come back. Not for your wife. Not for your girlfriend. Not for your kids. If you fake your death, don't do it at sea. Go for a hike. If you're interested in claiming a life insurance payout, don't get greedy. Keep the policy modest. Don't bother with a stand-in body and an elaborate funeral. Spend your time and money on obtaining quality authenticating documents. In your new life, commit to a disguise for your new identity and use your real first name. Don't google yourself and lead your hunters to your hideout. And for the love of God, don't drive if you're supposed to be dead. Ditch the car. ~ Elizabeth Greenwood

We know that human love is genuine only when it is felt in the depth of the heart. And we know that this is true whether it be love for another human or love of God. And, of course, we are always looking to receive genuine love. We don't want others to love us because they are forced to. We want them to love us because they really do love us in their hearts. ~ Alan W. Watts

Grace means the free, unmerited, unexpected love of God, and all the benefits, delights, and comforts which flow from it. It means that while we were sinners and enemies we have been treated as sons and heirs. ~ Richard Hanson

We have to love more, I believe the most powerful message preached was when no words were used Jesus hung on the cross. And with his blood declared its finish. This is why we need to love harder, and I don't mean we need more preachers we need Christians so changed by the gospel that the love of God on the cross floods every aspect of your life. ~ Jordan Wells

Must you continue to be your own cross? No matter which way God leads you, you change everything into bitterness by constantly brooding over everything. For the love of God, replace all this self-scrutiny with a pure and simple glance at God's goodness. ~ Jane Frances De Chantal

am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow - not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below - indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. ROMANS 8:38-39 John ~ Perry Noble

Live a life of love, especially the love of God, and observe the joy of it. Live a life of lovelessness and observe the joylessness of it. ~ Peter Kreeft

I am a Christian because I have seen the love of God lived out in the lives of people who know Him. The Word has become flesh and I have encountered God in the people who have manifested (in many "unreasonable" ways) His Presence; a Presence that is more than convincing - it is a Presence that is compelling. I am a Christian, not because someone explained the nuts and bolts of Christianity to me, but because there were people who were willing to be nuts and bolts, who through their explanation of it, held it together so that I could experience it and be compelled by it to obey. ~ Rich Mullins

The love of God is no mere sentimental feeling; it is redemptive power! ~ Charles Clayton Morrison

Love of God and people will pave roads where there once were none. ~ Shannon L. Alder

A perfect man would never act from a sense of duty; he'd always want the right thing more than the wrong one. Duty is only a substitute for love (of God and of other people) like a crutch which is a substitute for a leg. Most of us need the crutch at times; but of course it is idiotic to use the crutch when our own legs (our own loves, tastes, habits etc.) can do the journey on their own. ~ C.S. Lewis

O, my Jesus, I understand well that, just as illness is measured with a thermometer and a high fever tells us of the seriousness of the illness; so also, in the spiritual life, suffering is the thermometer which measures the love of God in a soul. ~ Mary Faustina Kowalska

Repentance in Greek means something much closer to "thinking differently afterward" than it does "changing your cheating ways." Of course repentance can look like a prostitute becoming a librarian, but it can also look like a prostitute simply saying, "OK, I'm a sex worker and I don't know how to change that, but I can come here and receive bread and wine and I can hold onto the love of God without being deemed worthy of it by anyone but God. ~ Nadia Bolz-Weber

I know a man who, when he saw a woman of striking beauty, praised the Creator for her. The sight of her lit within him the love of God. ~ John Climacus

So anyone who thinks that he has understood the divine scriptures or any part of them, but cannot by his understanding build up this double love of God and neighbor, has not yet succeeded in understanding them. ~ Augustine Of Hippo

Whoever wants to become a Christian must first become a poet. That's what it is! You must suffer. You must love and suffer--suffer for the one you love. Love makes effort for the loved one. She runs all through the night; she stays awake; she stains her feet with blood in order to meet her beloved. She makes sacrifices and disregards all impediments, threats, and difficulties for the sake of the loved one. Love towards Christ is something even higher, infinitely higher.

And when we say 'love', we don't mean the virtues that we will acquire, but the heart that is pervaded by love towards Christ and others. We need to turn everything in this direction. Do we see a mother with her child in her arms and bending to give the child a kiss, her heart overflowing with emotion? Do we notice how her face lights up as she holds her little angel? These things do not escape a person with love of God. He sees them and is impressed by them and he says, 'If only I had those emotions towards my God, towards my Holy Lady and our saints!' Look, that's how we must love Christ our God. You desire it, you want it, and with the grace of God you acquire it. ~ Gerōn Porphyrios

Here is a fact: nothing in all civilization has been as productive as ludicrous ambition. Whatever its ills, nothing has created more. Cathedrals, sonatas, encyclopedias: love of God was not behind them, nor love of life. But the love of man to be worshiped by man. ~ Tom Rachman

We were set up to love. To absorb the love of God into our bloodstream and then to share it with another human being. ~ John Mark Comer

Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self; the heavenly by the love of God. ~ Saint Augustine

Be you therefore, a wise gardener. Cultivate a deep love and respect for yourself, for you are not here to "fix" the world. You are not here to "fix" your brother or sister. It is only love that heals. And until you have loved yourself wholly by having purified the mind of every erroneous thought you have ever held - until you have loved yourself - you do not, in truth, love anyone or anything. Save in those brief moments when you let your guard down and the Love of God shines forth through you so quickly you do not even know what happened! The wise gardener cultivates a state of consciousness in which the Love of God is unimpeded. ~ Shanti Christo Foundation

The simplest spiritual discipline is some degree of solitude and silence. But it's the hardest, because none of us want to be with someone we don't love. Besides that, we invariably feel bored with ourselves, and all of our loneliness comes to the surface.
We won't have the courage to go into that terrifying place without Love to protect us and lead us, without the light and love of God overriding our own self-doubt. Such silence is the most spacious and empowering technique in the world, yet it's not a technique at all. It's precisely the refusal of all technique. ~ Richard Rohr

The love of God is not conditional, it does not depend on anything and it never ends. ~ Sunday Adelaja

I think of the love of God as a great river, pouring through us even as the waters pour through our ravine at floodtime. Nothing can keep this love from pouring through us, except of course our own blocking of the river. Do you sometimes feel that you have got to the end of your love for someone who refuses and repulses you? Such a thought is folly, for one cannot come to the end of what one has not got. We have no store of love at all. We are not jugs, we are riverbeds. ~ Amy Carmichael

Actually, only God can satisfy a Christian's heart; man cannot. The failure of many is to seek from man what can be found only in God. All human affection is empty; the love of God alone is able to fully satisfy one's desire. The moment a Christian seeks a love outside God his spiritual life immediately falls. ~ Watchman Nee

The Jews were, as he (Augustine) put it, the living letters of the Law, that they were a constant reminder of the love of God to His chosen people, and that they were a constant reminder that Christ would be returning. ~ Thomas F. Madden

A certain monk told me that when he was very sick, his mother said to his father, "How our little boy is suffering. I would gladly give myself to be cut up into pieces if that would ease his suffering." Such is the love of God for people. He pitied people so much that he wanted to suffer for them, like their own mother, and even more. But no one can understand this great love without the grace of the Holy Spirit. ~ Silouan The Athonite

All the evils in the world come not because our desires for happiness are too strong, but because they are so weak that we settle for fleeting pleasures that do not satisfy our deepest souls, but in the end destroy them. The root of all evil is that we are the kind of people who settle for the love of money instead of the love of God (1 Timothy 6:10). ~ John Piper

Unalloyed love of God is the essential thing. All else is unreal. ~ Ramakrishna

The mystery of the spiritual life is that Jesus desires to meet us in the seclusion of our own heart, to make his love known to us there, to free us from our fears, and to make our own deepest self known to us Each time you let the love of God penetrate deeper into your heart it leads to a love of ourselves that enables us to give whole-hearted love to our fellow human beings. In the seclusion of our hearts we learn to know the hidden presence of God; and with that spiritual knowledge we can lead a loving life. ~ Henri Nouwen

Authentic Christianity and the world are by definition at odds. For most Americans, Christianity has been watered down and rendered innocuous, like so much fast food. It has become easy, upbeat, convenient, and compatible. It does not require self-sacrifice, discipline, humility, and otherworldly outlook, a zeal for souls, a fear as well as love of God. There is little guilt and no punishment, and the payoff in heaven is virtually certain. ~ Thomas Reeves

11Finally, brothers, [1] rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, [2] agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12Greet one another with a holy kiss. 13All the saints greet you. 14The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. ~ Anonymous

Everything is possible for the believer. I have watched impure souls mad for physical love but turning what they know of such love into a reason for penance and transferring that same capacity for love to the Lord. I have watched them master fear so as to drive themselves unsparingly toward the love of God. That is why, when talking of that chaste harlot, the Lord does not say, 'because she feared,' but rather, 'because she loved much' she was able to drive out love with love (Lk. 7:47). ~ John Climacus

Without a love of humankind there is no love of God. ~ Sholem Asch

He smirked. "Does someone have a hangover?" "No," she said in a loud whisper, shaking her head with vehemence and setting jackhammers off against her temples. "I'm not dressed for company." "I heard you scream. What happened?" For the love of god, must she be tested at every turn? She tilted her chin and said in her most haughty tone, "If you must know, I almost fell down the stairs." Faster than a man his size should move, he rounded the stairs and bounded up the steps two at a time, stopping when he stood one below her. Of course, she still had to peer up at him, irritating her further. "Are you okay?" he asked, those golden eyes warm with concern. "I'm fine." She straightened to her full five-three, but still felt small and dowdy next to him. "You're not hurt?" "For God's sake, I'm fine. It was just a little stumble." He chuckled, the deep, rich timbre sending tingles down her spine. "And here I thought you wouldn't be any fun sober." Her ~ Jennifer Dawson

But when, through the open door of the cross and the name and power of Jesus Christ, I commend myself to the Father's heart, then God cancels all my past, accepts all my present, swears His holy name for my future and the love of God take me over. Then fear goes out of my heart, because love has come in. ~ A.W. Tozer

True love of others, according to Jesus, flows out of a love of God. The service of our lives flow out of the loving relationship we have with God. Too often we desire our service to create a loving relationship with God. Yet God does not seek after us because of any good deeds we have done. ~ Tyler Braun

God is without birth and death and is an eternal witness; you must strive hard to earn the love of God. ~ Sathya Sai Baba

You know, Michael," Pastor Charles would often tell him, "some men get high on drugs and make a mess while they are high; others get drunk and behave like animals while under the influence of alcohol; and you Michael, you fall in love and lose any sense of reality. It is the same like getting high. You are an addict too. You are addicted to women. But not in the perverted pornographic or sexual way. Sex is just a part of it. Your addiction is more about love. You are addicted to falling in love. And the only remedy for your addiction is the ultimate love; love of God and love for God. Turn to God Michael. He loves you. Show your love for him and you will be healed. ~ Stevan V. Nikolic

I want to inspire and encourage people and intrigue them to want to know what makes me tick, which is ultimately the love of God, the grace, peace and forgiveness of God that I'm so thankful & grateful for. ~ Christian Hosoi

We, however, place the love of God and His honour above our own and above the acquisition of many regions ~ Richard I Of England

Remember, never to fear the power of evil more than your trust in the power and love of God. ~ Hermas One Of The Seventy

Community, then, cannot grow out of loneliness, but comes when the person who begins to recognize his or her belovedness greets the belovedness of the other. The God alive in me greets the God resident in you. When people can cease having to be for us everything, we can accept the fact they may still have a gift for us. They are partial reflections of the great love of God, but reflections nevertheless. We see that gift precisely and only once we give up requiring that person to be everything, to be God. We see him or her as a limited expression of an unlimited love. ~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

If we live in our oneness-heart, we will feel the essence of all religions, which is love of God. But if we live in the mind, we will only try to separate one religion from another and see how their ideologies differ. It is the heart that can have a true intuitive understanding of the height and breadth of all religions. It is the heart that sees and feels the inner harmony and oneness of all religions. ~ Sri Chinmoy

All things that are on earth shall wholly pass away,
Except the love of God, which shall live and last for aye. ~ William C. Bryant

Nothing can separate me from the love of God. ~ Ayrton Senna

The love of God for us is unlimited. ~ Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

I could more easily contain Niagara Falls in a tea cup than I can comprehend the wild, uncontainable love of God. ~ Brennan Manning

Whether love of friend, love of country, love of God, or even love of enemy - love reveals to us the truly miraculous nature of the human spirit. ~ Ruta Sepetys

By the time it was over, I'd learned all the right words for all the dinosaurs (pretty much the same as they were in English), and multiple variations of "Help, for the love of God!," which might come in handy should I ever take up any of the activities that scared me most. It was also past five o'clock.Time to go. I extricated myself from the chair, leaving a distinctly Ella-shaped imprint, and retrieved my jacket. ~ Melissa Jensen

The key element in beginning to learn to embody the love of God is not heroic faith and determination. It has to do with whether or not we can take hold of the love of God as a power that includes us within it. The difference is between seeing life from the inside of God versus seeing it from within my own sensibilities and capacities. From inside the love of God, suffering becomes not only bearable, but a privilege of participating with Christ in his love for the world. This cannot be rationally explained or justified, but it is the fruit of a life trustingly lived in and for God who is all love. ~ Shane Claiborne

The sun rejoicing round the earth, announced
Daily the wisdom, power and love of God.
The moon awoke, and from her maiden face,
Shedding her cloudy locks, looked meekly forth,
And with her virgin stars walked in the heavens
Walked nightly there, conversing as she walked,
Of purity, and holiness, and God. ~ Robert Pollok

A lot of times, the reason we struggle to feel and receive the love of God - to see ourselves as His beloved, adopted children - is because we're not pursuing in our everyday lives those things His Word describes as being valuable and significant. ~ Matt Chandler

A man may be a Bah' in name only. If he is a Bah' in reality, his deeds and actions will be decisive proofs of it. What are the requirements? Love for mankind, sincerity toward all, reflecting the oneness of the world of humanity, philanthropy, becoming enkindled with the fire of the love of God, attainment to the knowledge of God and that which is conducive to human welfare. ~ Abdu'l- Baha

The devil fears hearts on fire with love of God. ~ St. Catherine Of Siena

I still describe myself as a Christian, and my love of God and my relationship with God is fundamental, but its manifestations in my life and the practices of it are constantly changing. I find incredible freedom in my faith. ~ Sufjan Stevens

Fasts and vigils, the study of Scripture, renouncing possessions and everything worldly are not in themselves perfection, as we have said; theyare its tools. For perfection is not to be found in them; it is acquired through them. It is useless, therefore, to boast of our fasting, vigils, poverty, and reading of Scripture when we have not achieved the love of God and our fellow men. Whoever has achieved love has God within himself and his intellect is always with God. ~ John Cassian

20But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. ~ Anonymous

2CO13.14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. ~ Anonymous

For the love of God. Fight for what you want.Get hurt. Cry, Scream. Screw up. Fall in fucking love.But do it brcause you're doing what you wanted to, not because someone else told you it's what you're supposed to do. ~ Kenzie Cade

There is no love of God without patience, and no patience without lowliness and sweetness of spirit. ~ John Wesley

In times of affliction we commonly meet with the sweetest experiences of the love of God. ~ John Bunyan

Men point to the sad incidents of human life on earth, and they ask "Where is the love of God?" God points to that Cross as the unreserved manifestation of love so inconceivably infinite as to answer every challenge and silence all doubt for ever. And that Cross is not merely the public proof of what God has accomplished; it is the earnest of all that He has promised. ~ Robert Anderson

The Bible is full of evidence that God's attention is indeed fixed on the little things. But this is not because God is a great cosmic cop, eager to catch us in minor transgressions, but simply because God loves us
loves us so much that we the divine presence is revealed even in the meaningless workings of daily life. It is in the ordinary, the here-and-now, that God asks us to recognize that the creation is indeed refreshed like dew-laden grass that is "renewed in the morning" or to put it in more personal and also theological terms, "our inner nature is being renewed everyday". Seen in this light, what strikes many modern readers as the ludicrous details in Leviticus involving God in the minuitae of daily life might be revisioned as the very love of God. ~ Kathleen Norris

Yes, as we travel through this topsy-turvy, sinful world, filled with temptations and problems, we are humbled by the expectancy of death, the uncertainty of life, and the power and love of God. Sadness comes to all of us in the loss of loved ones.
But there is gratitude also. Gratitude for the assurance we have that life is eternal. Gratitude for the great gospel plan, given freely to all of us. Gratitude for the life, teachings, and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose resurrection we will commemorate in the immediate days ahead ~ Ezra Taft Benson

I am beginning to experience that an unconditional, total love of God makes a very articulate, alert, and attentive love for the neighbor possible. ~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

The cross had touched his heart and will. That was all. It had changed his whole being. He is a living illustration of Paul's teaching in this very letter. He is dead with Christ to his old self; he lives with Christ a new life. The gospel can do that. It can and does do so to-day and to us, if we will. Nothing else can; nothing else ever has done it; nothing else ever will. Culture may do much; social reformation may do much; but the radical transformation of the nature is only effected by the "love of God shed abroad in the heart," and by the new life which we receive through our faith in Christ. ~ Alexander MacLaren

The love of God toward you is like the Amazon River flowing down to water a single daisy. ~ F.B. Meyer

He then goes on to show that love--the love of God for ~ Augustine Of Hippo

The Love of Christ in us never fails".

~R. Alan Woods [2013] ~ R. Alan Woods

Have you ever been in love?"
"Colin. For the love of God."
"I have," he said bluntly. "And when you lose love, it tears a hole out of you. The pain can be gruesome. I thought I lost Madeline once, and I swear for a few days I thought I might never be whole again."
"Perhaps you should write a poem about it. Add another verse to your song. ~ Julie Anne Long

We are the authors, lovers, and dreamers of this Creation. What shall we create with our intentions?

I hope as an entity soul that we as a collective overcome this strife we've brought down upon our heads. As an
individual entity within the macrocosm of God's Spirit as the maker. Where it is stated, "This too shall pass and fade like the wind". Only unconditional Love can spare us from
our self induced madness. That is the grace that God offers all life reborn onto itself. Be still and remember what it is to be Holy once more in the Love of God(dess). Amen. ~ Ivan Alexander Pozo-Illas

The people's hearts can be opened only by the true love of God ~ Sunday Adelaja

Make a goal that is one that your neighbor won't understand: "My goal is to be where I belong with those who belong with me, and it may take me many unusual places. My goal is to be at peace in my heart with all of it. I am not worried about my future because I am not alone. I believe that there is spiritual logic in this, for it has to do with potentials I cannot know about now, but instead I trust that they are there and that therefore my pathway is illuminated with lights that I am not seeing yet. But I can see one ahead of me, and it is called spiritual logic, intuition, and the love of God. After I pass the one light, another one will show itself, I don't have to see them all. I don't have to know where I'm going. I am relaxed in the arms of Spirit. ~ Monika Muranyi

It is proper that the duty of helping the poor and unfortunate should especially stir Catholics, since they are members of the Mystical Body of Christ. In this we have come to know the love of God, said John the Apostle, that He laid down His life for us, and we likewise ought to lay down our life for the brethren. He who has the goods of this world and sees his brother in need and closes his heart to him, how does the love of God abide in him? (1Jn 3:16 17) ~ Pope John XXII

That many do not advance in the Christian progress because they stick in penances, and particular exercises, while they neglect the love of God, which is the end. That this appeared plainly by their works, and was the reason why we see so little solid virtue. ~ Brother Lawrence

There is no one ugly, deep, dark, powerful or evil enough to stop God from loving you. Nothing anyone can ever do to you can sever your connection to God. Nothing you could ever do can dam the unstoppable love of God for you. His love for you is undeniable, unrelenting and unconditional. You may ignore God, ridicule Him and reject Him but His love for you will remain constant and unchanging. ~ T. B. Joshua

I began to realize that when people experience the love of God, it casts out their fear and frees them from guilt. ~ Joseph Prince

Spinoza wrote of the intellectual love of God, and he had a measure of truth there; but the highest love of God is not intellectual, it is spiritual. God is spirit and only the spirit of man can know Him really. In the deep spirit of a man the fire must glow or his love is not the true love of God. ~ A.W. Tozer

It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God. ~ Brother Lawrence

The love of God is constantly active and present. His love didn't just happen once. It's forever moving in you and in your life. ~ Stormie O'martian

Love of God is not a thing which we produce in ourselves by excessive brooding or by self-hypnotism or by any other method. It is a permanent flame, slowly burning in the caverns of all our hearts. […] The basis of all religions is this love of God. For if this love of God were not vital to us, all that the great prophets have been trying to preach would have been unreal and futile. If it were not a real experience which in some sense is shared by us all, an experience which ennobles us and raises us far above the selfish pettinesses of life, no prophet and no religious deed would be able to appeal to our higher natures and establish the claims of religion. ~ Surendranath Dasgupta

The mystery of ministry is that we have been chosen to make our own limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of GOD ... people who are so deeply in love with JESUS that they are ready to follow HIM wherever HE guides them, always trusting that, with HIM, they will find life and find it abundantly ~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

Look at the way you and I have ended up. I renounced and abandoned the world in order to be here and devote myself entirely to the service of Christ far away from people. And now you return to me after embracing Islam, clad in nothing but tunic and waist-cloth, and with nothing to your name but a staff to walk on. Tell me, for Heaven's sake: What is the difference between us? Is not your renunciation of the world the same as mine? And, my dear: Is it not the same rejection of the state of the world and its inhabitants that has impelled both of us to leave everything behind, realizing as we do that there is no hope to be found in this world and that there is nothing left for us but the love of God? ~ Salwa Bakr

It is not necessary to have great things to do. I turn my little omelet in the pan for the love of God. ~ Brother Lawrence

The surest way to determine whether one possesses the love of God is to see whether he or she loves his or her neighbor. These two loves are never separated. Rest assured, the more you progress in love of neighbor the more your love of God will increase. ~ Teresa Of Avila

We cannot know whether we love God, although there may be strong reason for thinking so; but there can be no doubt about whether we love our neighbor or not. Be sure that, in proportion as you advance in fraternal charity, you are increasing your love of God, for His Majesty bears so tender an affection for us that I cannot doubt He will repay our love for others by augmenting, and in a thousand different ways, that which we bear for Him. ~ Teresa Of Avila

But in one thing I would go beyond strict orthodoxy - I am a convinced universalist. I believe that in the end all men will be gathered into the love of God. ~ William Barclay