SEA SWIMMING

'Even now, to be by the sea is to be in my senses in a way that doesn't seem possible elsewhere. When you're in your senses, you clear a space for truth. The wily part of you is no match for the sea; the sea cannot be deceived, and in the water, I cannot deceive myself either. I am vulnerable and in a state of receiving, ready to listen and ready to speak. It is a kind of intimacy.'

Amy Key, Arrangements in Blue, p.96.

THE DOMINANCE OF ROMANTIC LOVE

'I wonder if we all lose by centring romantic love in our lives. And it does still feel like romantic love is centred. Even as the internet has helped us find our own warm pocket of community within the endless variations of romantic and sexual idenitity; even though state and church control of who cannot be romantcially and sexually involved, and who can have their relationships recognised, has loosened. Nothing has displaced romantic love from its holy status. If we were to pay attention, what do we fail to notice, share and celebrate because of this? Is it possible that life without romantic love isn't that bad? Is it possible we can take as much pleasure in other loves, find new ways of incorporating romantic feeling into our lives, assign importance to crossing over thresholds that romantic love has abandoned?'

Amy Key, Arrangements in Blue: Notes on Love and Making a Life, p.10.

THE PRICE OF DOING GOOD

'Anyone setting out to do good will face temptation's wiles. We can count on it. There is no need to get too upset.'

Erik Varden, Alight with Hidden Glory: The 2026 Papal Retreat, p.8.

THE INCARNATION

'God coded himself into humanity.'

John C Lennox, Seven Daus that Divide the World: The beginning according to Genesis and science, p.104.

THE EXHAUSTION OF ANGER

'I had always thought that sorrow was the most exhausting of the emotions. Now I knew that it was anger.'
Helen Garner, The Spare Room, p.135.

PRAISE DEFINED

'Praise is the mode of love which always has some element of joy in it.'
CS Lewis, A Grief Observed, p.53.

JESUS'S ANGER

'Jesus isn't angry when he's mistreated; he's angry when others are mistreated. There was nothing selfish or self-serving in his anger.'

Tim Chester, Enjoying Jesus, p.140.

HOW MUCH JESUS LOVES US

'Even when we sin, Jesus desires us. Perhaps in our sin he desires us the most, for he longs for us to turn away from the ruin of sin and come back to his grace. When Jesus sees your sin and suffering, his instinct is not to turn away but to turn towards you in love.'

Tim Chester, Enjoying Jesus, p.102.

CHRIST'S POWER TO RESURRECT

'No one can as easily awaken another in bed, as Christ can in the tomb.'
Augustine of Hippo in Tim Chester, Enjoying Jesus, p.72.

JESUS GETS US

'He is affected with our infirmities, he feels them, he is touched with the feeling of them. He has a sense of them which touches his soul, and makes an impression on it; as one who not only has suffered what others feel, but suffers with them in what they feel.'

David Clarkson in Tim Chester, Enjoying Jesus: Experience the presence and kindess of the Son of God in everyday life, p.38.