WHY BEAUTY MATTER TO US

'The human will to embody beauty is, I suspect, underrated. But it lives in us as a consequence and expression of our iconic nature. He in whose image we are made is Beauty. Beauty is naturally the end towards which we strive.'

Erik Varden, Chastity, p.59.

OUR DIVINE CRAVINGS

'To be human is to exist with the sense of an absence to be filled. Only the light of our human's substance's longing for union with the divine do our lesser yearnings make sense.'

Erik Varden, Chastity, p.32.

CHASTITY DEFINED

'...chastity is not a denial of sex. It is an orientation of sexuality, of the whole vital instinct, towards a desired finality. It is a function of the wholeness sought and healing found.'

Erik Varden, Chastity: Reconciliation of the senses, p.17.

THE EXHAUSTION OF EMPATHY

'Always George's problem, seeing both sides of everything. Wore him out.'
John le Carré, A Legacy of Spies, p.341. 

EDEN RESTORED

'When a human being, by the power of God’s grace, expresses a desire that is rooted not in his own selfishness (‘My will’) but rather in God’s plan for creation (‘Thy will’), such a posture reverses the bias of the Fall in that individual’s own life and re-establishes a little piece of Eden, through him or her, on earth.’

Pete Grieg, God on Mute, p.162.

THE INCARNATION

'...the omnipotent God becoming an incontinent baby...'
Pete Greig, God on Mute: Engaging the silence of unanswered prayer, p.158.

THE FOLLY OF IDOLATRY

'Idolatry is the folly of expecting a gift to be a giver. The good things of this life are not meant to generate joy in and of themselves. Rather, they are to be gratefully received as they bring our eyes up to our greatest treasure, the one who provides all things and seeks our deepest joy, the Triune God. Idolatry always disappoints, God never does.'

Dane Ortlund, In the Lord I Take Refuge: 150 Daily Devotions through the Psalms, p.373.

WHAT HISTORY TEACHES US

'First, whom the gods would destroy they must first make mad with power. Second, the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small. Third, the bee fertilizes the flower it robs. Fourth, when it is dark enough you can see the stars.'

Charles A Beard in Martin Luther King Jr., 'The Death of Evil upon the Seashore', p.86.

EVIL DESTROYS ITSELF

'...evil carries the seed of its own destruction. In the long run right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.'

Martin Luther King Jr., 'The Death of Evil upon the Seashore' in The Gift of Love, p.86.

CAESAR VS. CHRIST

'Caesar occupied a palace Christ a cross, but the same Christ so split history into A.D. and B.C. that even the reign of Caesar was subsequently dated by his name.'

Martin Luther King Jr., 'The Death of Evil upon the Seashore' in The Gift of Love, p.81.