BELIEVING IN HEAVEN AS AN ACT OF REBELLION

'Believing in heaven is the ultimate rebellion against the idea that this world is all that there is. Believing in heaven allows us to catch a glimpse not just of the world as it is, but of the world as it might be. A world shaped not solely by the things of the earth and humanity, but by heaven and the love and compassion of God in whom absolute righteousness, justice and mercy reside; a world governed not by the principles of self-interest and self-survival but by God's principles of love, justice, mercy and compassion. Believing in heaven introduces a new dimension into the life we live today.'

Paul Gooder, Heaven, p.101.

OCCASIONAL WORSHIP

'Worship, at least occasionally, should be one of those times when heaven opens and we see that our words are not ours alone, but are joined together with heaven's eternal worship before God's throne.'

Paula Gooder, Heaven, p.67.

THE TRINITY

'Our triune God shares himself infinitely while remaining undiminished. Thaat is the mystery of the Trinity. The desire of God, Father, and Spirit, is to attract all mankind into their current of divine love, which is the source of all life, the foundation of all things, visible and invisible.'

Erik Varden, Entering the Twofold Mystery, p.203.

OUR GOD WHO IS NEAR & FAR

'God is holy, that is set apart: 'Holy, Holy, holy is the LORD of hosts'; but his glory suffuses the earth: 'the whole earth is full of his glory' (6:3). God is seperate from and integral to the earth at the same time.'

Paula Gooder, Heaven, p.23.

THE HOLY SPIRIT

'...the Consoler, the Caller-to-mind...'
Erik Varden, Entering the Twofold Mystery, p.197.

THE NEXT FRONTIER

'...we must consider the digital world as a new continent to be evangelized, one that requires generous missionaries who are mature in the faith.'

Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas, p.166.

LOVE CAME DOWN

'What saves humanity is the divine love that descends into the most fragile point of our history and renews it from within.'

Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas, p.163.

OUR HUMAN TASK

'It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what it is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, unrooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.'

JRR Tolkien in Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas, p.151.

THE INCARNATION

'The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.'

WB Yeats in Erik Varden, Entering into the Twofold Mystery, p.167.

THE EARTH DECLARES THE GLORY OF GOD

'Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,
And daub their natural faces unaware
More and more from the first similitude.'
Elizabeth Barrett Browning in Erik Varden, Enterintg into the Twofold Mystery, p.163.