DEATH IS AN ENCOUNTER

'To a Christian, death is no black hole, no brick wall, no absorbing oblivion. To a Christian, death is an encounter. We are not the victims of death. Death is something we perform. It is a task, the culmination of our Christian lives. We enact it as we abandon ourselves, with confidence and trust, to the 'everlasting arms' that have carried us, we know, all the way we have walked, and that will bear us still when we can walk no longer.'

Erik Varden, The Twofold Mystery, p.251.

DO YOU WANT TO BE MY FRIEND?

'The call to be a saint comes in the form of an invitation. Almighty God, the creator of heaven and earth, approaches us with something like the modesty of a little child, a child who has not yet to dissimulate the stirrings of the heart, and has the courage to say: 'Do you want to be my friend?' Such is the humility of our God. Such is the nature of his love.'

Erik Varden, Entering the Twofold Mystery, p.249.

HUMILITY

'To be humble is to own the reality about myself, to be fully me, without pretending to be more. It's to know who I am, what I've been, what I'm called to become. It's to bid farewell, once for all, to illusions of grandeur.'

Erik Varden, Entering the Twofold Mystery, p.243.

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.