from The Ragamuffin Gospel, by Brennan Manning
- The gospel of grace is brutally devalued when Christians maintain that the transcendent God can only be properly honored and respected by denying the goodness and the truth and the beauty of the things of this world. Amazement and rapture should be our reaction to the God revealed as Love.
- Compassion for others is not a simple virtue because it avoids snap judgments of right or wrong, good or bad, hero or villain; It seeks truth in all its complexity.
- The way we see other people is usually the way we see ourselves. If we have made peace with our flawed humanity and embraced our ragamuffin identity, we are able to tolerate in others what was previously unacceptable in ourselves.
- In Christ Jesus freedom from fear empowers us to let go of the desire to appear good, so that we can move freely in the mystery of who we really are. Preoccupation with projecting the "nice guy" image and relying heavily on the regard of others leads to self-consciousness and unfreedom in the iron grip of human respect.
- The author of Hebrews describes Jesus as the one who has "set free all those who had been held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death" (Hebrews 2:15). The gospel of freedom claims that death is an illusion, a phantom, the bogeyman of little children. Death is simply a transition into the one experience worthy of the name life.
We speak of oneness in large amounts
and keep our separate checking accounts
We see mutual submission ignored by the fool
and use our sex as a bartering tool
We demand self control from those we provoke
and view our own rage as justly evoked
We dish out burdens in fleeting stride
to supplant the love we lack inside
We miss our stake in communion's share
because our friends are used to compare
We are distinguish by the morals we use to condemn
our convictions mere means to keep us from them
Self-promoting schemes drive how we live
we've been taking so long we forgot how to give
We shun the truth with arrogant gall
and pride once again will precede our fall
Forewarned
brokenness concealed
old scars seem healed
coping days surpassed
new thriving life amassed
old pride again returned
precious tenderness unlearned
compassion turned burned exhaust
instinctual sympathy lost
present event evokes the past
prized lessons now trespassed
the thorn still belongs me
not as victim but victoriously
boasting in that which makes me weak
so with credence I may speak
of His power perfectly
and of grace sufficiently
Though it took months to express
May this account confess
I fell into love's trance
Watching your ballet dance
It was a crisp September day
With your art set on display
A latent excitement filled the air
For a perfectly poised enchanting affair
The music began as you gently bowed
To the merriment of your eager crowd
With a fanciful stride you deftly strolled
To a balancing act precisely controlled
Exuding elegance in each delicate step
Telling the tale of secrets you kept
Until this day the woman I knew
Was only a sliver of the actual you
It was much more than a dance- I know
A piece of your radiance was put on show
The dreams you've been so desperately holding
Revealed with the pace of your dance unfolding
For your splendid gift and unswerving devotion
Lavishly blessed with such beauty in motion
Behold the ballerina abounding with grace
Exacting applause and my heartfelt praise
Bravo!
A wisdom wisher finds foolish fervor.
Inspired by the book:
Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure
Fyodor Dostoyevsky:
I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, of the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they’ve shed; and it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify what has happened.
Excerpts:
1. "gentleness towards ourselves constitutes the core of our gentleness towards others. When the compassion of Christ is interiorized and appropriated to self, the breakthrough into a compassionate stance toward others occurs. In a catch-22 situation, the way of gentleness brings healing to ourselves and gentleness toward ourselves brings healing to others. Solidarity with ragamuffins frees the one who receives compassion and liberates the one who gives it in the conscious awareness, "I am the other."
2. "Are you moody and melancholy because you are still striving for the perfection that comes from your own efforts and not from faith in Jesus Christ? Are you shocked and horrified when you fail? Are you really aware that you don't have to change, grow, or be good to be loved? Though on any given day you may be more depressed than anything else, is the general orientation of your life toward peace and joy? Are you diminished by other people's perception of you or your definition of yourself? Do you posses that touch of folly to transcend doubt, fear, and self hatred and accept that you are accepted?"