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Hans Urs von Balthasar Quotes

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“To be a child means to owe one's existence to another, and even in our adult life we never quite reach the point where we no longer have to give thanks for being the person we are.”

God Christ Christianity Theology Catholicism God Father God Son

Book:Unless You Become Like This Child

Source: Unless You Become Like This Child

“The Church does not dispense the sacrament of baptism in order to acquire for herself an increase in membership but in order to consecrate a human being to God and to communicate to that person the divine gift of birth from God.”

God Faith Christianity Birth Theology Catholicism Baptism Infant Baptism

Book:Unless You Become Like This Child

Source: Unless You Become Like This Child

“God defines himself as "I am who I am", which also means: My being is such that I shall always be present in every moment of becoming.”

God Spirituality Christianity Catholicism God Father Eternal Father

Book:Unless You Become Like This Child

Source: Unless You Become Like This Child

“What the Father gives is the capacity to be a self, freedom, and thus autonomy, but an autonomy which can be understood only as a surrender of self to the other.”

God Christ Christianity Jesus Christ Theology Catholicism God Father Christology God Son

Book:Unless You Become Like This Child

Source: Unless You Become Like This Child

“In Christ, for the first time, we see that in God himself there exists--within his inseparable unity--the distinction between the Father who gives and the Gift which is given (the Son), but only in the unity of the Holy Spirit.”

God Christ Christianity Jesus Christ Theology Holy Spirit Catholicism Holy Trinity God Father God Son God Spirit

Book:Unless You Become Like This Child

Source: Unless You Become Like This Child

“Her (Mary's) Son first had to be the Child of the Father in order then to become man and be capable of taking up on his shoulders the burden of a guilty world.”

God Jesus Christ Christianity Grace Jesus Christ Catholicism Mary Incarnation Virgin Mary Blessed Virgin Mary God The Father Eternal Child

Book:Unless You Become Like This Child

Source: Unless You Become Like This Child

“Mary thus learns that the Most High has ever borne a Son in his bosom, and that this Son has now chosen her bosom as dwelling-place.”

God Jesus Christ Christianity Jesus Christ Catholicism Mary Incarnation Virgin Mary Son Of God Blessed Virgin Mary Most High

Book:Unless You Become Like This Child

Source: Unless You Become Like This Child

“It is to the Cross that the Christian is challenged to follow his Master: no path of redemption can make a detour around it.”

Suffering Jesus Christ Christianity Jesus Christ Theology Redemption Catholicism Crucifixion Cross The Cross

Book:Unless You Become Like This Child

Source: Unless You Become Like This Child

“It would be unjust toward children to introduce them to Christian teaching and existence only as little pagans and catechumens, in order to leave it up to them to choose the Faith on their own responsibility at a point in time difficult to determine.”

Faith Christianity Theology Catholicism Baptism Infant Baptism

Book:Unless You Become Like This Child

Source: Unless You Become Like This Child

“Only the Christian religion, which in its essence is communicated by the eternal child of God, keeps alive in its believers the lifelong awareness of their being children, and therefore of having to ask and give thanks for things.”

Christ Christianity Theology Catholicism God Father Christian Religion God Son

Book:Unless You Become Like This Child

Source: Unless You Become Like This Child

“What you are is God's gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.”

Inspirational Philosophy God Spirituality Christianity Gift Catholicism Christian Living

Book:Prayer

Source: Prayer

“Nevertheless, in a passage that is very often commented upon because it summarizes the entire salvific economy of faith, the Apostle calls Christ the 'pioneer and perfecter of our faith' (Heb. 12:2), because he has to accomplish the same act as the Christian, only in the opposite direction, as it were. Whereas by venturing to let go of everything the Christian takes a stand beyond finitude and comes into the limitlessness of God, Christ, in order to make this act possible and to be its source, has dared to emerge from the infinitude of the 'form of God' and 'did not think equality with God a thing to be grasped,' has dared to set out into the limitation and emptiness of time. This involved a transcendence and a boundary crossing no less fundamental than that of the Christian, and Christ undertook it so as to entrust himself henceforth within time, with no guarantee or mitigation from eternity, to the Father's will, which is always given to him in the present moment.”

God Jesus Christianity The Incarnation

Book:The Christian and Anxiety

Source: The Christian and Anxiety

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Unless You Become Like This ChildRelated source material

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Heart of the WorldRelated source material

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Theo-Drama: Theological Dramatic Theory : The Last ActRelated source material

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