“When you change you are illustrating the fact that it can be done. And what people need today are illustrations.”
“Sousa, I believe they can do better. If you can’t, it’s okay. I’ll believe for you. I’ve seen a lot of awful things in my time on this planet, but I have never, not once, thought that anyone was beyond saving.” She thumped the bass drum to emphasize her next words. “I’m not going to start now.”
Source: In Sleep You Know, a Story of the Eleriannan
“This is the mystery that Jesus himself became the prodigal son for our sake. There is no journey to God outside of the journey that Jesus made. Since his Son had become all in all, He has brought them all back. Rembrandt’s painting is the whole of humanity returning to God, the summary of the history of our salvation.”
Source: The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming
“If you somehow believe that you can free yourself from yourself, you will spend the rest of your life decorating the prison cell that you’ve been living in all of your life.”
“God is not interested in parts of you, for having a part will never change the whole.”
“It’s an inconvenient truth that celibacy is a heavy burden. The Church perpetuated the notion that the vow of celibacy was the greatest act of self-sacrifice and commitment to God. However, few stop to seriously consider the loneliness and disconnectedness of celibacy and the constant struggle between being virtuous and sinful.”
Source: A Saint and a Sinner: The Rise and Fall of a Beloved Catholic Priest
“Priests are viewed by many as stoic, even heroic, to voluntarily choose to never marry or engage in sexual activity for the rest of their lives. Others think, “What man in his right mind would make such a promise?”
Source: A Saint and a Sinner: The Rise and Fall of a Beloved Catholic Priest
“Some Catholics put priests on pedestals, viewing them as deserving of reverence for their sacred calling and sacrifice. The religious landscape is littered with priests who could not live up to the ideal of celibacy. Like a reluctant soldier sent off to war, to kill or be killed, priests who cannot maintain a celibate lifestyle were not fit for duty.”
Source: A Saint and a Sinner: The Rise and Fall of a Beloved Catholic Priest
“I returned to my seat, and immediately, the voices in my head pounced. “Tell me, Stephen. Is Camilla a lie or a secret? Isn’t a secret the same as a lie? Or is she simply a lie of omission? Which is it, Stephen, clandestine love or a cheap soap- opera affair?”
Lying is a strange concept because it always relies on someone’s perspective.”
Source: A Saint and a Sinner: The Rise and Fall of a Beloved Catholic Priest
“How good it is to love live things, even when what they've done is terrible, how much we each want to be the pure exonerated creature, to be turned loose into our own wide open without a single harness of sin to stop us.”
Source: Bright Dead Things