Matt Mcmanus

“Every single moment of our lives asks us to be charmed, captivated, enticed, thrilled, and pleased. We don’t wait for such moments to fall out of the sky; we just put ourselves on high alert to catch these moments as they happen. After all, like certain bodily functions, discovering the holy in all things is indeed a process. It is also an impulse, like smiling, which does not await the arrival of joy but actually precedes and hastens it. Being alert to the sacred in our midst is a choice that gets more meaningful as we practice it.”
― Gregory Boyle, Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship

“So much of what he knew about religion struck him as total bullshit; he was disarmed when the fathers freely admitted that some stories were in fact pious fictions. But, judging his character, they dared him to cut through what he called the crap: to find the core of truth, carefully preserved and offered”
― Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow

“The greatest politeness Is free of all formality. Perfect conduct Is free of concern. Perfect wisdom Is unplanned. Perfect love Is without demonstrations. Perfect sincerity offers No guarantee.”
― Thomas Merton, The Way of Chuang Tzu

“Symptoms of growth may look like breakdown or derangement; the more we are allowed by the love of others and by self-understanding to live through our derangement into the new arrangement, the luckier we are. It is unfortunate when our anxiety over what looks like personal confusion or dereliction blinds us to the forces of liberation at work.”
― Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation