The Holy Longing
The Search For a Christian Spirituality
by Ronald Rolheiser
Summary
Rolheiser points to the way ahead on the spiritual journey. Alerting fellow travelers that what is to come is a series of Good Friday deaths followed by Easter Sunday resurrections. But then Rolheiser takes us even further, lifting up the importance of grieving our losses so that we can not only release them but also accept the blessings that we received from them. So that, ultimately, we can receive the spirit for the new life that we are already living.
Author’s Website
The Holy Longing - By Ronald Rolheiser
Favorite Quotes
“Both as liberals and conservatives we too easily write off this third prong of the spiritual life, rationalizing that our causes are so urgent, we are so wounded, and our world is so bad, that, in our situation, anger and bitterness are justified.”
“You cannot deal with a perfect, all-loving, all-forgiving, all-understanding God in heaven, if you cannot deal with a less-than-perfect, less-than-forgiving, and less-than-understanding community here on earth.”
“To be connected with the church is to be associated with scoundrels, warmongers, fakes, child-molesters, murderers, adulterers, and hypocrites of every description. It also, at the same time, identifies you with saints and the finest persons of heroic soul within every time, country, race, and gender. To be a member of the church is to carry the mantle of both the worst sin and the finest heroism of soul…because the church always looks exactly as it looked at the original crucifixion, God hung among thieves.”
“To have a just world, we need a new world order. Such an order, however, can never be imposed by force of any kind, but must win the world’s heart by its own intrinsic moral merit. Simply put, to change the world in such a way that people want justice and are willingly willing to live in a way that makes justice possible requires an appeal to the heart that is so deep, so universal, and so moral that no person of good conscience can walk away from it.”
“The gospel of Jesus makes the nonnegotiable demand that we work for justice and peace in the world, but does not demand that we win.”
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