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The dominant characteristic of an authentic spiritual life is the gratitude that flows from trust — not only for all the gifts that I receive from God, but gratitude for all the suffering. Because in that purifying experience, suffering has often been the shortest path to intimacy with God.

Brennan Manning

My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.
BRENNAN MANNING

Aware Deep Deserve God Love Myself
When we wallow in guilt, remorse, and shame over real or imagined sins of the past, we are disdaining God’s gift of grace.
BRENNAN MANNING

Gift Grace Guilt Imagination Reality Shame
Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.
BRENNAN MANNING

God Identity Illusion Oneself Radical True
We have been given God in our souls and Christ in our flesh. We have the power to believe where others deny, to hope where others despair, to love where others hurt.
BRENNAN MANNING

Believe Body Despair God Hurt Love Presence Soul
Jesus reveals a God who does not demand but who gives; who does not oppress but who raises up; who does not wound but who heals; who does not condemn but forgives.
BRENNAN MANNING

Demand Forgiveness Generosity God Healing Oppression Reveal Wound
The secret of the mystery is: God is always greater. No matter how great we think Him to be, His love is always greater.
BRENNAN MANNING

God Greatness Himself Mystery Secret Thinking
The Good News of the gospel of grace cries out: We are all, equally, privileged but unentitled beggars at the door of God’s mercy!
BRENNAN MANNING

God Goodness Grace Mercy Scripture
Letting ourselves be loved by God is more important than loving God.
BRENNAN MANNING

God Important Love Ourselves
When absolute control and rigid obedience pose as love within the family and the local faith-community , we produce trained cowards rather than Christian persons.
BRENNAN MANNING

Control Coward Family Love Obedience Person Training
We must go out into a desert of some kind (your backyard will do) and come into a personal experience of the awesome love of God.
BRENNAN MANNING

Desert Experience God Kind Love Personal
A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God.
BRENNAN MANNING

Difference Experience God Goodness
The litmus test of our love for God is our love of neighbor.
BRENNAN MANNING

Friendship God Love Neighbor Ourselves Science Test
The Good News means we can stop lying to ourselves. The sweet sound of amazing grace saves us from the necessity of self-deception. It keeps us from denying that though Christ was victorious, the battle with lust, greed, and pride still rages within us.
BRENNAN MANNING

Amazing Battle Goodness Grace Lust Lying Ourselves Stop Victory
That which is denied cannot be healed.
BRENNAN MANNING

Acceptance Deny
we unwittingly project onto God our own attitudes and feelings toward ourselves… But we cannot assume that He feels about us the way we feel about ourselves — unless we love ourselves compassionately, intensely, and freely.
BRENNAN MANNING

Assumption Attitude Compassionate Freedom God Projection
The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.
BRENNAN MANNING

Age Appearance Goodness Temptation

The dominant characteristic of an authentic spiritual life is the gratitude that flows from trust — not only for all the gifts that I receive from God, but gratitude for all the suffering. Because in that purifying experience, suffering has often been the shortest path to intimacy with God.

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The dominant characteristic of an authentic spiritual life is the gratitude that flows from trust — not only for all the gifts that I receive from God, but gratitude for all the suffering. Because in that purifying experience, suffering has often been the shortest path to intimacy with God.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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