“The Holy Spirit, our teacher in the present day, is following us and is ever-present, as the one “called alongside,” teaching us, coaching us, energizing us, encouraging us not to lose hope.”

“I hope we all believe in a gracious God who wants us to choose hope over fear, cynicism, and despair.”

“God in Jesus Christ knows us and loves us as friends, as friends of the heart.”

“No branch bears fruit by itself apart from the vine as a whole. The life-giving force that surges through the vine to sustain us all is God’s love.”

“Our faith is fed by John’s Gospel because of its insistence that the power of God is the power of love, and the power of love is the power of God.”

“Like the disciples, we, too, are called to proclaim the same good news even if we have doubts, even if we are still startled and terrified by what might await us in the resurrection life.”

“Our lives and our self-understanding have been transformed by the risen Christ.”

“We tell ourselves a story that continues to live, that persists in our imaginations, that takes root in our hearts.”

“The cross, an instrument of death, has by God’s grace and God’s power, through Jesus of Nazareth, become a source of transformation and life.”

“God sacrifices God’s very self, in pain and in agony, to show us the horror of the pain and the agony we inflict on each other.”