Poets & Saints

Hosea 6:6 / Matthew 9:13 (NIV)

"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings."

"But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

God wants mercy, not sacrifice.

Richard Rohr, from The Universal Christ

"Jesus did not come to change God's mind about us. It did not need changing. Jesus came to change our minds about God — and about ourselves — and about where goodness and evil really lie."

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Matthew 11:28–30 (NIV)

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

I come as I am and find grace here.

George MacDonald, from Unspoken Sermons

"The Son of God suffered unto death, not that men might not suffer, but that their suffering might be like His."

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Ephesians 1:9–10 (NIV)

He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment — to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

I was loved before anything went wrong.

Richard Rohr, from The Universal Christ

"Jesus never punished anybody. Yes, he challenged people, but always for the sake of insight, healing, and restoration of people and situations to their divine origin and source."

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Acts 1:14 (NIV)

They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

I receive what God offers and hand it on.

Richard Rohr, from The Universal Christ

"If Christ and Jesus are the archetypes of what God is doing, Mary is the archetype of how to receive what God is doing and hand it on to others.

Mary is the Great Yes that humanity forever needs for Christ to be born into the world."

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Revelation 3:20 (NIV) 

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me."

God waits for my yes.

Denise Levertov, from Annunciation

"The engendering Spirit did not enter her without consent. God waited.

She was free to accept or to refuse, choice is integral to humanness.

She did not cry, 'I cannot. I am not worthy,' Nor, 'I have not the strength.' She did not submit with gritted teeth, raging, coerced. Bravest of all humans, consent illuminated her. The room filled with its light, the lily glowed in it, and the iridescent wings. Consent, courage unparalleled, opened her utterly."

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John 19:25 (NIV)

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

I find power in presence and in stillness.

Edwina Gateley, from Soul Sisters

"Be silent. Be still. Alone. Empty before your God. Say nothing. Ask nothing. Be silent. Be still. Let your God look upon you. That is all. God knows. God understands. God loves you with an enormous love, and only wants to look upon you with that love. Quiet. Be still. Be silent. Let your God love you."

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Luke 1:38 (NRSVUE)

Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

I open myself to what God wants to bring to birth in me.

Meister Eckhart

"We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly, but does not take place within myself? And, what good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of Man is begotten in us."

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Romans 1:20 (NIV)

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

God is more than any image I have been given.

Richard Rohr, from The Universal Christ

"Although Jesus was clearly of the masculine gender, the Christ is beyond gender, and so it should be expected that the Big Tradition would have found feminine ways, consciously or unconsciously, to symbolize the full Divine Incarnation and to give God a more feminine character — as the Bible itself often does."

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Isaiah 45:15 (NIV)

Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself, the God and Savior of Israel.

God is at the depth of all things, including me.

Richard Rohr, from The Universal Christ

"I doubt if you can see the image of God in your fellow humans if you cannot first see it in rudimentary forms in stones, in plants and flowers, in strange little animals, in bread and wine, and most especially cannot honor this objective divine image in yourself. It is a full-body tune-up, this spiritual journey. It really ends up being all or nothing, here and then everywhere."

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Ephesians 2:4–6 (NIV)

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

The image of God cannot be extinguished.

Walter Wink, from Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way

"There is no one, and surely no entire people, in whom the image of God has been utterly extinguished. Faith in God means believing that anyone can be transformed, regardless of the past. To write off whole groups of people as intrinsically racist and violent is to accept the very same premise that upholds racist and oppressive regimes."

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