Ben

“Love is the only way we will make it through what is to come. Love is not romantic ectasy. It has to be a kind of love that has been honed and intensified through regular prayer, fasting, and repentance and, for many Christians, through receiving the holy sacraments. And it must be a love that has been refined through suffering. There is no other way.”
― Rod Dreher, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation

“I'm a part of a package and in every way this makes me a better person and it makes what I bring to the table in a relationship whether in business, ministry, or my personal life far more extensive than if you only got detached little me.”
― Jeremy Pryor, Family Revision: How Ancient Wisdom Can Heal the Modern Family

“To rediscover Christian asceticism is urgent for believers who want to train their hearts, and the hearts of their children, to resist the hedonism and consumerism at the core of contemporary culture. And it is necessary to teach us in our bones how God uses suffering to purify us for His purposes.”
― Rod Dreher, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation

“The overweight person diets not to punish him- or herself for being heavy but to become healthier. The athlete works out not because he feels guilty for sitting around watching TV but to train his body for competition. So it is with monks and their asceticism—and so it must be with us lay Christians.”
― Rod Dreher, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation