Crafting a Rule of Life Quotes

“When we speak with others about our experience in Christ, it sharpens our attentiveness to the voice and will of the Father. Sharing our stories helps us clarify the intentions of our hearts toward the fulfillment of his divine will. A small circle of friends also reminds us of the presence, power and protection of the Holy Spirit. Confiding in one another instills a sense of hope for the future as children who are dearly loved by their Father.”
― Stephen A. Macchia, Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way

“Evelyn Underhill says it this way: We mostly spend our lives conjugating three verbs: to Want, to Have, and to Do. Craving, clutching, and fussing, on the material, political, social, emotional, intellectual—even the religious—plane, we are kept in perpetual unrest: forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except so far as they are transcended by and included in, the fundamental verb, to Be: and that Being, not wanting, not having and not doing, is the essence of a spiritual life.”
― Stephen A. Macchia, Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way

“The more we discover about God, the more we learn about ourselves and vice versa. Self-understanding and God awareness go hand in glove. We are not separated from the way God uniquely designed us; nor is our growing intimacy with God distinct from our ever-deepening self-discovery. Exploring both will lead us into the fullness of our life in the Spirit.”
― Stephen A. Macchia, Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way

“Most of us stumble into the kingdom with nary a clue how to do this. So we thrash about, make reckless attempts, arm ourselves with slogans, goad ourselves with guilt, fail and fail and fail, and finally settle for spiritual mediocrity. Our inner lives remain cramped and musty. We resort to mere conformity, to a masquerade of piety to cover up for our lack of real Christlikeness.”
― Stephen A. Macchia, Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way

“What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that he knows me. I am graven on the palms of his hands. I am never out of his mind. All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I know him, because he first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when his eye is off me, or his attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when his care falters.”
― Stephen A. Macchia, Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way

“I cannot learn to love my neighbor as myself until I learn to love God: and I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey Him.”
― Stephen A. Macchia, Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way