Sober Intoxication of the Spirit Quotes

“Good made human beings poor and needy; He even inscribed humility in the human flesh when he created male and female, that is, incomplete creatures. He made them, from the very beginning, two beings, moving in search of one another, each one "unsatisfied" with only himself or herself. God has positioned human beings on a plane that inclines upward, not downward, so that union between man and woman should move them beyond the other sex upward to the supreme Other, God Himself.”
― Raniero Cantalamessa, Sober Intoxication of the Spirit: Filled With the Fullness of God

“I would like to share an insight from Luther. In a sermon on Pentecost he affirmed that we are born with an old heart, a heart full of carnal desires and concupiscence. People desire prestige, power, money, their neighbour's goods, their neighbour's wife and so on, but God blocks their path with His commandments: "You must not...; you must not...!"
In this situation, said Luther, it is inevitable that they would begin to look at God with a sullen eye, as an enemy of their own happiness, as the one who is the obstacle to obtaining their desires. There is a silent bitterness in sinful people against God, to the extent that, if it depended on them, they would rather that God did not even exist.
When the Holy Spirit comes, here is the miracle! He presents people with a different face for God: a God who is an ally, not an adversary; a good Father who did not spare even His own Son for them; in short, a God who shows them favour. They understand that God has given them the commandments for their good. A new feeling springs up in their hearts, that of sons or daughters, and from their lips at last comes the cry, "Abba, Father!”
― Raniero Cantalamessa, Sober Intoxication of the Spirit: Filled With the Fullness of God

“We will discover, to our surprise, that we are all mentally ill. Our worst mental illness is not insanity. That is certainly a horrible sickness that we would wish on no one, but in comparison to other mental illnesses, it is at least "innocent". Our first mental illness is called unbelief. ... Unbelief is a kind of mental atrophy, an inability to see anything beyond and above our own minds.”
― Raniero Cantalamessa, Sober Intoxication of the Spirit: Filled With the Fullness of God

“We cannot deceive ourselves about offering the whole world as a sacrifice if we ourselves do not die to the world. Saint Paul, after his exhortation to offer our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, continued, "do not be confirmed to this world" (Romans 12:2), and elsewhere he declared, "The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14)”
― Raniero Cantalamessa, Sober Intoxication of the Spirit: Filled With the Fullness of God

“There is another explanation for why some people do not get healed. God has two different ways of helping us and showing His power. Either He can remove the physical sickness, or He can give us the strength to carry it in a new, free and joyful way. He can unite us to Christ and complete "what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church" (Colossians 1:24).”
― Raniero Cantalamessa, Sober Intoxication of the Spirit: Filled With the Fullness of God