Spiritual Friendship Quotes

“Being platonically dumped wouldn’t be so bad if people would acknowledge you have the right to be platonically heartbroken. But it’s just not part of our vocabulary. However much our society might pay lip service to friendship, the fact remains that the only love it considers important—important enough to merit a huge public celebration—is romantic love.”
― Wesley Hill, Spiritual Friendship: Finding Love in the Church as a Celibate Gay Christian

“the myth of what we might term, simply, freedom—the myth that the less encumbered and entangled I am, or the less accountable and anchored I am to a particular relationship, the better able I am to find my truest self and secure real happiness. This myth is so ingrained in our imaginations, I suspect, that it may undergird and nurture all the other myths Myers mentions. And it’s not hard to see how it strikes at the root of friendship. If your deepest fulfillment is found in personal autonomy, then friendship—or at least the close kind I want to recommend in these pages—is more of a liability than an asset.”
― Wesley Hill, Spiritual Friendship: Finding Love in the Church as a Celibate Gay Christian

“While the priest prayed over me, I thought, “Friendship” was probably a good word to choose, after all. Without people to love and be loved by, I don’t imagine faith is very sustainable.”
― Wesley Hill, Spiritual Friendship: Finding Love in the Church as a Celibate Gay Christian

“I have become increasingly drawn to that notion: that there exists, for someone like me, a location for my love.”
― Wesley Hill, Spiritual Friendship: Finding Love in the Church as a Celibate Gay Christian

“primary question, over time, became a question about love. Where was I to find love? Where was I to give love?”
― Wesley Hill, Spiritual Friendship: Finding Love in the Church as a Celibate Gay Christian

“What I feared most, though, about my decision to remain celibate was that I had thereby doomed myself to lifelong loneliness.”
― Wesley Hill, Spiritual Friendship: Finding Love in the Church as a Celibate Gay Christian

“As my friend John says, we men are quick to give the three slaps on the back of the friend we’re hugging, each one of which stands for a single word: “I’m. Not. Gay.” And after giving that hug, we try hard to preserve some kind of closeness but, at the same time, keep it moderated with an appropriate distance.”
― Wesley Hill, Spiritual Friendship: Finding Love in the Church as a Celibate Gay Christian