Living Faith Quotes

“But Jesus overturns the Pharisees’ religiosity with the single word “servant.” A servant 1) carries burdens for others, 2) shines attention on others and 3) seeks to disappear.”
― Mark Neilsen, Living Faith: Lenten Devotions for Catholics: Lent 2015

“Our True Needs Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Isaiah 58:5 In this chapter the prophet Isaiah chastises the people for using their fast to put on a “spiritual show.” Afflicting themselves and lying in the ashes are today’s equivalent of moaning and groaning, whining about our self-imposed deprivation or our fatigue from good deeds, just to position ourselves in the holiest light. This is not the intended spirit behind a fast. A fast should be a quiet, private matter between us and God. Sometimes we fast from nourishment to remind ourselves that our sustenance and fulfillment are found in God. Our hunger reminds us of our truest need, and we realign ourselves in communion with our Savior. But we can do other kinds of fasts as well. I have fasted from negative thinking, from judgment, from complaining, from materialism and from overscheduling—and have found these fasts to be incredibly edifying and healing. Fasting can be about deprivation, but not always. Sometimes we are blessed when we learn to starve the parts of ourselves that do not glorify God and feed the parts that do. Kristin Armstrong”
― Mark Neilsen, Living Faith: Lenten Devotions for Catholics: Lent 2015

“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. Luke 9:24”
― Mark Neilsen, Living Faith: Lenten Devotions for Catholics: Lent 2015