Quotes about Renewal

To enter into the realm of contemplation, one must in a certain sense die: but this death is in fact the entrance into a higher life. It is a death for the sake of life, which leaves behind all that we can know or treasure as life, as thought, as experience as joy, as being. [Every form of intuition and experience] die to be born again on a higher level of life.

We must approach our meditation realizing that 'grace,' 'mercy,' and 'faith' are not permanent inalienable possessions which we gain by our efforts and retain as though by right, provided that we behave ourselves. They are CONSTANTLY RENEWED GIFTS. The life of grace in our hearts is renewed from moment to moment, directly and personally by God in his love for us.

The true inner self must be drawn up like a jewel from the bottom of the sea, rescued from confusion, from indistinction, from immersion in the common, the nondescript, the trivial, the sordid, the evanescent.

There is in us an instinct for newness, for renewal, for a liberation of creative power. We seek to awaken in ourselves a force which really changes our lives from within. And yet the same instinct tells us that this change is a recovery of that which is deepest, most original, most personal in ourselves. To be born again is not to become somebody else, but to become ourselves.

It is here, in this poverty, that man regains the eternal being that once he was, now is and evermore shall be.

Stagnation and inactivity bring spiritual death.

In the Father the infinite Love of God is always beginning and in the Son it is always full and in the Holy Spirit it is perfect and it is renewed and never ceases to rest in its everlasting source. But if you follow Love forward and backward from Person to Person, you can never track it to a stop, you can never corner it and hold it down and fix it to one of the Persons as if He could appropriate to Himself the fruit of the love of the others.

What a strange thing! In filling myself I had emptied myself

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness" (Lam 3:21—23).

God does not patch up the old life, or make certain repairs on the old life; He gives a new life, through the new birth.

From now on we recognize no one according to the flesh" (2 Corinthians 5:16)—you are a brand-new creature! Old things have passed away and all things have become new. Now, beloved of God, live accordingly.

That's our job as Christians—to perpetually bring renewal and supply everywhere we go. When things get out of hand and situations on earth start to go wild (whether it's the economy, or politics, or natural disasters) we're not supposed to jump into the flow of negativity with everyone else and start talking about how bad things are. We're supposed to change them! We're