{"quotes":[{"text":"No one should be surprised at the difficulty of faith, if there is some part of his life where he is consciously resisting or disobeying the commandment of Jesus. Is there some part of your life which you are refusing to surrender at his behest, some sinful passion, maybe, or some animosity, some hope, perhaps your ambition or your reason? ... How can you hope to enter into communion with him when at some point in your life you are running away from him?","author":"Dietrich Bonhoeffer","tags":["belief","christianity","communion","doubt","faith","forgiveness","obedience","surrender"],"id":6192,"author_id":"Dietrich+Bonhoeffer"},{"text":"Our daily prayer ought to be: Please universe, help me help myself and help me show others how to help themselves.","author":"Kamand Kojouri","tags":["advise","allah","ask","believer","buddha","christ","communion","daily","divine","faith","god","guidance","guide","help","helping","jesus","kamand","kamand-kojouri","kojouri","mantra","motto","motto-of-life","please","pray","prayer","religion","religious","service","show","spiritual","spirituality","universe","worship"],"id":8481,"author_id":"Kamand+Kojouri"},{"text":"As for the vice of lust - aside from what it means for spiritual persons to fall into this vice, since my intent is to treat of the imperfections that have to be purged by means of the dark night - spiritual persons have numerous imperfections, many of which can be called spiritual lust, not because the lust is spiritual but because it proceeds from spiritual things. It happens frequently that in a person's spiritual exercises themselves, without the person being able to avoid it, impure movements will be experienced in the sensory part of the soul, and even sometimes when the spirit is deep in prayer or when receiving the sacraments of Penance or the Eucharist. These impure feelings arise from any of three causes outside one's control. First, they often proceed from the pleasure human nature finds in spiritual exercises. Since both the spiritual and the sensory part of the soul receive gratification from that refreshment, each part experiences delight according to its own nature and properties. The spirit, the superior part of the soul, experiences renewal and satisfaction in God; and the sense, the lower part, feels sensory gratification and delight because it is ignorant of how to get anything else, and hence takes whatever is nearest, which is the impure sensory satisfaction. It may happen that while a soul is with God in deep spiritual prayer, it will conversely passively experience sensual rebellions, movements, and acts in the senses, not without its own great displeasure. This frequently happens at the time of Communion. Since the soul receives joy and gladness in this act of love - for the Lord grants the grace and gives himself for this reason - the sensory part also takes its share, as we said, according to its mode. Since, after all, these two parts form one individual, each one usually shares according to its mode in what the other receives. As the Philosopher says: Whatever is received, is received according to the mode of the receiver. Because in the initial stages of the spiritual life, and even more advanced ones, the sensory part of the soul is imperfect, God's spirit is frequently received in this sensory part with this same imperfection. Once the sensory part is reformed through the purgation of the dark night, it no longer has these infirmities. Then the spiritual part of the soul, rather than the sensory part, receives God's Spirit, and the soul thus receives everything according to the mode of the Spirit.","author":"San Juan de la Cruz","tags":["communion","depravity","eucharist","fallen-nature","holy-spirit","lust","sin"],"id":10666,"author_id":"San+Juan+de+la+Cruz"},{"text":"When men live huddled together without true communication, there seems to be a greater sharing, and a more genuine communion. But this is not communion, only immersion in the general meaninglessness of countless slogans and clichés repeated over and over again so that in the end one listens without hearing and responds without thinking. The constant din of empty words and machine noises, the endless booming of loudspeakers end by making true communication and true communion almost impossible...","author":"Thomas Merton","tags":["communication","communion","conformity","society"],"id":17155,"author_id":"Thomas+Merton"},{"text":"The Triune God is in the world, nearer to us than we are to ourselves, yet the world is also encompassed by his loving presence. He does have the whole world in his hands, even while he inhabits the whole world. For Christians, being saved means being caught up into this communion, indwelled by God and indwelling in him, and being opened up so that other people may have room in us and we in them.","author":"Peter J. Leithart","tags":["christians","communion","encompass","father","god","holy-spirit","indwelling","jesus","saved","son","trinity","world"],"id":20109,"author_id":"Peter+J.+Leithart"},{"text":"If loving and communing with God isn’t your primary purpose in prayer, you’re missing out on what Christianity is all about!","author":"Andrew Wommack","tags":["christianity","communion","god","prayer","purpose"],"id":22671,"author_id":"Andrew+Wommack"},{"text":"Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.","author":"Helen Shucman","tags":["a-course-in-miracles","acim","communion","prayer"],"id":31795,"author_id":"Helen+Shucman"},{"text":"Every day He humbles Himself just as He did when from from His heavenly throne into the Virgin's womb; every day He comes to us and lets us see Him in lowliness, when He descends from the bosom of the Father into the hands of the priest at the altar.","author":"Francis of Assisi","tags":["communion","god","mass"],"id":37870,"author_id":"Francis+of+Assisi"},{"text":"The desire we so often hear expressed today for “episcopal figures,” “priestly men,” “authoritative personalities” springs frequently enough from a spiritually sick need for the admiration of men, for the establishment of visible human authority, because the genuine authority of service appears to be so unimpressive.","author":"Dietrich Bonhoeffer","tags":["communion","discipleship","leadership"],"id":39458,"author_id":"Dietrich+Bonhoeffer"},{"text":"We should pray that God would enrich his ordinance with his presence; that he would make the sacrament effectual to all those holy ends and purposes for which he hath appointed it; that it may be the feast of our graces, and the funeral of our corruptions; that it may not only be a sign to represent, but an instrument to convey, Christ to us, and a seal to assure us of our heavenly jointure [union].","author":"Thomas Watson","tags":["bible","christian","church","communion","eucharist","jesus","lord-s-supper"],"id":41703,"author_id":"Thomas+Watson"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":59,"pages":6,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}