Quotes from Gerald G. May

Thus God calls us, invites us, and even commands us, but God does not control our response. We alone bear responsibility for the choices we make.

When my supply of success at this egotistic autonomy ran out, I became depressed. And with the depression, by means of grace, came a chance for spiritual openness. I

The bare edge of freedom is insured and preserved inside us by God, and no matter what forces oppress us from without or within, it is indestructible.19

Before, one needed God as the agent of recovery, the divine dispenser of grace. Now this need is developing into a love for God as God's self. This is a beautiful happening, but it brings with it a new relinquishment that can feel deeply threatening. Along with the sweetness of emerging love comes a certain shakiness about recovery. Recovery is no longer the single most important thing in life. Something else has taken its place, and the fear of relapse grows.

adds a strong imperative to act upon what has happened, a continuing invitation in which the one who is healed is meant to participate. Jesus instructs the healed one to go forth with some special intent, made possible by the healing.

In the great spiritual traditions of the world, attachments are seen as any concerns that usurp our desire for love, anything that becomes more important to us than God. Paul Tillich said that whatever we are ultimately concerned with is God for us. At any given moment, that with which we are most concerned is most likely to be something other than the true God. No matter how religious we may think we are, our addictions are always capable of usurping our concern for God.

There are three meanings of bearing love: to endure it, to carry it, and to bring it forth.

God alone is sufficient.8

the dark night of the soul is endless.

Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that we do the same with our deepest longings for God. God does not always come to us in the pleasant ways we might expect, and so we repress our desire for God. When

It was the recommendation of John of the Cross (in a manner similar to that of Gamaliel) that one should not pay particular attention to any phenomena or experiences. If an experience were truly and directly of God, he felt, its truth would become evident naturally in one's life. If it were of something "else," it would certainly not be worthy of attention. Therefore, no special attention was necessary.

That Jews and Christians, together with Muslims, can live in amity, respecting differences while honoring commonalities—that this is no pipe dream—is proven by the fact that, for centuries, they did just that. —James Carroll1

They saw that temptation coming but neither fought it off nor turned away from it toward something else. Simply, briefly, they chose not to hop on board with it. What did they do instead? Nothing. They let their spaciousness be. This

I didn't fight the desire to drink anymore; I just did not drink.

I just didn't go back.

Heaven is to be in God at last made free. —Evelyn Underhill1

imagination in looking to the future. Memory is the ground of dreaming.