A Silent Lover Is One Who Doesn't

Grace Cannot Prevail...until Our Lifelong Certainty That Someone Is Keeping Score Has Run Out Of Steam And Collapsed.

Why Do We Marry, Why Take Friends And Lovers? Why Give Ourselves To Music, Painting, Chemistry Or Cooking? Out Of Simple Delight In The Resident Goodness Of Creation, Of Course; But Out Of More Than That, Too. Half Earth's Gorgeousness Lies Hidden In The Glimpsed City It Longs To Become.

Christianity Is Not A Religion. Christianity Is The Proclamation Of The End Of Religion, Not Of A New Religion, Or Even Of The Best Of All Religions. If The Cross Is The Sign Of Anything, It's The Sign That God Has Gone Out Of The Religion Business And Solved All Of The World's Problems Without Requiring A Single Human Being To Do A Single Religious Thing. What The Cross Is Actually A Sign Of Is The Fact That Religion Can't Do A Thing About The World's Problems - That It Never Did Work And It Never Will

The World Exists, Not For What It Means But For What It Is. The Purpose Of Mushrooms Is To Be Mushrooms, Wine Is In Order To Be Wine: Things Are Precious Before They Are Contributory. It Is A False Piety That Walks Through Creation Looking Only For Lessons Which Can Be Applied Somewhere Else. To Be Sure, God Remains The Greatest Good; But, For All That, The World Is Still Good In Itself. Indeed, Since He Does Not Need It, Its Whole Reason For Being Must Lie In Its Own Natural Goodness; He Has No Use For It, Only Delight.

Christianity Is Not A Religion; It Is The Proclamation Of The End Of Religion. Religion Is A Human Activity Dedicated To The Job Of Reconciling God To Humanity And Humanity To Itself. The Gospel, However - The Good News Of Our Lord And Savior, Jesus Christ, Is The Astonishing Announcement That God Has Done The Whole Work Of Reconciliation Without A Scrap Of Human Assistance. It Is The Bizarre Proclamation That Religion Is Over - Period.