In Love's service, only wounded soldiers can serve. - Brennan Manning, Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging

"Silent solitude makes true speech possible and personal. If I am not in touch with my own belovedness, then I cannot touch the sacredness of others. If I am estranged from myself, I am likewise a stranger to others."

"For me the most radical demand of Christian faith lies in summoning the courage to say yes to the present risenness of Jesus Christ."

"we unwittingly project onto God our own attitudes and feelings toward ourselves... But we cannot assume that He feels about us the way we feel about ourselves -- unless we love ourselves compassionately, intensely, and freely."

"Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion."

"While the impostor draws his identity from past achievements and the adulation of others, the true self claims identity in its belovedness. We encounter God in the ordinariness of life: not in the search for spiritual highs and extraordinary, mystical experiences but in our simple presence in life."