8
" Perhaps the main reason that we are such poor practitioners of the art of being human; why we so often teeter on a tight-rope between self-hatred and despair is that we don’t pray. We pray so little, so rarely, and so poorly. For everything else we have adequate leisure time. Visits, get-togethers, movies, football games, concerts, an evening with friends, an invitation we can’t decline—and these are good because it is natural and wholesome that we come together in community. But when God lays claim on our time, we balk. Do we really believe that He delights to talk with His children? If God had a face, what kind of face would He make at you right now? —Souvenirs of Solitude "
― Brennan Manning , Dear Abba: Morning and Evening Prayer
16
" Sixteenth Day: Morning “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” —Genesis 1:26-27 Pain, inconvenience, sin—these are the problems of being, the alarming, embarrassing, even tragic things that God is apparently willing to put up with in order to have beings at all. But whatever the problems are, they are not the root of being. That root is joy and now. It is important to recapture the element of delight in creation. "
― Brennan Manning , Dear Abba: Morning and Evening Prayer
20
" Dear Abba, If I speak and even the angels swoon, but I have not love…if I have the gift of storytelling and bringing men to tears, but I have not love…if I have the faith to rally mountains of followers for the cause, but I have not love…if I give all my proceeds to charity, but find no trace of charity within myself, then I am nothing more than a noisy nothing, a distraction for those who would seek to find and know You. There is faith, hope, and love, but help me to seek and practice the greatest of these. "
― Brennan Manning , Dear Abba: Morning and Evening Prayer