On Confession and Forgiveness
The marvelous thing about sacramental confession is that when absolution is given by the priest as God’s representative, the offense is wiped away. We are not to dwell on it any more, but to go on afresh with our lives, knowing ourselves forgiven, restored, loved. My tendency has often been to go back and dwell […]
On Self-Worship
We do not have to act out everything we feel; that is idolatry of our own selves and does not lead to any kind of deep happiness. — Madeleine L’Engle, in Penguins and Golden Calves
Power = Idolatry
When we wield power over other people, are we not becoming idolatrous as we take over the prerogatives of God? — Madeleine L’Engle, in Penguins and Golden Calves
On Pain
Our souls do not grow if we insulate ourselves from pain. — Madeleine L’Engle, in Penguins and Golden Calves
Why Are the Sects Growing?
The sects and fundamentalists are growing because they offer black-and-white answers to all the unanswerable questions. The frightened person is given all the rules and assured that the few people who keep the rules and accept the answers to the unanswerable questions will be saved, and everybody else will be damned. The damnation of others […]
Effective Discipline
Discipline doesn’t work unless it’s founded on the kind of security that comes from knowing you’re loved. — Madeleine L’Engle, A Live Coal in the Sea
On All Things Working Together for Good…
God doesn’t plan the horrors. They happen. But God can come into them. — Madeleine L’Engle, A Live Coal in the Sea
On God’s Mercy
But all the wickedness in the world which man may do or think is no more to the mercy of God than a live coal dropped in the sea. — William Langland, as quoted by Madeleine L’Engle, A Live Coal in the Sea
Guilt and Freedom
It is only by accepting real guilt that I am able to feel free of guilt … if I am not free to accept guilt when I do wrong, then I am not free at all. If all my mistakes are excused, if there’s an alibi, a rationalization for every blunder, then I am not […]
Be Yourself
Trying to be what I am not, and cannot be, is not only arrogant, it is stupid. … If I make myself a martyr to appease my false guilt, then I am falling into the age-old trap of pride. — Madeleine L’Engle in The Summer of the Great-Grandmother