John Powell
John Powell
love happy-life grace
A life of love is difficult, but it is not a bleak or unrewarding life. In fact, it is the only true human and happy life, for it is filled with concerns that are as deep as life, as wide as the whole world, and as far reaching as eternity. It is only when we have consented to love, and have agreed to forget ourselves, that we can find our fulfillment. This fulfillment will come unperceived and mysterious like the grace of God, but we will recognize it and it will be recognized in us.
asking regular special treated
We're not asking to be treated in any special way. We're asking for the regular process.
reinventing-yourself
You can't reinvent yourself for every movie.
seven-years play understanding
I wanted to play music from the age of seven. I suddenly fell in love with it and that's what I was going to do, or to be involved with music. It was just speaking to me at a level that as a seven year old I suddenly realized the world was capable of supporting in my head a lot more than what I was understanding verbally and visually.
wisdom pain soul
There is no such thing as a peace of soul approach to religion. It makes of God a gigantic Bayer Aspirin; take God three times a day and you won't feel any pain.
let-it-go affliction might
By afflictions God is spoiling us of what otherwise might have spoiled us. When he makes the world too hot for us to hold, we let it go.
different saint principles
Old cranks have practiced all their lives, just as old saints have likewise practiced all their lives. They just practiced different life principles.
attitude painful pleasant
Attitudes are capable of making the same experience either pleasant or painful.
greatness sky bird
God is to us like the sky to a small bird, which cannot see its outer limits and cannot reach its distant horizons, but can only lose itself in the greatness and immensity of the blueness.
our-lives
Our lives are shaped by those who love us
bridges growth process
Growth is always a gradual process, a bridge slowly crossed and not a corner sharply turned.
ifs-and limits enjoyment
What are the "ifs" and "buts" that limit my enjoyment of life?
learning thinking enough
He who has no inclination to learn more will be very apt to think that he knows enough.
god lonely heart
God isn't calling us to a lonely, joyless existence with the promise of a delayed reward. God is calling us to live, to love and enjoy the challenge. God's formulas are roadmaps to freedom and peace. God is saying to us: "The only way to live is to be free. So save your heart for love and save your love for persons. Don't ever let any 'thing' own you. Don't let money or fame or power or the pursuit of pleasure put a ring in your nose and lead you around. Love persons and use things." And of course, this is the only way to live, to be free.