Morning Briefings

So many people use unanswered prayers as a reason for not believing in God.

– Anthony DeStefano
Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To

Jesus’ life didn’t go well. He didn’t reach his earning potential. He didn’t have the respect of his colleagues. His life wasn’t long. He didn’t meet his soul mate. And he wasn’t understood by his mother. Yet I think I deserve all those things because I am so spiritual.

– Hugh Prather
Spiritual Notes to Myself

Jesus said to his disciples: To those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.

– Matthew 13:10-12

For if a man will betray God, he will surely betray man!

– Gereon Goldmann
The Shadow of His Wings

Fortunate are those who take the first steps. Someday people will realize that men and women are capable of speaking the language of the angels–and that all of us are possessed of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and that we can perform miracles, cure, prophesy and understand.

– Paulo Coelho
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

If our faith becomes lukewarm and has no expression, God can allow us to fall. God does not want evil but may impart grace and the call to be converted.

– Father Tadeusz Dajczer
The Gift of Faith

The sages say that the answer to the question, ‘Where does God live?’ is ‘Where you look for him.’

– Wendy Mogul
The Blessing of a Skinned Knee

Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.

– Matthew 13:7

One day in a moment of great crisis, I came to understand the words of my [dying] father, ‘If I die, it will be glory; if I live, it will be grace.’ That faith was his evening star–the faith in a power greater than man.

– William O. Douglas
This I Believe

Western civilization seems to have forgotten what every primitive society understands–you need kids to have a healthy society. Children are huge consumers. Then they grow up to become taxpayers. That’s how a society works, but the postmodern secular state seems to have forgotten that. Europe and Japan, which comprise two of the world’s major economic engines aren’t merely in recession, they’re shutting down. This will have a huge impact on the world economy. There is a direct correlation between abandonment of traditional religious society and a drop in the birth rate.

– Herbert Meyer
What in the World is Going On?

This is true wisdom, to find a faith that can carry us through darkness, doubt and suffering.

–
Sacred Space

If you do not believe in God, you still encounter the same problems, but you cannot call upon God or faith to resolve them.

– Robert J. Spitzer
The Spirit of Leadership

Poll Question: Is Prayer a Regular Part of Your Life As an Entrepreneur? 82.91 percent answered yes in the 2007 survey.

–
Startup Nation

It’s not that the Christian faith has been tried and found difficult, but rather it’s been found difficult and left untried.

– G.K. Chesterton

When I was a child, I would complain to my mother about various things that had gone wrong, and she would say, very matter-of-factly, ‘Offer it up.’  My reaction was, ‘I’m always offering it up, and no good seems to come from it.’ It occurred to me years later that the offering was not intended to be a direct benefit to me, but rather a benefit to the world.

– Fr. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J.
Five Pillars of the Spiritual Life: A Practical Guide to Prayer for Active People

We cannot borrow character in a crisis. We cannot fix up a friendship with God, and expect it to mean very much on our deathbed. Since, therefore, faith and character and inner spiritual resources will someday be indispensable, we should seek them now.

– Thomas N. Carruthers from
Strength for Service to God and Country

Jesus knew what he was doing when He said, Do this in memory of me, because He knew the disciples would, even if their future faith were suffering: they’d eat again, they’d at least do that, they’d share a meal again, and when they did, they’d think of Him.

– from Liam Callanan’s
All Saints

When the road gets dark and you can no longer see, let my love throw a spark; have a little faith in me. And when the tears you cry are all you can believe, just give these loving arms a try and have a little faith in me.

– as sung in
Mandy Moore: Coverage

You in the armed forces have the difficult task of keeping ‘chins up’ when you know that separation from friends and loved ones, dangers of sea, air and land and death itself must be faced. In a way, though, the difference between this new life and the old is only one of degrees, not of kind; and successful service anywhere requires faith.

– Elam J. Anderson, former President, University of Redlands
Strength for Service to God and Country

Not really knowing how to handle the delicate subject of God in a secular setting, particularly with senior people in the business world, I telephoned John Gardner and told him of my uncertainty about how to respond. John simply said, ‘Over the entrance to Carl Jung’s home is a Latin inscription: Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit–Invoked or not invoked, God is present.’

– Joseph Jaworski
Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership

I’m just doing one guy’s part. I have no agenda. I just want it to be the best Church it can be. That’s not my call as to what it is. I’m not a bishop, thank God. I am not a priest or seminarian. The indication of whether it’s the best it can be for people is what it gives to their lives. Whether people can be church or not, even when they’re not in that building on Sunday, but in the world.

– Rocco Palmo
The Rocco Report

Everyone has a religion. We all have some sort of beliefs about the cause, nature and purpose of the universe. Our religion is simply our map, our paradigm, our beliefs that answer the difficult existential questions.

– James C. Hunter
The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership

People who don’t really believe in the future do not shape the future. Men and women of vitality have always been prepared to bet their futures, even their lives, on ventures of unknown outcome. If they had all looked before they leaped, we would still be crouched in caves sketching animal pictures on the wall.

– John Gardner
from a 1993 speech

Your beliefs are in jeopardy only when you don’t know what they are.

–
This I Believe

People spend their whole lives showing off the biggest and the best. Sometimes the most interesting people are just subtle.

– Christine Whelan
Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women

One day in a moment of great crisis, I came to understand the words of my [dying] father, ‘If I die, it will be glory; if I live, it will be grace.’ That faith was his evening star–the faith in a power greater than man.

– William O. Douglas
This I Believe

Then the rainstorm came over me; and I felt my spirit break. I had lost all of my belief, you see, and realized my mistake.

– Seal
Love’s Divine, Seal IV