Advent: A Sacred Ache
“It seemed like centuries of ache coursing through me. It blew through caverns in me I didn’t know were there. I gave in to it. I gave it space to wail itself out.” – Claire Dwyer
“It seemed like centuries of ache coursing through me. It blew through caverns in me I didn’t know were there. I gave in to it. I gave it space to wail itself out.” – Claire Dwyer
“Elizabeth lived her life with constant awareness of the life of the Trinity within her. In the center of her soul, the ‘secret cellar,’ she found a bottomless depth of the divine.” – Claire Dwyer
“That means that each time we shake off the drowsiness or swat away the intrusive worries or recollect our wandering thoughts, we are saying yes to God—again. And again. And again.” – Claire Dwyer
“Our free will is a gift from God. Our yes is precious, and it deserves to be protected so that it is given away with perfect freedom, joy, and generosity of spirit.” – Claire Dwyer
“We want to make the best decisions possible, decisions for good—for the best—outcomes. The glory and terrifying responsibility of being made in God’s image and likeness is that we have the freedom to choose.” – Claire Dwyer
“With the Spirit, light is more luminous. Colors are brighter. Joy is sweeter. Life is richer. From the first moments after Pentecost, Christians have known what is it is to suddenly be awakened to the breathtaking presence of God even in the ordinariness of things.” – Claire Dwyer
“When others are crushing goals and breaking ceilings, we will find solace in the fact that our ‘becoming’ years are making it possible for us to bear fruit that will last.” – Claire Dwyer
“My eyes were opened to how precise and beautiful God’s plan is—that the living out of our vocation purposefully, intentionally, of giving in and giving way and saying yes to every cry and every sticky summons and sleepless night—and saying no to what my wounded nature wanted so badly—was a radical kind of inner house cleaning.” – Claire Dwyer
“When we see writing as a way to magnify the Lord and minimize ourselves, we realize that honest writing is not only refreshing and liberating, but humbling in a spiritually healthy way.” – Claire Dwyer
“Retaliation is a bitter, evil reproach for the offering of ourselves to the world, stretching out our arms and our hearts and saying,’ here, here is my offering.’ Satan hears an echo in that offering — the echo of a cry from a Cross that marks the end of his reign. And he retaliates against us for reminding him that God became man that we might become like Him.” – Claire Dwyer