This Sunday’s readings: John 17:13-19

Reflections

Remember then that there is only one important time, and that time is now. The most important one is always the one you are with. And the most important thing is to do good for the one who is standing at your side. This is why we are here.
~ Jon J. Muth, 1960- , Illustrator/Writer, The Three Questions

We are not sent into this world mainly to enjoy the loveliness therein, nor to sit us down in passive ease; no, we were sent here for action. The soul that seeks to do the will of God with a pure heart, fervently, does not yield to the lethargy of ease.
~ Dorothea Dix, 1802-1887, Nurse, Advocate for Mentally Ill

I would like to buy $3 worth of God please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 dollars’ worth of God please.
~ from collected writings 1971, Wilbur Rees, 1925-2018, Pastor/Author

An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.
~ Walter Bagehot, 1826-1877, English Journalist/Essayist

I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward…. How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?
~ Penn Jillette, famed atheist, illusionist and comedian