Cutting off our sin, not other believers

“God made people different. So we should presume that God’s presence can be found in those differences.”

“All human beings can understand and can talk about right and wrong, about good and evil...But to talk of sin is to identify a further depth to wrong and to evil, based on an explicit involvement with God and a turning away from him.”

“the more the Church manifests in the lives of its members the reality that human happiness can only be achieved through love of God and love of neighbour, the more this will be likely to influence others, including all those who are not Christians themselves”

“In cutting out the causes of sin, we shouldn’t start with other people – we should start with ourselves.”

“inasmuch as we try to exclude others unfairly from Christ, we exclude ourselves. Thankfully, this is not the last word because, although we are often exclusionary, God is not.”

“This profound truth compels us to honor the unique gifts and contributions of all women, including Aboriginal sisters whose rich cultural heritage and wisdom have greatly enriched our society”

“Jesus' leadership illustrates the power that brings light. The disciples' misuse of leadership power casts a shadow of exclusion.”

“The cause of Christ is not served by one’s rejecting other ways to God than one’s own”

“We should not be so much concerned about whether God is doing his job properly, as Joshua and John were, but whether we have cleared away the obstacles to his grace working in our own lives”

“It is too be regretted that there is so little emphasis these days on the need to make sacrifices for the sake of avoiding sin”

“We’ve simply got to be open to Christ, open to the people He places in our lives, people that are doing His work, performing the healing we most desperately need. Resist the temptation to turn away from Him, to turn away from those people He puts in our lives.”

“If we truly believe we are precious children of God and that God has forgiven us, then we naturally stop our foolish sinning because we no longer need such crutches and diversions”

“But perhaps those who are really against God are those Christians who have ended up making themselves an ‘enemy within’, a scandal or a stumbling-block to the faith of others”

“The Word which is sown in the minds and hearts of man may be found both in individuals and in the rites and customs of different peoples. It is brought by the Spirit into unity of faith in Baptism.It does not stop there.”

“God sees a goodness that we do not perceive. God sees possibilities that we cannot imagine. That’s why God is God, and we must be very cautious about pretending to know who is on God’s side.”

“Everything in the Church is meant to facilitate the flow of grace, so if grace is flowing don't get in its way”

“So remember the story of Eldad and Medad and let's overcome any type of ecclesial jealousy that would put formal structures above the grace of God. The formal structures serve the grace of God, not the other way around.”

“We can get so tied up in our little games, protecting our little turf, making sure things go according to the little bureaucratic structures that we recognize, that we forget what the mission is about”

“what are we willing to sacrifice, yes, even to cut dramatically out of our lives in order to gain eternal life? That's the hard question raised by this very challenging language of the Lord Jesus.”

“What is Jesus concerned about? Not so much following the prescription, making sure everything fits just so. What he's concerned about is the flow of grace.”