Glory in Sacrificing for Others

“So many years ago, Jesus told us that it is the servants of the world who are to be most respected, to be most adored, yet his message has fallen on mostly deaf ears”

“What Jesus wants to inculcate in his disciples, through his own example, is the realisation that true glory comes through faithful and loving service of others, even if such service leads to a cruel death”

“For the Church seems sometimes, and especially at its weakest moments, to move only at the surface. However it is in a constant state of movement backwards and forwards from its depths to its heights of inspiration.”

“Although the challenges of our life might surprise us, they do not surprise God. God is blessing us with good things, and at the same time preparing us for the challenges that come with them.”

“You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love and you can be that servant.”

“Real prayer, the real spiritual life is always about a decentering off of the ego onto God. Not about us, it's about God.”

“I need to be a servant like Jesus was a servant and how he served and I need to do that in my community”

“When you serve others, when you become the least, you're accessing the power of God and you're seeking the honor of God. And that's real power and real honor.”

“Always a bad sign, may I say, when you start telling God what to do”

“Sin is a kind of violence born of fear”

“The Lord has been pleased to crush/purify/bruise his servant because that servant is the Lord himself. He willingly underwent all that he did for our sake because he loves us more than we can possibly imagine. He shows us that suffering willingly embraced and endured is redemptive.”

“The best place to begin the process of “self-giving” service is in our own homes and in the workplace. We have to look upon our education, training, and experience as preparation for service to others.”

“Isaiah’s point seems to be that we trust in God’s providence; that the condemnation of the innocent should be seen as serving the goal of holiness (cf. Sir 36:4); that the glory of the Temple, the place God lives with his people, is only raised through travail”

“Our family is everyone. Our greatness lies in how we treat them, and the sacrifices we make for others, and the service we provide for them – every day.”

“A servant-leader often must suffer by putting his own interests last, and this suffering would be unbearable were it not for hope in the life to come, and confidence in a good God who has good things planned for those who love him”

“Does it not make us ponder how Jesus, who made the deaf to hear and gave sight to the blind, can in time transform even those who are now as James and John once were?”

“Such a profound awareness of the depth of the loving compassion of our God should radically transform us. It will also challenge us to reach out to the needy with Jesus’ compassion.”

“We are not valued for our quality of life. Instead our dignity and value come from what we are, (human beings – rational creatures made in the image of God) and from what we are being made into (the children of God by adoption through grace)”

“But there is always more to be done and others to do it. After all, the Church is much more a building site, than a temple.”

“Real power, real glory, they look like a willingness to enter into the suffering of the world and with Christ...yoked to him to help him bear the suffering of the world”

“Isaiah we got 'suffering servant', Hebrews we have the 'temple priest' and the 'day of atonement', in the gospel we have the 'redeemer'. They're all types of substitutionary sacrifice.”

“The mark of ambition, again, is the focus on the ego. 'I want, not to do great things, but to get others to see me doing great things.' Not to accomplish some mighty end, that's good, but rather to become thereby an important figure in the eyes of the world.”

“Jesus endures and bears unjust suffering and thereby unleashes into the world redemptive power”