It has been over 15 years since I first read ‘The Ragamuffin Gospel’ by Brennan Manning, and it was well due a re-read.

Today a couple of paragraphs have caught my attention and my heart.. and I’m sharing with you with no commentary or discussion… I simply ask that you, reader, will ponder these things in your heart…

“The Word we study has to be the Word we pray. My personal experience of the relentless tenderness of God came […] from sitting still in the presence of the living Word and beseeching him to help me understand his written Word.  Sheer scholarship alone cannot reveal to us the gospel of grace.  We must never allow the authority of books, or institutions, or leaders to replace the authority of knowing Jesus Christ personally and directly.”

and

“In essence, there is only one thing God asks of us – that we be men and women of prayer, people who live close to God, people for whom God is everything and for whom God is enough. That is the root of peace. We have that peace when the gracious God is all we seek”.

For me – these paragraphs portray a people, a prayerful contemplative community, with a vibrant and active life in Christ Jesus.   Full of grace, full of peace, full of rest… full of mercy, compassion and love.