#beloved

We pray for this beloved country, Egypt, for God to protect her safety, security, stability; to protect her unity and more so, her image. ↗

— Pope Theodoros II

#beloved country #country #egypt #god #her

Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self. ↗

— Francis of Assisi

#beloved #christ #gifts #gives #grace

Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, "Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody." ... [My dark side says,] I am no good... I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence. ↗

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

#christianity #faith #feelings #identity #rejection

Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death. ↗

— Sun Tzu

#children #death #deepest #even #follow

As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves. ↗

— Daniel J. Boorstin

#america #ancestors #been #beloved #echo

Some respected and beloved brethren insist that the forming and organising of churches is, according to God's will, the only means of finding blessing in the midst of that confusion which is acknowledged to exist. ↗

— John Nelson Darby

#acknowledged #beloved #blessing #brethren #churches

Love has features which pierce all hearts, he wears a bandage which conceals the faults of those beloved. He has wings, he comes quickly and flies away the same. ↗

— Voltaire

#bandage #beloved #comes #conceals #faults

Therefore, until the day I die, I am going to do what I can, regardless of the cost to me, to try to stop this awful corruption that is destroying our beloved democracy. ↗

— John Jay Hooker

#awful #beloved #corruption #cost #day

For certainly there cannot be a higher pleasure than to think that we love and are beloved by the most amiable and best Being. ↗

— Mary Astell

#being #beloved #best #cannot #certainly

The yogi can relate to his Beloved in the form of a personal relationship-as a friend, a child, a spouse. He can cherish God in traditional religious performances–honoring saints, holy sites, and scriptures. He can hold God dear in the form of union—as his own Self, or in samadhi. All forms of God are equally suitable for love. (165) ↗

— Prem Prakash

#devotion #god #love #relationship #spiritual-relationship