After waiting over a month from the last of the following 23 postings of quotes, as I read them again I’ll continue copying here some of the insights that stood out as especially spiritually helpful, so what follows is a collection of those special insights.
(And of course, because I had started seeing in modern writing that where the spiritual meaning of love appeared, we could gain new understanding by substituting ‘agape’ for ‘love.’ So I did that in the quotes from those 23 blog postings.)
“Spiritual power is the animation energy of agape. The light of agape is the energy and motion that have called us to prayer, allowing us to perceive at least bits of deeper reality.
“Our hearts are like diamonds because they have the capacity to express divine light, which is agape; we not only are portals for this agape, but are made of it.
“I felt a shift inside, the conviction that agape was having its way with me, softening me, changing my cold stone heart. The feeling grew stronger and stronger, until, unfortunately, church was over. Driving home, I tried to hold on to what I’d heard that day: that having agape for your enemies was nonnegotiable. It meant trying to respect them, it meant identifying with their humanity and weaknesses. It didn’t mean unconditional acceptance of their crazy behavior. They were still accountable for the atrocities they’d perpetrated, as you were accountable for yours. But you worked at doing better, at having agape for them, for the profoundest spiritual reason: you were trying not to make things worse.
“We don’t transform ourselves, but when we finally hear, the Spirit has access to our hearts, and that is what changes us.
“You are Spirit, you are agape, and even though it is hard to believe sometimes, you are free. You’re here to share agape, and to receive agape, freely.” …Anne Lamott
“First we need to turn to God, we need to feel God’s agape, we need to open our hearts to God’s agape. As we pray for others, our prayers are gradually transformed, our hearts are softened, and our eyes are opened. Once opened we can never close our eyes again. We begin to see the world through God’s eyes of agape. The process of praying for others begins with God. God already has agape for us. God is already involved in our lives and the lives of those for whom we pray. God calls us into a network of relationships with God and all of creation. When we pray for others, we respond to God’s call and become engaged with God and our sisters and brothers. Our prayer is also an expression of gratitude for God’s ongoing presence in our lives.” …Jane Vennard
“Life is essentially about learning to share agape. When we have agape for someone from our depths — from Essence — we draw the other’s Essence out from hiding so that he or she can more easily express it.
“It’s not easy to break free of ego identification and to share agape. When we do, we feel free and happy. And agape, freedom, and happiness are what we all have wanted all along. Agape isn’t something we can understand because its not able to be grasped by the mind. Agape is not in the mind’s or the ego’s domain. It’s a quality of Essence — of who we really are. Yet agape is where fulfillment lies and why relationships are so important to us.
“To align yourself with Essence and experience agape and the other qualities of Essence, all you have to do is notice agape … choose agape over the ego’s ideas, and that choice brings you into alignment with Essence. From Essence agape flows.” …Gina Lake
“God’s kingdom is agape. What does it mean to share agape? It means to be sensitive to life, to things, to persons, to feel for everything and everyone to the exclusion of nothing and no one.
“Agape is already there within you. All you have to do is remove the blocks you place to sensitivity and it would surface.
“What is agape? It is a sensitivity to every portion of reality within you and without, together with a wholehearted response to that reality.
“When you are tapping into agape you find yourself looking at everyone with new eyes; you become generous, forgiving, kindhearted, where before you might have been hard and mean. Inevitably people begin reacting to you in the same way and soon you find yourself living in a loving world.” …Anthony DeMello
