Baptism and the friendship of God
"God's initial offering of holy friendship occurs for us at the edge of the baptismal waters. in the initiating rite of baptism, we become disciples of the One who personifies God's friendship for us. Baptism interrupts our way of forming friendships based on what we hope to get out of them. in our new life of discipleship we learn a language that defies conventional wisdom about friendships: stories that tell of welcoming strangers, loving the enemy, and describing as family those for whom water is thicker than blood". (Page 63).
The Church, its organisational life, structures and functional groups:
"We believe it is essential that we offer both our prayers and our devotion to the healthy institutions that need to be preserved, the diminished or dispirited ones that need to be healed, the dying ones that need to be let go, and new ones waiting to be born." (Page 151).
The Excellence that matters
"Excellence in the Christian vocation is a sign and instrument by which creation is healed, reconciliation is experienced, and justice is practiced." (Page 49).
Honest self-awareness
"For the mind often lies to itself about itself and makes believe that it loves the good work, when actually it does not, and that it does not wish for glory, when in fact it does." (Gregory the Great - cited Page 43).
Community interpreters.
"Interpreters are a community's custodians of both memory and hope, people who help set the challenges and opportunities of the present within the much larger context of what God has done in the past and where God is leading in the future." (Page 130).
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