The gift of nature is the gift of "being"; the gift of grace is the gift of "well-being." Grace is given to reconnect us to our true nature. At the heart of our being is the image of God, and thus the wisdom of God, the creativity of God, the passions of God, the longings of God. Grace is opposed not to what is deepest in us but to what is false in us. It is given to restore us to the core of our being and to free us from the unnaturalness of what we are doing to one another and to the earth.
~ from THE CHRIST OF THE CELTS by J. Philip Newell
True integrity grows from an awareness that we can stand in the honest
light of God's unconditional love and be seen in our truth. Integrity,
like a muscle, needs to be worked and stretched. As we sit in the center
of integrity, our heart and God's heart beat as one. The transparent light
of truth filters through, embracing every cell of our being, and we are
able to see and speak more clearly. Then, little by little, as the layers
of lies and pretending are stripped aside, a genuine simplicity remains.
Freed of grandiosity and illusion, we stand radiant and unencumbered in
truth as we claim our own voice with which we dare speak our truth and
live with integrity.
