"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
We enjoy finding ways to mean a little bit to a lot of people. This is called celebrity. But the real courage lies in daring to become a lot to a little. In daring to be everything to somebody
– Matthew Warner, Messy & Foolish
The great thing about saints is that they will not lose their faith because of bad liturgical music. They can suffer bad preaching, small budgets, poor management, and every single one of the many fools we have in this hospital for sinners. They’ll still be in the pews on Sunday, quietly winning the world for Christ, slowly transforming the Church, recruiting more saints and often fixing other problems in the process.
– Matthew Warner, Messy & Foolish
“My parents’ generation left the Church without leaving the pews. And now they wonder why their kids find it silly to stand in the pews of a church they never really understood professing creeds they never really believed”
– Matthew Warner, Messy & Foolish
You were made to choose how you live your life, not to let life simply happen to you. If life is just happening to you, then you’re caught up in the mire and mediocrity of accidental living. An accidental life will never be fulfilling to a creature that was made to choose.
We are here to make important choices. The problem is that we’re so busy that we perpetually put off such choices for just one more day…and life quickly passes us by.
It’s all too easy to mindlessly fill our lives with noisy distractions and busy ourselves with endless activities. We find ourselves simply reacting to a never-ending stream of stimulations, constantly tied up with the urgent and never quite getting to the important. Rather than seizing the day, the day seems to be seizing us! We often feel overwhelmed and helpless, hopelessly held captive by the circumstances of our lives
– Matthew Warner, Messy & Foolish
We like to hide behind our big institutional solutions to problems.
That’s why we’d rather elect somebody to clean up the streets than take a walk down our own street with some paint and a broom. That’s why we’re more likely to pay higher taxes to support the elderly than to spend time getting to know them. And it’s why we’re more likely to drop ten dollars in the collection plate than we are to take a homeless man to lunch.
We love to subsidize and outsource our charity and the fixing of our problems.
– Matthew Warner, Messy & Foolish
The incongruity between what we claim to believe and the lives we live says everything the world needs to know. Any honest outsider can tell that we can’t possibly believe what we say we believe. Not only is our religion a fraud, but so are we Christians. At least, that’s what our actions often communicate to the world
– Messy & Foolish, Matthew Warner
Instead of lecturing people about going to church on Sunday, let’s inspire them to want to go. Instead of telling them to dress more appropriately for Mass, let’s give them something worth dressing up for. Instead of telling them not to sleep around, let’s fascinate them with the pursuit of purity. Instead of preaching that giving is better than receiving, let’s just give.
– Matthew Warner, Messy & Foolish