Father in heaven Quote by Jacques Philippe
““Learning to give and receive freely requires a long, laborious process of re-educating our minds, which have been conditioned by thousands of years of struggle for survival.16 The violent entry of divine revelation and the Gospel into the world is like an evolutionary ferment, intended to make our psychology “evolve” toward an attitude of free giving and free receiving—the attitude of the Kingdom because it is the attitude of love. This is a process of divinization, whose final goal is to love as God loves: “You must be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.”17 And this divinization, this becoming God-like, means becoming human in the truest sense! It is a marvelous, liberating evolution: but we can only enter into the new way of being through the destruction of many of our natural behaviors, a sort of death-agony.””
About This Quote
Source Book: The Way of Love by Jacques Philippe, 2005
Transforming our survival‑driven mindset into one of free giving and receiving requires deep mental re‑education, likened to an evolutionary process sparked by divine revelation.
In simple terms: Changing our conditioned mind to love freely needs deep re‑training.
Key Takeaway
Embrace love as a transformative practice.
Themes
love
spiritual growth
transformation
psychology
divinization
Mood
hopeful
reflective
inspirational
Type
philosophical
motivational
spiritual
When to use this quote
- personal relationships
- community building
- spiritual practice
- mental health work
Key Concepts
evolutionary psychology
theology
self‑transformation
Questions to Reflect On
- How can you recognize and release survival‑based habits?
- What steps help you cultivate free giving?
A Different Perspective
The process may clash with ingrained survival instincts, causing resistance.
![“The whole story of creation, incarnation and our incorporation into the fellowship of Christ’s body tells us that God desires us.…We are created so that we may be caught up in [the self-giving love of the Trinity]; so that we may grow into the wholehearted love of God by learning that God loves us…” quote by Wesley Hill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/47b/wesley-hill-47693_christian-community_the-whole-story-of-creation-incarnation_1589551.jpg)
