like bitter sweets we suck on endlessly

"Most of us have half-a-dozen or so favorite anxieties, like bitter sweets we suck on endlessly. We would be frightened to be deprived of them. Jesus challenges us to go beyond the fear of letting go of anxiety, the fear we have of peace itself." 

[Laurence Freeman]

contagious Christ-focus

"Your goal is always to make your Christ-focus contagious – to just one person."

[Ann Voskamp, from "The Real Truth about Boring Men -- and the Women Who Live with Them: Redefining Boring"]

through what he suffered

"Although [Jesus] was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered." 

Hebrews 5:8

the dark chaos of our inner being

"In the morning I will stand and see my God, who sheds the light of salvation on my face, who will breathe life even into our mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in us and has been mercifully hovering over the dark chaos of our inner being."  

[Augustine, Confessions, Book XIII]