In my experience, there is an almost complete correlation between the degree of emphasis we put on obligations, moralities, and ritual performance, and our lack of any real inner experience. Once we know for ourselves, we will be plenty “moral”—in fact, even more so—but it all proceeds from a free response, from the Trinitarian flow passing through us. It is a response, not a requirement; an effect of having known love, not a precondition for getting love. God is always the initiator, always good, always available, and the flow is always free. Yes, sin is real and common, but it merely means we stop, resist, or deny this omnipresent flow of God’s love.
—from the book From Wild Man to Wise Man: Reflections on Male Spirituality
by Richard Rohr
