The season of Advent is an invitation to live in the fertile shades of the in-between, where beauty and pain coexist, and where — in this very tension — we encounter the love of God most profoundly

Guli Francis-Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmsford, The Times, 29 November

I’ve got what I’ve been told is survivors’ guilt. Whilst it was a miracle and I’m hugely grateful that I’m still here — I thank God every single day — it doesn’t take away from the lives that were lost. And that’s very difficult

Yoni Finlay, survivor of Manchester synagogue attack, interview in The Guardian, 1 December

Lebanon will flourish once again, beautiful and vigorous like the cedar, a symbol of the people’s unity and fruitfulness

Pope Leo, X, 1 December

For much of the post-Thatcher years, a knee-jerk Leftism has dominated discussions of Christianity and politics. People assume the Sermon on the Mount was of one mind with Jeremy Corbyn, that St Paul was a prototype of Owen Jones. “That’s not very Christian, is it?” became a common rebuke to anyone suggesting things are more complex

Jacob Philips, The Daily Telegraph, 29 November

Nun memes have become a jokey shorthand for real dissatisfaction with life as a woman in 2025. . . They don’t, mostly, express a yearning for strict religiosity or voluntary celibacy, but for community, purpose and a retreat from chaos

Emma Beddington, The Guardian, 1 December

We invite readers’ contributions. Quotations have to be from the past few days (or quoted therein), and we need author, source, and date. Please send promptly to: quotes@churchtimes.co.uk