I appreciate how well Erik Varden works with phrases: both how he unpacks them and how he coins them.  Consider a recent reflection on “living vastly“ (his words, not mine).

First, he mentions the source of his reflection: a prayer given as part of their liturgy that involves a phrase Google translates for me as God, the life of the faithful, the glory of the humble, the happiness of the righteous.  Based on this, he says:

true life unfolds in response to fidelity and trust; glory, the conforming of our being to divine nature, is a function of illusionless self-knowledge, known in tradition as humility; beatitude, the durable perfection of happiness, correlates to just reasoning and action.

God is where we start, and these things describe Him well.

Then, as he often does so well, Varden reminds us of our own condition, and not just the difficult parts of it.  As much as anything, he calls us to reality, that

sublime aspiration presupposes realism and calls out for implementation in positive action.

Lots of big words and even bigger ideas, obviously.   But he uses those words to locate us well in the life of faith.  He concludes:

To be a Christian is to learn to live vastly, to be drawn towards a horizon that forever broadens, though its coordinates correspond precisely to the intimate motions of our heart of hearts.

Amen and amen.