Five spiritual quotes by Madeleine L'Engle

As I shared recently, I help out with social media for the Madeleine L’Engle accounts, which is such a delight and honor. Back in August, I shared five of my favorite quotes of Madeleine on writing, which we post on the socials on Fridays. If you missed it, you can read that post here.

On Sundays, we post quotes by Madeleine that are in some way spiritual. So today, since it’s Sunday, I thought I’d share five of my favorite of those quotes.

One thing that I’ve always loved about Madelein L’Engle’s writing, is how she approaches God, faith, and spirituality so differently from other writers. There is a sense of joy and freedom in her writing on faith, but also a deep sense of responsibility, as you can see by quote #3. A Wrinkle in Time has been one of the most banned book of all times, partly because Christians were offended by Jesus and Buddha being listed together as people who fought against evil, partly because the Misses Who, Whatsit, and Which were…kind of witchy. But Madeleine also had a close relationship with evangelical Christians, and Wheaton College still maintains an archive of some of her papers.

To me, as someone who never quite fit in at any of the Christian churches or institutions I attended, I appreciate Madeleine’s embrace of paradox and ambiguity. Does she sometimes seem to contradict herself? Of course. We all are full of contradictions, even people of faith, and we change and grow over time. To paraphrase Whitman, we contain multitudes. But I think Madeleine’s writing on faith points to something deeper than her own contradictions. Faith itself is a contradiction, a paradox, and the institutions which try to smooth those wrinkles, to nail God down to rules and tenets, only succeed in muffling the questions, not silencing them. Madeleine—a prophet as most writers are prophets—insisted on speaking them out loud, and she guides me in that speaking.

~THREE~

~FOUR~

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Two fun facts about those graphics:

1) The cursive Madeleine L’Engle at the bottom of the graphics is her actual signature: I pulled if from a signed copy from one of her books and edited it on Canva to be different colors for different graphics.

2) I did those rainbow graphics for Pride month, over the purple galaxy background, and I really love how they came out!

What about you? Do you have a favorite MLE quote? Or what other spiritual writers do you resonate with?

With love and hope,
Jessica

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P.S. If you are an author feeling overwhelmed by the constant need to post about your books, I have openings for social media management clients! You can find out more on my website: www.jessicakantrowitz.com.

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