Category: Quotes

by Symeon the New Theologian (949 - 1032) English version by Stephen Mitchell Original Language Greek We awaken in Christ's body as Christ awakens our bodies, and my poor hand is Christ, He enters my foot, and is infinitely me. I move my hand, and wonderfully my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him (for … Continue reading We Awaken in Christ’s Body

You are so young, so before all beginning, and I want to beg you, as much as I can. dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do … Continue reading Rilke on Self-Compassion

"To consider persons and events and situations only in the light of their effect upon myself is to live on the doorstep of hell. Selfishness is doomed to frustration, centered as it is upon a lie. To live exclusively for myself, I must make all things bend themselves to my will as if I were … Continue reading Thomas Merton on “Freedom”

Now I realize that the real sin is to deny God’s first love for me, to ignore my original goodness. Because without claiming that first love and that original goodness for myself, I lose touch with my true self and embark on a destructive search among the wrong people and in the wrong places for … Continue reading Original Goodness Precedes Original Sin

The life of Jesus refutes this dark world of illusion that entraps us. To return home is to turn from these illusions, from dissipation, and from our desperate attempts to live up to others' expectations. We are not what we do. We are not what we have. We are not what others think of us. … Continue reading Henri Nouwen on our Secure Identity as the Beloved

You likely won't agree with everything in the quote below.  I'm not sure that I do.  But it's provocative, speaking to a kind of fear-based male 'spirituality' (for lack of a better term) which thrives on control, security, power, and more.  No doubt, I was influenced by this myself in my theological training, as associating … Continue reading Richard Rohr on Men, the Church, and Theological Education

"It is important to tell at least from time to time the secret of who we truly and fully are—even if we tell it only to ourselves—because otherwise we run the risk of losing track of who we truly and fully are and little by little come to accept instead the highly edited version which … Continue reading Buechner on telling our stories

In a letter to Arthur Greeves, 8 July 1930 "You have I think misunderstood what I said about the return from austerity.  I never meant for a moment that I was beginning to doubt whether absolute chastity was the true goal - of that I am certain.  What I meant was that I began to … Continue reading C.S. Lewis on Emotion and Repression