“In scripture God brings the animals to the human for naming. In that simple act the human is brought to recognize the particular personality and worth of each living creature. Too bad we forget so often.” HumansSimpleForgetAnimalParticularPersonalityCreaturesScriptureLiving Creatures Author:Joan D. Chittister
“Humor and laughter are not necessarily the same thing. Humor permits us to see into life from a fresh and gracious perspective. We learn to take ourselves more lightly in the presence of good humor. Humor gives us the strength to bear what cannot be changed, and the sight to see the human under the pompous.” GivingHumansHumorChangedPerspectiveBearsLaughterSightPermitGraciousPompousGood HumorHumor And Laughter Author:Joan D. Chittister
“We must now surrender to the obligation to understand and to care. We must surrender ourselves to becoming conscious, thinking members of the human race. We must put down the temptation to powerlessness and surrender to the questions of the moment.” ThinkingHumansMomentsCareRaceKnowledgeBecomingMembersConsciousSurrenderObligationTemptationHuman RacePowerlessness Author:Joan D. Chittister
“Judaism calls for us to honor the rhythm of human life, the demands of the human community around us, the call of the divine order as the filter and scale for the decisions that drive our own small lives. We do not rule the universe, Judaism reminds us. God does. We are not its standard or its norms. We are only its keepers, its agents, its stewards. To do right by the universe at large is the measure of a happiness framed with the entire cosmos in mind but lived in microcosms across time.” MindHumansDoeOrderUniverseCommunityDecisionDivineHonorDemandStandardsEnvironmentalScalesRhythmAgentsHuman LifeCosmosNormJudaismStewardshipFiltersKeepersFramedStewardsMicrocosmDivine OrderSmall Life Author:Joan D. Chittister
“Compassion makes no distinction between friends and enemies, neighbors and outsiders, compatriots and foreigners. Compassion is the gate to human community.” HumansCommunityCompassionEnemyNeighborDistinctionGatesOutsidersForeignersFriends And Enemies Author:Joan D. Chittister
“Blind obedience is itself an abuse of human morality. It is a misuse of the human soul in the name of religious commitment. It is a sin against individual conscience. It makes moral children of the adults from whom moral agency is required. It makes a vow, which is meant to require religious figures to listen always to the law of God, beholden first to the laws of very human organizations in the person of very human authorities. It is a law that isn't even working in the military and can never substitute for personal morality.” FirstsHumansChildrenPersonsSoulLawNamesIndividualReligiousSinMoralMilitaryFiguresMoralityAuthorityEthicsConscienceAdultsCommitmentOrganizationAbuseIndependenceBlindObedienceAgencySubstitutesHuman SoulVowMisuseBlind Obedience Author:Joan D. Chittister
“It is a pathetic moment in the history of the human condition when the outside world tells us who and what we are - and we start to believe it ourselves. Then, bent over from the weight of the negativity, we start to wither on the outside.” WorldBelieveHumansMomentsConditionsWeightBeing YourselfHuman ConditionNegativityBentPatheticOutside World Author:Joan D. Chittister
“A seeker searched for years to know the secret of achievement and success in human life. One night in a dream a sage appeared bearing the answer to the secret. The sage said simply: "Stretch out your hand and reach what you can." "No, it can't be that simple," the seeker said. And the sage said softly, "You are right, it is something harder. It is this: Stretch out your hand and reach what you cannot." Now that's vision.” KnowsYearsHumansSaidDreamHandsNightSimpleAnswersSecretVisionAchievementHarderHuman LifeSageSeekersOne NightAchievement And Success Author:Joan D. Chittister
“For centuries the church has confronted the human community with role models of greatness. We call them saints when what we really often mean to say is 'icon,' 'star,' 'hero,' ones so possessed by an internal vision of divine goodness that they give us a glimpse of the face of God in the center of the human. They give us a taste of the possibilities of greatness in ourselves.” GivingHumansMeanFacesStarsCommunityChurchVisionRolesCenturyPossibilityGreatnessDivineHeroTasteGoodnessModelsSaintInternalsRole ModelsPossessedGlimpseIcons Author:Joan D. Chittister
“In community we work out our connectedness to God, to one another and to ourselves...In human relationships I learn that theory is no substitute for love. It is easy to talk about the love of GOD; it is another thing to practice it” HumansEasyCommunityPracticeTheoryWork OutGod LoveSubstitutesHuman RelationsHuman RelationshipsConnectedness Author:Joan D. Chittister
