“Learning to celebrate joy is one of the great practices of the spiritual life.” SpiritualJoyPracticeCelebrateSpiritual Life Author:Joan D. Chittister
“We are living in a period of commerical globalization. What we really need is spiritual globalization.” NeedsSpiritualPeriodsEthicsGlobalization Author:Joan D. Chittister
“The spiritual task of life is to feed hope. Hope is not something to be found outside of us. It lies in the spiritual life we cultivate within. The whole purpose of wrestling with life is to be transformed into the self we are meant to become, to step out of the confines of our false securities and allow our creating God to go on creating. In us.” SelfWholeSpiritualLife IsLyingPurposeFoundStepsSecurityGoes OnCreatingTasksMeant To BeWrestlingSpiritual LifeTransformed Author:Joan D. Chittister
“What is the spirituality we need for the 21st century? We face a choice: to retire from this fray into some marshmallow paradise where we can massage away the heat of the day, the questions of the time, the injustice of the age, and live like pious moles in the heart of a twisted world. Or, we can gather our strength - our spiritual strength - for the struggle it will take to wake up from this pious sleep.” WorldNeedsHeartAgeFacesSpiritualChoicesSpiritualitySleepStruggleCenturyWake UpInjusticeHeatParadiseRetiring21st CenturyTwistedPiousMassageFrayMolesMarshmallowSpiritual Strength Author:Joan D. Chittister
“Why do people think the spiritual life demands withdrawal from the ordinary? Because they've been taught, at least by implication, that the physical is a block to the spiritual. When we assume that the spiritual, unlike the physical, is impervious to corrosion, then we assume that all things material are not to be honored. But the fact of the matter is, the material is the vehicle of the spiritual.” PeopleThinkingMatterFactsSpiritualTaughtMaterialsDemandOrdinaryAll ThingsAssumingBlockSpiritual LifeVehicleHonoredImplicationsWithdrawalImpervious Author:Joan D. Chittister
“Don't worry about wearing the sign; be the sign. You don't have to wear a sandwich board saying, "I am religious and spiritual and know what you should do." You do have to be the best of the mystical presence that your tradition brings. Certainly in Christianity, that means that you begin to go through life putting on the mind of Jesus, trying to see the world as Jesus saw the world.” KnowsWorldShouldTryingMindMeanSpiritualJesusReligiousChristianityWorrySawsTraditionBoardsBeing The BestMysticalSandwiches Author:Joan D. Chittister
“Religious life is not going to go away. It will take a different form. Why am I so sure it's not going to go away? Because there are people whose personalities and gifts, and interests and soul, are simply immersed in living this kind of a spiritual lifestyle. That only makes sense. If you can live an artistic lifestyle, why can't somebody live a spiritual lifestyle? We've always, in every single great tradition, had a percentage of the population that stands in the middle of us being the beacon that calls us to realize that the spiritual life is an essential part of every life.” PeopleKindDifferentSoulSpiritualInterestRealizingReligiousPersonalityTraditionLifestyleArtisticMake SenseGoing AwaySpiritual LifeReligious Life Author:Joan D. Chittister
“The spiritual response is too often a simplistic one: we abandon God or we blame God for abandoning us.” SpiritualBlameResponseAbandon Author:Joan D. Chittister
“Feminism without spirituality runs the risk of becoming what it rejects: an elitist ideology, arrogant, superficial and separatist, closed to everything but itself. Without a spiritual base that obligates it beyond itself, calls it out of itself for the sake of others, a pedagogical feminism turned in on itself can become just one more intellectual ghetto that the world doesn’t notice and doesn’t need.” WorldNeedsRunningSpiritualSpiritualityRiskFeminismBecomingIntellectualSakeIdeologyJust OneRejectsArrogantSuperficialGhettoElitist Author:Joan D. Chittister
