“Silence is a frightening thing. Silences leaves us at the mercy of the noise within us. We hear the fears that need to be faced. We hear, then, the angers that need to be cooled. We hear the emptiness that needs to be filled. We hear the cries for humility and reconciliation and centeredness. We hear ambition and arrogance and attitudes of uncaring awash in the shallows of the soul. Silence demands answers. Silence invites us to depth. Silence heals what hoarding and running will not touch.” ReligionSpiritualitySilenceRule Of Benedict Book:Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today Source: Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today
“Living well has something to do with the spirituality of wholeheartedness, of seeing life more as a grace than as a penance, as time to be lived with eager expectation of its goodness, not in dread of its challenges.” WellsSpiritualityChallengesGraceSeeingGoodnessExpectationsDreadLive WellPenanceWholeheartedness Author:Joan D. Chittister
“prayer can be an easy substitute for real spirituality. It would be impossible to have spirituality without prayer, of course, but it is certainly possible to pray without having a spirituality at all. How do you know? 'Am I becoming kinder?' is a good place to start.” KnowsRealWould BeSpiritualityCoursesEasyPrayerImpossiblePrayingBecomingSubstitutesDo You KnowKinderGood Place Author:Joan D. Chittister
“Benedictine spirituality is a consistent one: live life normally, live life thouhtfully, live life profouncly, live life well. Never neglect and never exaggerate. It is a lesson that a world full of cults and fads and workaholics and short courses in difficult subjects needs dearly to learn.” WorldNeedsWellsSpiritualityCoursesDifficultSubjectsLessonsLive LifeConsistentNeglectCultFadsWorkaholicDifficult Subjects Author:Joan D. Chittister
“An authentic spirituality does not cater to culture; it calls culture to accountability.” DoeCultureSpiritualityAccountability 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
“In Benedictine spirituality, work is what we do to continue what God wanted done....God goes on creating through us. Consequently a life spent serving God must be a life spent giving to others what we have been given.” GivingHas BeensDoneWantedSpiritualityGivenGoes OnCreatingServingServing GodGiving To Others Author:Joan D. Chittister
“Spirituality without a prayer life is no spirituality at all, and it will not last beyond the first defeats. Prayer is an opening of the self so that the Word of God can break in and make us new. Prayer unmasks. Prayer converts. Prayer impels. Prayer sustains us on the way. Pray for the grace it will take to continue what you would like to quit.” WayFirstsSelfLastsLife IsSpiritualityPrayerBreakGracePrayingDefeatQuittingOpeningWord Of GodPrayer Life Author:Joan D. Chittister
“It is precisely women’s experience of God that this world lacks. A world that does not nurture its weakest, does not know God the birthing mother. A world that does not preserve the planet, does not know God the creator. A world that does not honor the spirit of compassion, does not know God the spirit. God the lawgiver, God the judge, God the omnipotent being have consumed Western spirituality and, in the end, shriveled its heart.” KnowsWorldHeartDoeEndsSpiritMotherSpiritualityCompassionThis WorldPlanetsJudgingHonorWesternCreatorPreservesNurtureConsumedKnowing GodOmnipotentBirthing 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
