“Beauty is everywhere around us; all you have to do is open your eyes and the possibilities will unfold before you.” Quote by Chris J. Hamilton
“Holy leisure... is the foundation of contemplation. There is an idea abroad in the land that contemplation is the province of those who live in cloistered communities and that it is out of reach to the rest of us who bear the noonday heat in the midst of the maddening crowd. But if that's the case, then Jesus who was followed by people and surrounded by people and immersed in people was not a contemplative. ... some of our greatest contemplatives have been our most active and most effective people. No, contemplation is not withdrawal from the human race.” SpiritualityContemplativeSpiritual DisciplinesSpiritual DirectionRule Of Life Author:Joan Chittister
“Dom Cuthbert Butler made the point that it is not the presence of activity that destroys the contemplative life but the absence of contemplation. The genius Benedictinism is its concentration on living the active life contemplatively. ... Life is not divided into parts holy and mundane in the Rule of Benedict. All of life is sacred. All of life is holy. All of life is to be held in anointed hands. ... So, contemplation does not take non-work; contemplation takes holy leisure. Contemplation takes discipline.” SpiritualityContemplativeSpiritual DisciplinesSpiritual Direction Author:Joan Chittister
“In the monastic mind, work is not for profit. In the monastic mentality work is for giving, not just for gaining. In monastic spirituality, other people have a claim on what we do. Work is not a private enterprise. Work is not to enable me to get ahead; the purpose of work is to enable me to get more human and to make my world more just.” SpiritualitySpiritual DisciplinesSpiritual DirectionRule Of LifeCallings Author:Joan Chittister
“Humility is not a false rejection of God's gifts. To exaggerate the gifts we have by denying them may be as close to narcissism as we can get in life. No, humility is the admission of God's gifts to me and the acknowledgment that I have been given them for others. Humility is the total continuing surrender to God's power in my life and in the lives of others.” SpiritualitySpiritual DisciplinesSpiritual DirectionRule Of LifeCallings Author:Joan Chittister
“Unless we learn in our own personal relationships, as the ancient definition of heaven and hell indicates, to live for someone besides ourselves, how shall we as a nation ever learn to hear the cries of the starving in Ethiopia and the illiterate in Africa and the refugees in the Middle East and the war weary in Central America? What will become of a nation in this day and age that has no sense of community? What, indeed, will become of the planet? the warning of the wise is clear: 'In hell,' the Vietnamese write, 'the people have chopsticks but they are three feet long so they cannot reach their mouths. In Heaven, the chopsticks are the same length, but in heaven the people feed one another.' The message is no less new, no less important today.” SpiritualityCommunitySpiritual DisciplinesSpiritual DirectionRule Of Life Author:Joan Chittister
“There are three stages of spiritual development,' a teacher taught. 'The carnal, the spiritual, and the divine.' 'What is the carnal stage?' the disciple asked. 'That's the stage,' the teacher said, 'when trees are seen as trees and mountains are seen as mountains.' 'And the spiritual?' the disciple asked eagerly. 'That's when we look more deeply into things. Then trees are no longer trees and mountains are no longer mountains,' the teacher answered. 'And the divine?' the disciple said breathlessly. 'Ah,' the teacher said with a smile. 'That's enlightenment - when the trees become trees again the and the mountains become mountains.' We pray to see life as it is, to understand it, and to make it better than it was. We pray so that reality can break into our souls and give us back our awareness of the Divine Presence in life. We pray to understand things as they are, not to ignore and avoid and deny them. We pray so that when the incense disappears we can still see the world as holy.” SpiritualitySpiritual DisciplinesSpiritual DirectionContemplative PrayerRule Of LifeSacramental Life Author:Joan Chittister
“Prayer that is regular confounds both self-importance and the wiles of the world. It is so easy for good people to confuse their own work with the work of creation. It is so easy to come to believe that what we do is so much more important than what we are. It is so easy to simply get too busy to grow.” SpiritualitySpiritual DisciplinesSpiritual DirectionRule Of LifeSpiritual Formation Author:Joan Chittister
“Into the midst of all this indistinguishable cacophony of life, the bell tower of every Benedictine monastery rings "listen." Listen with the heart of Christ. Listen with the lover's ear. Listen for the voice of God. Listen in your own heart for the sound of truth, the kind that comes when a piece of quality crystal is struck by a metal rod.” SpiritualityListeningSpiritual DisciplinesSpiritual DirectionRule Of LifeSpiritual FormationListening Prayer Author:Joan Chittister
“Listening is, indeed, a fundamental value of Benedictine spirituality. More than that, Benedictine listening is life lived in stereo. The simple fact is that everybody lives listening to something. But few live a life attuned on every level. Benedictine spirituality doesn't allow for selective perception; it insists on breadth, on a full range of hearing, on total alert. We have to learn to hear on every level at once if we are really to become whole. The problem is that most of us are deaf in at least one ear.” SpiritualityListeningSpiritual DisciplinesSpiritual DirectionRule Of LifeListening Prayer Author:Joan Chittister
“The spiritual life... is not achieved by denying one part of life for the sake of another. The spiritual life is achieved only by listening to all of life and learning to respond to each of its dimensions wholly and with integrity.” SpiritualitySpiritual DisciplinesSpiritual DirectionRule Of LifeSpiritual FormationSacramental Life Author:Joan Chittister