Quotes from David Steindl-Rast

Impatience makes us get ahead of ourselves, reaching out for something in the future and not really being content with where we are, here and now.

We are never more than one grateful thought away from peace of heart.

...our happiness hinges not on good luck; it hinges on peace of heart.

Joy is that kind of happiness that does not depend on what happens.

The hope that is left after all your hopes are gone - that is pure hope, rooted in the heart.

Each string of a wind harp responds with a different note to the same breeze. What activity makes you personally resonate most strongly, most deeply?

One single gift acknowledged in gratefulness has the power to dissolve the ties of our alienation.

Look closely and you will find that people are happy because they are grateful. The opposite of gratefulness is just taking everything for granted.

Any place is sacred ground, for it can become a place of encounter with the divine Presence.

People who have faith in life are like swimmers who entrust themselves to a rushing river. They neither abandon themselves to its current nor try to resist it. Rather, they adjust their every movement to the watercourse, use it with purpose and skill, and enjoy the adventure.

Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being... Wherever we may come alive, that is the area in which we are spiritual.

A lifetime may not be long enough to attune ourselves fully to the harmony of the universe. But just to become aware that we can resonate with it -- that alone can be like waking up from a dream.

Try pausing right before and right after undertaking a new action, even something simple like putting a key in a lock to open a door. Such pauses take a brief moment, yet they have the effect of decompressing time and centering you.

One single gift acknowledged in gratefulness has the power to dissolve the ties of our alienation.

In moments of surprise we catch at least a glimpse of the joy to which gratefulness opens the door.

Can you be grateful for everything? No. But in every moment.

Monastic contemplatives have staked out a clearly limited area to be transformed by contemplation: the monastery. Lay contemplatives face the challenge of transforming the whole world.

As we learn to give thanks for all of life and death, for all of this given world of ours, we find a deep joy. It is the joy of trust, the joy of faith in the faithfulness at the heart of all things. It is the joy of gratefulness in touch with the fullness of life.

Meaning springs from belonging.

The greatest gift one can give is thanksgiving. In giving gifts, we give what we can spare, but in giving thanks we give ourselves.

It is not happiness that makes us grateful It is gratefulness that makes us happy. Every moment is a gift. … Whatever life gives to you, you can respond with joy. Joy is the happiness that does not depend on what happens. It is the grateful response to the opportunity that life offers you at this moment.

Is the relationship between God and Jesus Christ not unique? Of course it is. But so is yours. The relationship between God and every human being is unique and irreplaceable—in ever-new variations of the Christ theme.

True gratefulness is courage to give thanks for a gift before unwrapping it.

The light of love shines " in the darkness" (John 1:5), in suffering, in confusion, in all that we will never understand. Love makes darkness itself shine. This opens altogether new possibilities for dealing creatively with the shadow side of reality. Words can only serve as pointers; we must put this to the test in our own dark hours. Those who have done so, those who have suffered lovingly, have discovered the transformative power of love.