Quotes from Joan D. Chittister

We punish the body and strip the earth. And we do it in pursuit of a so-called holiness that smacks of the bogus, that denies the gifts of God, that makes us marauders on the earth.

Precisely because of the greatness of God, we don't have to be great at all. Just in awe.

We must learn to pray out of our weaknesses so that God can become our strength.

To be contemplative we must become converted to the consciousness that makes us one with the universe, in tune with the cosmic voice of God.

Hope is not a matter of waiting for things outside of us to get better. It is about getting better inside about what is going on outside.

The spiritual response is too often a simplistic one: we abandon God or we blame God for abandoning us.

Fear is not the opposite of courage. Fear is the catalyst of courage.

We talk religion in a world that worships the bread but does not distribute it, that practices ritual rather than righteousness, that confesses but does not repent.

The purpose of leadership is not to make the present bearable. The purpose of leadership is to make the future possible.

Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that all growth does not take place in the sunlight.

I begin to understand as never before that holiness is made of dailiness, of living life as it comes to me, not as I insist it be.

Our role in life is to bring the light of our own souls to the dim places around us.

Life is not meant to be a burden. Life is not a problem to be solved. It is a blessing to be celebrated.

Learning to celebrate joy is one of the great practices of the spiritual life.

Longing is a compass that guides us through life. We may never get what we really want, that's true, but every step along the way will be determined by it.

Life is a series of lessons, some of them obvious, some of them not. We learn as we go that dreams end, that plans get changed, that promises get broken, that our idols disappoint us.

A life of value is not a series of great things well done; it is a series of small things consciously done.

Life always comes out of death. The present rises from the ashes of the past. The future is always possible for those who are willing to re-create it.

June is the time for being in the world in new ways, for throwing off the cold and dark spots of life.

Prophets are those who take life as it is and expand it. They refuse to shrink a vision of tomorrow to the boundaries of yesterday.

Imagine how happy, how holy, life would be if we ever really learn to see beauty.

Memory is not about what went on in the past, it is about what is going on inside us right this moment. It is made up of the stuff of life in the process of becoming the grist of the soul.

We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is

holiness is made of dailiness, of living life as it comes to me, not as I insist it be.