Quotes About Community

All policy is very suspicious, says an eminent statesman, that sacrifices the interest of any part of a community to the ideal good of the whole; and those governments only are tolerable, where, by the necessary contraction of the political machine, the interests of all the parts are obliged to be protected by it....

These men were not servants, but masters; not the agents of community, but seekers after divine love and wisdom. They undertook their work with high consecration. And the academy or the university was a place consecrated to the apprehension of an order more than human and a duty more than mundane.

The first Manhattanites didn't arrive with lofty ideals. They came--whether as farmer, tanner, prostitute, wheelwright, barmaid, brewer, or trader--because there was a hope for a better life. There was a distinct messiness to the place they created. But it was very real, and in a way, very modern.

The philosopher Baruch Spinoza was a product of Amsterdam's vigorous Jewish community. To this day, Amsterdammers' proud slang term for their city is Mokum, the centuries-old Jewish name for it. (For that matter, Amsterdam slang for "see you later" is the Yiddishism de mazzel.)

Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are.

You stand outside the circle and wonder why you feel left out, unaware that you need your own permission to join the others-not theirs.

Instead, the weak-chinned Padre Guzmán opted for love-thy-neighbour in times of trouble. That might have worked in the big city, where not knowing your neighbours made it easier to love them. But in a town of four thousand people it fooled no one.

Field by field, farm by farm, person by person, we were wresting the country back from the Guerrilla's clutches. Every kidnap we prevented meant one fewer family devastated and one fewer Guerrilla bargaining chip against the government. Every bag of rice confiscated from Buitre's logistics network made the Guerrilla hungrier and more demoralised.

But wherever I go, I know I will feel most at home with the wounded of the world, who hold their heads up high no matter how broken they may seem.

Why is it that bad things have to happen so you learn there are lots of good people in the world?" -Ruthie

Why is it that bad things have to happen so you learn there are lots of good people in the world?

The life history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community.

At times the strength of spiritual community lies in the love of people who refrain from getting caught in the trap of trying to fix everything for us, who pray for us and allow us the pain of our wilderness, our wants, so that we may be more deeply grounded in God. ROSEMARY DOUGHERTY

it is possible to hang around other Christians a lot, meet regularly for worship, study our Bibles, join a church and even call ourselves a community but not change at all in ways that count.

Aun cuando nuestra forma de vida pueda parecernos heroica, hay una buena proporción de nuestra frenética actividad que perturba a aquellos que nos rodean.

corporate discernment begins with attending to the spiritual formation of each individual leader.

Dios sabe cuánto necesitamos nosotros estar juntos «más allá de las palabras». Por eso es que espera con paciencia que dejemos de movernos agitadamente y nos relajemos para poder recibir la nutrición de su presencia.

The purpose of journeying together in spiritual friendship and spiritual community (whether there are just two of you or whether you are in a small group) is to listen to one another's desire for God, to nurture that desire in each other and to support one another in seeking a way of life that is consistent with that desire.

One thing we can know for sure is that when we are confessing our sin to God but not to the people around us in ordinary, nitty-gritty life, there is not much real spiritual transformation going on

We bind ourselves to each other in times of strength so that in moments of weakness we do not become unbound.

So—why do we need a covenant? Because a written covenant makes our commitment real on a level that mere conversation does not. It provides a way for the group to claim shared ownership for their behavior because it contains detailed guidelines that help the group function together in agreed-upon ways.

up during the war. The uppers were cut for them – all

Sie nahmen mich wahr und ließen mich sein, wie ich war. (Bei denen bleib ich.)

Even as the cell is the unit of the organic body, so the family is the unit of society.