Quotes About Community

Jean Shinoda Bolen

She felt the press of friendly hands, the murmur of friendly voices. No one minded. Everyone understood. As

Social life almost ceased. Even in church, each worshipper was wary of his neighbour.

Why don't we all go!" Grandpa cried. "We'll form a caravan. Everybody in town can tag along!

We were afraid of so many things: Of our children, who lived in their own world of casually lurid pleasures, zombies and cartoon killers and thuggish music. Of our neighbors, who were buying gold and ammunition and great quantities of freeze-dried food, and who were organizing themselves into angry tribes recognizable to one another by bumper stickers.

Because what were older women meant to do with themselves, besides prop up everybody else's lives and drink too much wine at book club meetings? No one, Laura was convinced, was as invisible and as easily dismissed as the tribe of women like herself, with short gray hair and glasses.

because Judaism required the reading of the Torah and promoted literacy in Talmudic academies, the Jewish community's human capital increased

The academic community is an attractive working environment,

Collective promises are never kept, since no one feels responsible for fulfilling them

Por otra parte, ese fenómeno se ve reforzado por el deseo de la gente de mostrar a los demás o a sí mismos que son «gente de bien»; nuestro altruismo no es totalmente puro, sino que está motivado en parte por nuestro deseo de aparentar, de labrarnos una buena imagen social y personal.

There are black people in Brixton!' Fran's face grew crimson. Shahid said, 'What's the matter with black people?' 'They'll beat us up!' 'Oh,' said Shahid. 'Really?' Fran, looking uncomfortable, said, 'Don't be silly, Harry! That was race riots, years ago.' 'I don't care! I don't like it. I'm not going there.

It was so hard to decide where loyalties should lie: with oneself or with one's community?

Dangerous enough to enter an unknown community when you were armed and strong; folly to do so from a position of weakness.

Many people are good at talking about what they are doing, but in fact do little. Others do a lot but don't talk about it; they are the ones who make a community live.

One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing.

Community is a sign that love is possible in a materialistic world where people so often either ignore or fight each other. It is a sign that we don't need a lot of money to be happy--in fact, the opposite.

When people love each other, they are content with very little. When we have light and joy in our hearts, we don't need material wealth. The most loving communities are often the poorest. If our own life is luxurious and wasteful, we can't approach poor people. If we love people, we want to identify with them and share with them.

A Christian community should do as Jesus did: propose and not impose. Its attraction must lie in the radiance cast by the love of brothers.

Jesus is the starving, the parched, the prisoner, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the dying. Jesus is the oppressed, the poor. To live with Jesus is to live with the poor. To live with the poor is to live with Jesus.

It is only when we stand up, with all our failings and sufferings, and try to support others rather than withdraw into ourselves, that we can fully live the life of community.

Every human activity can be put at the service of the divine and of love. We should all exercise our gift to build community.

A community that is growing rich and seeks only to defend its goods and its reputation is dying. It has ceased to grow in love. A community is alive when it is poor and its members feel they have to work together and remain united, if only to ensure that they can all eat tomorrow!

But let us not put our sights too high. We do not have to be saviours of the world! We are simply human beings, enfolded in weakness and in hope, called together to change our world one heart at a time. (163)

The response to war is to live like brothers and sisters. The response to injustice is to share. The response to despair is a limitless trust and hope. The response to prejudice and hatred is forgiveness. To work for community is to work for humanity. To work for peace is to work for a true political solution; it is to work for the Kingdom of God. It is to work to enable every one to live and taste the secret joys of the human person united to the eternal.