Quotes About Spirituality

Within each of us is a spark of the Divine. Breathtaking regions of beauty, unimaginable vistas of sights and sounds, infinite wisdom, and all-embracing love invite us within. The Light of the Divine glows continually.

Throughout history, the North Star has guided the footsteps of the wayward traveler. So too does the spark of the Divine lead us to self-knowledge and God-realization.

The journey begins by looking inside to find that guiding light of the Divine spark within us. The practice that leads us to that spark is meditation on the inner light and sound

Guru Nanak named as his successor a disciple, Lehna, a Khatri of the Trehan clan, who became known as Guru Angad.

Like Guru Nanak after him, Baba Farid suggested that at a basic level a Muslim and a Hindu were the same, sharing the joy and pain of being human.

Here Tolkien states, in indirect form, one of the deepest of Christian truths: all love that is not ordered to the love of God turns into hatred.

In essence, Satan doesn't want you to believe what God thinks of Himself and what God thinks about you.

What the spiritual journey is all about is uniting our will with God's will, wanting what He wants, loving what He loves, living a life that in all its aspects honors Him and gives Him glory.

More strictly defined, meditation is thinking about God. Prayer is actually speaking to God, either in words or in silent contemplation.

There's a certain progression in the journey to God regarding our attitude towards suffering. In the beginning, we flee from suffering. As we mature, we reluctantly accept it as necessary. As the Spirit works more deeply in our hearts, we little by little lose our fear of suffering and become able to rejoice in it, even to love it.

There is a particular spiritual practice that Francis highly recommends that is possible for all of us: even on those "impossible" days when we are perhaps unable to undertake our normal spiritual practices, we can stay rooted in prayer by constantly addressing brief prayers to the Lord. These can be acts of love, of adoration, of faith, of hope, of petition, or simply of saying the name of Jesus—throughout the course of the day.

In brief, the purgative stage or way includes the initial phases of the spiritual life, including coming to conversion, turning away from sin, bringing one's life into conformity with the moral law, initiating the habit of prayer and the practices of piety, and maintaining a relatively stable life in the Church. (The

Teresa witnesses to the fact that even if we are not fully attentive in our prayer, little by little, even imperfect prayer will change us. Simply "showing up" for prayer time evidences our desire to be with the Lord. Even though sometimes it seems that we are more there physically than spiritually, our desire allows Him to draw us closer.7

One of the most common reasons why people begin the spiritual journey but then turn back is because they find themselves failing, wearing out, or getting tired or discouraged as a result of relying on their own strength or intellect rather than on the Lord. In

My mortifications consisted in breaking my will, always so ready to impose itself on others, in holding back a reply, in rendering little services without any recognition, in not leaning my back against a support when seated, etc., etc. It was through the practice of these nothings that I prepared myself to become the fiancée of Jesus.18

Teresa of Avila makes the point that it isn't whether the prayers are memorized or not or said out loud or not that determines their value, but whether we pay attention to what we're saying and to whom we're speaking.

Union with God of this depth is totally unattainable by our own efforts; it is a gift that only God can give; we are totally dependent on His grace for progress in the spiritual life. Yet

The experience of union in prayer, Teresa makes very clear, is intended to help make more possible the union of our wills with God's will, in a more profound obedience and love.

A form of wordless prayer in which mind and heart focus on God's greatness and goodness in affective, loving adoration; to look on Jesus and the mysteries of his life with faith and love

The purest suffering brings with it the purest and most intimate knowing, and consequently the purest and highest joy, because it is a knowing from further within . . . even to the agony of death in order to see God. . . .

Thus if the mind does not rely upon itself, but is strengthened by the Word, it can gain such command over itself that no unrighteousness will have power over it" (Ps. 118:133).

Sin does not please men whether they are full or fasting.

Oh, learn to pity your own soul, for he who sins offends and wrongs God, but also wrongs and destroys his own soul

A service of worship is primarily a service to God. When we realize this and act upon it, we make it a service to men.