Quotes About Spirituality

Religion can provide a check to my tendency to think that I am the center of the universe, that I know better than anyone about God, and that God speaks most clearly through me.

God desires for us to be the persons we were created to be: to be simply and purely ourselves, and in this state to love God and to let ourselves be loved by God. It is a double journey, really: finding God means allowing ourselves to be found by God. And finding our true selves means allowing God to find and reveal our true selves to us.

Gratitude, peace, and joy are ways that God communicates with us. During these times, we are feeling a real connection with God, though we might not initially identify it as such. The key insight is accepting that these are ways that God is communicating with us. That is, the first step involves a bit of trust.

In Ignatian spirituality there is nothing that you have to put in a box and hide. Nothing has to be feared. Nothing has to be hidden away. Everything can be opened up

Noticing helps you realize that your life is already suffused with the presence of God. Once you begin to look around and allow yourself to take a chance to believe in God, you will easily see God at work in your life.

Fully human and fully divine" is, to use a loaded word, a mystery. Something not to be solved, but to be pondered.

So if anyone asks you to define Ignatian spirituality in a few words, you could say that it is: Finding God in all things Becoming a contemplative in action Looking at the world in an incarnational way Seeking freedom and detachment

Everyone's true self is a unique creation of God's, and the way to sanctity is to become the unique self that God wishes us to be.

Why had I not understood that this was not simply the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the church of his tomb? It was also the Church of the Resurrection.

What kind of relationship do you have if you never carve out time for the other person? One that is superficial and unsatisfying for both parties. That's why prayer, or intentional time with God, is important if you want a relationship, a friendship, with God.

The multiplicity of desires leads to a multiplicity of paths to God.

the beginning of the path to finding God is awareness. Not simply awareness of the ways that you can find God, but an awareness that God desires to find you.

Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self. —Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

But it is always God who takes the initiative and who surprises us with his presence, as God did with Mary. When

basically, we pray because we love God. Father Barry writes, "The primary motive for prayer is love, first the love of God for us and then the arousal of our love for God."3 We pray to come

Finding joy in times of pain begins with understanding that true joy is rooted in God. Thus, keeping one's relationship with God at the center of one's life is essential to discovering areas of joy, comfort and solace.

Don't let anyone take from you the freedom to become who God wants you to be.

Jesuits take their cue from Ignatius in terms of a practical spirituality. One joke has a Franciscan, a Dominican, and a Jesuit celebrating Mass together when the lights suddenly go out in the church. The Franciscan praises the chance to live more simply. The Dominican gives a learned homily on how God brings light to the world. The Jesuit goes to the basement to fix the fuses.

The second step in the examen is asking for the grace to "know my sins," to see where you have turned away from the deepest part of yourself, the part that calls you to God. Where did you act contrary to your better judgment or to God's voice inside you, to the divine spark within?

The Seven Storey Mountain,

Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.2

GOD COMMUNICATES WITH US in many ways. But prayer is a special time when God's voice is often heard most clearly because we are giving God our undivided attention. Whether in Ignatian contemplation, lectio divina, the colloquy, the examen, or any other practice, the "still small" voice can be heard with a clarity that can delight, astonish, and surprise you. So when you pray, however you pray, and feel that God is speaking to you—pay attention.

Maybe one reason that the work seems dull is because you're not bringing it up before God in prayer,

The fourth step of the examen is asking for forgiveness from God for anything sinful that you've done during the day.